Blue hair, capes, six-foot-tall swords,and martial arts – blend them together inside of Cobb Galleria, toss in 2,000 fans per day, and stir well.

The odd-looking outcome is Anime Weekend Atlanta (AWA), one of the largest anime conventions in the United States.

The convention draws over 2,000 fans per day, according to the convention’s official website.

Thirty-nine members of UGAnime were part of that winged and cloaked throng this year, marking the club’s fifth year in attendance.

Amanda Bouffier, a 20-year-old biology major from Dunwoody and the external affairs officer for UGAnime, reserved five rooms at the Renaissance Waverley Hotel for the group for the weekend.

Aside from the unavoidable gawking at costumed characters, half of which are unrecognizable to those uninitiated in anime, there was plenty for those 39 students to do over the weekend.

In the 72,000 square foot Dealer’s Room they could shop shoulder-to-shoulder with cat-people and ninjas for everything from shirts and plush animals to steel weaponry and the latest in adult title anime.

Ballrooms of the adjacent Renaissance Waverly Hotel showed anime films and TV shows almost nonstop, switching at midnight from generally family-friendly viewing to more adult-themed features.

“The hentai was hilarious,” said Andrew Scott, 20, an international affairs major from Gainesville.

For those convention-goers with more interactive tastes, rooms around the periphery of the hotel lobby hosted role-playing games and video game tournaments, as well as panels and workshops for artists and writers.

Some of the members also attended the Fire and Ice Ball, a prom-like dance hosted by the convention on Friday night, said Katie Naylor, 21, a classical culture major from Canton and UGAnime president. It was Naylor’s seventh year at AWA.

The majority of the floor room at the Renaissance Waverly Hotel was consumed with the Artists’ Alley, a gallery of fan artists, including some graduates of the University.

Matthew Tyler Windham, 23, graduated from the University last May with a bachelor’s degree in drawing and painting. This year was his first attending AWA since 2004.

Windham said he was attending the convention because it was another way to get his work noticed, and said he knew he had to “start smaller.”

Sara Kate Otero, who graduated with a bachelor’s in jewelry and metalworking in December 2006, was showing her work in the Artists’ Alley for the fifth year.

She said that AWA was much smaller when she began attending and that it now feels a little more impersonal.

“I think it’s gotten a little too big,” she said.

The next Anime Weekend Atlanta will be held Sep. 19-21, 2008.