Youmacon 2007 Aftermath

Youmacon 2007 has come and gone and I can sum things up neatly in one sentence. I had a lot of fun! ^_^ Like most things in life, Youmacon was not perfect and I did run into some trouble, first getting off course trying to get there, and later just dealing with events starting very late. I think I must have increased my bladder size at least 50% having to wait in line so long for some events! But the overall feel or spirit of Youmacon was very good and I look forward to returning next year if I can.

I can scarcely believe it now, but I actually managed to wear all three of the costumes I brought and they were well received. I entered the Saturday Hall Cosplay competition with my Princess Princess cosplay, and while I ultimately did not win a prize, I really enjoyed telling the judges about my costume and the work that went into it. I got a number of compliments for the outfit and it just felt sooo comfortable to wear that I think it’s become my favorite. I loved dancing in it too!

My video entry for the AMV contest didn’t win a prize (or at least I’ve not heard of one yet), but I was so excited when it started to play during the screening, my heart almost knocked me out of my chair. I was worried about technical issues, but it played well and turned out to be one of the few that used a Japanese song. Personally, I think it ran a close second or third compared with the other romance category entries.

Saturday night was the most fun for me. I had been looking forward to cosplay, dancing, and karaoke. I got all of those almost simultaneously. The Saturday night karaoke crowd was a lot more fun than Friday, so after really messing up Houkiboshi, sang a few more tunes I knew better and enjoyed some really fine and spirited performances. One thing I won’t forget about that night were these black guys staring at me from just outside the restaurant while I was singing Shizukana Yoruni. They were far enough away, that I don’t think they realized I was a guy…hee hee… I got some similar attention at the dance later that night.

After karaoke, I headed to the dance. I’d been looking forward to dancing in costume since the last time I did it months ago at Otakon. It used to be that you either had to find a partner or not dance rather than look like a dorky loser dancing by yourself. Well, fork that! Times have changed, and if you want to dance, just dance! So I hit the dance floor and didn’t leave for over an hour, dancing solo or with the occasional partner. The music was pretty good, and I had a ball twirling and shaking my dress. A knee length dress is definitely teh fun on the dance floor! ^_^

My leg started to cramp a bit after over an hour of dancing, so I left there and headed for the con suite for some refreshments and to hang out a bit. There I was treated to a bit of uber-geekiness from the Penguicon party in the form of ice cream made with the help of liquid nitrogen, teh win! Refreshed I headed back out and met a couple of friends from Crossplay.net. One I met quite by accident after my right leg totally cramped up while I was listening to the Spoony Bards play. I needed somewhere to sit for a while and quite literally limped into the AMV room which was showing totally over the top Hentai AMVs! O.o After that, I thought Nate and the AMV people were amongst the coolest on Earth! I didn’t get to bed until about 3:30, quite happy we were getting an extra hour due to the time change.

I also watched Cosplay Shougi and the Masquerade Saturday night as well. The shougi was interesting mainly for the hamming it up of the cosplayers, especially Sanji, and an incredibly sexy Duo Maxwell who the MC, Card Captor Will seemed to have his eye on as well. The game itself was only so so, so I left early in order to get some real dinner. I hadn’t eaten normally for almost two days, so biting into my first real food almost brought tears to my eyes before sending me into an ecstasy reminiscent of Yakitate Ja-pan! Given the small size of the event spaces, it was pure genius that Youmacon did a simulcast of the masquerade on the hotel’s local cable channel. I was able to eat, watch the masquerade, and freshen up my costume before heading out again for karaoke.

Sunday is usually a quiet day for most cons. I spent much of the morning packing before putting on my last costume, Kaname Chidori. I’ve never cosplayed on Sunday because of the problem of having to change after checking out from the hotel. But I decided that I could pull this off easily by putting a pair of sweatpants and my coat in the car. I’d pull the sweat pants on over the skirt, pull off the wig, and put the coat on over the blouse. Then I’d drive 300 miles home, and nobody would know the difference, as long as I didn’t get into a wreck or pulled over and searched! XD So I cosplayed one more day and enjoyed Otaku Family Feud and the really great voice actors. Jeff Nimoy and Quenton Flynn were priceless!

It was too crowded to get as many pictures as I would have liked, but the ones I got were pretty good. This includes a so so attempt as a self portrait. I don’t usually get a lot of photo requests, in part because I don’t cosplay wildly popular characters. Most people at Youmacon knew nothing about Princess Princess, oh well… Anyway, as always, I looked for people cosplaying characters I like or who had outfits that really resonated with me. One of my favorites was of Rukia in her yellow dress and hat, which I’ve never seen cosplayed by anyone.

Youmacon 2007 Cosplay Pictures

Again, I had a great time! Can’t wait to do it again in 2008!