2012 Con Report Part 1: A-Kon 23

(Journal entry must be pre-faced with:  Yeah, wooo!  I'm done with finals for this semester!)

With the next A-Kon around the corner, I've realised that I've never really done convention journals/con reports, but I suddenly felt like I should start documenting my time at cons.  As the number of conventions I attend increase, I really don't want for my experiences to start merging into one another.  I also want to start documenting incidents that I found amusing.  So, here is my roundup of experiences at cons I attended in 2012!

(This journal entry has lots of photos.  All photos by unless noted.  Aside from Mewmewrith, I do not know any of the other cosplayers.  If you recognize yourself or a friend in these photos, please send me a message so that I may put them in the credits.  Also, if you don't want your photo posted here, please tell me!  I probably have a bunch of grammatical errors too...I'll be fixing them later.)


A-Kon 23

As usual, I attended the con on Saturday.  As usual, I originally had too many cosplays planned in advanced for this one and as usual, I only got one done.  I cosplayed Takuto Tsunashi from Star Driver.



Takuto is the first cosplay where I sewed part of my cosplay-the jacket-from a pattern.  Ironically, the first cosplay that I did major sewing on was Hibari from the year before and I drafted my own pattern for his vest.  Going from drafting from scratch to sewing from a pattern, isn't that kind of backwards?   Haha.....


_{Photo by me}

At the time, I spent 3 fearful days and nights before the con working on the cosplay, completely stressed and worried that I wouldn't be able to finish it on time.  I'm glad I managed to pull through and at the time, I was really proud of my jacket.  Looking back at it now, a year later.....it's kinda terrible, but hey, we all gotta start somewhere, right?  



I went with K to A-kon again.  I don't see her all year since school keeps me busy until summer break, so A-Kon is always a good opportunity to hang out and catch up.  K cosplayed Stocking from Panty and Stocking.  I remember we spent around half an hour combing out the wig at the con before we started roaming, haha!

A-Kon 24 was also the first con where I participated in a large group photoshoot without any of my usual cosplay friends/group.  Boy, was I in for a real surprise when I met with this group! :



You know, I'm really not that short in real life.  At school, I'm taller than most of my friends and I'm around the middle when it comes to height amongst the friends I cosplay with.  Admittedly, I felt a bit awkward about my height when it came to this group of people and the fact that Wako was taller than me didn't help much.  It could be the shoes, but I'm probably just deluding myself.  


<sub>LOLOLOLOLOLOL






A proper farewell.   (Kailey as Sakana-chan)</sub>

I really like looking at humorous cosplay photos myself, so it was nice to actually have the opportunity to try and create something that will make people laugh and reminisce over certain parts of the anime.  I admit that I am not very good at posing for these shots even though I keep telling myself that I will practice.      Regardless, I had fun with the gag shots!


<sub>Takuto crying over Head and Sakana's farewell


"Why yes, Sugata, you shall help my plan come to fruition!"


Tauburn taking a swipe at Head....


....with Sakana-chan probably feeling vindicated.


Yeah, thanks for abandoning your son, Head!   (Dear lord, my posing is terrible....)


The Glittering Crux Brigade, with Professor Green, Manticore, Banker and Head  (I actually rather like this photo)</sub>

We moved over to the shaded side of the hotel.  A lot of cosplayers at A-Kon like taking photos in front of the glittery black stone wall. Around this time, I ran into another student from my school.  I called her name and waved at her, but she looked at me like I had gone nuts or something.  Probably because I look vastly different in cosplay and in real life, though I've had a close friend of mine recognize me from the back while I was leaving the con in 2011.  


<sub>The Glittering Crux ladies and their Banker lackey?!


Errrr, Tauburn, need help saving the damsel in distress?  


Wako, Sakana-chan and Manticore.


The Maidens, Wako and Sakana-chan.</sub>

The photoshoot took place around 2 in the afternoon at the beginning of June in Texas.  That means that even if I don't remember the weather forecast for that particular day, I'd still be accurate when I say that the weather was in the 95 to 105 degree Fahrenheit range.  We moved our photoshoot inside the hotel to cool off.


<sub>Seriously, I was probably thinking to myself "I'm burning!  I'm melting!  Get me outta here!"


My attempt to look sad or concerned over Sugata being injured while Wako cries.  I think I just wound up looking confused or something.  


Sakana-chan singing to Head.  I really think Sakana-chan had the best fight song, it was very epic and added to every Star Driver episode it appeared in!</sub>

I think we wound up lounging outside of a room playing J-Pop music videos.  Anyway, while we were taking group photos, some random guy comes up to snap a photo of the Kiriboshi ladies on his cellphone without even having the courtesy to ask.  That was really awkward.   After the con, I remember talking Mexicanime, the photographer for this set, about the sheer awkwardness of the situation.  Just.....people, just ask for a photo, ok?  It's not that difficult.


<sub>I know, they're really sexy and cute, but it'd be nice to just ask.


Help!  We're getting perved on by Professor Green!  


Sugata is not amused.


"King and Tauburn at my beck and call?  Along with a comfy chair?  This has got to be the best day of my life!"


Head:  "You can perv on me all you want!"
Professor Green: "Sorry, you're a bit too old to be my type."


Star Driver boys are really focused on making a fabulous star.</sub>

The Star Driver group was arranged by Mewmewrith (who cosplayed Sakana-chan) and was our photographer.   was booked the entire weekend with photoshoots, so I'm glad that he made some time to get photos of our group!  Also, thank you to Mewmewrith for getting the group together!  It was a different photoshoot experience, but still nice!  I'd like to fix my Takuto cosplay and make more costumes from Star Driver again one day.  I'll also get the poses down too!



My cosplay friends cosplayed the Arcobaleno from Katekyo Hitman Reborn.  I was really sad that I was not able to finish Fon for the photoshoot, but our Gokudera surprised me with a pacifier they made for my cosplay!  

There was a bit of drama amongst my cosplay friends, but we were all able to work the issue out peacefully.  Before I started going to cons, I had heard and read about volatile situations where friends and groups split up because of dissatisfaction over trivial and ludicrous things which made me apprehensive about participating in group photoshoots and such.  But the situation that happened at A-Kon really showed me why my cosplay friends are awesome.  Sure, friends sometimes have disputes and feelings get hurt, but everyone was able to settle things quickly and amicably in a mature fashion.  I couldn't ask for a better group.  

I got some small figurines in the dealer's room.  These mystery box figures are fun, it's pretty cool that I can usually get the figure I want if I shake the box a little and take note of how the figure is moving inside.  Yugioh was my after-school and Saturday morning cartoon during my middle school years and Seto Kaiba is my favorite character from the series, so of course I had to get the Blue Eyes White Dragon!  I'm glad I was able to pick him out after shaking 5 or so boxes, haha!   (Both photos by me)




_{Also managed to get Takuto and Scarlet Benio!}

At the time, I felt that this was probably the most awkward con I had attended since I didn't know most of the people at the photoshoot.   Even so, I experienced a lot of nostalgia while writing up this con report almost a year later, so I guess it wasn't that bad.  Thank you K for accompanying me!  All in all, this was a fun and interesting con.    (And now I want to cosplay from Star Driver again....)