Chibicon 2012 – I found a new friend for life!

Hello!

Chibicon came and went. It was a one-day event held on 7th April at the Pohjankartano building in Oulu, Finland. I was really happy to see another con in the northern half of the country!

Before going to the con me and Jäärä, whom had come over to attend Chibicon as well, tried to take some photos together of our Bleach cosplays outside on the terrace. I did Byakuya Kuchiki and she did the blue dress version of Rukia. Despite our efforts an overwhelming majority of the photos were high on the derp scale and thus not professional enough to post, lol. We tried to get some intentionally silly shots by throwing the plushies in the air and well, of course we couldn't catch them successfully every time they came back down again and that's the story of how Wakame Taishi (aka Seaweed Ambassador) almost ended up swallowed by the snow lol.

The plushies had an eventful morning.

Once we got to the con I was quite excited – this was my first anime convention in Oulu after all. I gotta mention here also that I had never been to Pohjankartano before this and so I had no idea what to expect when I entered the convention area; I was surprised by how big and open the place was! It was somehow almost surreal to me how there could be so many anime enthusiasts at a convention this high up in the country; I had only really seen larger amount of people at the southern events and my northern standards were formed by Kitacon and Kemi's manga day, which felt small now when compared to Chibicon. Of course I don't mean to imply here that Chibicon is the size of Närcon (where I was last year) or something like that! It just wasn't very chibi to me, lol. Or it could be that the open layout of Pohjankartano made it seem a lot busier than it was.


Anyways I had a good time at the convention. Although I was I guess expecting there to be more cosplayers? There was of course a decent amount, nothing crazy. I don't particularly remember what I did aside from just hanging around and stumbling upon new people to befriend! I met a tall guy in the stairs called Karri who seemed like a cool bloke and I was also excited to see some people cosplaying from InuYasha, one of my favorite series! Oh and speaking of InuYasha, I met the cutest little Rin cosplayer, Sallukka, who complimented my Byakuya cosplay and we quickly took to bonding over shared fandoms! In no time had we built up the foundations of a budding friendship and I was so excited over having found a new friend! 

Look, I finally took a photo of the event itself! :D

Above you can see a photo taken from upstairs down towards the main area of the con – where all the vendors and stuff were. I think they call this the Dealer's Hall in English? One could find the standard anime con merchandise here: mangas, plushies, figurines, doujinshis and a booth for ramune and other Japanese treats. I didn't buy anything this time because I'm saving money for the summer cons. :') I have to practice self-restraint, lol.

I also went and watched the FFFight and it was entertaining although I did notice the same people participating twice...? *shrugs* Maybe it's allowed, I don't know? Oh well, I like the concept of Final Fantasy Fight and it's always entertaining to watch. :D I also attended a Sengoku Basara panel which was nice.

Before you know it the day's almost over – time flies when you have fun they say, and that's so true! I really hope there's gonna be more Chibicons held in the future because I definitely want to return to this place again!

Tired Byakuya in the back of the car. 

I left in high spirits, albeit a bit tired. The hype crash is real.
I had a ride back home so I didn't have to take the train, which was nice as I was still in cosplay on the way home; every cosplayer knows that using public transport while dressed up can be quite an interesting experience, lol. It took roughly one hour on the road to get back home and yeah, that's pretty much it for my Chibicon journey. 

I don't have much else to say, thanks for reading!
Shiro Samurai says bye~