Riding specially trained cybernetic killer whales, #TEAMJUMP members Misaki Kido (@onnabancho_J) and Urian Brown submerged from the frigid waters of Elliott Bay and descended upon Seattle’s Sakura-Con! We took photos, hung out with SJ Alpha Members and gave away a ton of prizes at the SJ FAN MEET-UP! Here are the highlights!

SakuraCon is located in downtown Seattle and this year the cherry blossoms, or sakura, were out in full bloom making for some seriously beautiful cosplay shots. #TEAMJUMP roamed the halls seeking out the best cosplayers for our cosplay contest at the next day’s SJ FAN MEET-UP.

But before that, we made a special guest appearance at the Viz Media to school the crowd on the benefits of being an SJ Alpha Member (you know, the best digital manga, four free Yu-Gi-Oh! cards, digital gifts, access to exclusive content like creator interviews videos and more!). I’m pretty sure they were impressed.

Then it was a mad rush to get ready for the SJ FAN MEET-UP! After stuffing bags full of goodies to give to the first 100 people who went, we raced to the panel room and prepared to blow everybody away with our antics.

It was a busy panel! After introductions and a quick explanation on why SJ Alpha is awesome (as if they didn’t know), we moved on to the SJ Costume Contest! Picking out the best cosplayers we took pictures of the day before, we easily found the winner—Janelle C. as Clare from Claymore! Then it was on to the live Cosplay contest, and we had everyone come up front to be judged. Unfortunately, they were all so good, making it too hard to judge, so we gave them ALL Naruto video games! The SakuraCon cosplay round-up will go up soon!

After that it was time for some hard-hitting trivia! The questions ranged from super hard to ridiculously easy, and many prizes were bestowed! Then it was time for the fan art jam starring everyone’s favorite unofficial SJ mascot—Alpha-kun! In honor of SakuraCon, the theme was “Alpha-kun partying under the cherry blossoms.”  Congratulations to James G. for winning the Fan Art Contest! His unusual way of drawing Alpha-kun's body won over the judges! Here's his spectacutlar entry! The other entires will go up soon!

The meet-up concluded with some hard-hitting questions from the audience about all things SJ-related. Overall it was a great meet-up and everyone involved walked away with something, or a bunch of things. But more importantly, SJ fans got to hang out with other SJ fans and just have fun. And that’s what it’s all about!

Special shoutout to honorary #TEAMJUMP Member Jorge Roano for helping us at the con, snapping lots of great pictures (many used in this write up!), and going nanners @foxroano9T on Twitter. Arigato gozaimasu, Roano-sama!

Join the full SJ Alpha crew at our next SJ FAN MEET-UP at Fanime! May 25–28 in San Jose!

Related Links:
Events
SJ Fan Meet-Ups
SakuraCon

by Urian Brown