Category: Anime, Manga, Etc

Okay, just a few last thoughts on Otakon 2008. The Saturday masquerade is always a must see event for me and for the most part it was a lot of fun, including the walk to the Mariner Arena and the reactions of the “normal” people on the street to a parade of cosplayers. But one thing I will not forget is the reaction the audience had to one of the youth division cosplayers.

The girl was cosplaying Sakura and was probably about 13 years old. She got on stage to sing and totally froze. She looked really scared. But rather than boo her off the stage, the audience started clapping and cheering her on. So she started to sing and the encouragement continued as people started waving glow sticks and cell phones. From my seat in the upper deck, it looked like a sea of floating embers. For that moment I thought, wow, there really is hope for the human race.

So I think I’ll end on that note. I sang, I danced, and of course I got locked out of my room just like last year and had to deal with the front desk staff…in drag!XD It was fun. I stayed Sunday night so that I could cosplay Sunday and drive home Monday during the daylight hours, and get a speeding ticket in Pennsylvania…T_T Can’t wait to do it again next year, minus the ticket!

It’s been a week since I set out for Otakon 2008 and I’m still riding a post convention high. I had a lot of fun. The road trip out was pretty flawless, only some heavy rain (scary) just outside of Baltimore posed any significant problem. Checked in, picked up my registration badge, and got to the Megatokyo Forums dinner on time for once!

I never did get write down any kind of plan for the con, so it was pretty much adhoc all 3 days. I ended up spending a lot of time doing karaoke broken up by intermittent cosplay photography. I also went to the JAM Project panel and concert. They were awesome! And the Saturday Masquerade is always a must for me.

A few things really stood out for me this year. I got a lot of compliments for my costumes this year which really put me on cloud 9. I put a lot of work into them, and I’m pretty self conscious about them so getting a lot of positive notice was really cool. I like cosplaying female or female dressed characters, so you never know what reactions you’re going to get. Then why do it? Because it’s a ridiculous amount of fun and a cool artistic challenge to present the illusion of a woman cosplaying a character. I’ve always enjoyed a good challenge. Being conventional just isn’t who I am!^^

On Friday I did my Yuujirou cosplay with the goth-loli nurse uniform. I was wearing new sandals with it which would prove to be a great challenge to walk in. They just kept sliding around because I think they were slightly too big for my feet. No sooner than I’d gotten to the convention center, a woman taps me on the back and says I look cute!<33 Later, a woman who told me that she was a real nurse told me that I looked beautiful and took a couple of pictures. I suppose guys aren't supposed to care about this sort of thing, but that really moved me. And it meant that I'd done a good job on the costume. Interestingly enough, one picture of me in this costume was used in an article that lightheartedly mocks cosplayers. While the captions are flippant, the pictures and costumes themselves are actually quite good. Click here to take a look. The comments are interesting too, especially the one comparing me to Seal. LOL!

I spent a little time watching AMVs before going up for karaoke where I was very happy to meet one of my favorite con people of all, Alissa!<333 She's very cute and has a great singing voice. She was cosplaying Mozilla Firefox. Yes, the web browser, Firefox. There are so called OS-tans which are personifications of computer operating systems (OS’s) and now, apparently, browser-tans as well. All I can say (see photo below) is, KAWAII desu!! I’m such a fan boi sometimes, but I behaved myself and enjoyed a brief chat with her. I had the great fortune of bumping into her on several occasions during the con, and she liked my costumes too! On that note, I’ll end this first installment of my con report.

Just a few more days until my 4th annual trip to Otakon!^^ This year I’m feeling a bit more relaxed. Last year was my first year cosplaying at Otakon and I was pretty nervous, not to mention what turned out to be some really serious problems with one of my costumes. This year, I’m not rushing to finish anything. I’ve only made some tweaks to improve fit and finish. Sadly, the AC in my car still doesn’t work well, but I don’t really care any more. Once I hit the road it won’t matter, all that matters then is reaching my destination.

It’s a little early, but I will probably start packing today. I want to make sure that I don’t forget to bring anything which is easier to do if I’m not too rushed. And I still need to buy my “survival rations” in order to survive long periods waiting in line and skipping meals in order to get to various events!XD

A week has now passed since Anime Central 2008 and life has settled back down to what passes for normal. Still I am filled with fond memories of a really good time. Friday my main objective was to make it to the concerts which I did. Peelander Z was, well, unique. They put on a fun show, but honestly, I couldn’t really get into their music. They were followed by Mari Ijima show which was pretty low key and a nice change up from the Peelanders. Halcali was up next and well worth the wait! I loved their j-pop hip hoppy sound and can’t wait for their albums to see a US release. I found a bootleg recording of the concert and now can’t get Endless Lover’s Rain out of my head. Please release soon!^^ The rest of the night was spent mostly in the AMV room watching Hentai AMVs. Not that I’m a big fan of hentai, but I really had a good time with Nate, Flying Elf, and the rest of the AMV regulars at Youmacon so I thought it’d be cool to enjoy some of their craziness again, and indeed it was! I’ve been really inspired to improve my own productions by all of the incredible videos I saw at ACen. I was also happy to see my own AMVs screened during the free play periods too.

Saturday the main focus was on cosplay and the masquerade. I always bring out my new costumes on Saturday, so I spent the day as Shuichi Shindou and finally got a chance to experience fangirls first hand. It was pretty cool having people recognize the character and call out, “hey Shuichi!” Not to mention getting a number of hugs and photo requests. Kakkoi!^_^ The kids were pretty popular in costume too, especially my youngest son as little Mario!

Attending the masquerade after a year’s absence felt really good! I was so angry last year at having missed it that there was no way I was going to let that happen again. The show was good, but I felt like there were too many yaoi skits. A couple of years ago, it was fresh and new, but there are no more original yaoi skits to be done, so please people, just stop it. After the masquerade I spent some time on a serious photo quest before I would need to dump my bag for the Soap Bubble rave. This period was interrupted by the now annual arrival of paramedics to take someone to the hospital.

The line to enter the dance was very long and part outside in the cold which was not going to work well with the costume I was wearing. So I decided to wait it out watching some totally f*d up crazy videos with ngsilver and company. After a wait, the line was gone and I went into the dance where I was immediately hugged by a young woman who liked my costume, yay!^^ I really don’t know how long I danced that night, all I know is that it was after 4am when I got back to my room. Yes, I had a ridiculously good time!

Sunday is usually a somber day at cons for me because it means the party is nearly over. This one was little different except for a lot more check out drama than usual. I was so happy about the previous night that I was determined to make things as easy as possible getting my crew out of the room. So I ended up carrying a lot of stuff great distances and giving a lot of commands to keep everyone coordinated. I think it worked pretty well. Working together we got it all done. After sending the wife and kids back to the city, I went to the AMV awards and then made my final swing through the dealers room before heading back to the city myself.

ACen 2008 was definitely better than 2007 for me! I got a lot more photos than last year (click here for photos) and I had a lot more fun cosplaying. A week later and I’m still smiling.^_^

Anime Central 2008 is now over and so far I’m at a loss for words, probably due to total exhaustion. ACen 2008 was a lot better for me than 2007. This year all of our badges came in time and I was able to avoid any unnecessarily long waits in line, like the now infamous 8 to 9 hour waits many spent in the pre-reg lines. Compared to last year ACen seemed slightly more organized and I really got the feeling that they were trying to make up for last year’s shortcomings. And I feel that I was doing the same thing!

I made a lot of mistakes last year which I think I corrected this year. First, once I realized there was no way I’d get the Gene Starwind and Melfina costumes done in time, I dropped them. Last year I was feverishly finishing costumes on Thursday and Friday morning, which made me miss a lot of stuff. Doing that took a lot of weight off of my shoulders which was good because I was actually quite sick Thursday and Friday so I couldn’t push too hard if I was going to make the show at all. Another thing I did was better plan for the worst and adjusted my expectations. In particular, last year my lovely wife was totally freaked out by my crossplays and didn’t really want to be seen with me at all. That was unexpected, and hurt a lot. I didn’t think that her feelings were going to change a lot, so I didn’t plan anything that would require her presence. She stuck with the younger kids doing kid stuff while we used text messages to keep track of each other and our older daughter who’s old enough to do things on her own. This actually worked out much better than I could have imagined, and we did rendevous on a number of occasions and it was okay.

So all in all, I had a ridiculously good time which I’ll detail here a little later. Here’s one of my favorite cosplayer pictures. I think she makes a really cute Haruhi!^_^

To wrap it all up, I had an awesome time Saturday night at Ohayocon. While I discovered that there was indeed karaoke too late to sing myself, I did enjoy watching and cheering on other singers. After that I dumped my bag and headed off to the rave.

I don’t know whether I got there before or after room crowding forced the rave to stop and empty out before resuming. In any case I’m glad I missed that part of the drama. Upon entering the room, I was struck by how hot and humid it was. I’ve been to a number of dances by this time, but I’ve walked into a room that was hotter than that one. After looking around for a bit I settled into my usual favorite spot, somewhere in front near the speakers where I can see the DJs. I never bother looking for a dance partner these days. I just want to dance dance dance, and anyone who wants to join me later is welcome. ^_^

It turned out to be a really good place to dance. There was one point where Greg Ayres came down and danced very suggestively right up against the speaker. I kind of wish he would have come and danced with me. :3 Greg and the other DJs were awesome! While I didn’t like every track that came out, it was a nice mix and I really enjoyed watching them work. At the end of it all, I probably danced continuously in costume for about an hour only leaving when my legs started to cramp up. The next morning I would pay dearly for being in front of the speakers for so long. My right ear was ringing for two days!

I didn’t get bed until well after 3am. I had a lot of fun, but was a little saddened by the realization that it was all coming to an end tomorrow. One of the thrills of cosplay at a con is the chance to be someone else for a little while. Being a girl for a couple of days made me very happy.^_^

Sundays are usually somber and relatively uneventful. This one started with the hellish problem of getting my stuff down 11 flights of stairs to the car before checkout. Luckily, I only had to walk up once. I caught the bellman on the way down with my last two heavy cases. I love you Hyatt Regency Columbus!!! Once free of my bags, I was going to make one last pass through the dealers room and then attend the AMV awards. I try to cosplay every day of the cons I go to, so I’d put on my Roger Smith. I love Big O, and the Roger Smith cosplay is something I could drive home in too without getting into any awkward situations at a rest stop. I love the chance to be a girl for a while, but it really felt good to be a guy again too. There were still plenty of cosplayers around, so I was able to get a few more pictures before leaving after the closing ceremonies.

The drive back was filled with crazy people driving way too fast on wet highways. I was fortunate enough to make my one stop just before I would encounter a big delay due to an accident. As I passed the burnt out remains of one of the cars involved (didn’t see the other), I was saddened and chilled by the thought that someone probably died there. If I hadn’t stopped earlier, I may even have been involved. As it stood though, I’d only been involved in giving a few people in Burger King an eyeful of Roger Smith. My luck would come into play once again passing through Indianapolis where I noticed a police car pacing me soon enough to avoid getting a ticket.

With swag in hand for wife and kids, I was very happy to arrive home in one piece, but still a little sad that it was all over until next year. In the meantime, I’ve had enough fun to hold me over until Anime Central in May! Now I’ve got to get to work on those kid costumes!

Saturday is always the biggest day of the con for me. It’s the day that I’ll often have nightmares about a month before the convention begins. The nightmare usually involves running around the convention all day and forgetting to cosplay! That, of course, did not happen to me at Ohayocon. In fact, it was a two costume day.

I led off with my Kaname Chidori cosplay which continues to improve. I took the blouse in a bit so that it fit better (no manning the harpoons here), and I finally got the front bow right! That bow had been my bane the last two times I’d worn the costume. So I made a real bow a day before the con, making it twice as wide and about 20% longer. The blue wig is still out of control, nevertheless, I got some nice compliments and a few picture requests. The most surprising came while I was standing near a wall in the hotel just outside of the convention center. I was frantically searching my bag for a receipt I needed when people started asking for pictures. I happily obliged and soon thereafter found what I was looking for.

I was saving my third costume, the Yuujirou Shihoudani goth-loli nurse cosplay, for the afternoon and evening. I like to bring out my best stuff on masquerade night. This is my best costume, but I didn’t feel up to entering the competition this time around. I wasn’t even sure I was going to be at the con until just a short time before I left home.

Ever since I missed the masquerade at Anime Central last year, due to it filling up and no overflow area, I’ve been kind of paranoid about missing this event. So I was very happy that Ohayocon had a huge space for it in the convention center. I rushed over after the awesome Voices for concert and was greeted by a long line, to get into the line for the event. I was a little worried at first, but the line soon started moving and soon I was in with a good seat. Ironically, I was sitting next to a former nurse who was taking pictures with a very professional looking camera and told me that she absolutely hated those old style nurse uniforms. She said she always needed bunches of bobby pins to keep the hat on. My hat was actually pinned to my wig, so I fully understood the feeling! She was pretty cool. I told her about Princess Princess, the anime and manga the costume is from and we had a few chuckles about how the small community she came from probably wouldn’t permit such a manga to sold in the local bookstores.

The masquerade was pretty good, with the exception of one bad monologue and perhaps too many Naruto skits, most of the skits were entertaining. I felt bad for the woman whose monologue fell flat. If it were me, I think I’d have left the stage a little bit earlier, but I guess you have to admire her guts for sticking it out until the end. The audience, however, was not in a charitable mood and roundly booed her off the stage. Fortunately this was followed by one of the best skits of the night, a break dancing face off between Naruto and Sora (from Kingdom Hearts). How this skit failed to win an award is beyond me!

Looks like I’ve created a wall of text again! So I’ll finish this up later. After my last horrendous experience with Windows Movie Maker, I bought a copy of Magix Movie Edit Pro 12 online. I used it to create the slideshow of cosplay photos below with much less heart ache! :3