Hey look, a cosplay post

As you may or may not know, I’m planning to attend A-kon this year, but I’m not sure if I’ll make all three days or just Saturday and Sunday right now.  That depends on how much time I might have to take off work, and work has been somewhat complicated for me lately.

My budget’s been pretty low also, so the cosplay I had been planning to do, I can’t do now.  I’d been hoping to be able to make the shirt from fabric I already had, but I messed that up and put together something that would be way too small for me.  Plus, I’ve been procrastinating ordering a wig and accessories, so now is definitely too late to be doing any of that.  I really prefer to order wigs around 2 months in advance so I don’t have to worry about whether I’ll receive them on time or not.

Honestly I had given up on the idea of cosplaying for A-kon, but my roommate who’s going and will be cosplaying sorta bugged me into thinking about it again.  It doesn’t help any that I believe the last few costumes I have made have been pretty bad.  Bad enough that I’d rather not remember I wore them.  I’ve been in a slump about it, and I’m perfectionist enough that wearing a crappy costume really brings me down.

So I went through my collection of wigs to see what I had, and try to brainstorm characters to use them for, asking friends on facebook and twitter for suggestions.  Now I have a nice little list of characters I can cosplay that I don’t necessarily need to order a wig for, which is nice.  I ended up choosing Ruby from Rosario Vampire, and this weekend I bought material for her top, along with a pattern to make it.  If all goes well, I’ll start piecing it together and maybe even sewing it this week.

If all doesn’t go well, I just won’t cosplay.  I have nothing old I want to bring back out, and nothing comes to mind that’s all that easy to put together.

Fun random fact: the majority of my wigs are blonde, blue, or black.  I also have a couple green wigs.

Serious business update…yeah, not really

First a personal/site note: if you’re subscribed to the blog would you be so kind as to re-subscribe? I mucked around with feedburner, and now I can’t see any stats for the site, and I know people are visiting… -_-  My apologies.  I promise not to mess around with feedburner any more.  Thanks!

Other personal/site note:  I have attempted to take pictures of my tiny figures with my digital camera, and it didn’t work out all that well -_-;;  That particular project will have to wait until I purchase a better camera, which probably won’t be until next month.

Now on to your regularly scheduled blog post….

I’ll be honest.  I hadn’t actually planned to do a blog post, but tears4dragons (pictured above, muwahaha >:D) suggested I do one.  Which is a good idea actually.

I’ve been planning cosplays for Naka-Kon in February pretty much since the last Naka-kon this past March.  The only constant bit is that I keep changing my mind on which characters I want to cosplay.  My initial plans were to cosplay Mistral from the .hack games and Yomiko from Read or Die, and it has changed to Yomiko from Read or Die and Maka Albarn from Soul Eater, mostly because I can find most of the parts for both costumes without having to rely on my mostly beginner sewing skills.  Mistral requires me to make the entire costume on my own.  I know I could commission it, but commissions tend to be expensive and the quality isn’t assured.  For my own purposes it’s much simpler to attempt the costume myself.

The nice bit about the cosplays at the moment is that they both have some kind of trenchcoats, and since it’s winter, the local thrift store is carrying…trench coats!  I have done fairly decent with simply modifying clothing into cosplay for my first cosplay which was Hinata from Naruto – still one of my most favorite characters ever.  However, the population of Naruto cosplayers in Kansas City is getting younger and younger each year, which leads to me feeling like a pervert whenever I cosplay a Naruto character.  So…there’s a personal need for me to move on to other fandoms.  Unfortunately I can see Soul Eater being one of those fandoms that is particularly embraced by the younger con-goers here, meaning I may not cosplay those characters much in the Midwest.  I’ll have to see what this next Naka-kon is like.

The best part is that I get paid this weekend and can start looking into purchasing bits for this costume.  It should easily be done by February, and I can probably also indulge in my desire to play with prop making.  So in coming weeks, assuming I actually make progress on this endeavor, you could look forward to progress posts.

That’s it for now.  I’m almost finished watching RahXephon and Saiyuki Reload, so I’ll probably be posting thoughts on those soon also.

Motaku Day 2

If you’re looking below this post for day one, rest easy.  There’s no day one post.  I could only attend Sunday.  Had a college buddy visiting and I wanted to see her baby, then I got sucked into Bioshock.  I’m going to say this repeatedly, but Bioshock scares the heck outta me.

Anyway, back to the convention.  This is Motaku’s first year in existence.  There seems like there’s a little drama between this and attendees of Naka-Kon which has been running in this area for about 5 years now, but as far as I know, there’s no drama between Motaku and Naka-kon or their respective staff.  In fact, I think I may apply to be staff next year.  It’s really close to where I live, which is nice.

The staff in general did seem harried, but that’s to be expected for a first time convention.  They also greatly benefitted from previous con experience, as I believe most of the staff are veterans of previous Naka-Kons.  I didn’t get to do much, but what I saw looked pretty favorable.  There is definite organization and I could tell they did need some help, but unfortunately that also seems to be a regular condition at any convention.

The only part that I did not enjoy was the cosplay competition.  I couldn’t tell you about the back end since I didn’t participate, I merely sat in the audience and watched.  However, what I saw was not at all favorable.  I could not clearly hear the announcements from where I sat, so I had no idea who was walking the runway or what character they were portraying from what anime/manga/video game/etc.  Also there seemed to not be much in the way of telling cosplayers what to do i.e. “walk to here, stop, pose for this long, walk to here, stop, etc.”  Although that might just be cosplayer nerves.  I know when I walked the runway at Anime Festival Wichita, I just wanted to get it over with as soon as possible, to hell with pictures.  That is an issue that can easily be addressed next year, whether it be by taking suggestions and revamping the cosplay competition or simply finding someone to direct it with more experience.

Most of the problems could be fixed with experience.  Also with my own experience as a con goer, I do realize that some problems like lack of staff, not many panels, etc honestly aren’t so easy to fix.  Listening to what I’m thinking were staffers, there were some panelists that cancelled, leaving them hanging, which always sucks, and one of the main guests came down with H1N1, causing her to also cancel.

So I think I may try and do my part to help out whether it be to apply for a staff position once that opens up, or even put in a couple of my own panel ideas.  I’ve had the notion to try and run a panel for a couple years now, and I think Motaku might just be the right fit to try it out and see what does and doesn’t work.

I *did* cosplay, but people kept thinking I was not the character I was going for.  I was trying to cosplay Hanatarou from Bleach, complete with medical squad bag, but my wig looked more like Rukia.  This leads me to think that perhaps I should just make a prop of Rukia’s sword and keep it easy on everybody. Heh.

I’m looking forward to next year, and I’m expecting to see better and better things come out of Motaku.  They’re off to a great start.

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.

Araknapod Episode 3: Excuse me

I had some issues with hiccuping, so there’s a few times I say ‘excuse me’ out of reflex, hence the title.

Opening theme: Deja Vu – Hideaki Matsuoka (Tokyo Babylon)

For news items I very briefly touch on the Fairy Tale anime, the Otomen drama, Andrew WK’s upcoming solo piano album, and the release of Final Fantasy Dissidia in the States.  I also talk about finishing up two podiobooks, How to Succeed in Evil and Weather Child.

Review of Tokyo Babylon. Although I took notes, there’s still much in the way of pauses.  It turns out I’m not so good at talking at length about stuff by myself.  Might see about getting my roommate to cohost a podcast sometime.

I also talk a little about my current cosplay project.

And I mention e-mail/comments, and ways to contact myself.

Ending theme: Strawberry Kiss Kiss – Hideaki Matsuoka (Tokyo Babylon)

Any feedback? Suggestions? Comment or e-mail me!

*side note about Otomen* I watched the drama since this recording, and currently I love it!

Araknapod Episode 1: Introduction and Last Exile

Woooooo I finally recorded, edited, and now hopefully (*fingers crossed*) have successfully uploaded my first podcast.  I have lots of ideas but no set format, so I’m probably gonna go at it solo until I get it set more concretely.

There’s lots of awkward pauses, lots of sniffing, and lots of me being terribly unprepared.  I have learned a lot already.

Episode notes:

araknapod episode 1 – Introduction and Last Exile

0:04 – 1:23 opening music – Cloud Age Symphony – Okina Shuntarou (Last Exile opening)

1:24 – 2:12 introducing myself and telling what I will and will not do in the podcast

2:13 – 20:33 Last Exile review/summary

20:34 – 30:11 chatter about AFW and cosplaying

30:12 – 31:51 site and contact information

31:52 – 33:20 ending music – Over the Sky – Hitomi Kuroishi (Last Exile ending)

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

Must be detecting my iron will

Hey, I’m back to schedule.  Woo!

Last week being a holiday week, I really didn’t get up to much.  I have finished my Jasdero cosplay for Anime Festival Wichita, which is this weekend.  Just in time.  I’ll probably post pictures next Monday.  Let me just tell you all that gray makeup is going to be a pain to put on.  I think it’ll be worth it though.  I’ll sure find out.

I’ve practically sprinted through two Jacqueline Carey books, Kushiel’s Chosen and Kushiel’s Avatar, finishing up Phedre’s story.  Which reminds me, I need to go back and correct that last post, I put in the wrong title.  Now I’m on Kushiel’s Scion, beginning Imriel’s story.  I really do like him.  He’s not the same as Phedre of course, but who could be?  If you’re wondering why I’m reading the series over again it’s because I recently found the last Imriel book in paperback and just want to be up on the story before I read that one.  I really enjoy reading these books, but because of the sheer density of story, it usually takes a while.

I’m also going to be giving Janet Evanovich a try.  My book buddy at work highly recommends her to the point that she’s lent me one of her Stephanie Plum novels so I’ll probably read that about the same time I’m reading these Jacqueline Carey books.  It won’t be the first time I’ve been in the middle of multiple books at once.

As far as anime right now, I’m currently watching Gintama (still) and re-watching Ergo Proxy.  Embarassingly I did fall asleep during an episode of Ergo Proxy today, but that was more due to me already being sleepy and in bed.  I find that cuddling up to watch something is not necessarily such a good idea sometimes.  If you’re wondering how far I am on Gintama, I think I’m up to episode 24.  I have a long way to go, but I do tend to watch two or three episodes at a time and I prefer it this way actually.  It’s just what I do with podcasts.  I’ll load up a podcast and if I get hooked, that will be most of what I listen to for however long it takes me to catch up, then I eagerly wait for new episodes.  I also hope that new episodes come out regularly because I don’t pay attention to any kind of release schedule until I’m caught up.

I have also been indulging in the nostalgic feeling of playing Final Fantasy 7 on my PS3.  Unfortunately I didn’t manage to get Don Corneo to pick Cloud.  Interestingly I only remember all the things you need for him to pick Cloud from watching my brother obsessively go back again and again until he got all the right items to be chosen.  Besides enjoying the game again, once I got used to the old controls, it really makes me wish Square would hurry and release a remastered version.  This is after playing all the way through Crisis Core and watching Advent Children Complete.  I would love just an updated version with new graphics.

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