Late post, sorry! Motaku’s been almost two weeks gone, but I really enjoyed it. It’s going strong for only being on its second year. As usual, I spent the majority of my time in the dealer’s room, buying at least one figure intentionally, and spending most of the rest of my money on grab bags. Also as usual, I got some pretty awesome random stuff in my grab bag. There was some kind of Magic Knight Rayearth CD that I haven’t checked out yet. It looks really interesting though, and was worth the price of the grab bag by itself.
Also there were a good little group of cosplayers, and I was amazed that there were many cosplays I missed seeing, for such a small convention. However, I managed to snag a few pictures, and here’s my favorites from Motaku 2010:
Dr. Wily cosplayer at Motaku 2010
Dr. Wily! This guy was really friendly and chatted my husband and I up about our cosplay, which was Maka and Deathscythe from Soul Eater. He really enjoyed that I had decided to cosplay Deathscythe and my husband borrowed my Maka cosplay. More about that later in the post. I think I was probably excited about this cosplay in particular because I had recently read the first volume of Megaman Megamix, which I highly recommend.
Cornelia cosplayer at Motaku 2010
I was pretty excited to see a cosplay of Cornelia. She graciously agreed to have her picture taken, and when I mentioned getting into better lighting, she suggested standing by the Statue of Liberty picture herself. It’s these kind of interactions I really enjoy at conventions. The past year or so I have been very relieved to see a good number of people my age or older – I had been starting to feel like a pedophile going to conventions full of preteens and teenagers.
Green Dress Princess at Motaku 2010
When I asked to take this girl’s picture she was also very gracious, even regal. You can see her lovely pose, and pleasant expression. I have no idea if she’s cosplaying anything specific, or is just a princess in a green dress. Readers, let me know if it’s a specific cosplay so I can edit the caption and everything. I just loved how gracious this girl was: it’s the way I imagine lolitas *should* be, but most of the lolitas I’ve come into contact with have been pretty stuck up and grouchy. Which is why I have no real interest in lolita culture. The clothes are pretty cool though.
As I mentioned earlier, my husband borrowed my Maka Albarn costume to wear Saturday, and did a little bit of ghetto cosplay, buying cheap ponytails and a scythe from Wal-Mart and borrowing a party wig that I’m pretty sure belongs to my roommate. I don’t remember buying it anyway. I cosplayed Maka’s father Deathscythe (Spirit), which was easy, all I did was wear a suit and wig, and did a quick modification of a black tie that wasn’t the greatest ever, but it got the job done. I like to cosplay, and I do it as a fun hobby. I’ll probably make a nicer Spirit tie for the next time I want to cosplay him. This was also my first outing wearing a compression vest to flatten my chest some so my crossplay was a little more accurate. I still have too much chest to ever successfully appear to be a guy, but the vest helped a lot (and took a LOT of awiggling and adjusting) and is actually fairly painless to wear for long periods, so I’m happy with that purchase and happily recommend one to any girl wanting to crossplay accurately. The looks my husband got for his crossplay were priceless, I really wish I’d captured some of that on video. He might do it again at the next Naka-kon, so I’ll have the camera charged and ready by then.
I did attend one panel: the voice actor Q&A. I was initially not interested in it, especially since I figure that I hear enough of Todd Haberkorn in Funimation dubs, and wasn’t terribly familiar with Wendy Powell or Cassandra Hodges. I was not sorry to sit in on this panel though, these three were very entertaining, and I learned quite a bit at the panel. Later on, when my husband and I were chilling outside, Wendy Powell came outside and we had a nice little discussion on various topics. ”We” being my husband mostly. I’m not much of a talker, alas – too shy generally. I do answer direct questions though. Wendy is pretty awesome, besides being the voice of Envy in Fullmetal Alchemist, which just boosts her in my opinion, being one of my favorite anime.
Motaku was a lot of fun, but it was pretty constrained by the size of the hotel. To be more specific, lack of space. It seemed pretty compacted, and it didn’t help that the area around the hotel was pretty abandoned, but they’re moving to a bigger location next year, so I’m definitely looking forward to seeing how that changes it.