Montana Lyon as Snow – Angelina Amarosa dressed as Vanille – Hannah Lyon as Lightning

Dressing up as a Final Fantasy group was all Montana’s idea. It started out by wanting to go to Anime Banzai, then other family members started to want to come. Montana’s parents were first among them, wearing Sephiroth and Auron, both handmade costumes. Their brother does Hope as well.

This made the convention quite interesting because the parents were in costume and in character. If you haven’t heard of it, Anime Banzai is a local smaller “Culture Festival” rather than an anime convention. There is a bunch of stuff about Japanese culture as a whole: tea ceremonies, clothing, and panels about honorifics are normal fare at Anime Banzai.

All three, Hannah, Angelina and Montana, are very much into anime. If you are just getting into anime, they recommend: Fullmetal Alchemist, Sword Art Online, Ouran High School Host Club… and a bunch of others. If you want to see one, pick Fullmetal Alchemist.

Montana has been costuming for nine years. His first costume was Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII that his father made for him. Hannah hated anime in the beginning of their relationship and felt it to be too simple and one dimensional. But Montana told her to have an open mind and she eventually started to fall in love with the voice acting and the dimensions of the story.

Hannah knew at a young age that all she wanted to be was a successful author and a mother. Now that the manuscript of her first trilogy is complete, she focuses on reading as much as she can and engaging in the writer’s community. She is currently building a platform to gather interest. If you want to find more about Hannah’s writing check out her Facebook page here:

https://www.facebook.com/hannahrlyonauthor

Here are their favorite convention tips:

1. Come Prepared:
   Rent a room that’s close. You’ll want to be able to walk to the convention from the hotel, so you can drop off swag as you get it.
2. Wear a Mask:
   If you don’t want to get sick, this is a must. Lots of people have spent cash and scheduled their lives around going to the Con, so they refuse to stay home even if they are ill.
3. Choose Practical Shoes:
   You’ll be walking around all day!
4. Be ready to have your picture taken:
   Be aware of the glomp: the attack hug where someone runs at you and is too excited to contain their hug. Their glomping experiences include being tackled all the way to the floor.
5. The best part about cosplay is that it can be a family affair:
   You should involve your family, parents, aunts, uncles, etc. Have them watch these shows with you, and you’ll bond over themes of family, bravery, and true love that every human being can appreciate. Hopefully, they’ll be excited about doing group costumes with you

Check more links from this awesome group:

http://endoftheworldgaming.com

http://snowprincess19.deviantart.com

http://gracedragon013.deviantart.com

Trevor Nielson

Writer & Photographer at ComicCon.tips

Trevor began his forray into nerdom as a kid peddling his bike all the way to the local bookstore to purchase comic books. The boring superhero comics weren’t good enough for Trevor, he wanted the real ones. The ones with ducks. Now who's laughing while he’s on his way to cash in all those valuable Ducktales comics. Soon he’ll have his own money bin full to the brim. These days, to fill the time before the money bin construction completes (and begins), Trevor fills his time with photography, movies, television and comic book conventions. You can find his cosplay Meet & Greet mini-shoot and articles on this site as well as prints of his photographs being sold by cosplayers throughout the land.
–
P.S. Trevor converted to Marvel & DC comics and movies later on, so no heartburn on that one, right?