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Katsucon 2007 - Convention Report |
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My roomies wake up and go downstairs at around 8, to pick up their badges, so I sleep for another 15 minutes or so (after sitting up to taunt them), then begin to work my way into my costume. However, the character is male. I am not. It takes time to hide my female assets. But I do, and I get into the outfit, and everyone returns to get ready for the day. We spend some time trying just how the heck to get the strings on the big sitar working, and finally fishing line is used, then I head downstairs and hang out in the lobby with the group for awhile, before everyone goes their own way. As I was determined to enter the hall costume contest, I stay in the lobby until the sign up sheets appear. While doing this, I find plenty of people to talk to and hang out with. I did end up doing a few laps around the hotel, and had people professing their love for my wig (…please to be not making love to it).
Finally, I got back to the lobby and asked again about the sheets. As I was standing there waiting again, they appeared, I grabbed my timeslots, and wandered off down to the dealer’s room, to scope out what was going on and kill time until the Bleach photoshoot began. I wandered down there a bit, saw quite a few things I’d love to have but just couldn’t justify spending money on and decided to put off all my shopping until Sunday. Once I was done there, I headed back up and wandered around the hotel, had a small snack to keep me going since I didn’t have breakfast, and eventually made my way to the shoot. It was amusing, before we started posing, people were coming up to us asking for photos. Once we started, it was flash after flash after flash. We did a few poses, and some single stuff, then dissipated, because the main shoot we planned was on Saturday. I wandered around a bit more, and then headed up to my hotel room to change into my ball gown. Oooh, it was quite nice getting out of the bindings (other than that, the costume is really comfortable) and into a comfortable top.
I did have to run down to the car to grab my jewelry, which we had forgotten to bring in the night before, and nearly had a disaster when I got it back to the room and found the middle green jewel in the crown missing, so I ended up backtracking through the hotel (wearing half of my Bleach costume with my Sakura wig) to find it. Luckily, it was in the stairwell, and the glue on the inside was still tacky, so I was able to fix it and put on some new paint to cover the cracks. I took that chance too, to grab a small sandwich for dinner, before heading down to the CLAMP shoot.
That one got started slowly, but it happened. We were there for awhile again, and finished up about half an hour later, when I ran back to my room to grab my reference materials for the hall contest judging. The other people in my room assured me that I’d win something, but I in my constant over criticalness of my costumes, assured them I wouldn’t. They just called me crazy. I went back down (I’m so sorry for taking the elevators when I was only on the third floor, but that gown is not stairway friendly! One wrong step, and I’d have said hello to the floor), and sat around talking to some of my friends until around 15 minutes before it started, then wandered into the room to find I was the first one besides the judges to arrive, so I talked to them a bit as they got ready. Another cosplayer wandered in and we started talking about her costume (Deedlit), and I mentioned that I had done one last year. That comment made the judges perk up and asked me if I was the Winter one from last year, to which I gave an affirmative response. They began showering me with praise, they remembered it well and one of the judges even said it was her favorite one last year – that made me feel really good.
Others arrived soon after, and they called roll, gave us our instructions, and we were all sent outside to wait for our turns. I was second in line, so I didn’t go far, and was called in soon after. First thing they took a photo so they could remember what the outfit looked like later, and then began pawing at it. I handed over my cosplay folder of DOOM which included my first attempts at the jewelry, the patterns I used, all my receipts, my notes and sketches as well as all my progress shots complete with construction notes. They seemed to like that quite a bit, and started asking me questions about my outfit. Like last year, they seemed impressed with my straight clean seams, which I made sure were finished so they couldn’t fray, the fact that I used a decorative stitch on the bottom of my skirt, and were raving about my fabric choice. One of them actually thanked me for not using satin and choosing a bright matte heavyish fabric. They also seemed to like that I used fabric glue on the sleeve edges and all the ruffles to give them stiffness so they’d stand better, and were impressed that it was my first time working with resin (and gave me some resin use tips!). All in all, I walked out feeling really good about it. I still wasn’t expecting to win anything though, I had no idea what divisions the other people entering were in (I’m in the novice division, myself), and there were some AWESOME costumes there.
Anyway, once that was over, I changed costumes yet again. It’s a comfortable outfit, but it’s hard to navigate a ball gown through narrow crowded halls. I ended up killing some more time with people, then went to the name that tune panel, which is always a blast to watch, people are quite funny. That took me until around 1am, when I decided to head back to the room to shower and get some sleep.
Saturday:
We woke up around 8:30ish and I began planning my day. 12:00, Bleach costume. 1:30, ball gown. 3:00, Bleach costume. Mind you, that gown takes about 20 minutes to get into and get everything right. So, I untangled my binding materials and began to get dressed. This time, I actually remembered to put my sword on before I put my wig on. (Between two cons, that was only…what, the 6th time I’ve put this on?). Once dressed, I headed downstairs and hung out for a bit, and just so happened to be standing around when an impromptu Shonen Jump photoshoot happened. Since I was in a character that appears in those, I jumped into the shoot. That killed some time, and once the flashes stopped, I ran back up to the room to grab my PSP (had the color scheme reference for my costume on it) and my cosplay folder of DOOM, then headed downstairs for the judging.
This time, I wasn’t the first one there, and I recognized a few other people from the night before, too. The judges recognized me when I walked in, too, even remembered my name, so when roll was called he just looked at me and nodded before I even had to say anything. I had the first time slot this time, so I stayed around when everyone left the room and got myself situated for the pre-questioning photo.
I handed over my reference materials and showed the color scheme on my PSP. Once again, they liked my progress shots and pattern (And agreed that the pattern I used for the coat was a very versatile one), looked at my sketches and oohed and aahed over my math I did. They seemed to like this costume, too, and were impressed with the dye job on the coat, more so when they found out it was my first time dying fabric. Once again, they were raving about my straight seams (I still have such a hard time making straight seams, so it makes me feel good that my efforts are coming through), and mentioned something about how it was awesome that I did certain types of folds to give it a better flow (…I just did it to hide raw edges…but I didn’t say anything). The positive commentary continued on my fabric choices for the hakama (I guess I have a good eye for fabric), and they liked how neat and clean my stencil job on the designs on the coat was. One of them commented about my shoes and was interested in how I had built them on top of a pair of flip flops. The comment that really made my day was something to the extent of one of them saying “I usually ask what you would do differently if you could remake the costume, but I honestly don’t see anything that I would change on this”. They also inspected the sword I altered…shame the piece on the strap had broken, but I was able to give it a positive spin “It’s so sturdy, even though it was sat on and kicked around in the car, only one tiny little point snapped off”. I left there with positive words and a good feeling, then dashed to see if the cosplay.com photoshoot was going on. It was, and I caught the last 5 minutes of it.
Once done there, I went upstairs to the room to change back into my gown for the next CLAMP photoshoot. My little secret was that I kept on my “waraji” under the gown, because they can be a pain to get on right and no one can see my feet there, then headed back downstairs, killed some time, and we all gathered at 3ish. Much like a previous one, people were stopping us for pictures before we were all there, and as the shoot itself was going on, other people who had no idea about it, but were in CLAMP designed outfits wandered by, and we dragged them into it. That took maybe half an hour, and once that was over, I went back upstairs to change back into the Bleach outfit. I’d have kept it on, but the halls in the Omni are pretty narrow, and it was very crowded. Plus, there was another Bleach shoot that day. Of course, by this time, my white eyeshadow had disappeared – we think it accidentally got thrown away, so I couldn’t lighten my eyebrows like I had been doing (it was subtle, but it looked really good with my wig).
I headed back downstairs to the Dealer’s room. I wasn’t going to buy anything, but I wanted to figure out just what I wanted and what I could bypass the next day. The only thing I decided I must have was a new cell phone strap, since part of my old one broke off from normal phone use. I killed time in there, then headed up to the second Bleach shoot. There were many more of us this time, and this shoot went on for a good hour. Group photos, division photos, character photos, it was a blast. We would have stayed longer, but a big Final Fantasy group kicked us out of the photo area. I took a few photos of them, and then joined a few other Bleach cosplayers who stayed behind, and we did some more fun photos. Once that was over I wandered around a bit more, trying to decide if I really wanted to go to the masquerade or if I wanted to do other stuff and just go to the masquerade during the half time where they announced the hall winners. I ended up getting in line for the masquerade.
As we were waiting for it, a staffer informed us that it wasn’t an official line, but we were welcome to “stand by the wall” if we wanted and we’d be filtered into the real line first. So, I stayed, and sure enough, about 20 minutes later, we were put into the real line, where we waited for about another hour for seating to start. I had a small snack during that time, the first thing I had since a tiny breakfast, and watched a couple episodes of stuff on my PSP. Once the line began moving, it moved fast, and I found myself with a pretty darn close isle seat (because I was alone, I got to move up a few rows to a seat that wasn’t filled due to two groups wanting to stay together), and watched some more anime on my PSP until they started doing stuff to entertain the crowd and it became too loud to even hear my headphones.
I honestly don’t remember that much of the masquerade, because I was too nervous and anxious about if I had won anything in the hall contest, but I took quite a few pictures of each of the skits. I do remember it being quite entertaining with almost no bad acts in it, so I ended up being glad I had gone, because I enjoyed it. The half time show was fun, too, even if most of us just watched it, since only 4 people participated (randomly selected). They basically aired Japanese commercials halfway through, the people would try to guess the product, and then the rest of the commercial would show. They have some odd ones, let me tell you.
Once that was done, they finally got to the hall contest winners. They announced a few honorable mentions, then I remember them doing a pretty long spiel about someone’s pretty dress, and then I heard my name. So, another honorable mention for me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not upset, just a bit disappointed, but happy that I won at all. It was also quite odd – the winners pictures were projected onto screens that were between 10 and 15 feet tall. I looked up and was like “Woah, that’s me up there”, and could hear people making good sounding comments about the dress. When I saw the winner in the novice division, I realized I had no chance whatsoever of winning. The winning dress was GORGEOUS, and totally deserved it.
I left right after that to go change into my pajama costume for the pajama photoshoot. I got there early, since no one really knew what time it started. I was met up by another person, and we spread out my blanket to sit on. Now, we were there for the Bleach pajama party, not the all series one, but we were soon joined by people from other series who just wouldn’t let us get away. I wandered the lobby for a bit, looking for people, and eventually everyone appeared. We did a few photos for the all series one, then they tried to get us into a game, when we just wanted to leave. A short while later, while the all series people were still involved in the game, and the few Bleach people who were playing it were out, we quietly got up and snuck away to find a quiet place in the hotel to be silly in. I led everyone to a lower area that I had found last year, and it served our purpose quite well.
Sunday:
Once we left, I hung out in the lobby until 10:30 with some friends until the Dealer’s room opened and I was sure the line was gone. My badge would have allowed me to skip the line and go right in, but I didn’t feel like it. So, 10:30 rolls around, and we head to do some shopping. We browse for a bit, and I find my cell phone strap, and then decide I feel like buying some figures. However, on the way to the stand I found the figures at, we stop at a stand that was selling video games, trinkets, and costumes. I comment on a few of the costumes, about how cheaply they’re constructed (and way overpriced…70 bucks for a coat I could make for 10, 8 if I got the stuff on sale), then decide to go look through the trinkets. As I’m doing this, I spy the Bleach DS game, which I had heard was very good. I can’t resist, and buy it, then tell my friend to not let my buy anything else and just lead my out of the Dealer’s room, and pull me along if I try to look at anything. We leave, and then split up.
I had nothing I wanted to do – the video I wanted to watch was over (it was one I had already seen anyway), so I did more puttering around, and while sitting down (Actually, I was just standing up to walk around more) watching the crowds, was found by one of the staff members I patrolled with last year. We talked for awhile about the con, how the staff situation was, how smoothly everything was running, then we switched and started talking about costumes for awhile. Eventually, two of the people from the pajama party the night before found me, and the staff member walked away. So, we ended up talking for awhile, then I headed off to go to closing ceremonies.
They started late, so I was unable to see them, but beforehand, one of the anime companies had donated two pallets of ramen to the con, so they were tossing it out to the (small at that time) crowd, and up front were building towers with it. By this point, I had to leave to change back into my normal clothing so I could meet up with my group at 3. I was a bit early, but one of the other people was there and the two people I had been talking to earlier were there, so that time passed quickly when our driver and the last person found out. After saying our goodbyes and doing some bathroom runs, we head out to the car. As we’re packing it, one of our friends had to run back inside to grab his sword, but that didn’t impact our time at all. So, we get everything packed (we were still sardines). Stuff was gone, but we had bought stuff that replaced the room of some of the food and the cases of water and soda. We find our way out of the garage, pay, and head for a gas station, then hit the road. Two of us play the new DS game I bought since it had a multiplayer with one cartridge option (That was interesting trying to figure that one out, because you know, Japanese language box and menu), but we figure it out (it’s a fighting game, so it’s not that important), and play that until we stop for dinner about half an hour away.
I and one other had a meal that was more than we had eaten all weekend. In my case, two slices of pizza and a handful of fries from another friend’s tray. The rest got burgers and/or chicken. We talk for awhile, and notice that there are a lot of other con goers there too, which we found logical, it was right off the main road for everyone who was heading north. Eventually, we head back to the car and set off. We play some more video games, and I close my eyes. Upon opening them, I discovered it was almost an hour later. Whoops. So, we drop off our one friend and figure out the route home, then hop back into the car, and play “the vagina game”. We were bored, tired, and in need of immature humor. The game, if you were wondering, is just where you take movie titles and replace one word. Was it immature? Yes. Did it have us laughing hard? Heck yes.
We get to our other friend’s house, drop him off, and are halfway to my house on bad roads when he calls and tells u she left his suitcase in the car….(How do you forget a suitcase?), so we backtrack, get slightly turned around, and get him his suitcase back, all while cursing him out, then head back to my house (and promise each other that we will never drive each other to their house after a con – we live 45 minutes from each other). Of course, my driveway is in horrible condition and filled with snow, so we couldn’t really get into it, making it hard to lug all my junk up to the house, but we manage, she figures out how to get back on the roads to her house, and I realize I forgot my skirt in her car…durrrr. She’s still in my driveway, so I grab it quickly, and we part ways.
Convention status: Complete and a success. We had a ton of fun at it. Though, I did wake up with a nasty cold today and am feeling just generally icky, I was expecting that. A convention, in winter, where ~5-6 thousand people are crammed in a hotel. It’s a breeding ground for germs and stuff.
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