Category: Anime, Manga, Etc

Ohayocon is just a few more days away and I’m looking forward to it with the usual mix of excitement and stress. This year’s soup of emotions has the added spice of great uncertainty mixed in. Mmmm, that’s good soup!

The last few months I’ve been busy looking for work and getting my software development business off the ground. I’ve actually been busier than I was at my previous job, having also taken on many childcare and home tasks in order to keep expenses down. Seems kind of crazy to be still making costumes and going to cons, but I’ve tried to keep things relatively normal. Besides, now I’ve got a bonafide business related reason for attending anime cons, promoting my book, Anime Aftershocks. And I’ve got one other convention related project in the works that I hope to complete before Otakon. If all goes well, the ROI should be very good!

Cosplay plans for Ohayocon are pretty much set. Mahoro for Friday, Stocking for Saturday, and Miho for Saturday night or maybe Sunday depending on how things work out. If I can find the materials around the house I need, I’m going to do my best to make a Hone Neko plush for Stocking today along with some business filings and doing more work on the data storage for my current iPhone app project.

Despite the challenges, or perhaps because of them, I’m really excited about Ohayocon and should come away with a lot of new energy to pour into my projects!

Life is too short to get down and depressed about anything. I’m workng hard, playing hard, and things are going to be alright.

With Ohayocon just a couple of weeks away, I’ve been thrown a major monkey wrench. The Hyatt Regency Columbus is oversold due to renovations that started in December. They sent an early letter asking for volunteers to move to the Hyatt on Capitol Square, a few miles away. Apparently they did not get enough takers even giving Saturday night for free. So now, I and others are being forced to move.

There’s a lot of overhead involved with cosplay at a convention. So being as close to the convention hall as possible is very important for costume changes and adjustments. Even with the the $128 savings, the inconvenience is potentially a big headache! So now I need to reformulate my plans.

As usual, my pre-convention dreams have started again. But I certainly was not counting on the nightmare of a hotel change.

I finally got around to making the bag I’d been planning to catch mail from my mail slot. I spent a lot of time looking for a prefabbed solution to this problem, but I guess there isn’t enough of a demand for this to justify developing a product. Back in October, I made a Domo-kun costume for my son for Halloween. Inspired by that, I took some of the left over materials and made my new mail bag!

Sometimes I take a look at the site stats to see what searches are landing people here at my blog. Today I saw several hits on “cosplay japanese war crimes in china!”. WTF? I know that with the popularity of Hetalia, there has been a lot of rabid fan girl cosplay of the different countries personified in the the show, but I’m pretty sure that Japanese war crimes is not a subject the series touches on.

That said, people will cosplay anything and everything. So while I can only imagine what a cosplay of Japanese war crimes in China would look like, I have little doubt that I will witness it for myself at some future convention. Honestly, I don’t think people would flip out all that much. I’ve seen plenty of people in Nazi uniforms at cons or the equally fascist Principality of Zeon from Mobile Suit Gundam. Now don’t get me wrong! I loves me some Gundam, but I won’t be donning the uniform of Zeon any time soon! But I won’t condemn anyone who does either, after all, Char is pretty cool, eh?

Even though I’m not even sure I’ll make it to Ohayocon this year, one doesn’t wait until the last minute to begin testing parts of a new cosplay project! So today I took some time to see how the shoes, stockings, dress, and blouse of my Stocking crossplay were going to work.

I’m still waiting for the wigs, so I just used my black one as a stand-in. The blouse is also proving problematic. I need a tuxedo blouse with a Peter Pan collar ideally. But I haven’t been able to find that combo yet and may have to make that myself. So for today’s test, I used my Mikuru blouse to get an idea of how things will fit.

The results were quite good! While not perfect, now I know that my basic plan will work. And with that in mind I’m going to redouble my efforts to find the right blouse or pattern to make it. Sometimes I don’t know whether to laugh or cry that I seem to make a prettier girl than guy…Naaah, it’s more fun being pretty!

Sometimes it seems kind of crazy to be working on a new cosplay project while looking for a new fulltime job. But hey! It’s fun and keeps me sane, well mostly sane… My latest project is Stocking from the anime Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt.

Since resources are tight, I’m working in economy mode on this project and so far I’ve managed to gather what I need from stuff I already had. In particular I’m using the black dress from my Sakura cosplay which is very similar to Stocking’s base outfit except for the sleeves. While this inaccuracy will not satisfy cosplay purists, the dress itself is consistent with something Stocking would actually wear when compared with some of her other dresses in the series.

For me, the real challenge to this cosplay is the wig. Stocking has blue hair on the outside and pink on the inside. After giving it a lot of thought and consulting some discussion threads on Cosplay.com, I decided that I’d need two wigs, one pink and one blue, to get the desired effect. And I found a tutorial referenced that showed how to stack multiple wigs. As I was reading through it all, I was reminded of all of the big hair I’d seen on RuPaul’s Drag Race, a light went on and I suddenly understood how these wigs were being made. So I am no longer afraid of big hair which is a big plus since you usually need to add additional wefts at least to get the best results. Most wigs are just too thin out of the box IMHO.

I’m happy that things are coming together well so far. The wigs have been shipped, and I’ve already received the shoes and stockings. The shoes and stockings were on sale, which compensates for the two wigs. So right now, I think I can come in at maybe 60% of the typical cost of my cosplay projects. I hope to have Stocking ready in time for Ohayocon, if I can go that is… But ACen for sure!

I want to thank my insurance company GEICO for finally getting me to try out xtranormal. I first became aware of xtranormal after that guy at Best Buy got fired for making a video poking fun at people wanting to buy an iPhone. Recently, GEICO has been running ads built using xtranormal, which they claim took them only 15 minutes to make.

Okay, 15 minutes isn’t much time. So when a friend of mine posted an xtranormal video about becoming an archivist, I popped over and made an account. I think I spent more than 15 minutes on this, but not much more. I wanted to make something more than Hello World, but not take too much time and I had one minor editing problem that actually made it a little funnier. This is my warped take on a midlife problem…

See New Panties on xtranormal!

After weeks of editing 6 years of anime convention blogging, my new eBook, Anime Aftershocks: Afterwords on conventions, cosplay, karaoke, and crossdressing is now on sale at the Barnes & Noble NOOKbooks store!

It was fun going back over 6 years of road trips, people, and interesting costumes. I think the whole set of experiences, aside from the fun, made me a better person. Or at least more comfortable with just being myself. So I’m hoping to share some of the fun and discovery now as a tasty little ebook!

As always, Saturday is the big day I look forward to at any convention. I was planning to wear two of my favorite and newest cosplays. Up first was Mahoro Andou, the android maid from Mahoromatic. And later I was going to change into my newest cosplay, Miho Tohya, the dark goth chick from MegaTokyo. I had thought about entering the Mahoro cosplay in the hall cosplay competition, but got too far behind schedule and lost in the maze-like hotel and never got around to registering for it.

Today I stepped up my picture taking, but the one thing that really stayed with me was just how crowded it was everywhere. I was sure Youmacon attendance had hit a new high. So getting around was kind of a hassle with people and lines of people everywhere. Nevertheless, I still managed to get into Live Action Mario Party. I don’t know how, but every year I go to LAMP, I end up on Team Hentai which of course is always the rowdiest of the four teams. I thought about defecting to Team Magical Girl which had this lovely ganguro girl as their player character on the board. I was very happy to get a picture of her later! Speaking of pictures, I later discovered that my camera settings were all wrong. Awwwww!!!!! I was able to fix some things in Photoshop, but still I was pretty upset with myself about the goof up.

Lunch in the food court was fun. It was swamped with cosplayers! Indeed cosplayers were everywhere, far outnumbering people in street clothes. On the way there, I got a picture request from a grandmother who had brought her grandkids to the con. And later I took a picture with a Japanese tourist. I had a lot of fun with that one, hamming it up Japanese style! (^_^) After that, I ran into my friend Venus and we headed over to the always awesome and hilarious Team Four Star Q and A panel. I really love these abridged series. It’s too bad the copyright holders are always trying to shut them down because they definitely increase my interest in the original series. There is no such thing as bad publicity!

I got really lucky with the elevators, so changing costumes took a lot less time than I feared. My Miho cosplay was a new challenge in makeup. None of my other cosplays had ever required eye liner, shadow, and mascara. But my pre-con practice had paid off and I really didn’t have much trouble getting ready. My elevator luck continued and I was able to get a good seat for the masquerade after standing in line with a very interesting and lively fangirl.

The masquerade skits were pretty good with only a few really bad ones. Quick shoutout to the pair who put on an awesome stage fight with weapons. I really enjoyed that! I skipped out before the winners were annouced because I really wanted to do karaoke. Karaoke is always very popular, so I really don’t understand why it always ends up in small rooms. The room was packed with people and hot. But karaoke is one of my convention MUST DOs, so I signed up and settled in. A dedicated group of background dancers, including a cute Faith cosplayer, spontaneously formed and would continue to dance pretty much the whole night.

Everyone wants to sing, but I really enjoy watching people perform as well. My friend Tony was there and as always did a phenomenal job. That guy can really sing, and he always does some new songs. He freakin knows just about every popular Japanese anime song and more! While waiting, I got some compliments on the motorcycle boots of my cosplay and just had the feeling that there were eyes all over me. I guess a short leather skirt will do that for ya, lol. Eventually I got my chance to sing Shell, an old favorite. It was fun, but I really should memorize the lyrics so that I can expand my performance. That’s my goal for the next con, to have a few songs I can sing in Japanese from memory.

After singing, I headed for the video room hoping to see my entry in the Hentai AMV contest, but it was too late. So after a brief visit to my room, I headed for the rave. The sets were okay, but it was a real challenge dancing in motorcycle boots. Like the night before, I had an interesting dance partner for little while. From her body language, I think it was the same person I had danced with the night before.

I think I got back to my room after 3am and somehow managed to get packed up so I could get an early jump on Sunday move out madness. Somehow, despite the long night, I did just that and had zero wait for an elevator. I didn’t cosplay on Sunday for logistical reasons, so I was a little down. But still, it always feels good to be back in my own skin so to speak.

One thing that really struck me about Sunday of Youmacon this year was how much it felt like a normal full con day. It was still crowded and busy with a lot of cosplayers about. Without a calendar, you could hardly tell it was the last day of the con. I got some more cosplay pics and went to some cool panels, including the Potter Puppet Pals, Yugi-Oh the Abridged Series, and Touhou.

And unexpected bonus came out of going to voice actor Vic Mignogna’s Star Trek Trivia panel. Vic is a big fan of Star Trek, the original series, as am I. He really really knows his Star Trek! So if you can stump him with a question about the original series, you get a prize. Well somehow I came up with a question he couldn’t answer and won a freshly signed picture of Vic as Captain Kirk on the bridge of the Enterprise. People waited hours in line for autographed pictures of Vic, so I considered this to be quite a score!

As much fun as I had at Youmacon, I always miss my family. So I decided to skip the closing ceremonies and headed back to Chicago. I was hoping to get back in time for trick or treating, but it started earlier than I had anticipated. When I arrived I was happy to hear that the Domo-kun and Banana man costumes I had made before I left we such a big hit! The kids were very happy and had fun with them which is more than enough thanks for me.

All in all, another great Youmacon. The new, bigger space was definitely a plus for the con and by next year I’m sure the kinks will be ironed out. At the rate it is growing, Youmacon will soon compete with the likes of ACen in size. I hope I’ll be able to go again next year! <3

I think one of the marks of having a good time is that at the end of it all, you’re left hungry for more. By that measure, this year’s Youmacon was a lot of fun. I knew that being in a new space, the ginormous Renaissance Center in Detroit (GM’s HQ BTW), would make things different than last year in some ways. Fortunately, the hiccups that resulted from the change of venue did not cause more than some mild frustrations for me at least.

The Thursday drive out was uneventful and at the end of it, I only overshot the Ren Center by a mile or two. I pulled over and used Google Maps on my iPhone to plot my final approach. But once I was pointed in the right direction, it was pretty hard to miss such an enormous building. And I achieved my secondary goal of not accidentally driving into Canada!

Normally, I don’t cosplay on the Thursday of a con, but with 4 costumes and only 3 main convention days, I decided it would be good to have a warmup cosplay. So after I checked in and got a bite to eat in the food court, I got into my Princess Princess Toru cosplay. This gothic lolita styled nurse’s uniform is one of my favorites and is always well received. There were a couple of people who recognized Toru and told me that Princess Princess was one of their favorite animes. Yay! (^_^) I had really wanted to see the Anime Style panel, but the panelist never made it, so I bounced out to the Dr. Who panel and then the always hilarious How to Con panel. Finally spent a little time at the Cosplay PJ party before calling it a night. I may well add Thursday cosplay to my con SOP from now on. Not only was it fun, it forced me to get my other costumes ready for the next day.

On Friday, I was very happy to have pre-registered. The registration line was enormous and pretty much stayed that way the whole freakin day. Sadly line management issues would be the bane of the con for me. I missed the concert and was late to other activities because of it. Part of the problem was the tiered membership system. Platinum members paid extra to guarantee early admission to events and other perks. To support that, lines were delayed to allow Platinum members to go first, which usually meant a search through the line by staff for Platinum members. It also meant that rooms were cleared after each event. The result of this was a long line up for almost every event. A better solution would be what I saw at Wizard World Chicago Comic Con. Rope off preferred seating for the Platinum members. This allows people to enter the rooms earlier and then after a prescribed time, let any unfilled premium seats be filled by anyone there. This would have cut down on the long lines and the delays in starting events. The Ren Center is a new space for the con, so I’m sure next year will be better.

Friday’s cosplay was Sakura from Tsubasa. This is also one of my favorites, now more so with much more comfortable boots. Thursday’s cosplay had given me a lot of confidence so I thought I looked pretty good which must have been the case with some others too. I was drafted into the It’s A Trap! game as one of the traps! I had actually planned to watch and showed up early while preparations were being made. One of the staff saw me and suggested I should be in the game. They were short of cosplayers, so I agreed to do it. After all, being part of the show is one of the reasons I cosplay at cons to begin with. I had fun with the other cosplayers, and gave some, *ahem*, interesting answers to the questions I was asked by the player.

I had hoped to go to the concerts, but the line simply was not going anywhere. So I decided to bail on the line and head back to the room to freshen up. This led to the epic battle of the elevators. I tried a number of strategies to get a space sooner, all honorable of course, to no avail. So 30 or 40 minutes later, mostly through luck, I got back to my room where I changed out of the boots, which I didn’t want to dance in, and fixed my makeup. That done, I made it to the Yuri and Yaoi/Bara panels and then the VAT dance. Interestingly enough, I met a Jesus cosplayer at the Yaoi panel (Chicken or Beef) who asked me for a picture. No inconsistency there, as Jesus probably would hang out with people at anime cons no less than He did sinners and tax collectors in the scriptures. I’d see the Jesus cosplayer a few more times around the con, and got his picture later. He seemed to be a pretty cool guy.

Whoa! Look at the wall of text! Here’s some Sailor Uranus until I finish this up next time!

It’s hard to believe, but just 4 more days to Youmacon! As always, I’ve got way too much left to do. The main task is completing two costumes for my youngest ones before I go to Detroit. I’m making Banana man and Domo-kun costumes. My own cosplays for the con just need final touches, the biggest being the ribbons on my Miho. The other touches are largely optional, but stuff I’d like to have done anyway.

It feels kind of weird running off to an anime convention after being laid off. But I’d already registered and made plans for it. And I’m sure it will lift my spirits. The last time I was laid off, we actually went to Disney World and it all turned out fine in the end.

This year, I even have an AMV in the contest finals. So I think this is going to be great. And the con ends on the 31st, so I’m planning to return home in time to trick or treat with the kids. Sweet!

Today started out with me feeling pretty lousy, lousy enough to take a sick day as it turned out. No sense in sharing my germs with the rest of my office. I slept a lot and eventually felt better, so I had a little time to work on my own projects before heading off to my daughter’s art show.

The wig for my Miho Tohya cosplay came last week, but I hadn’t had a chance to do much with it since then. Today I had a chance to see how everything went together and plan the next step. So far I’m pretty happy. It’s not perfect but I think it will be doable. Still worried a bit about whether people at Youmacon will recognize the character, but that’s just one of the risks of cosplay. At the very least I want it to look good.

So what’s left?

• shorten skirt
• cut and style wig, then add ribbons
• get pair of gray or purple tube socks
• fashion a camisole to better cover waist cincher hooks
• make choker
• buy eye makeup (shadow, mascara, eyeliner)

So there’s plenty left to do. I think one can get so obsessive with cosplay because every project is a long term one. Most cosplays take more than just a few days to plan and put together, if you want to do a good job. I remember that even my first abortive attempt at a Star Trek uniform took a couple of weeks to put together. And it never saw the light of day, thank God! Well actually it did see the light of day, but I had the good sense to immediately return home and change before anyone saw anything!