Otakon 2013
Sep. 10th, 2013 02:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rose_of_painOh Otakon. I keep trying to quit you but I always come back. XD Though to be honest, I actually really enjoyed Otakon this year. Though I think I keep bringing less and less costume-wise every year. Otakon for me really is now more about seeing everyone and going to maybe one or two big events. There just aren't really any good places to take photos and con wandering isn't as fun as it used to be. But I think I'm just repeating a lot of what I said last year so yeah. Onto the report! I actually started writing this BEFORE Dragon Con but wasn't able to finish it in time. XD So thus the delay...
Thursday:
I managed to actually get to the con with the sun still out! XD Even with me misplacing an important piece to one of my costumes and spending a good chunk of time tearing the house apart (with my parents even helping me search) only to discover it was exactly where I thought I left it, just hidden under something else. Pffft. But despite that, I still got in pretty early. We had some time to kill since Dar was working at the Matsuri (which I still have yet to actually go to XD) and we wanted to wait til she got back before we went out for our usual Thursday group dinner. So in the meantime we channel flipped and ended up stumbling across this absolutely HORRIBLE bad movie called Satan's Little Helper. I mean it was baaaaaad. Bad acting, bad plotline, and even the deaths were pretty disappointing. But it was one of those movies where the worst it got, the more you wanted to keep watching. XD Laura especially got pretty into it. It was about some serial killer on Halloween who is dressed up like Satan and this little boy in a devil's costume, who has this odd obsession with Hell and Satan, thinks this guy is the real Satan and follows him around. Now this still had potential except for the fact that the serial killer never really managed to actually kill anyone other than a cat from the parts we saw. He didn't even stab people! Just...awkwardly beat them up. In day light. With a kid. And try to get it on with the kid's older sister...with his mask still on. Our enjoyment was cut short though because it suddenly began to pour and though it wasn't raining THAT hard, the hotel's cable completely cut out. There was a very loud yell of dismay among our group. Laura raged pretty hard and kept playing with the remote, hoping it would come back. After all, we just HAD to know what happened next! Hersh pulled up wikipedia on his phone and we discovered that someone, for whatever reason, had written up the entire movie plot in detail on there so he read to us the rest of the movie and it...sounded even worse than what we saw already. Laura did inform us all after the con that the movie is in fact on Netflix but I don't think I want to see the rest that badly...lol
After Laura finally stopped ranting about wanting to throw the TV out the window, a somewhat wet Dar (she had an umbrella, the smart thing that she is!) returned and when it stopped raining, we made our way out to the Inner Harbor with the intention of trying out Bubba Gump's Shrimp Factory. Now I was pretty damn excited about this as I've been a huge shrimp lover since I was wee little and I always wanted to eat at one of these restaurants. My parents went to one in Savannah while I was at college and I never quite forgave them for going without me. XD I mean, I REALLY love shrimp. I'm kinda known for it in my family. Anyways! It was really weird though as this whole section of Inner Harbor was now completely different from what we've known it to be since I started going to Otakon. Last year it was all under construction and that was weird enough but now it doesn't even look like the same place! The food court is almost entirely gone except for a tiny mini food court and all the stores are different. This is mainly because they opened up a Ripely's Believe It or Not, which we did pass by. To be honest it doesn't look like its something worth spending actual money on to me. At least not the price they're asking for, I'm sure. I never really understood the attraction to things like that. Especially when everything is so very fake looking. But the Shrimp Factory was a very happy new addition! We had an hour wait so we wandered around a bit, mainly at the new fancy spice store. Dinner itself was AMAZING and worth the wait! We all agreed that this may be our new eating spot for Otakon dinner. The restaurant itself was really fun and our waiter was entertaining. The atmosphere was great and the food...oh god the food. It was really hard choosing just one dish but the food I did have was HEAVENLY. As a diehard shrimp lover, I was very impressed. Also the garlic bread there is amazing. Gaaah I'm making my mouth water right now just thinking about it. *_* And the special drink glasses are really cool. I debated getting one but I remembered I need to safe my money for Dragon. But maybe next time. >>;; After all, the glasses light up and all.
Went to go get our badges and were surprised that there was even a line still but it was going pretty fast, as usual by this time. It was a bit odd going in by the side entrance instead of the main doors in front of registration. I read that they did this so that the people that lined up early for pre-reg could wait inside the building so they didn't fall over from heat. Wonder if that means there were issues with that from last year with that 'cause this year wasn't nearly as hot as last year's. Though with the new Otakon system I really don't get why people line up that early anyways. There's nothing special with getting your badge before everyone else as nothing happens Thursday night. But I was pretty excited to see a Saint Seiya badge this year. Shocked but happy nonetheless. Sadly it was for Omega but hey its something and I certainly wasn't going to say no to it. Also nice to have something that isn't Madoka since that was the only badge I knew the last two years. Then spent the rest of the night delivering things to people (I was giving away a lot of my old crap that hasn't been selling to any friends interested. Next year I may just dump whatever's left at the swap meet and run away very fast XD) and then worked some on Alone for Corey. This is the one commission I had for Otakon and of course it wasn't done yet. Because I can't go to cons without something being unfinished now. Pffft. I finished just one sleeve and told Corey I'd finish it Friday 'cause I wanted sleep and we weren't wearing the costumes til Sat anyways. Then we all went to bed pretty early. And we continued to go to bed like between 12 and 1 every night. lol We're old.
Friday:
Got up and worked on Alone for a little bit more. Then got into Felix and headed over to the con with Lex and Laura. Dar and Will were with us originally but they headed off to a panel. Laura needed to meet up with people for a photoshoot but they were running super late so we decided to wait with her at the upstairs food area. After a while I did get kinda hungry and was surprised to see they had some semi better food this year. Like sandwiches and salads. Not just the old hot dog and pizza crap they used to serve. Even had some Chinese friend rice dish you could get in a take-out box. But didn't really want that. But we chatted and collected Miis on the 3DS and people watched for a bit. Laura's shoot ended up taking place over an hour after it was supposed to in the end but really it wasn't like Lex and I had anything better to do at the time.
We saw this ADORABLE Princess Mononoke family while we were up there. You can see the food stand behind them. See, it even looks fancier than it used to.
I was hoping to get more photos of Felix this year but sadly that didn't happen. Laura even tried to call Dar over to see if she'd take some but I was running out of time for me to change for my Sailor Moon shoot. I had planned to wear Felix throughout the con whenever I didn't feel like wearing the other costumes 'cause its so comfy but somehow I never ended up wearing it again. Oh well, there's still Dragon and Dar is planning to finally get Venelope's dress done for Katsu and so we may do a group then. Katie wasn't able to go to Ota and I still really want photos with her in Calhoun.
But here's one Laura got for me and at least its not blurry like the AN photos were. XD
Changed into Prince Diamond and met up with Ling in her Sapphire and got our forehead moon gems from her and applied them on in one of the con center bathrooms then met up with Lionel for our shoot. I was pretty happy with the costume overall and even proud of myself for doing a decent job with the make-up. I think I'm getting the hang of it finally? I just wish I knew better ways to make my chin look less fat. :/ My face always looks so chubby in photos even though I know I'm not fat. But anyways here are some of my favorite shots...
I loooove the colors in this one. My cape looks so vibrant and you can really see the jewelry that spent a ridiculous amount of time putting together.
I need to work on my expressions a lot though. I look too dorky and not really cool/suave enough for the character. Clearly I needed to be channeling my inner Ludwig but even with that one, I often end up looking ridiculous. Pffft. I feel like I'm giving one look, only to see later that I totally failed. XD I just never end up having any time to practice in the mirror before con. But I REALLY need to and start remembering poses, etc. Because I keep looking massively lame expression-wise.
Solo shot of me by Lionel in which I don't look fat in the face so yay XD
After that we decided to go to the Sailor Moon gathering, which ended up being A LOT of fun. Everyone was so incredibly friendly and nice to each other and it was nice having everyone know who I was for a change (since I often do obscure characters or when I do do known chars its one that EVERYONE does and so no one cares about) and having so many people want our photo. Got a GREAT response to the costumes! So many people were excited to see us do those characters and it made me incredibly happy as I was really excited to finally cosplay from Sailor Moon and do this character that I've always loved a lot.
I rather like this shot doveshandgrenade on tumblr got of us, mainly because its the first photo of us I found and the fact that it really shows the color of my embroidery off well. Its actually not a gradient but I love the fact that it looks like it here due to the thread itself. Sulky thread can sometimes look that way depending on how the light hits it and I had originally thought about trying to do a gradient so glad it came out that way. I chose that particular shade of blue for a reason. ^.^
This Fish Eye cosplayer was super adorable and we hung with her most of the gathering as some of the few villains there.
And here's the gathering, or at least the group at the beginning. More people came later on but in that group shot, Naru totally blocked me so you can't see me at all. ^^;;
During the senshi shots, one of the photographer guys who was pretty excited to see Ling and I do the characters we did earlier, came over and asked if we could pose with the Wiseman cosplayer for him. And we were pretty much like "....there's a Wiseman??!! DUDE!" But there were a lot of people in the way so I...kinda was like ah fuck it, and ran right through the current shot with Ling following. XD No one seemed to care though. Hard to be mad at Diamond I guess. Especially with my silly little high heeled scuffle I was doing. Sadly haven't found any of the photos with Wiseman yet (we also had a Wicked Lady at that point) but I'm sure they'll surface eventually. I recognized the face of the photographer but I have no idea which one he is since I still haven't managed to match faces with all the online names since a lot of them don't tend to post any photos of what THEY look like. XD;
After that, went to the Dealer's Room and Ling went off to go back to work there. Saw Lauren in line for food and said hi to her real quick, she mentioned that she was super excited for TMRevolution and had just gotten the Otakon limited edition CD which reminded me to go get it. So went over there and got in line for it. Supposedly they sold out of it before the end of the day so glad I got it when I did. Though it was mostly songs I already own and it was just a paper slip cover instead of an actual case but hey it was cheap and I thought it was cool they had an Otakon-only CD for him and all. Then continued on and only focused on looking for booths with figures as I was on a mission to find the Takuto figure that has alluded me for over a year and the new Play Arts chibi Kai figures. Turns out the new Cloud one wasn't even out yet but I never did see Sephiroth either and I know he was definitely available by then. Ah well. Ran into Laura and Dar and Laura was also on a figure mission so we continued to help each other seek out all the figure booths. I actually DID manage to find my Takuto figure! I didn't believe it when I saw it 'cause i was beginning to fear that no one sold them anymore. Its a lot smaller than I thought it'd be but eeeee it made me happy. I pulled the one off the table and was like "THIS I WANT THIS!!" and the guy couldn't find any behind the counter and I was like "Giveitomeeeeee~" There would have been blood if he didn't sell me the display one at that point. XD I told him how long I've been trying to find the damn thing so that amused him at least. I still haven't gotten a chance to take it out of the box though. T_T But I do want to play with it! I love the different expressions you can put on him. XDXD The only other thing I bought was a decal of Cloud for my car. XD I'd been wanting something FFVII but hadn't really seen the right one at any of the decal booths the last few cons. One had some AC artwork of Cloud and it was cute but I wanted regular Cloud. Luckily another booth delivered! They had the outline of the original Cloud artwork which is perfect for me. ^.^ Haven't gotten around to putting it on yet but I think I will finally feel like this car is officially mine once I do (and stop thinking of it as "Mom's old car" lol).
My feet were killing me at this point. I once again made the mistake of going past my limit in my white boots. So made it back to the room and relaxed a little before I got into Leo for the Pandora Hearts shoot. Ended up running super late 'cause I also needed help with the wig, which Dar helped me with since Corey was also running late and not able to help me like we had originally agreed to. Hurried to get there, hoping there would be at least someone still there as I was arriving pretty much 30 minutes after the gathering was scheduled for and usually the PH meets only take about that much time. Got up there and didn't see anyone but did see Corey and company come up shortly after me. We were beginning to think we missed the entire thing (which would have sucked since I managed to fix Leo up just for this) when we spotted some PH people sitting inside and they saw us and we mingled. They hadn't even started yet from the looks of it. Unless they did do some already but it seemed to me like they hadn't really. I guess they were waiting for us? ^^;; Felt a little bad, especially as some of them had to go soon. I hope some of them at least did some photos with each other before we got there. We moved back outside to our usual location and immediately a number of people started complaining about the heat and "why do we have to do it out here? Can't we do it inside?" And I ONCE again had to explain to them (like I did on the thread) that there is NO good place to do photos inside the con center other than the downstairs fountains which are crowded and a small group like ours would have no chance getting a spot and it'd be hard to hear each other. Every other spot was too far away or has lighting issues. So really this was the best spot and frankly, its always hot at Otakon and here Corey and I are, with more layers than anyone else so really I had no sympathy. >>;; Lost a few of them due to this, who just refused to go outside but eh, whatever. They had less clothing on than me and I was totally fine. XD;
The same photographer that did our Katsu shoot was there so that was cool and made it easier to organize since the person who started the gathering thread was nowhere to be seen (I think she was one of the people that left when we went outside x_x;;). I kept making the point that the sooner we did the shoot, the sooner we could all get back inside, etc. lol I think I've been doing the PH gatherings for too long at this point. XD But yeah, its handy having a photographer that is a fan of the series as she knew what chars and groups to call out. The gathering was smaller than Katsu's but not a bad size. Though I was dismayed to not see a number of characters that had posted on the thread. Granted they may have come by earlier. I was hoping for more Baskervilles as I went out of my way to do current Leo in the manga, aka "Gleo" as he's the current Glen at the moment. New wig and and modified one of my old cloaks for it. At least most of the people at the gathering were up to date with the manga so they all got the reference. And we did have a Levi and I let Corey borrow Oswald/Glen so we had all 3 Glens at least. Christina was there with her friend doing Mad Hatter but they had to leave soon so we didn't get like any photos with them. Not even sure if they made it into the group photo or not. I think they did? The photographer hasn't posted her photos up yet though so I only have these two...
Me as "Gleo" XD Though still not happy with the wig. It was such a rush job. I tried to do it myself the night before the con and totally failed. Dar did a great job getting it spiked up but we didn't have time to actually cut it correctly and such. Meh, maybe I should have just saved my money and stuck to the old wig after all as I'm not sure if I'll be doing Leo anymore or not. Kinda want to move on to a different costume next time I do PH.
Past Glen taking over Current Glen. This was one of my favorite scenes in the manga and so I REALLY wanted to get this photo. Was the whole reason I let Corey borrow Oswald (I'll never get used to calling him that XD He'll always be the one and only Glen to me!). Anxious to see the photographer's version of this as her camera is better than mine.
Corey had to head off so there wasn't anyone really left so figured it was time to disperse. Headed back to the room since there was no real reason to wear this costume anymore as it doesn't work on its own and I was a bit "meh" that the gathering didn't go as well as I had hoped (I swear every time I DON'T go to a PH gathering, it ends up having a huge turnout. I'll forever regret missing last year's). Changed into regular clothing and went to the Artist Alley with Laura. We hung out at DizzyLizzy's table for a little bit and then went to Sarah's table and said hi to Katie. Didn't get to spend much actual time there looking though but not like I had any cash to spend anyways. We attempted to roam the con a bit but didn't see a single person we knew and since neither of us were in costume, it felt a bit dull. Wandering isn't as much fun if you don't run into people or have people stopping you for photos, etc. Everyone I know seems to do the same thing at Otakon now. Mainly only go to to the con center for a shoot or gathering and then spend most of the con in the hotel room or eating elsewhere. And maybe going to an event here or there which of course means you'll be in line somewhere where you can't really see other people. I really do miss the old days where roaming Otakon was one of the highlights 'cause I'd run into someone I knew pretty much every 5 feet. So we went back to the room like the lame losers we are, lol. Spent the rest of the night in the room chatting and working on Alone. Managed to get it done before everyone else passed out at least. And one again we went to bed pretty early. XD
Saturday:
Ironed Alone and passed it off to one of Corey's friends to deliver it to her. Didn't really have anything else to do and no reason to get into costume quite yet since I didn't really want to wander by myself so sat for a bit and very slowly got into costume since I wanted to wait for everyone else so we could go wander together for a bit before my Lost Canvas shoot. Took them longer than I expected though. So was sitting in costume and watching really scary Saturday morning kid shows with Laura and Lex while we waited for Dar to finish getting ready. I mean seriously. What the hell are they feeding kids' minds these days? Yet it was the only thing on. Eventually we did get to the con and Lex got a lot of attention and certainly deserved it because she was cosplaying...
Bob Ross, yo! XD We got stopped sooo many times 'cause everyone wanted photos with Bob Ross. It was hilarious. Definitely my favorite costume of the weekend. lol
Headed over to the indoor fountain area and we attempted to fix Laura's elf ears again (we had issues getting them to stay on in the hotel room, my fingers had a bit of spirit gum residue as a result and this led to my fingers turning gray from the spray paint on my sword XD). I figured I'd just stay right there since that's where I was meeting for my shoot anyways. Saw Lionel pretty fast but it was early and then I got a call from Corey saying they were having some difficulty...because it turned out that being as tired as I was the night before, I had somehow managed to twist the lining of the one of the sleeves when I sewed it on, so Corey couldn't get her hand through. X____X;;; Took a bit for it to sink in what exactly Corey was telling me 'cause I couldn't believe I made such a stupid error. Corey said she'd just rip the seam out and pin it but they were running late as a result. I told Lionel and he was cool with it since it wasn't even time for the shoot yet. I had assumed Javits would be coming here soon and it'd be fine and Corey would just be a little late. Weeeeell Corey shows up and I'm like "...where's Javits?" and Corey doesn't know. Calls Javits and finds out that she was JUST getting changed NOW. I'm like "...what?" 'cause now we were in fact running late for our shoot and Lionel was already here. And let me say that I have never been late to any private shoot I've ever schedule with anyone (usually I'm waiting for the photographer XD) so I was kinda already embarrassed at this point. Corey suggests we go over to the Hilton and meet her there. Lionel and I were both not so sure about this plan as that was all the way on the other side of the con. Corey reassured us though that Javits would be in costume by the time we got there and that would save time and we'd just do the shoot over there. I felt really bad making Lionel walk all the way over there with us though. But at least he got a chance to get some con coverage photos outside that he wanted to get on our way. I pointed out the manhole covers to him that he totally hadn't noticed before.
Got to the Hilton...and no sign of Javits. We sit and wait. And wait. And wait. And its awkward and I feel like a total douche for making Lionel wait with us. Javits is taking forever to get changed and I'm getting a little pissed because its not the world's hardest costume to get into and I really wanted to suggest we just do the shoot without her. Corey keeps telling us to wait just a little more. Well its getting to the point where Lionel really needs to head back for his next shoot so I FINALLY get Corey to agree to just do a mini shoot with him real fast. I was super sad though as to be honest I really wanted the shoot more to have photos with a Tenma and I thought it was a bit odd to have just Alone and Hades since they're kinda the same character and all. But we still got some really pretty artistic photos!
And here's a solo shot of me in Hades. That sword took me forever @_@;; And the handle doesn't want to stay on so I gotta figure out something before I use it with the armor next time.
Javits did finally come down after a little bit more of waiting though she still had to assemble her armor box but man, it was pretty damn impressive and I love when SS cosplayers make the box! So we went over to one of the Hilton walls and had Jon take photos for us using my camera and Javits'. Javits has the nicer camera but sadly no idea when I'll ever see those photos (still waiting on our Ningyou and PH photos from her from 2 years ago ^^;;).
Tenma with his Pegasus box
Tenma and Alone...and that stupid puppy XD
Hades taking over Alone. Kinda the reverse of the day before. lol
Lost Canvas group
And then I decided we needed my painting in the shot. XD And as soon as I brought it over, Javits immediately dropped "dead" over the box.
...see to explain that since the rest of the shots involving the painting are on Javits' camera...in Lost Canvas, Alone has an unfinished painting of Tenma. He hasn't finished it because he just can't seem to find the right color paint for Tenma's red eyes. As Alone starts gradually turning into Hades, he discovers that anything he paints will then die. And after he kills the village, he tells Tenma he finally found the right shade of red and uses the blood off the floor to finish painting Tenma who then dies (but don't worry, the good guys go to the Underworld to get him back XD Oh Saint Seiya). So anyways we were joking that I should do the painting since I'm the evil version but I can only do stick figures...so that's my interpretation of the painting. lol We have lots more photos of Tenma dying on Javits' camera including a whole reel of it as she had Jon put the shutterspeed on and she actually fell over dramatically. XDXD It was pretty spectacular.
After that, rushed back to the room and changed into regular clothes so I could go get in line for the TMRevolution/Home Made Kazoku concert. Sadly no one I knew was interested in going or was way already in line so stood in line by my lonesome self. Though there were some pretty cool dudes behind me. Two of them were cosplaying Kou and Daisuke from Persona 4 and they were really good. But I didn't bring my camera with me. Dar had told me how they check bags at the Arena now (last time I was there I was in the Masq so had no idea about that, and only time I was there before was back with L'Arc and I don't remember having to do that) so I decided to not bring anything at all with me other than my phone, badge, and keycard. But man did I wish I had my 3DS with me. But silly me totally forgot that I could take photos with my phone and all. Oh well! lol The line was huge and wrapped around itself and even though we were moving pretty much the whole time, it still felt like forever. The girl in front of me had a backpack and didn't believe me when I told her that they would be checking bags. She had food in there too so once we got inside, I never saw her again as pretty sure she got stuck there for a bit. Should have listened to me. XD I got right in and was surprised actually how despite how long the line was and how far back I was, there were still a lot of pretty close seats left. When I saw L'Arc~en~Ciel all those years ago, I got in line way earlier than I did for this and still got stuck in like the nosebleed section. But for this, I went down to the first row of the bleachers and had a pretty good seat. There were seats still on the floor open but I knew that if I went down there, I wouldn't be able to see at all and I liked the idea of actually being able to sit and still see things. XD I mean I was still pretty far from the stage but close enough that I could actually see people on the stage. For L'Arc I really couldn't make out anything at all. lol
Anywho, Home Made Kazoku went first and actually enjoyed them more than I thought. I only know like maybe 1 or 2 songs by them and only from back when I used to watch Bleach and Naruto and whatnot. lol But they were fun! And I was surprised by how short the one guy is. He was itty bitty! But yeah they had a lot of energy and interacted with the audience, etc. All in all a very good show. Everyone in my section remained seated for it but still shouted out when prompted and waved our hands around, etc. But like me, could tell they were all saving their energy for TMR. There was an intermission in between and during it, I couldn't help but notice a really amazing Phoenix Wright group (all male even) who kept trying to get folks to do the wave and such down below. They were really amusing and I couldn't help but be a little jealous of their energy and dynamics. I've never been good at being funny but really admire those who are. There was also a camera guy that was part of TMR's staff that was going around recording the audience with a sign that said "Message for TMRevolution" so everyone made sure to scream extra loud for that. I was right in front of the camera when it passed my section so that was cool. And then when they got to the Phoenix Wright group, the guys got up and were like "ok, come with us!" and got the audience down in their section to do a huge wave just for the camera guy and had him run with them. XD It was cute!
Then it was time for TMR's part of the concert. Its amazing how even 10 years after I first saw him, he still doesn't look any different. lol Damn those Asians and their genes! His costume wasn't as interesting as the kimono he wore back then but it was still cute. I knew the majority of the songs he did though a lot of them I was pretty rusty on in terms of lyrics. He kept trying to get the audience to sing on their own for parts of the songs but it was pretty evident everyone was having the same issue as me. XD Since some of these songs are pretty old now so those of us who do know them don't remember the Japanese well enough and the younger con goers probably don't know them well enough (or never even heard them at all...which makes me sad). But the audience still got pretty excited over Heart of Sword. Not anywhere near as energetic as they were in 2003 though, back when Kenshin was still pretty big. Made me a little sad about how much has changed in 10 years. There was more of a reaction for Invoke at least. I've never even seen Gundam SEED but I have always loved that song. I was more excited for the songs off of Seventh Heaven he did (though I totally forget which ones he did now XD I think he did Wheel of Fortune at least?). Then for the final song, he brought Home Made Kazoku back out and they did a joint performance which was VERY awesome. I didn't think they would blend well since they have two very different types of music but it worked! After the concert, was very glad I was in the Days Inn as it made it easy to just escape out of the mass exodus and walk up the stairs to my room. XD Instead of having to fight the crowd heading down the streets and whatnot.
Went to go meet up with Courtney, who was only at the con for the day. Figured we'd go get food as I realized I hadn't eaten a damn thing all day...oops. ^^; But then I also finally got a response from Francisco who was taking a lot of my free junk I brought with me and I REALLY didn't want to take that back home with me so was trying to figure out how I could meet up with him but also still eat. So I'm trying to figure this out while waiting at the meeting spot for Courtney...who was nowhere to be seen. She shows up and apologizes as she got hung up talking to someone, well then tell her that I have to eat quickly so I can get this stuff to him before a panel thingy he's going to and that's fine as she has something she wants to see soon anyways and then I'm like wait...are you guys going to the same thing? And then realize the friend she got hold up talking to WAS Francisco and she just totally forgot I knew him and I'm like "dude, you're the one that introduced us! Remember the X-Japan concert trip?" Pfft so after realizing its a small world after all, figured I'd just go to the panel with her and meet up with him then so it all worked out. XD After that I went back into the Artist Alley in an attempt to actually look a bit more this time around, though some of the artists were gone at this point. I stopped by The Dreamer's booth to get Alyce the bag she wanted and glad I did then as there was only one left. Then went to Sarah's booth and talked to Katie for a bit while waiting for Sarah to come over right before closing. I felt like I was going to pass out while waiting but she showed up just before I was going to give up. XD So finally got to see her for a bit! Then made it back to the room where talk about Zenkaikon plans for next year was going on and I got recruited into a cosplay group for that and I really hope I don't make a fool out of myself with the possible skit thingy planned considering how badly coordinated I am. But otherwise excited for it! But yes, spent the rest of the night goofing off about that and then made the trek over to Corey's room with Jon and Kassie so I could get Glen back.
Sunday:
Packed everything up and stored it in Dar's car as per the norm. Got a text from Rose saying she might have extra Yoko Kanno tickets so said I'd totally take one! See, for the Yoko Kanno concert, since they were doing it in the con center and not at the Arena, they had limited seating available so you had to stand in line at certain hours during the con to try to get one and sadly all the times were when I was doing other things so I couldn't even attempt to get one. So I gave up and figured I'd just go to the simulcast. So I was pretty excited that I might actually get into the concert itself. Rose said she'd text me when they were getting into line and I'd pick it up then. In the mean time I went to meet up with Alyce and Beth who had come by for just the day. Like usual Alyce had her Sunday Sailor Moon shoot, which is outside the con so she doesn't have to get a badge for it. So we sat outside and chatted for a while, with me trying not to burn into a crisp. XD Then got a text from Rose saying they were in line...which proved harder to find than I thought. I found the simulcast line which was outside at this point and they told me the concert line was down at the other side and that I better hurry as the line was moving or something. So I quickly went over there...only to discover they weren't letting ANYONE enter that door. I could clearly see the line there inside but couldn't get to it from there. x_x;; Sooooo went all the way back to where I came from and had to work my way back all the way around AGAIN from the inside. Only to see that the line wasn't going to move at all for quite some time. .... I trusted you person and you led me astray! Last time I ever trust a random con goers in a huge line. lol They were probably just mad I had a ticket. XD So I was kinda out of breathe by the time I actually found Rose and company. lol And then find out they still had 2 extra tickets and tried to ask Hersh and Val but they decided they wanted to stay in the simulcast line...we have no idea why. XD;; But Lex decided to take one of the extra ones and came and joined us so yay! Too bad that last one went to waste. Oh well. While in line, collected a lot of Miis and randomly encountered Brennan from the old St. Mary's crew so talked to him for a while. Offered him our last ticket but he said he had to leave soon so was just going to follow the line and talk until the last second. So he left once we got to the ticket checking.
So let me just start by saying this concert was absolutely breathtaking and made the cost of Otakon worth it. The concert was opened by Chiaki Ishikawa, who's name sounded familiar and realized its 'cause I knew of her from the Gundam 00 songs she's done. Even though I didn't like Gundam 00 much, I really liked some of the music and the ending theme she did in particular. And as soon as this girl opened her mouth, I was blown away by her talent! I definitely left the concert wanting to look more into her music as every song she did was beautiful. I already found a few of the songs she did, including "Uninstall" from some anime I've never heard of but the song is gorgeous. I think it was the one she opened with as its the one I remember the most. She only did a few songs and then there was a short intermission and then the main event started. The piano on stage is revealed and the stage hands cleverly held up a white sheet that when they dropped, revealed Yoko Kanno already sitting at the piano, a headdress that I thought was meant to be bunny ears but I've heard others say they were cat ears. XD Either way it was freaking cute! She started bouncing around as soon as the crowd went wild and her ears totally fell off in her excitement. XD
She started off right the bat with Tank, the opening theme to Cowboy Bebop, and that got everyone very excited. She was so energetic as she played too. There were a number of pieces I was unfamiliar with but thanks to my friend Greg who did a very detailed report of the concert, I now know what they are. XD She did Nomad Song from Macross, Catalina's Theme from Uncharted Waters 2, and then Innocent Green from Macross Frontiers, all of which I am unfamiliar with but sounded good! The next piece was one that I swore sounded REALLY familiar but I couldn't place what it was from (and well lol this was me most of the concert, as its been a long time since I've watched any of the animes she's done music for) and came home and looked it up to find out it was Resonance of the Earth from Arjuna! I totally forgot about that anime but I loved that show so really happy she did something from it, even if i didn't realize that's what it was at the time. XD Then she did Gravity from Wolf's Rain and you could see her softly singing the words as she played (or at least mouthing them if she wasn't actually singing since you couldn't hear her as it was obvious she didn't intend to actually be heard for this one) so we all sang along...as best as we could. lol I so didn't remember A LOT of the lyrics to that one but did as much as I could remember. I used to know the whole song, dammit! XD But that was probably the first of many times I got teary-eyed during this concert. Now this whole time I had been wondering why the piano looked a bit...odd. Kinda like there was some towel-like material wrapped around it. I just assumed that maybe it was to protect the piano or subdue the volume or something. But then she gets up and pulls more of this material over the legs of the piano and attempts to open the piano up...which she had to wave her producer on stage to help her as she wasn't strong enough to get it propped open on her own. And then. Oh man this is when the real magic of the concert began...
The lights go out and she starts playing this tune and practically everyone is humming softly along, myself included. I'm going crazy trying to figure out what its from though as obviously I knew it perfectly well since I was humming it no problem. Turns out it was Fanelia from Escaflowne. Duuuuuh! XD But anyways, as she's playing, this yellow circle of light suddenly appeared on her piano. This was a bit confusing at first...until it suddenly grew a beak and legs and then realized it was a little chick. XD Super cute! The little chick moved around the piano, falling over a few times, causing everyone to laugh and eventually it flew off as she played the final notes. And from this point on, she continued to play in darkness while an amazing light show went on the piano itself. Like ONLY on the piano. It was so cool how they did it and explained why they wanted it in a smaller venue. Next was Monochrome from Ghost in the Shell, which was super cool as an ECG appeared across the piano, reminding me of a heartbeat monitoring except it was monitoring her notes and looked like it was coming right from her fingers. There was an extra beeping noise added to this performance to give it more of that heartbeat effect. The next piece was another one I wasn't familiar with but it didn't matter as the whole stage turned into a sea of stars and it was so very beautiful! Then came Rakuen from Wolf's Rain (I KNEW this one was from Wolf's Rain too, I was so proud of myself lol) and the stage was dark except for her piano which had what looked to me at least like the outline figure of a wolf! And then it gradually dissolved and then SNOW. Freaking snow! started to fall. And it started falling in tune to her notes! The louder she got, the bigger the snowflakes that fell, and then collected down in the legs until it filled up the whole piano, and then started all over again! It was so cool! And such a perfect effect to go with a Wolf's Rain song. Next song was Power of the Light (which I also had to look up lol) and this time we had flower-like bright colors swim across the piano, the stage, and Yoko Kanno herself. Then she did a short bit of Someday My Prince Will Come which was a bit random but cute. XD I think the lights had gone back on at this point but I'm not sure. The Real Folk Blues came on and once again people sang along but I soooo did not know the lyrics well enough to that one to even try. XDXD Been a million years since I last heard it too. lol The screen behind her started showing a calming video of a bag blowing in the wind as she played Wo Qui Non Coin and to our surprise, she actually sang this one. Credits started to play on the screen during this video, bring a tear to my eye once again as it was such a perfect little finale.
She left the stage but of course came back on for an encore! And she played...The Star Spangled Banner. lol XD I was not expecting that and was a bit "uh what?" but then everyone stood up to sing and I was like "dammit Yoko Kanno, only for you will I allow you to get me be a bit patriotic for once". I mean I haven't sung that damn song since public school with all the many times forced to as being a member of the school chorus and all. XD And then she did Tank again as her last encore. Her piano had the same effect of the snowfall earlier going on but this time with hearts! And I can't remember when they started as I swore they did this during one of the songs too but Greg's report lists it only doing this during our applause. 'Cause it was pretty cool how the hearts got bigger the louder we cheered. ^.^ She took her final bows and waves and then left the stage. I don't know about the rest of the audience, but I felt the whole concert was a really emotional experience! Lex also admitted to having a hard time not crying during certain parts. We were both so glad Rose let us have those tickets as I don't think the experience would have been as amazing in the simulcast as it was seeing it all directly live.
Eventually worked my way out of the concert room and stopped by the Art Show to say hi to Max real quick (who was super busy, I had no idea he was so high up in that event, even had like a headset on XD) and had to apologize to him 'cause I was supposed to give him this Akira cel that came with my special edition of Akira waaaaaay back when they first released it on DVD but my cel had been up on my wall and chewed on by Crystal and well wasn't really of anything cool (just one of the random motorcycle guys) so I was giving it up for free since I can't really sell it. But! I totally forgot I had put it in the same bag as Fransico's stuff and didn't take it out! And it would have been too hard to find him to get it back. Luckily Max was ok with it, otherwise I would have tracked him down and gotten it. ^^;; Felt bad though. After that, went over to Closing Ceremonies, which Dar always stays til the end of so she can plan booking the Days Inn for next year as soon as the con dates are announced. Lex and I stayed to watch it with her. In the past I always came by as it was ending or waited outside so first time ever actually watching the Closing Ceremonies. I uh spent most of it on my 3DS. XD Though I do like watching the AMV winners...even though I like didn't know ANY of the animes used this year. Pffft. I'm behind the times. Then there was the big announcement about Otakon moving to the DC Convention Center in 2017. At first I was a bit dismayed at that but also knew it was coming since there have been rumors about it for years now. Figured I'd probably stop going to Otakon by then anyways as it just sounded like having it in DC would make it more problematic...but then realized how big the DC Convention Center is and the fact that actually it would be A LOT easier for me to get to...if I'm still around here by then, that is. lol Honestly who knows what will happen by that time but I am interested in at least trying to go to it when it does to see how it will be, whether or not I attend the Otakons before it or not. Because yeah, I'm not sure if I'm even attending next year and its not necessarily because I'm once again trying to quit Otakon but simply because I may be in Japan. XD Or if not at that time, I may have to cut back some cons to help afford it and all.
Anywho, I had already called my parents to give them a time frame and the Closing Ceremonies was running late so had to kinda rush back over to the Days Inn but it was timed perfectly 'cause they drove into the entrance way right as we got to the lobby. XD So got my stuff packed up and left. But yeah, definitely glad I went this year and being that it was Otakon's 20th anniversary, I think they did a pretty good job at celebrating it.
~Lyn
Thursday:
I managed to actually get to the con with the sun still out! XD Even with me misplacing an important piece to one of my costumes and spending a good chunk of time tearing the house apart (with my parents even helping me search) only to discover it was exactly where I thought I left it, just hidden under something else. Pffft. But despite that, I still got in pretty early. We had some time to kill since Dar was working at the Matsuri (which I still have yet to actually go to XD) and we wanted to wait til she got back before we went out for our usual Thursday group dinner. So in the meantime we channel flipped and ended up stumbling across this absolutely HORRIBLE bad movie called Satan's Little Helper. I mean it was baaaaaad. Bad acting, bad plotline, and even the deaths were pretty disappointing. But it was one of those movies where the worst it got, the more you wanted to keep watching. XD Laura especially got pretty into it. It was about some serial killer on Halloween who is dressed up like Satan and this little boy in a devil's costume, who has this odd obsession with Hell and Satan, thinks this guy is the real Satan and follows him around. Now this still had potential except for the fact that the serial killer never really managed to actually kill anyone other than a cat from the parts we saw. He didn't even stab people! Just...awkwardly beat them up. In day light. With a kid. And try to get it on with the kid's older sister...with his mask still on. Our enjoyment was cut short though because it suddenly began to pour and though it wasn't raining THAT hard, the hotel's cable completely cut out. There was a very loud yell of dismay among our group. Laura raged pretty hard and kept playing with the remote, hoping it would come back. After all, we just HAD to know what happened next! Hersh pulled up wikipedia on his phone and we discovered that someone, for whatever reason, had written up the entire movie plot in detail on there so he read to us the rest of the movie and it...sounded even worse than what we saw already. Laura did inform us all after the con that the movie is in fact on Netflix but I don't think I want to see the rest that badly...lol
After Laura finally stopped ranting about wanting to throw the TV out the window, a somewhat wet Dar (she had an umbrella, the smart thing that she is!) returned and when it stopped raining, we made our way out to the Inner Harbor with the intention of trying out Bubba Gump's Shrimp Factory. Now I was pretty damn excited about this as I've been a huge shrimp lover since I was wee little and I always wanted to eat at one of these restaurants. My parents went to one in Savannah while I was at college and I never quite forgave them for going without me. XD I mean, I REALLY love shrimp. I'm kinda known for it in my family. Anyways! It was really weird though as this whole section of Inner Harbor was now completely different from what we've known it to be since I started going to Otakon. Last year it was all under construction and that was weird enough but now it doesn't even look like the same place! The food court is almost entirely gone except for a tiny mini food court and all the stores are different. This is mainly because they opened up a Ripely's Believe It or Not, which we did pass by. To be honest it doesn't look like its something worth spending actual money on to me. At least not the price they're asking for, I'm sure. I never really understood the attraction to things like that. Especially when everything is so very fake looking. But the Shrimp Factory was a very happy new addition! We had an hour wait so we wandered around a bit, mainly at the new fancy spice store. Dinner itself was AMAZING and worth the wait! We all agreed that this may be our new eating spot for Otakon dinner. The restaurant itself was really fun and our waiter was entertaining. The atmosphere was great and the food...oh god the food. It was really hard choosing just one dish but the food I did have was HEAVENLY. As a diehard shrimp lover, I was very impressed. Also the garlic bread there is amazing. Gaaah I'm making my mouth water right now just thinking about it. *_* And the special drink glasses are really cool. I debated getting one but I remembered I need to safe my money for Dragon. But maybe next time. >>;; After all, the glasses light up and all.
Went to go get our badges and were surprised that there was even a line still but it was going pretty fast, as usual by this time. It was a bit odd going in by the side entrance instead of the main doors in front of registration. I read that they did this so that the people that lined up early for pre-reg could wait inside the building so they didn't fall over from heat. Wonder if that means there were issues with that from last year with that 'cause this year wasn't nearly as hot as last year's. Though with the new Otakon system I really don't get why people line up that early anyways. There's nothing special with getting your badge before everyone else as nothing happens Thursday night. But I was pretty excited to see a Saint Seiya badge this year. Shocked but happy nonetheless. Sadly it was for Omega but hey its something and I certainly wasn't going to say no to it. Also nice to have something that isn't Madoka since that was the only badge I knew the last two years. Then spent the rest of the night delivering things to people (I was giving away a lot of my old crap that hasn't been selling to any friends interested. Next year I may just dump whatever's left at the swap meet and run away very fast XD) and then worked some on Alone for Corey. This is the one commission I had for Otakon and of course it wasn't done yet. Because I can't go to cons without something being unfinished now. Pffft. I finished just one sleeve and told Corey I'd finish it Friday 'cause I wanted sleep and we weren't wearing the costumes til Sat anyways. Then we all went to bed pretty early. And we continued to go to bed like between 12 and 1 every night. lol We're old.
Friday:
Got up and worked on Alone for a little bit more. Then got into Felix and headed over to the con with Lex and Laura. Dar and Will were with us originally but they headed off to a panel. Laura needed to meet up with people for a photoshoot but they were running super late so we decided to wait with her at the upstairs food area. After a while I did get kinda hungry and was surprised to see they had some semi better food this year. Like sandwiches and salads. Not just the old hot dog and pizza crap they used to serve. Even had some Chinese friend rice dish you could get in a take-out box. But didn't really want that. But we chatted and collected Miis on the 3DS and people watched for a bit. Laura's shoot ended up taking place over an hour after it was supposed to in the end but really it wasn't like Lex and I had anything better to do at the time.
We saw this ADORABLE Princess Mononoke family while we were up there. You can see the food stand behind them. See, it even looks fancier than it used to.
I was hoping to get more photos of Felix this year but sadly that didn't happen. Laura even tried to call Dar over to see if she'd take some but I was running out of time for me to change for my Sailor Moon shoot. I had planned to wear Felix throughout the con whenever I didn't feel like wearing the other costumes 'cause its so comfy but somehow I never ended up wearing it again. Oh well, there's still Dragon and Dar is planning to finally get Venelope's dress done for Katsu and so we may do a group then. Katie wasn't able to go to Ota and I still really want photos with her in Calhoun.
But here's one Laura got for me and at least its not blurry like the AN photos were. XD
Changed into Prince Diamond and met up with Ling in her Sapphire and got our forehead moon gems from her and applied them on in one of the con center bathrooms then met up with Lionel for our shoot. I was pretty happy with the costume overall and even proud of myself for doing a decent job with the make-up. I think I'm getting the hang of it finally? I just wish I knew better ways to make my chin look less fat. :/ My face always looks so chubby in photos even though I know I'm not fat. But anyways here are some of my favorite shots...
I loooove the colors in this one. My cape looks so vibrant and you can really see the jewelry that spent a ridiculous amount of time putting together.
I need to work on my expressions a lot though. I look too dorky and not really cool/suave enough for the character. Clearly I needed to be channeling my inner Ludwig but even with that one, I often end up looking ridiculous. Pffft. I feel like I'm giving one look, only to see later that I totally failed. XD I just never end up having any time to practice in the mirror before con. But I REALLY need to and start remembering poses, etc. Because I keep looking massively lame expression-wise.
Solo shot of me by Lionel in which I don't look fat in the face so yay XD
After that we decided to go to the Sailor Moon gathering, which ended up being A LOT of fun. Everyone was so incredibly friendly and nice to each other and it was nice having everyone know who I was for a change (since I often do obscure characters or when I do do known chars its one that EVERYONE does and so no one cares about) and having so many people want our photo. Got a GREAT response to the costumes! So many people were excited to see us do those characters and it made me incredibly happy as I was really excited to finally cosplay from Sailor Moon and do this character that I've always loved a lot.
I rather like this shot doveshandgrenade on tumblr got of us, mainly because its the first photo of us I found and the fact that it really shows the color of my embroidery off well. Its actually not a gradient but I love the fact that it looks like it here due to the thread itself. Sulky thread can sometimes look that way depending on how the light hits it and I had originally thought about trying to do a gradient so glad it came out that way. I chose that particular shade of blue for a reason. ^.^
This Fish Eye cosplayer was super adorable and we hung with her most of the gathering as some of the few villains there.
And here's the gathering, or at least the group at the beginning. More people came later on but in that group shot, Naru totally blocked me so you can't see me at all. ^^;;
During the senshi shots, one of the photographer guys who was pretty excited to see Ling and I do the characters we did earlier, came over and asked if we could pose with the Wiseman cosplayer for him. And we were pretty much like "....there's a Wiseman??!! DUDE!" But there were a lot of people in the way so I...kinda was like ah fuck it, and ran right through the current shot with Ling following. XD No one seemed to care though. Hard to be mad at Diamond I guess. Especially with my silly little high heeled scuffle I was doing. Sadly haven't found any of the photos with Wiseman yet (we also had a Wicked Lady at that point) but I'm sure they'll surface eventually. I recognized the face of the photographer but I have no idea which one he is since I still haven't managed to match faces with all the online names since a lot of them don't tend to post any photos of what THEY look like. XD;
After that, went to the Dealer's Room and Ling went off to go back to work there. Saw Lauren in line for food and said hi to her real quick, she mentioned that she was super excited for TMRevolution and had just gotten the Otakon limited edition CD which reminded me to go get it. So went over there and got in line for it. Supposedly they sold out of it before the end of the day so glad I got it when I did. Though it was mostly songs I already own and it was just a paper slip cover instead of an actual case but hey it was cheap and I thought it was cool they had an Otakon-only CD for him and all. Then continued on and only focused on looking for booths with figures as I was on a mission to find the Takuto figure that has alluded me for over a year and the new Play Arts chibi Kai figures. Turns out the new Cloud one wasn't even out yet but I never did see Sephiroth either and I know he was definitely available by then. Ah well. Ran into Laura and Dar and Laura was also on a figure mission so we continued to help each other seek out all the figure booths. I actually DID manage to find my Takuto figure! I didn't believe it when I saw it 'cause i was beginning to fear that no one sold them anymore. Its a lot smaller than I thought it'd be but eeeee it made me happy. I pulled the one off the table and was like "THIS I WANT THIS!!" and the guy couldn't find any behind the counter and I was like "Giveitomeeeeee~" There would have been blood if he didn't sell me the display one at that point. XD I told him how long I've been trying to find the damn thing so that amused him at least. I still haven't gotten a chance to take it out of the box though. T_T But I do want to play with it! I love the different expressions you can put on him. XDXD The only other thing I bought was a decal of Cloud for my car. XD I'd been wanting something FFVII but hadn't really seen the right one at any of the decal booths the last few cons. One had some AC artwork of Cloud and it was cute but I wanted regular Cloud. Luckily another booth delivered! They had the outline of the original Cloud artwork which is perfect for me. ^.^ Haven't gotten around to putting it on yet but I think I will finally feel like this car is officially mine once I do (and stop thinking of it as "Mom's old car" lol).
My feet were killing me at this point. I once again made the mistake of going past my limit in my white boots. So made it back to the room and relaxed a little before I got into Leo for the Pandora Hearts shoot. Ended up running super late 'cause I also needed help with the wig, which Dar helped me with since Corey was also running late and not able to help me like we had originally agreed to. Hurried to get there, hoping there would be at least someone still there as I was arriving pretty much 30 minutes after the gathering was scheduled for and usually the PH meets only take about that much time. Got up there and didn't see anyone but did see Corey and company come up shortly after me. We were beginning to think we missed the entire thing (which would have sucked since I managed to fix Leo up just for this) when we spotted some PH people sitting inside and they saw us and we mingled. They hadn't even started yet from the looks of it. Unless they did do some already but it seemed to me like they hadn't really. I guess they were waiting for us? ^^;; Felt a little bad, especially as some of them had to go soon. I hope some of them at least did some photos with each other before we got there. We moved back outside to our usual location and immediately a number of people started complaining about the heat and "why do we have to do it out here? Can't we do it inside?" And I ONCE again had to explain to them (like I did on the thread) that there is NO good place to do photos inside the con center other than the downstairs fountains which are crowded and a small group like ours would have no chance getting a spot and it'd be hard to hear each other. Every other spot was too far away or has lighting issues. So really this was the best spot and frankly, its always hot at Otakon and here Corey and I are, with more layers than anyone else so really I had no sympathy. >>;; Lost a few of them due to this, who just refused to go outside but eh, whatever. They had less clothing on than me and I was totally fine. XD;
The same photographer that did our Katsu shoot was there so that was cool and made it easier to organize since the person who started the gathering thread was nowhere to be seen (I think she was one of the people that left when we went outside x_x;;). I kept making the point that the sooner we did the shoot, the sooner we could all get back inside, etc. lol I think I've been doing the PH gatherings for too long at this point. XD But yeah, its handy having a photographer that is a fan of the series as she knew what chars and groups to call out. The gathering was smaller than Katsu's but not a bad size. Though I was dismayed to not see a number of characters that had posted on the thread. Granted they may have come by earlier. I was hoping for more Baskervilles as I went out of my way to do current Leo in the manga, aka "Gleo" as he's the current Glen at the moment. New wig and and modified one of my old cloaks for it. At least most of the people at the gathering were up to date with the manga so they all got the reference. And we did have a Levi and I let Corey borrow Oswald/Glen so we had all 3 Glens at least. Christina was there with her friend doing Mad Hatter but they had to leave soon so we didn't get like any photos with them. Not even sure if they made it into the group photo or not. I think they did? The photographer hasn't posted her photos up yet though so I only have these two...
Me as "Gleo" XD Though still not happy with the wig. It was such a rush job. I tried to do it myself the night before the con and totally failed. Dar did a great job getting it spiked up but we didn't have time to actually cut it correctly and such. Meh, maybe I should have just saved my money and stuck to the old wig after all as I'm not sure if I'll be doing Leo anymore or not. Kinda want to move on to a different costume next time I do PH.
Past Glen taking over Current Glen. This was one of my favorite scenes in the manga and so I REALLY wanted to get this photo. Was the whole reason I let Corey borrow Oswald (I'll never get used to calling him that XD He'll always be the one and only Glen to me!). Anxious to see the photographer's version of this as her camera is better than mine.
Corey had to head off so there wasn't anyone really left so figured it was time to disperse. Headed back to the room since there was no real reason to wear this costume anymore as it doesn't work on its own and I was a bit "meh" that the gathering didn't go as well as I had hoped (I swear every time I DON'T go to a PH gathering, it ends up having a huge turnout. I'll forever regret missing last year's). Changed into regular clothing and went to the Artist Alley with Laura. We hung out at DizzyLizzy's table for a little bit and then went to Sarah's table and said hi to Katie. Didn't get to spend much actual time there looking though but not like I had any cash to spend anyways. We attempted to roam the con a bit but didn't see a single person we knew and since neither of us were in costume, it felt a bit dull. Wandering isn't as much fun if you don't run into people or have people stopping you for photos, etc. Everyone I know seems to do the same thing at Otakon now. Mainly only go to to the con center for a shoot or gathering and then spend most of the con in the hotel room or eating elsewhere. And maybe going to an event here or there which of course means you'll be in line somewhere where you can't really see other people. I really do miss the old days where roaming Otakon was one of the highlights 'cause I'd run into someone I knew pretty much every 5 feet. So we went back to the room like the lame losers we are, lol. Spent the rest of the night in the room chatting and working on Alone. Managed to get it done before everyone else passed out at least. And one again we went to bed pretty early. XD
Saturday:
Ironed Alone and passed it off to one of Corey's friends to deliver it to her. Didn't really have anything else to do and no reason to get into costume quite yet since I didn't really want to wander by myself so sat for a bit and very slowly got into costume since I wanted to wait for everyone else so we could go wander together for a bit before my Lost Canvas shoot. Took them longer than I expected though. So was sitting in costume and watching really scary Saturday morning kid shows with Laura and Lex while we waited for Dar to finish getting ready. I mean seriously. What the hell are they feeding kids' minds these days? Yet it was the only thing on. Eventually we did get to the con and Lex got a lot of attention and certainly deserved it because she was cosplaying...
Bob Ross, yo! XD We got stopped sooo many times 'cause everyone wanted photos with Bob Ross. It was hilarious. Definitely my favorite costume of the weekend. lol
Headed over to the indoor fountain area and we attempted to fix Laura's elf ears again (we had issues getting them to stay on in the hotel room, my fingers had a bit of spirit gum residue as a result and this led to my fingers turning gray from the spray paint on my sword XD). I figured I'd just stay right there since that's where I was meeting for my shoot anyways. Saw Lionel pretty fast but it was early and then I got a call from Corey saying they were having some difficulty...because it turned out that being as tired as I was the night before, I had somehow managed to twist the lining of the one of the sleeves when I sewed it on, so Corey couldn't get her hand through. X____X;;; Took a bit for it to sink in what exactly Corey was telling me 'cause I couldn't believe I made such a stupid error. Corey said she'd just rip the seam out and pin it but they were running late as a result. I told Lionel and he was cool with it since it wasn't even time for the shoot yet. I had assumed Javits would be coming here soon and it'd be fine and Corey would just be a little late. Weeeeell Corey shows up and I'm like "...where's Javits?" and Corey doesn't know. Calls Javits and finds out that she was JUST getting changed NOW. I'm like "...what?" 'cause now we were in fact running late for our shoot and Lionel was already here. And let me say that I have never been late to any private shoot I've ever schedule with anyone (usually I'm waiting for the photographer XD) so I was kinda already embarrassed at this point. Corey suggests we go over to the Hilton and meet her there. Lionel and I were both not so sure about this plan as that was all the way on the other side of the con. Corey reassured us though that Javits would be in costume by the time we got there and that would save time and we'd just do the shoot over there. I felt really bad making Lionel walk all the way over there with us though. But at least he got a chance to get some con coverage photos outside that he wanted to get on our way. I pointed out the manhole covers to him that he totally hadn't noticed before.
Got to the Hilton...and no sign of Javits. We sit and wait. And wait. And wait. And its awkward and I feel like a total douche for making Lionel wait with us. Javits is taking forever to get changed and I'm getting a little pissed because its not the world's hardest costume to get into and I really wanted to suggest we just do the shoot without her. Corey keeps telling us to wait just a little more. Well its getting to the point where Lionel really needs to head back for his next shoot so I FINALLY get Corey to agree to just do a mini shoot with him real fast. I was super sad though as to be honest I really wanted the shoot more to have photos with a Tenma and I thought it was a bit odd to have just Alone and Hades since they're kinda the same character and all. But we still got some really pretty artistic photos!
And here's a solo shot of me in Hades. That sword took me forever @_@;; And the handle doesn't want to stay on so I gotta figure out something before I use it with the armor next time.
Javits did finally come down after a little bit more of waiting though she still had to assemble her armor box but man, it was pretty damn impressive and I love when SS cosplayers make the box! So we went over to one of the Hilton walls and had Jon take photos for us using my camera and Javits'. Javits has the nicer camera but sadly no idea when I'll ever see those photos (still waiting on our Ningyou and PH photos from her from 2 years ago ^^;;).
Tenma with his Pegasus box
Tenma and Alone...and that stupid puppy XD
Hades taking over Alone. Kinda the reverse of the day before. lol
Lost Canvas group
And then I decided we needed my painting in the shot. XD And as soon as I brought it over, Javits immediately dropped "dead" over the box.
...see to explain that since the rest of the shots involving the painting are on Javits' camera...in Lost Canvas, Alone has an unfinished painting of Tenma. He hasn't finished it because he just can't seem to find the right color paint for Tenma's red eyes. As Alone starts gradually turning into Hades, he discovers that anything he paints will then die. And after he kills the village, he tells Tenma he finally found the right shade of red and uses the blood off the floor to finish painting Tenma who then dies (but don't worry, the good guys go to the Underworld to get him back XD Oh Saint Seiya). So anyways we were joking that I should do the painting since I'm the evil version but I can only do stick figures...so that's my interpretation of the painting. lol We have lots more photos of Tenma dying on Javits' camera including a whole reel of it as she had Jon put the shutterspeed on and she actually fell over dramatically. XDXD It was pretty spectacular.
After that, rushed back to the room and changed into regular clothes so I could go get in line for the TMRevolution/Home Made Kazoku concert. Sadly no one I knew was interested in going or was way already in line so stood in line by my lonesome self. Though there were some pretty cool dudes behind me. Two of them were cosplaying Kou and Daisuke from Persona 4 and they were really good. But I didn't bring my camera with me. Dar had told me how they check bags at the Arena now (last time I was there I was in the Masq so had no idea about that, and only time I was there before was back with L'Arc and I don't remember having to do that) so I decided to not bring anything at all with me other than my phone, badge, and keycard. But man did I wish I had my 3DS with me. But silly me totally forgot that I could take photos with my phone and all. Oh well! lol The line was huge and wrapped around itself and even though we were moving pretty much the whole time, it still felt like forever. The girl in front of me had a backpack and didn't believe me when I told her that they would be checking bags. She had food in there too so once we got inside, I never saw her again as pretty sure she got stuck there for a bit. Should have listened to me. XD I got right in and was surprised actually how despite how long the line was and how far back I was, there were still a lot of pretty close seats left. When I saw L'Arc~en~Ciel all those years ago, I got in line way earlier than I did for this and still got stuck in like the nosebleed section. But for this, I went down to the first row of the bleachers and had a pretty good seat. There were seats still on the floor open but I knew that if I went down there, I wouldn't be able to see at all and I liked the idea of actually being able to sit and still see things. XD I mean I was still pretty far from the stage but close enough that I could actually see people on the stage. For L'Arc I really couldn't make out anything at all. lol
Anywho, Home Made Kazoku went first and actually enjoyed them more than I thought. I only know like maybe 1 or 2 songs by them and only from back when I used to watch Bleach and Naruto and whatnot. lol But they were fun! And I was surprised by how short the one guy is. He was itty bitty! But yeah they had a lot of energy and interacted with the audience, etc. All in all a very good show. Everyone in my section remained seated for it but still shouted out when prompted and waved our hands around, etc. But like me, could tell they were all saving their energy for TMR. There was an intermission in between and during it, I couldn't help but notice a really amazing Phoenix Wright group (all male even) who kept trying to get folks to do the wave and such down below. They were really amusing and I couldn't help but be a little jealous of their energy and dynamics. I've never been good at being funny but really admire those who are. There was also a camera guy that was part of TMR's staff that was going around recording the audience with a sign that said "Message for TMRevolution" so everyone made sure to scream extra loud for that. I was right in front of the camera when it passed my section so that was cool. And then when they got to the Phoenix Wright group, the guys got up and were like "ok, come with us!" and got the audience down in their section to do a huge wave just for the camera guy and had him run with them. XD It was cute!
Then it was time for TMR's part of the concert. Its amazing how even 10 years after I first saw him, he still doesn't look any different. lol Damn those Asians and their genes! His costume wasn't as interesting as the kimono he wore back then but it was still cute. I knew the majority of the songs he did though a lot of them I was pretty rusty on in terms of lyrics. He kept trying to get the audience to sing on their own for parts of the songs but it was pretty evident everyone was having the same issue as me. XD Since some of these songs are pretty old now so those of us who do know them don't remember the Japanese well enough and the younger con goers probably don't know them well enough (or never even heard them at all...which makes me sad). But the audience still got pretty excited over Heart of Sword. Not anywhere near as energetic as they were in 2003 though, back when Kenshin was still pretty big. Made me a little sad about how much has changed in 10 years. There was more of a reaction for Invoke at least. I've never even seen Gundam SEED but I have always loved that song. I was more excited for the songs off of Seventh Heaven he did (though I totally forget which ones he did now XD I think he did Wheel of Fortune at least?). Then for the final song, he brought Home Made Kazoku back out and they did a joint performance which was VERY awesome. I didn't think they would blend well since they have two very different types of music but it worked! After the concert, was very glad I was in the Days Inn as it made it easy to just escape out of the mass exodus and walk up the stairs to my room. XD Instead of having to fight the crowd heading down the streets and whatnot.
Went to go meet up with Courtney, who was only at the con for the day. Figured we'd go get food as I realized I hadn't eaten a damn thing all day...oops. ^^; But then I also finally got a response from Francisco who was taking a lot of my free junk I brought with me and I REALLY didn't want to take that back home with me so was trying to figure out how I could meet up with him but also still eat. So I'm trying to figure this out while waiting at the meeting spot for Courtney...who was nowhere to be seen. She shows up and apologizes as she got hung up talking to someone, well then tell her that I have to eat quickly so I can get this stuff to him before a panel thingy he's going to and that's fine as she has something she wants to see soon anyways and then I'm like wait...are you guys going to the same thing? And then realize the friend she got hold up talking to WAS Francisco and she just totally forgot I knew him and I'm like "dude, you're the one that introduced us! Remember the X-Japan concert trip?" Pfft so after realizing its a small world after all, figured I'd just go to the panel with her and meet up with him then so it all worked out. XD After that I went back into the Artist Alley in an attempt to actually look a bit more this time around, though some of the artists were gone at this point. I stopped by The Dreamer's booth to get Alyce the bag she wanted and glad I did then as there was only one left. Then went to Sarah's booth and talked to Katie for a bit while waiting for Sarah to come over right before closing. I felt like I was going to pass out while waiting but she showed up just before I was going to give up. XD So finally got to see her for a bit! Then made it back to the room where talk about Zenkaikon plans for next year was going on and I got recruited into a cosplay group for that and I really hope I don't make a fool out of myself with the possible skit thingy planned considering how badly coordinated I am. But otherwise excited for it! But yes, spent the rest of the night goofing off about that and then made the trek over to Corey's room with Jon and Kassie so I could get Glen back.
Sunday:
Packed everything up and stored it in Dar's car as per the norm. Got a text from Rose saying she might have extra Yoko Kanno tickets so said I'd totally take one! See, for the Yoko Kanno concert, since they were doing it in the con center and not at the Arena, they had limited seating available so you had to stand in line at certain hours during the con to try to get one and sadly all the times were when I was doing other things so I couldn't even attempt to get one. So I gave up and figured I'd just go to the simulcast. So I was pretty excited that I might actually get into the concert itself. Rose said she'd text me when they were getting into line and I'd pick it up then. In the mean time I went to meet up with Alyce and Beth who had come by for just the day. Like usual Alyce had her Sunday Sailor Moon shoot, which is outside the con so she doesn't have to get a badge for it. So we sat outside and chatted for a while, with me trying not to burn into a crisp. XD Then got a text from Rose saying they were in line...which proved harder to find than I thought. I found the simulcast line which was outside at this point and they told me the concert line was down at the other side and that I better hurry as the line was moving or something. So I quickly went over there...only to discover they weren't letting ANYONE enter that door. I could clearly see the line there inside but couldn't get to it from there. x_x;; Sooooo went all the way back to where I came from and had to work my way back all the way around AGAIN from the inside. Only to see that the line wasn't going to move at all for quite some time. .... I trusted you person and you led me astray! Last time I ever trust a random con goers in a huge line. lol They were probably just mad I had a ticket. XD So I was kinda out of breathe by the time I actually found Rose and company. lol And then find out they still had 2 extra tickets and tried to ask Hersh and Val but they decided they wanted to stay in the simulcast line...we have no idea why. XD;; But Lex decided to take one of the extra ones and came and joined us so yay! Too bad that last one went to waste. Oh well. While in line, collected a lot of Miis and randomly encountered Brennan from the old St. Mary's crew so talked to him for a while. Offered him our last ticket but he said he had to leave soon so was just going to follow the line and talk until the last second. So he left once we got to the ticket checking.
So let me just start by saying this concert was absolutely breathtaking and made the cost of Otakon worth it. The concert was opened by Chiaki Ishikawa, who's name sounded familiar and realized its 'cause I knew of her from the Gundam 00 songs she's done. Even though I didn't like Gundam 00 much, I really liked some of the music and the ending theme she did in particular. And as soon as this girl opened her mouth, I was blown away by her talent! I definitely left the concert wanting to look more into her music as every song she did was beautiful. I already found a few of the songs she did, including "Uninstall" from some anime I've never heard of but the song is gorgeous. I think it was the one she opened with as its the one I remember the most. She only did a few songs and then there was a short intermission and then the main event started. The piano on stage is revealed and the stage hands cleverly held up a white sheet that when they dropped, revealed Yoko Kanno already sitting at the piano, a headdress that I thought was meant to be bunny ears but I've heard others say they were cat ears. XD Either way it was freaking cute! She started bouncing around as soon as the crowd went wild and her ears totally fell off in her excitement. XD
She started off right the bat with Tank, the opening theme to Cowboy Bebop, and that got everyone very excited. She was so energetic as she played too. There were a number of pieces I was unfamiliar with but thanks to my friend Greg who did a very detailed report of the concert, I now know what they are. XD She did Nomad Song from Macross, Catalina's Theme from Uncharted Waters 2, and then Innocent Green from Macross Frontiers, all of which I am unfamiliar with but sounded good! The next piece was one that I swore sounded REALLY familiar but I couldn't place what it was from (and well lol this was me most of the concert, as its been a long time since I've watched any of the animes she's done music for) and came home and looked it up to find out it was Resonance of the Earth from Arjuna! I totally forgot about that anime but I loved that show so really happy she did something from it, even if i didn't realize that's what it was at the time. XD Then she did Gravity from Wolf's Rain and you could see her softly singing the words as she played (or at least mouthing them if she wasn't actually singing since you couldn't hear her as it was obvious she didn't intend to actually be heard for this one) so we all sang along...as best as we could. lol I so didn't remember A LOT of the lyrics to that one but did as much as I could remember. I used to know the whole song, dammit! XD But that was probably the first of many times I got teary-eyed during this concert. Now this whole time I had been wondering why the piano looked a bit...odd. Kinda like there was some towel-like material wrapped around it. I just assumed that maybe it was to protect the piano or subdue the volume or something. But then she gets up and pulls more of this material over the legs of the piano and attempts to open the piano up...which she had to wave her producer on stage to help her as she wasn't strong enough to get it propped open on her own. And then. Oh man this is when the real magic of the concert began...
The lights go out and she starts playing this tune and practically everyone is humming softly along, myself included. I'm going crazy trying to figure out what its from though as obviously I knew it perfectly well since I was humming it no problem. Turns out it was Fanelia from Escaflowne. Duuuuuh! XD But anyways, as she's playing, this yellow circle of light suddenly appeared on her piano. This was a bit confusing at first...until it suddenly grew a beak and legs and then realized it was a little chick. XD Super cute! The little chick moved around the piano, falling over a few times, causing everyone to laugh and eventually it flew off as she played the final notes. And from this point on, she continued to play in darkness while an amazing light show went on the piano itself. Like ONLY on the piano. It was so cool how they did it and explained why they wanted it in a smaller venue. Next was Monochrome from Ghost in the Shell, which was super cool as an ECG appeared across the piano, reminding me of a heartbeat monitoring except it was monitoring her notes and looked like it was coming right from her fingers. There was an extra beeping noise added to this performance to give it more of that heartbeat effect. The next piece was another one I wasn't familiar with but it didn't matter as the whole stage turned into a sea of stars and it was so very beautiful! Then came Rakuen from Wolf's Rain (I KNEW this one was from Wolf's Rain too, I was so proud of myself lol) and the stage was dark except for her piano which had what looked to me at least like the outline figure of a wolf! And then it gradually dissolved and then SNOW. Freaking snow! started to fall. And it started falling in tune to her notes! The louder she got, the bigger the snowflakes that fell, and then collected down in the legs until it filled up the whole piano, and then started all over again! It was so cool! And such a perfect effect to go with a Wolf's Rain song. Next song was Power of the Light (which I also had to look up lol) and this time we had flower-like bright colors swim across the piano, the stage, and Yoko Kanno herself. Then she did a short bit of Someday My Prince Will Come which was a bit random but cute. XD I think the lights had gone back on at this point but I'm not sure. The Real Folk Blues came on and once again people sang along but I soooo did not know the lyrics well enough to that one to even try. XDXD Been a million years since I last heard it too. lol The screen behind her started showing a calming video of a bag blowing in the wind as she played Wo Qui Non Coin and to our surprise, she actually sang this one. Credits started to play on the screen during this video, bring a tear to my eye once again as it was such a perfect little finale.
She left the stage but of course came back on for an encore! And she played...The Star Spangled Banner. lol XD I was not expecting that and was a bit "uh what?" but then everyone stood up to sing and I was like "dammit Yoko Kanno, only for you will I allow you to get me be a bit patriotic for once". I mean I haven't sung that damn song since public school with all the many times forced to as being a member of the school chorus and all. XD And then she did Tank again as her last encore. Her piano had the same effect of the snowfall earlier going on but this time with hearts! And I can't remember when they started as I swore they did this during one of the songs too but Greg's report lists it only doing this during our applause. 'Cause it was pretty cool how the hearts got bigger the louder we cheered. ^.^ She took her final bows and waves and then left the stage. I don't know about the rest of the audience, but I felt the whole concert was a really emotional experience! Lex also admitted to having a hard time not crying during certain parts. We were both so glad Rose let us have those tickets as I don't think the experience would have been as amazing in the simulcast as it was seeing it all directly live.
Eventually worked my way out of the concert room and stopped by the Art Show to say hi to Max real quick (who was super busy, I had no idea he was so high up in that event, even had like a headset on XD) and had to apologize to him 'cause I was supposed to give him this Akira cel that came with my special edition of Akira waaaaaay back when they first released it on DVD but my cel had been up on my wall and chewed on by Crystal and well wasn't really of anything cool (just one of the random motorcycle guys) so I was giving it up for free since I can't really sell it. But! I totally forgot I had put it in the same bag as Fransico's stuff and didn't take it out! And it would have been too hard to find him to get it back. Luckily Max was ok with it, otherwise I would have tracked him down and gotten it. ^^;; Felt bad though. After that, went over to Closing Ceremonies, which Dar always stays til the end of so she can plan booking the Days Inn for next year as soon as the con dates are announced. Lex and I stayed to watch it with her. In the past I always came by as it was ending or waited outside so first time ever actually watching the Closing Ceremonies. I uh spent most of it on my 3DS. XD Though I do like watching the AMV winners...even though I like didn't know ANY of the animes used this year. Pffft. I'm behind the times. Then there was the big announcement about Otakon moving to the DC Convention Center in 2017. At first I was a bit dismayed at that but also knew it was coming since there have been rumors about it for years now. Figured I'd probably stop going to Otakon by then anyways as it just sounded like having it in DC would make it more problematic...but then realized how big the DC Convention Center is and the fact that actually it would be A LOT easier for me to get to...if I'm still around here by then, that is. lol Honestly who knows what will happen by that time but I am interested in at least trying to go to it when it does to see how it will be, whether or not I attend the Otakons before it or not. Because yeah, I'm not sure if I'm even attending next year and its not necessarily because I'm once again trying to quit Otakon but simply because I may be in Japan. XD Or if not at that time, I may have to cut back some cons to help afford it and all.
Anywho, I had already called my parents to give them a time frame and the Closing Ceremonies was running late so had to kinda rush back over to the Days Inn but it was timed perfectly 'cause they drove into the entrance way right as we got to the lobby. XD So got my stuff packed up and left. But yeah, definitely glad I went this year and being that it was Otakon's 20th anniversary, I think they did a pretty good job at celebrating it.
~Lyn
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Date: 2013-09-11 07:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-14 03:54 am (UTC)But yesh, that must happen at some point! ^.^ I plan to have Diamond around for quite a bit as I'm pretty happy with the costume.