Indeed, the audience at Minamicon consisted of an older audience then other event we have attended.  The average age was roughly 26 giving the weekend a mature feel, adding to the friendly atmosphere.  Animetion cannot recall seeing any FREE HUGS signs and hyperactive cosplayers glomping anything in sight, both of which are a common complaint of the MCM London Expo.  There was also a lack of drunks groping people, something which has befouled other cons in the past.  The focus in the evening was not on dancing and getting hammered, but on just chilling out and getting to know others.  Although Animetion would have preferred there to be more the one party, we still enjoyed the evenings chatting to people. 
 

One of the highlights of the weekend was the cosplay masquerade, which was one of the best Animetion have attended.  Held in a large hall of the Novotel, it was a well-organised event which ran extremely smoothly and left us wanting more. 

Unlike other masquerades, Minamicon's has a set format which saw periodic breaks.  During these breaks some excellent - and humourous - AMVs - were shown, allowing a bit of wind-down and a chance for some to chat before the next set of cosplayers. 
 

The quality of cosplay at the masquerade was extremely high, with a good mix of classic anime characters alongside new ones, the costumes were well worth showing up for.  Also the skits were hugely entertaining, which surprised Animetion as we are not the biggest fan of skits.  Skits are usually overlong and overindulgent, with the performers merely acting out a scene from an anime or yet another dance-off.  Not at Minamicon though.

The skits reflected the older audience by throwing in a bit of adult humour, of which there were two main highlights.  One was a Hellsing group singing along to Monty Python's 'Every Sperm Is Sacred', which lampooned their characters Catholic links.  It was good fun which had the audience singing along and clapping!  The other was a skit by Team Giblets entitled 'Queenix Eye For The Straight Guy' which expertly poked fun at the outlandish costumes of Square video games (Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, etc).  It did this with a snappy presenter, a very funny slideshow and dressing up a 'fan' in outlandish clothing.  He ended up jokingly dressed as a clown with stupid hair and very big trousers.  It delighted the audience. 
 

  The last big skit of masquerade featured one of the best costumes Animetion has seen, the iconic Transformer that is Optimus Prime.  Standing at least seven foot tall, the cardboard costume strode into the hall to the sound of Stan Bush's The Touch (from the soundtrack to Transformers: The Movie).  Not only was the construction of the cosplay awesome - the eyes lit up as well!  There was a further surprise when Leader-1 of the inferior Gobots walked in!  Click here to see a video of the skit on YouTube to see what happened!   

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