Kitacon 2012 – Headhunted into the cosplay competition

Sup!

I was at Kitacon this past Saturday, on 11th February to be precise. It's the world's most northern con at the time of writing and, heheh, it's the only con in Finland that can be considered close to me. Normally I have to travel to the other end of the country for cons so I'm really grateful that there's something I don't have to sit in a train for half the day to attend lol.

Oh shit. I realized I forgot to take photos again. :DDD

Oh well, my friend Jäärä visited me during the weekend with the culmination being going to Kitacon together. As previously Kitacon was again held in the Kulttuurikeskus building. The con was small but comfy and the atmosphere was just right! We just walked around the con and had fun and all that jazz, time flew by quickly. Maybe that's why I forgot to take photos.

At some point when we were just vibing one of the cosplay competition judges saw us and went "hey guys, you two should seriously consider entering the cosplay contest!" or something like that. We were caught offguard because we hadn't gone there with the intention to compete at all and well, I have some serious stage fright lol. We thought about it for some minutes – at first we were unsure but then we signed up anyway. A fun little detail is that they had actually just closed the registration but they made an exception for us!
We competed as a duo by the way, if it was not obvious. I was so nervous, oh my god! Me and Jäärä were the last ones (number 22) to go up on the stage. I probably looked like I was shitting myself pale while waiting in line at the backstage. I'm really not the one to stand on a stage naturally. Once at school I was shaking so bad I couldn't hold my papers in hand during an oral presentation. I have like no memories of what I did on stage but it was one of those classic 'lavajuoksu' types, meaning you walk to the stage front and strike a few poses and then you walk away so the next contestant can enter. I did relax a bit once we entered the stage together and the audience cheered loudly. We actually got second place together, which felt really nice! It felt so fancy to get a medal for cosplaying. :D

Oh I almost forgot! We ended up getting featured on a local newspaper called Pohjolan Sanomat, that was crazy!

Someone took a candid shot of me. Notice the medal!

Fun fact is that I've actually competed twice before and one of the two was at another Kitacon, but that was a one-time-only Kitacon in northern Sweden. :'D It was an even smaller event than Kemi's Kitacon and I competed with my Ichigo Kurosaki cosplay. I ended up winning second place at the time – although I think my solid wood shikai form Zangetsu did a lot of heavy lifting. xD Everybody rained compliments on that massive butter knife lol. If I recall correctly I was asked to compete during that time as well – it's almost as if there's a pattern...

I don't really know what else to say except sorry for not having any photos to show, again. I really need to get better at documenting and going to cons with blogging in mind! I get so carried away in having fun so that while I'm at the event I just forget all about my blog responsibilities, lol!

Thank you for a fun day!
Shiro Samurai out~

Kitacon 2012 cosplay lineup

Hello!

My next anime convention is going to be Kitacon in Kemi, Finland. It's held on 11th February and seeing how I live very close to Kemi it would be rather dumb of me not to attend. :D This is the fourth iteration of Kitacon and I gotta say it's so nice to have events in the north, even if it's just one-day events. Almost everything is in the south and so we poor bastards who live up here with the reindeers and stuff really miss out, haha.

I've been really into Bleach lately and I'm gonna stick to this hype for a while longer, hehe. I've considered cosplaying all canon variations of Ukitake so you can probably guess what my cosplay plans for Kitacon will be...

Yes I'm doing ponytail Ukitake, aka the Turn Back the Pendulum. I guess it's technically a new cosplay because it's a different version of the character but the only difference is basically that he has his hair tied up and the front bangs are a tiny bit longer, maybe. It's a stretch to call it new because the only thing I need to do is the hairtie lmao. Easy cosplay is easy. xD

I've already done a test run with the wig and everything tried on and err, maybe it's just me but I find I look totally awful with the hair tied back?! I can't stand how my face looks in almost every angle, feels like it brings out my worst features and it makes me horribly insecure. Oh well, I should do this version at least once so let's bite the sour apple and go. Love for the character wins.

If everything goes as planned my friend Jäärä will travel up here and do a pair cosplay with me as captain Retsu Unohana to match. She's doing the Turn Back the Pendulum version as well and will have a Minazuki plush prop! It's gonna be a lot of fun, I just know it!

That's all folks, see you!
Shiro Samurai out~