Anime Milwaukee (AMKE) is a three day anime convention held in Milwaukee at the Hyatt and at the Winsconsin convention center. This is the convention's 12th year! It is Wisconsin's largest anime convention, with an average of 10000 attendees!
Attendees can purchase a full weekend badge or daily badges. The prices are about average for a convention at $60.00 for the whole weekend. The convention is held on four different floors. Though the Inconvenience of using stairs or escalators can be a hassle, it kept the convention from being too crowded. People were walking around comfortably and take plenty of photos without causing a major traffic jam on the floor.
There were many nice cosplays to see at this convention. The majority of costumes are anime and video game themed, but there was plenty of other fandoms that showed up such as Avengers, Ghostbusters, Harry Potter, and others.
One of the largest areas was the video gaming area for gaming tournaments and causal arcade game play. Over 150 Japanese rhythm games, video game consoles, and classic arcade games were there for anyone to play!
If video gaming is too loud for your taste, this con had a manga library room. Attendees can sit and relax in this quiet atmosphere and read. Just like a library you can also take out books to read in your hotel room!
The weekend boasted tons of events and activities. The con had many panels ranging from Japanese Culture events, meet and greets with featured guests, fandom theme panels, and hands-on educational events and how-to classes. There were plenty of anime viewing rooms as well. The convention had a cosplay meetup room/area with organized meet-up schedules. For the little ones that attended, the con provided Children's programming which included scavenger hunts and arts and crafts.
The main event was the Cosplay Masquerade Contest! Attendees of all skill level compete to win many different prizes. There is also the skit/performance category where cosplayers are judged for their performance. It can be anything from singing and dancing to stand up comedy or playing an Instrument. The con had their craftmanship judges and two guest judges which were Moderately Okay Cosplay and Reiko Cosplay.
The top winners were Dark Lord from LOTR, who won Best in Show, Saber Lilly from Fate Grand Order won 1st Place Masters, Eveee Greek God and Godesses mash up won Best Group, and Link and Zelda won Best Skit.
Have a look at some of the amazing cosplay:
This is a fun convention! It is the right size, not too crowded, but enough great cosplay and activities to keep you entertained.
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