Category: cosplay

It’s been about 7 months since my last convention, so I’m really excited that Anime Central starts less than 48 hours from now! As usual, I’ve got last minute stuff to do, but nothing too bad. I can’t believe I actually got my hand embroidery work done weeks ago. So I think I’m pretty good to go costume wise. The real challenge will be getting everyone to the hotel and them managing costumes and activities.

Also this week marks the opening of the new Star Trek movie. I’m a long time Trekker, so I’m definitely going to see this! I just haven’t decided the where and when. Right now I’m leaning towards a late night show at the Muvico near the convention center after a pre-con meetup.

It should be a lot of fun if I can just manage the logistics. I have so much fun at these cons, I just wish my wife could enjoy them as much as I. But she tends to be a rather serious person, so just letting go isn’t really in her nature. Oh well, at least she tolerates my hobbies somewhat and since the kids like them too, I guess she’s just out numbered!^^ Yes, I’m a baaaad man.

Someone favorited a picture I took from my first Otakon back in 2005. I logged into my Flickr account and found that I had not labeled quite a lot of the pictures I took. While adding details I ran across this wonderful gem of what is now one of my favorite series, Tsubasa Chronicle by CLAMP.

Last year I had a great time at Youmacon and this year did not disappoint. First, moving to a much larger hotel, the Hyatt Dearborn, was definitely a winning move. Moving around was a lot easier as well as getting cosplay pics on the fly as I moved from one place to another. So I had a great time!

I’m not planning to go into great detail here, but I tried to get to things that I did not last year, like Live Action Mario Party and Live Action Mario Party After Dark. People sure do like screaming “hentai!!” And I went to a lot of panels, and watched a lot of AMVs, including a couple that I entered. I met some online friends and got to party with them at the rave. I went to the AMV dance too. I also participated in the Haruhi photoshoot, a first for me! ^___^ I love taking pictures, but tend to look horrible in pictures myself, so I only hope I didn’t wreck the shoot! In any case, what’s done is done and I feel pretty good about it.

I finished my Mikuru cosplay literally half an hour before I left for the con, but it all turned out well. I got a lot of compliments on it and picture requests. I also went ahead and entered the hall cosplay contest, mainly because I was happy with the costume and love talking a bit about it!:3 Usually I only wear a costume one day, but I was so happy with it that I washed it Saturday night, dried and pressed it to wear again on Sunday.

Needless to say, I hope I get to go again next year. And now for a lovely woman in a gorgeous chong sam who was kind enough to pose for me.

Some people say that you should live every day as if it is your last. I kinda feel that way about the anime cons I go to. I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to go, so I’ll keep it up as long as I can!^_^ So after some consideration, I’ve made plans to go to Youmacon again. I had such a great time last year, and this year promises to be even better. And, because I just can’t keep doing the same thing, I’ve decided on a new costume to make for the con. Just like the AMVs I make, I need to feel some passion about my cosplays. All I’ll say for now is that it involves a long red wig!XD

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!^_^