Anime USA was held at the Sheraton Premiere at Tysons Corner, total number of guest hit around 900 total. This marked the fourth convention in 2002 for me (a record), plus the last con for the year. However, unlike the past three conventions, I honestly did not enjoy this convention a whole lot. Maybe because it was the crappy weather or maybe because of the Sniper Attacks that was going on at the time. Even so, I did get to hang-out with a lot of cool people and, hopefully, learned a valuable lesson in the process.

The drive was real easy for me, we drove up from North Carolina on I-77. Then we switched interstates to I-81 and then on I-66 into the D.C. Metro Area. Unlike what was on the news, I wasn't stoped or anything... traffic was not bad at all on this Friday. A amazing change from a couple of months ago when I drove through a traffic hell to get to Otakon. Sorry, no grand story on the driving this time, it was long and boring.

After a quick check-in to my hotel room, I made my way to the dealer's room; my first response: "is this it?" Indeed, the Dealer's room was very small, not what I have grown accustumed to at other cons. And though it did not bother me that they had EverAnime and SM Cds, it did bother me to see VCDs and other various bootleg or knock-off stuff in the dealer's room. This convention would end up being one I least purchased stuff in because of the limited selection and overly amount of bootleg stuff. For some, this probably would be grand and maybe their only way of getting stuff; but for me, I had better connections on-line to get the official products.

My dissappointment did not end with the Dealer's room though, because their was a major lack of things to do at the con too. First, the obvious drout of cosplayers at this con... even Kevin, from A Fan's View, told me that it was rather weak. Second, the panels... you had three choices: Anime Music Videos, Yaoi, or Other. I kept going for Other, my favorite being the Nan da to?!?! Hour. Last, things just died after the Dealer's room closes... people would leave, making the hotel kind of empty and boring. It made me sad! But not all of it was bad, I did get an autograph from Hidenori Matsubara, who signed my Anime USA guest pass. I also had several hours of fun in the games room; not to mention some of the weird events that happened after Midnight at con... can someone say Anime 54. Speaking of Anime 54, if anybody wants to know what kind of evil things happened in there, just contact me... I have pictures! And then their was food runs, which were similiar to covert operations... since people were so scared of the Sniper getting them, it was like a duck and cover to the cars and stuff... Hallarious. Which brings us finally to the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. The Good:  Nan da to?!?! Hour, DDR Panal (got free DDR-Project CD), and Hidenori Matsubara. The Bad:  the Dealer's Room, the D.C. Sniper Attacks, the countless other AMV panels, and boredom. The Ugly:  Anime 54 and the Yaoi Block (especially Level C... wrong, just wrong). I don't know who was best of show, so my favorite Cosplayer was:  Him, from the Powerpuff Girls. Most common Costume themes at Anime USA were:  Final Fantasy and Sailor Moon.

Mega Man ??? ???

???	???	Lain
???	???	The Eva Women
???	???	Final Fantasy
More Final Fantasy	???	???
???	Speed Racer	???
Trigun & the Crow	Sailor Uranius	Sailor Moon
Even More Final Fantasy	Rabi~en~Rose	???
Belldandy	Dinner!	You guessed it
Chii	Digimon	Sailor Venus
Card Captor Sakura	Fuu	???
Dark Chii	Inuyasha	???
You know it	Zelgadis	Full Moon wo Sagashite
Light Chii	???	Him
More Trigun	???	???
Galaxy Express 999	A very tight bra!	. . .
give a guess	???	Belldandy
Hidenori Matsubara	If you would like to have bigger pictures than what is offered here, then please contact the webmaster and tell him which one you want by using the file name.	the Sheraton Primere

Thank you for visiting my Con Report and Cosplay Pictures of Anime USA. If you have any questions, comments, or flames, please send them via AIM or via email:  washu.no_spam@yahoo.com. This page was written by Mark Clifton, Webmaster & Graduate Assistant to Little Washu.