A-kon 21

A-kon has come and gone, and here I am posting about it in less than a week! Exciting.

Unfortunately I don’t have much of a con report, because I didn’t see much of the con.  A great deal of my experience was ruined by terrible roommates.  I have learned a lesson there.  Sadly, I think I could have made room plans with a complete stranger and THEY probably would have been more courteous than these two people, one of whom I was acquainted with.

I’m happy to say that the cosplay this year was actually pretty varied.  There’s still some Chi’s (Chobits) about, but not near as much Naruto/Bleach/Kingdom Hearts/Final Fantasy as I’ve seen in recent years.  It’s nice to see that the crazes seem to be calming down a little bit.  However there must have been around 20 Luffy’s and at least a dozen Grell Sutcliffe’s which sucked for me, because I was looking for a specific Luffy and a specific Grell and I was also silly and didn’t bother to message either of them before the con so we could get together.  That’s an opportunity missed, especially since I don’t think I’ll be going back to A-kon next year.  I want to try and hit another convention, and my thoughts are going toward either Anime Boston or Anime Weekend Atlanta.

I did some cosplay for a few hours.  I got hugged quite a bit, mostly by people also cosplaying Deidara from Naruto.  It’s pretty weird, but nice to be loved.  I have to admit that at that point I was pretty down, and hugs from strangers picked me up some.  Yeah, I know.  It’s weird.  I also really enjoyed baffling fellow con-goers by simply staring at them when they decided to speak to me.  Mostly about how odd it was for Deidara and Gaara to be sitting together without fighting or being dead.  I’m pretty awkward socially, but it was also pretty funny to just watch the bafflement on their faces as they continued talking, like that was going to get me to respond to them.  Poor guys.

I did buy a lot of figures, and I will probably be taking some pictures to post over the weekend.  I was happy to find a Grell Sutcliffe, which goes nicely with my Sebastian, and I started a Zoro collection with a 10th anniversary One Piece figure – where apparently they had some joint thing going with Dragonball.  What a weird crossover.  Anyway, I also picked up about half a set of Petit Nendoroid Vocaloids, but I didn’t manage to get a Kaito, who I REALLY wanted.  However I did snag all three versions of Miku, though I have to confess that mostly I wanted her default.

I’ll leave you with pictures of my favorite cosplayer out of the approximately six cosplayers I took pictures of.  I’m getting weirdly shy about taking people’s pictures – I always mean to take more pictures, but I usually don’t.  Cursed shyness.  Anyway, here’s a couple pictures of a cool Zoro cosplayer.

Zoro cosplayer A-kon 21 (2010)

Zoro cosplayer close-up A-kon 21 (2010)

Random cosplay conversation

Me: I think I can convince my brother to be the Millenium Earl. He’d be good for it.

cosplay buddy: cool! I think of the Millenium Earl as being big and squishy :3

me: Yeah, so is my brother, lol.

New favorite convention story

Part of the fun of going to conventions is the stories you bring back.  Some are good, and some are horrible abominations that you’d rather forget about.  Usually if you ask me for convention stories, unless I just attended one, I won’t remember any.  I’ve got a horrible memory for that kind of thing, unless someone reminds me of a story, then I’ll recall it and tell whoever will pretend they’re listening.

Anyway.  This will be my favorite convention story for a while, at least until the next convention I go to, which currently will probably be in October.  Theoretically that’s plenty of time for me to make new cosplays and save money.  Theoretically.  I’ll just have to see how it’s looking in September.

This last weekend I went to Anime Festival Wichita in Kansas (which by the way is really boring to drive through.  I almost fell asleep both ways.)  The character I had decided to cosplay had gray skin and wore a sleeveless vest, so I put gray makeup on my face and arms for that, and was wearing one bright yellow wig.  Also, yellow contacts, but those weren’t really too noticeable unless one happened to look directly at my eyes.  I’m sure you can tell it was a unique costume.  Some people scoffed at me as I walked past (yeah lolitas…that’s original, pfft), and some gave props for having the guts to wear that much makeup.  Pretty standard comments.  The ones I really hate are people who feel the need to critique my costume and yet are wearing their normal clothing.

Off topic again.  Gah.

The hotel was nice, but what was unusual about it was that the rooms were a pretty fair distance from the convention itself.  We had to traverse one long hall and then go up a elevator to get to the convention.  One of the times I was returning to my room, there was an elderly couple in the elevator.  I got in at the lobby.  I was in my full costume.  The lady was so fascinated by it that she was apparently going to stay on the elevator, but her husband told her they had to get off there and pulled her out.  As she was being pulled she told me it wasn’t because I got on the elevator, which still cracks me up.  Hehehehe.

So if you made it through the rambles to the actual story, I hope it was worth it.  Since I have no more weekend trips at the moment, I may try and get back to posting about what I’m watching, reading, and playing.

Anime Festival Wichita 5

This weekend I went to a small anime convention held in Wichita, Kansas.  My friends and I had gone last year and enjoyed it despite the extremely small size, so we were looking forward to going again this year.

I’m happy to say there was quite a bit of growth.  Larger hotel, more guests, more events.  The area around the outside of the hotel is beautiful and I’m really looking forward to taking pictures next year.  I didn’t dare spend any time outside this year as most of the time my arms were covered in makeup and I didn’t want to sweat it off.  Cosplay critics are harsh, I should know, I’m pretty critical of cosplay myself.  I never think that defects in costumes might have been caused by mishaps, but that’s not the subject of this post.

Speaking of cosplay though, there was some good cosplay.  My personal favorites were from Future Diary (Mirai Nikki) and Gintama.  Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera on me when I saw Elizabeth so I won’t be posting a picture of that one.  I will post the picture of Yomotsu Hirasaka from Future Diary.

I also participated in walk-on for cosplay for the first time ever.  I like the way their walk-ons are set up, but I still think it goes too quickly.  My friends sadly told me they’d only managed to get pictures of my back.

There were a pretty good variety of guests.  I did manage to get to a couple panels which were fun, and tried a viewing room, but that was ruined by the random jerks who were sitting and discussing pretty much every popular series they could think of (Naruto, Bleach, Code Geass).  Loudly.  Loudly enough to completely drown out the speakers in the room.  Needless to say, I wished I had a prop sword I could beat them with.  I do like the way the autograph session was set up, with people sitting in a panel room, and a row at a time lining up to go through the table.  It was orderly, and it prevented people from standing in line forever before they got their autographs, and is actually a pretty good solution to the whole line-jumping problem that can arise.

All in all a good convention.  I was glad to see the growth, and I was just as glad to see that this convention at least is pretty well-behaved.  There was no running, and no asses yelling about ‘the game’, which are the two things that automatically ruin conventions for me.

My only complaints are personal really.  I wish I’d made it to more of the panels and had taken more pictures.  Unfortuantely my cosplay had crazy prep time involved…I’m going to guestimate an hour and a half at least, and most of that was due to the makeup on my arms.  Which sucks when you sit between two people and try not to rub off on either of them.

I’m looking forward to next year

Cosplay on deadlines

Ahhhh procrastination.

Wait.  I didn’t actually procrastinate this time.  It’s just that I agreed to cosplay in part of a group without really thinking about how little time there is.

To be honest I usually don’t have my costumes completely finished until about 2 days before a con, but I usually have it planned for at least 3 months in advance so that I may order an appropriate wig and whatever props I may feel the need to order also.

So here I am, with a little over a month to go, ordering bits and hoping feverishly that they will arrive before the convention and that I will be able to work on and finish my costume before the convention.  *whew*

If you’re curious, I’m going to be cosplaying Jasdero from D. Gray Man (the blonde one) at Anime Festival Wichita, in Wichita, Kansas.  So far it’s my most ambitious cosplay, requiring colored contacts and makeup, plus a dismantled book light for his antennae thing.  I think I got the easy twin to cosplay, since I’m no stranger to simply modifying thrift store finds into a costume which is exactly what I plan to do here.

I have also agreed to wander about with a fellow cosplayer who is going as David, and joined a Noah group, which involved me convincing my brother to go as the Millenium Earl.  I’ve also agreed to try a skit, which will be interesting since I am completely shy and can’t remember getting on a stage recently.  I believe the last time I was supposed to I had a panic attack and didn’t go up.  Here’s hoping this goes better!

If I can get the light to work the way I want it to, it’s going to be awesome.  Wish me luck!

Anime Festival Wichita – cosplay!

From frequenting the bulletin board for the local Kansas City anime convention, Naka-kon, I have made plans for cosplaying at Anime Festival Wichita, held in Wichita, Kansas in July.

A fellow forum goer was asking for a partner in a D. Gray Man cosplay of Jasdero and Debito, wanting a Jasdero and I thought, hey why not?  So I have volunteered.  I have also quickly made a new buddy, which I think is just awesome.  Just as awesome is the fact that this new buddy of mine is very detail-oriented in cosplay.

You may look forward to progress pictures and finished pictures.  Maybe even a video or two XD