Morphsuit brigade at Anime North.Michael Toledano
Maggie: "No one judges anyone who wears a costume at this event… You can be what you want or dress how you want."Michael Toledano
Joey: "The shield alone was about a month’s worth of work."Michael Toledano
Luke: "No one ever gets judged around here."Michael Toledano
Tia, a high school student and Hot Topic employee, poses as Twilight Sparkle from 'My Little Pony': "I’m the alicorn version of her, the one that everyone hates."Michael Toledano
Kevin in an 'otaku' mask: "I just bought it for the sake of having it but I ended up having more uses for it than I thought I would." Michael Toledano
Xander: "We’re not all crazy. We’re just a bunch of geeks and nerds just having fun."Michael Toledano
Turbo Street Funk Band plays the theme from Tetris at Anime North.Michael Toledano
"I’m Captain America, but, like, a sexy, super gay version."Michael Toledano
Megaman and Protoman smoke cigarettes. I asked for their real names and they offered Megaman and Protoman. When I asked about their costumes, Megaman replied: "What costumes?"Michael Toledano
Michael Toledano
A "fursona" is, kind of like your personal, animal-type thing… It's what you would be as an animal.Michael Toledano
Daytime rave at Anime North.Michael Toledano
Melissa: "I smashed my phone yesterday because I thought it was a bulb when I was drunk. I mean, it’s the one time of year that we can just get together with people that have the same interests as us and have fun, right?"Michael Toledano
Kyle: "I think it’s just such an interesting experience how interactive everybody is and how friendly everybody is, and approachable. If we could live in this kind of society all the time it would be great."Michael Toledano
Rosaline: "I’m hoping to go into illustration and comic books. In a way I guess coming to conventions like this kind of helped me move in that direction in my life."Michael Toledano
Julie: "I made it with fur. It’s all handmade. It’s a professional secret, how I made all of this."Michael Toledano
We have a hotel nearby. We just run over, change, come back.Michael Toledano
Don: "If everybody could wear literally whatever they wanted or act however they wanted, within reason, then I think it would be a great, great world."Michael Toledano
Beth Anne Jones: "A lot of the unwritten rules of anime are don’t make fun of someone else’s costume if it doesn’t look the greatest. You can be anyone you want here. In regular life I’m pretty much an outcast, but here I’m accepted by everybody." Michael Toledano
Spiderman waits for his mom to drive him home from Anime North.Michael Toledano
Rachel: "It’s a Piplup. I love penguins."Michael Toledano
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service tries to recruit nerds and programmers at Anime North. They gave me a free flashlight. I asked if it would track me. They said: "No, we're not the NSA. We're the good guys."Michael Toledano
Matt: "I figured it’s about the only time that it’s socially acceptable to be dressing like this."Michael Toledano
A gigantic Starcraft 2 LAN party held in the Sheraton Hotel.Michael Toledano
Parking-lot rave.Michael Toledano
Anime North attendees take the bus home at 3 AM.Michael Toledano