Terucon 2025 – Rovaniemi strikes again!

 Hey everyone!

I went on a daytrip to Terucon in Rovaniemi last weekend, specifically on the Sunday. Terucon was actually a two-day event on 25-26 October but I didn't really have a possibility to attend both days so yeah, no can do. Besides, I felt like one day was plenty enough to experience the event since it's so new and small. :) Or well, Terucon is new but also not quite new – it's actually the same event as Northern Lights Anime Party (which I attended last year), just renamed and with a new main organizer! Oh, and moved from December to the end of October.

Without further ramblings, let's go~

Terucon's poster.

Okay so, first things first – I didn't cosplay. My original plan was to cosplay but yeah, the closer the con was the more anxious I got. I've had my mental health dipping lately it's typical for this time of the year and it just seemed too much of a hassle to dress up, especially considering it was a one-day train trip and that comes with its own set of challenges when one can't conveniently dress at home/hotel before leaving etc. So yeah, I went casual to spare both my sanity and my time.

I took the morning train (9:36 departure, local time) from Kemi to Rovaniemi with Firith in tow as company. The train trip takes roughly one hour so it's quite manageable. I had some minor motion sickness but nothing too bad. Once we arrived at Rovaniemi railway station we took a taxi to Monitoritalo Monde, which is just a few hundred meters away. Might seem wasteful but the weather has been absolute ass for the past two weeks (no sun at all) and Firith didn't want to risk the makeup getting ruined if it would suddenly start to rain. The clouds sure looked the part at least.

Monitoritalo Monde entrance.

Just like Northern Lights Anime Party last year, or NLAP for short, Terucon was held in the Monitoritalo Monde building. It's a decent location for small events but there's not a lot of room for growth. I gotta say here that I have no idea about what other host buildings Rovaniemi has, in theory, so I can't know if Monde is good or bad in comparison to the eventual others – but I do feel like Monde's strongest suit is how close it is to the train station and that it has a cafeteria inside and a foodstore quite literally next to it and Kotipizza. 

The clock was a little bit past 11:00 by the time we arrived and just when entering a roughly middle-aged lady struck up a chat with us, mentioning that she's the first-aid person in charge at the con, should something happen. That brief encounter immediately gave me a green flag since I think NLAP didn't have a first-aid worker in place last year so that there now is one is definitely an improvement in organizing. I absolutely feel safer at cons when I know there's first-aid available.

View of the info desk and cloakroom combo.

My first impression when I got inside was that it was weirdly empty. Concerningly so. I only saw a handful of other visitors for the first hour or so. I also noticed that most of the placements etc seemed identical to last year, at least on the base floor. By that I mean that for example the cloakroom and information desk was combined into one station just like last time. Not like there's really place to have them anywhere else anyway lol, the available space is so limited. I did notice though that there was no pop-up library this time and no pin workshop either (unless they were only on Saturday).

You could vote for your favorite husbando and waifu.

The fun and casual husbando and waifu popularity contest made a return this year and it was fun to see that there were different characters this time around, although a few more options would have been even more fun. I voted Flins even though I barely know him because I've refused to progress the main quests in Genshin Impact because I'm waiting for confirmation that "Paralogism" and "A Space and Time for You" quests have got the missing English voices added. I just really don't want to ruin my game experience any more with muted characters and I'm so emotionally attached to the English dub that I just can't change it. I tried to play the last Lantern Rite with Japanese dub but it's just not the same. And yes, I'm normally the person who always watches anime with subtitles, never dub.

Main stage area with organization booths and Matsukirppis to the left.

Matsucon's Matsukirppis (flea market) returned but next to them were also the promotional booths, which I think were new? It was for Pörröcon and Akakabutocon, respectively. Both I'm interested in visiting eventually but the dates were kinda unfortunate to me this time, I know for sure that one of them overlapped with Sonata Arctica's anniversary concert that I'm going on next year. :') Sorry!

Boop the snoot!

The location of the Artist Alley was changed – instead of being upstairs along that narrow corridor it was now placed along the walls of the main stage area. This is definitely an improvement as it was now easier to browse and move as it's a much more open space so yeah, no crowding and potential bottlenecks! Of course the chairs, reserved for the stage spectators, were perhaps a bit in the way but not to the point that it was detrimental. It mainly just didn't look very aesthetic lol.

Overview of the Artist Alley.

There was a decent amount of artists, including a couple I hadn't seen before which is always refreshing and a plus! There was one seller who had Infinity Nikki merchandise, which made me quite excited because that's the first time I ever saw that IRL, which is surprising considering that, despite the recurring issues and boycotts (or well, girlcotts in this community), it still has a large fanbase. I do still play it myself just recently got platinum trophy but I'm strictly free-to-play since the Sea of Stars and retcon disaster patch. Those who know they know.

I would have liked to buy more stuff than just a single pin from the artists but Terucon happened to be during the time of month when I'm usually at my poorest and I just couldn't afford spending on anything that's not a necessity. There's been some additional expenses this past month since my healthcare free-card ran out and now every hospital visit costs money again until I get a new free-card. So yeah, been some tight budgeting this month, it's not usually this bad. I hope some of the new artists I saw here at Terucon I will see in the future too!

At around 12:30 it was time for Firith's Genshin Impact panel. Or well, it wasn't your typical Genshin panel but rather a pondering panel about Genshin's cast and what mental health and/or personality disorders some characters could potentially have based on what we've seen in-game etc. It was light-hearted, despite the seriosity of the topic, and respectfully done without stigmatizing the disorders nor people suffering from them. I feel like this is a very interesting topic in general and there's a lot of room for further in-depth analysis and future reruns of the panel with added insights and more characters. 

"Seuraava potilas!" – Genshin Impact-hahmot psykiatrin vastaanotolla

I do hope Firith will expand upon this concept, there's so much potential. It also takes a lot of awareness and skill to be able to navigate such a serious topic and make it suitable for entertainment without stepping on any toes – in all the different ways one could do so. It felt like Firith had to compress the information quite a bit though because of how short the time slots were (45 minutes) but yeah, it was still sufficient. I just think this kind of panel could benefit from a longer run-time than the 45 min standard slot, perhaps like 1 hour?

Oh, we did bump into Sallukka, Dongrieg, Joni and Pete a bit before the panel as well! They had arrived by car a bit after us but just in time for the panel. I should maybe also add here that the panel room was the same room where I played Dungeons & Dragons last year, except this time it felt like it was better utilized? Or at least it felt more roomy and the other half of the room had this lounge-ish area where you could just chill, kind of like a living room. Very nice addition.

The lounge room thingy.

After the panel was over I was ravenous for food; I hadn't had breakfast nor anything to eat aside from a can of mineral water and a protein bar at the train. We checked the ResQ app for anything cheap and filling nearby and saw some mixed sushi assortments for like 6€ and so we walked to the nearby shopping center and back to pick up the food. I would have otherwise not minded the Kotipizza offer but I had literally been to Kotipizza in my hometown on the Wednesday before the con. xD

Your reminder to stay hydrated.

I gobbled up my sushis like a hungry little gremlin mayo and corn sushi was weird af and by the time I was done the clock was 14:30 and it was time for the main reason I came to the con (aside from simply checking it out to see how it has developed), namely the Dungeons & Dragons session with the same dude as the DM who hosted it last year! 

Joni getting ready to start.

Unlike last year the D&D activity was held in the corner of the cafeteria, which helped with people noticing it I think. Being upstairs in that lecture room made it a bit separated from the main hustle and bustle at NLAP last year. Hant doesn't live in Rovaniemi anymore so my company this time to party up with was Joni, Firith and some random moustachioed French guy.

The session was based on the Arknights universe, a game I'm familiar with by name only. We had premade characters to choose from and I went with Mountain, a huge white tiger who was a Barbarian class in this session. Figured I'd take something relatively straightforward to play so I can just go oonga boonga to town with my limited brain juices, thanks to sleep deprivation lol. My insomnia is acting up again and my sleep quality is more shite than usual so the less spells I have to keep track of the better. I'm not experienced enough yet to even remotely have any stats, effects, spells etc memorized. Good thing the Dungeon Master guy was just as friendly and willing to explain and guide as last time!

The cafeteria area seen from above.

We had two maps, both were in a dilapidated church. The DM did a great job with explaining the lore backdrop, answering any questions, maintaining suspense and immersion and just overall being great at keeping it interesting. 
I also want to give a shoutout for his exceptional and graceful handling of awkward situations – there was an instance when this random guy got a bit too eager and started telling others how to play their characters (not in a hostile way, bro was just so excited) and the DM picked up on this "generally disliked behavior" and defused the situation without making a scene or upsetting anyone – and he did it before any of us affected had even brought it up or gestured discomfort. So observant and ahead of the game; no wonder he was one of the two appointed anti-harassment contact persons (or 'häirintäyhdyshenkilö' as we say in Finnish)! I only made the connection after the con because my facial memory is so ass and yeah, I didn't realize it was his face on the photo the first time I saw the info of the anti-harassment contact persons on Terucon's socials. xD

The D&D game took roughly two hours but this time we had time to play it through, progress! It's always so hard to gauge time needed with this kind of things but despite us needing to rush a bit with the boss fight it was a very satisfactory run. At least I was thoroughly entertained and would absolutely come join a third time if he'll return next year too!

There was a small-scale video game room!

I almost forgot to mention but this year Terucon actually had a gaming room upstairs and it was so nice to see! There wasn't much (two Nintendo Switches and one mini NES) but considering there was no gaming room last year it's a massive step up because it means two things: 1) a running activity that helps keep people entertained and 2) the opportunity to host gaming tournaments to get additional activities and pull in competetive players. In fact there was at least a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tournament – I saw the registration form earlier at the info desk. The gaming room was in the space where the Artist Alley was last year, as in that corridor-ish space upstairs – a much better use for said space because it felt a lot less narrow now that you don't have to pass through it and browse in it.

Terucon was closing down by the time we had wrapped up the D&D session but there was just enough time for us to catapult ourselves into the Artist's Alley one last time. Firith made some quite literal last-minute purchases and then we had to say farewell to the first ever Terucon. I did enjoy my time even though I didnt get the so-called full experience because I wasn't there on Saturday as well. I did have a chat with the main organizer earlier and I heard that Terucon had already broken the visitor record on Saturday and that an upgrade for next year looked promising. 

Before I left I had to draw Buttman in the guest book.

Oh and yeah, in the beginning I mentioned that it was suspiciously empty when we arrived but people did start to show up later and it started feeling like a proper small con and not half deserted lol. I'm happy with my choice to go casual though, it made the experience stressfree for me and I could focus fully on having a good time. If anything though I'm a bit surprised by how few cosplayers there were, especially considering that Sunday was the cosplay competition day which usually translates to the main day for cosplayers to wear their best costumes. I think I can count on one hand all the people I saw who were in full cosplay throughout the day, which is a bit of an oof and makes me wonder how the cosplay competition went. I couldn't go see it because it overlapped with the D&D game session but seeing how they were still looking for contestants on-site it kinda heavily implies that there were trouble with getting cosplayers to enter? Not like it's a rare occurrence though – feels like that's the norm with smaller cons nowadays; the younger generations just aren't as interested in handicrafts and competing in the same way as my generation were lol. I could be wrong though (and of course there's always exceptions) but yeah, that's the general impression I've got as someone who also has organizer/insider experience in the pockets. Cosplay competitions are not the drawcard it used to be, at least not in events of this scale – it seems to be frequently on-the-fence if you even manage to bag the minimum required amount of contestants to go through with the competition. My guess is that the rise of social anxiety in youth has something to do with it...


All in all Terucon was a pleasant experience. It's a free-entrance, low-threshold event that shows growth and promise since its inception as Northern Lights Anime Party. I see the potential for it to become even better but if you live in the north it's already worth a visit if you're into anime and Japanese pop culture. The new organizer does a great job with pulling everything together and deserves an eloge for all the hard work having to do this almost entirely as a solo project, based on my understanding of the situation at least. I am under the impression that NLAP's organizers were minors and that came with its own set of difficulties and limitations and that's why there's a new organizer – there probably had to be or the con would have been sacked. I do hope for the current organizer to get some extra hands to help arrange the con next year, lord knows how exhausting it can be to be responsible for everything alone! But yeah, I'm gonna wrap this up here now and say thanks to all the people behind Terucon for burning brightly and giving us northdwellers another event to look forward to – y'all deserve a round of applause. Looking forward to next year's iteration!

Thanks for reading!
~ Shiro Samurai out.

Maracon 2025 – A space for classic geek culture

 Hello hello~

I ended up visiting Maracon last weekend (3-5 October), and more specifically Maracon LIII. As you can probably guess from the impressive Roman numbers it's a long-running yet small event and yes, it's held several times a year! There seems to be two bigger and two smaller Maracons annually (one per season) of which the autumn and spring ones are considered the larger ones.
Maracon is dedicated fully to board games, tabletops and card games but it also has other "western geekery" hobbies like miniature figure painting represented. Maracon was a three-day event but me and my company only went on a daytrip and we chose the longest day, Saturday, to visit.

Let's gooo~

Maracon didn't have physical posters on-site so I grabbed this from Cryo's instagram.

I gotta admit my ignorance here first of all and say that if someone had asked me about Maracon in like, 2023 or something, I wouldn't have had any clue about its existence! It just hasn't been marketed or talked about in the larger anime con scene and so I was completely unaware that Oulu had a third convention. How I first found out about Maracon last year was through either Kummacon's or Matsucon's crew Discord channel because Cryo is allied with them and often hosts a board game room at said conventions. Someone advertised Maracon in said insider Discord and my world expanded accordingly.

I'm not the biggest on board games but I used to be into collecting Pokémon TCG and, at one point, I was also into Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG so I think I can say I qualify as the target audience to some degree at least? :'D And besides, Maracon has free entrance and Oulu is only 100 km away – which is close for us northfolks lol. I do casually play that one Pokémon TCG Gameboy game on Nintendo Switch Online right now though.

At first it was just me and Firith going but then we roped in Joni because the more the merrier and we needed a car that wasn't malfunctioning. Joni had come over to my place the day before and on Saturday morning I was woken up by him looking clearly distressed. Turned out there was an unforeseen emergency and we left for the road immediately – no time for breakfast or anything. I informed Firith that we will be late for the planned pickup time. Luckily everything turned for the best and we could continue towards Maracon, although with a jumbled morning and time schedule thrown out the window. :'D Good thing Maracon had no scheduled programs nor activities, unlike traditional conventions, so we were never in a hurry to be there by a set time and thus everything worked out as if nothing happened!

Because we didn't have time to eat breakfast (aside from Firith who joined from a different starting point) we were all hungry by the time noon rolled in. We decided to eat at a pizzeria in Haukipudas, a small town just before Oulu. Gotta fuel up to have energy for all the upcoming nerdery! *insert TMNT theme here*

Pizza goes into the machine! Oli jäätävän iso lätty. :DD

Once we reached Oulu we picked up Joni's friend Pete outside the local Prisma supermarket and then we drove to Kaijonharju's nuorisotalo (lit. 'youth house'). Kaijonharju is an area outside central Oulu so unless you're on the road with your own car you need to take public transport to reach it if you arrive by train. The location was a big reason why we went by car instead of train, didn't want to deal with the hassle of taking buses in a town where you have no idea how they work lol.

We had a wonky encounter because when we put the destination building on Google Maps it claimed that it was closed for the day, which it probably would have been on a normal weekend. :'D We found our way there regardless but once we left the car in the parking lot we kinda just... wandered around the vicinity like awkward penguins. We tried to ask around in the library (in the same building) before we found the correct entrance lol. As non-locals it would have been beneficial with signs or even a poster taped to the correct entrance; we were confused and hesitant to enter because there were no signs outside that anything was going on anywhere, unless you count the bikes parked next to the wall. If any Maracon organizers read this, please consider adding signs so that those who come from further away easily know where to go!

Maracon building.

Once we opened the door we knew we were in the right place because there was a sea of board games greeting us further in. XD But before we could go explore we had to remove our shoes because this was one of those buildings that had that rule in place (just like that one Kummacon years back).

Maracon view immediately upon entering.

I immediately got the feeling that this was a casual, easy-to-approach type of community event once I got inside – it felt like entering a big shared living room, that kind of cozy and safe familiarity. As I mentioned earlier Maracon seemed to have no scheduled events happening, so there was no cosplay competition or anything that people used to anime conventions expect – no panels, no photo booths, no merchandise sellers, no fandom meetups etc. Because this was my first Maracon I can't say if there's been different or more activities on earlier iterations but, based on their website, it seems like whatever is available changes and it's rather spontaneous at that? I feel like Maracon is easier to think of as a geeky get-together weekend so yeah – arrive with the right expectations and you won't set yourself up for disappointment. ;)

Dice tower game. Roll the highest roll on the dice and you win it!

The atmosphere was so laid-back and inviting, my nervosity evaporated rather quickly once some random people casually approached us in a friendly and inviting manner – asking if we wanted to play some submarine card game with them. It really hammered home that feeling of being a place to chill out and play board games and TCG with friends and strangers alike.

Well, there was some merch but mainly Cryo's own stuff. 

Technically there was an Artist Alley but there was only one seller and it was someone who was related to the Cryo crew or something so yeah, seemed more like an insider "doing a friend a favor" promotion thing than the typical artist alley application procedure. I do like the thought given to help a dear person's business get a chance at some sales. :') 

There was a flea market but it was like 95% board games, of course!

Miniature figure promotions. I guess this was the closest to a merch dealer? :D

I made sure to write my name on the guestbook laying on the table when we entered because I heard from a guy that it directly affects Maracon's future, it's kind of proof of the event having visitors and so it affects their chances at getting green light to hold it again – you know, budget stuff. I think it's a very good way to safeguard the continuation of small events like this; Mericon used a similar approach with guestbooks and I'm surprised that it's not more common, actually.

View of the entrance as seen from the opposite direction.

Fun fact is that I originally considered cosplaying at Maracon and was trying to choose between a handful of options. In the end I decided against it and I'm quite relieved I did because, on Saturday at least, I didn't see a single cosplayer. I would have felt so out of place and overdressed! I get easily anxious if I'm like the only one who stands out lol. I don't know how uncommon cosplayers are because I remember talking with some Cryo representative at Matsucon this year and he said that there has been cosplayers before. Hmmm. Maybe I'll cosplay another time now that I know what the location is like.

Maracon rules, ads and stuff.

In hindsight I kinda wish I would have brought my old cards, just to strike conversations with people. I saw people sitting in tables playing all kinds of different TCGs and I felt like "man I wish I had put effort into learning how to play properly" because yeah, I can count on one hand the amount of times I actually played with my Pokémon cards and yeah, if anyone remembers that old Pokémon TCG Play it! CD-ROM game from the late 90s then I used to play that a lot at least. xD I remember the disc looking like the pokéball on the back of the cards. If you know what I'm talking about please leave a comment lmao! I can't be the only one whose early PC days consisted of playing this game over and over again...

Dungeons & Dragons session going on, me thinks.

You were free to pick and play anything!

I've never been big on board games but I've also had this interest to try... but only if someone who knows the game from prior can play with me and explain how it works. I'm just really bad at comprehending complicated rules when you have to pick it up on the spot and remember it throughout the whole play session – I just get really overwhelmed easily and then my anxiety spikes because I feel like I'm just too dumb to play and annoying if I constantly ask for help and explanations over and over again lol. It's like I want to learn to play some games that look interesting but I can't get myself to actually start because of this fear. 
And in a way I guess that's one of the reasons I, at least subconsciously, wanted to go to Maracon so I could just mingle and look at others playing without feeling any kind of pressure – just soaking up the vibes and allowing myself to get interested without that negative self-talk in the back of my head telling me I'm a nuisance if I show interest. Not sure if I even make sense here but yeah, I just have this massive mental hurdle with interest and ability to take in new information clashing.. and with anxiety added on top.

More board games. There was a sign you could hold to recruit players too.

I lowkey wanted to try that East India Companies game but I was too chickenshit to dare ask around if anyone had played it before and would be up to it. Maybe next time. It looked a bit like it might play similarly to Port Royale 4 which I started over a year ago and then just left hanging because I was terrified of messing up.

These doodles were cute lol.

And this is a mood on most days.

Oh, I should maybe mention at this point that Maracon also had different open hours than your average anime convention. Instead of the normal con hours (roughly 11:00-20:00 each day) Maracon started late-ish on Friday night and then it was up and running 24/7 until Sunday evening sometime. So technically for anyone so inclined you could pull an allnighter on the Saturday.

Some kind of food/kitchen area, not entirely sure.

I'm not sure if the cafeteria-looking area above was actually a cafeteria or just some kind of self-service kitchen? I know a guy handed me a glass of water when I asked though. xD 
It was hard to know who was a Cryo main organizer and who was just an attendant so whenever I needed to ask any kind of important questions (like if you really needed to change the parking disc every 2 hours or if it was arranged so that there would be no parkkipirkkos harassing visitors) it was a game of "who looks and acts knowledgeable". I don't even know if Maracon has volunteer workers but I would assume there were at least a few? I just didn't see any badges or anything that implied someone had worker status.

At least cleanliness was taken care of.

I overheard something that made it sound like the pizzeria next doors had some kind of deal with Maracon so that visitors got like a 10% discount or something. Shame I had already had a pizza earlier or I would have tested this. xD I love pizza but too much is too much. There's something so iconic with geeks getting together and hordes of pizza boxes and soda cans lying everywhere.

The pizza tower had ambitions. Maybe it was larger before. :')

On the opposite side of the cafeteria thingy was the living room, well, room. When I asked where the half-promised video game room was I was pointed here. I was a bit disappointed because I had been led to believe there would (could?) be retro games and so of course my brain thought it meant retro game consoles – but there was just a single TV and Steam. But apparently there was some kind of issue with getting it to work (I don't even have Steam so I don't know what the problem was) and it seemed like it was unusable this time.

You could, in theory at least, play on Steam if you wanted something digital.

I have no idea how many visitors there were but it felt like a decent amount. There was never a crowd anywhere nor was it hard to move around. Something I really appreciated was the amount of sofas, chairs, bean bags, mattresses and other stuff you could rest your legs on. People also seemed mindful of the personal space of others and I didn't even get a whiff of the infamous con funk anywhere, which I half expected to come across.

View from above.

Tables were set up everywhere, including upstairs.

Once you had picked out a game to play (or found someone to do a TCG match with) you just had to find an empty table to sit at. I noticed while wandering around that there were a lot of rooms along the corridors, in the big gymnastic hall etc – it didn't look like there was any real risk of running out of tables!

This room was full!

At some point I was sitting on the couch near the entrance and someone randomly came up to me and asked if I was interested in a miniature figure painting challenge. I asked if there's like a cost to participate and there wasn't so I was like why the hell not? :D It's been one of those things I've wanted to try out eventually but that eventually came now. You even got to keep the figurine once you were done!

Four color painting challenge!

My little alien worm thing. I only saw the reference after finishing. :D

This was surprisingly fun! A bit tricky with all the small details and yeah, it took me a while to figure out how to best paint the thing because the paints didn't really behave like I expected them to, despite being acrylics. It was a bit difficult at first but once I got the hang of it it was really satisfying. Would absolutely do it again if this kind of opportunity comes up! Maracon gets the honors of taking my miniature figure painting virginity lol. 

By the way, for anyone curious about the figurine itself I understood it was some kind of promotional figure used exclusively in events that's an original creation so yeah, not based on any existing franchises like Warhammer 40K or the likes. I heard some bros talking about how they went about designing it, like inspirations and what they were trying to achieve etc.

The main hall had most of the tables...

... and loads of happy nerds enjoying themselves.

Eventually our group of four (or well, five at this point since Firith stumbled upon a familiar face) ended up getting our hands on Trial by Trolley, a party board game with art from the famous webcomic Cyanide & Happiness. This looked easy enough to understand and the familiar art pulled me in lol. It turned out to be a blast and yeah, while we were playing some randoms came to watch us play (I guess we were entertaining xD) and eventually they joined us and so we had this merry cluster of random nerds just trying to play this hilarious dark humor game.
If you haven't played Trial by Trolley before and enjoy Cards Against Humanity and the like then you should definitely give it a spin.

Trial by Trolley starting. This was our starting group composition.

It was nerve-wrecking to be the conductor because you had to make the choice of which team to run the trolley over and yeah, despite it not being a serious game at all it felt like or more like my anxiety made it feel like you'd have to disappoint someone and get judged for your morals or lack thereof.

We did play some Cards Against Humanity as well, or more like the expansion called Crabs Adjust Humidity. I was a spectator at this one but I did make some of Firith's card choices lol. This seemed fun and easy enough to play too but I was a bit bothered by how many of the cards were US-centric and thus alienating for European players because we don't have that lived experience. Wish all cards were neutral.

Eventually I started yawning nonstop and that's when it hit us, or at least me, that it's getting pretty late. We wrapped up our playing session and bid farewell to Maracon. It takes us a bit more than one hour to drive everyone back home and so we couldn't stay super late. 

All in all Maracon was a worthwhile experience and a breath of fresh air. I went in with rather low expectations and thus I wasn't hyping myself up with unrealistic ideas of what it "should be like". Of course it would have been nice if there had been more things to buy, be it a proper Artist's Alley or a Dealer's Hall or a mix of the two, but in no way was it detrimental to the overall value of the event. 
I would consider visiting Maracon again, it's a welcoming low-threshold event for the more traditionally geeky hobbies; think "western nerd stuff" instead of "eastern nerd stuff" and you get the gist of expectations correct. I do want to mention that –if your interests are strictly within the anime subgenre and you have zero interest in any other subgenre of geekery– then you might not enjoy what Maracon offers. 

I definitely had my share of fun and the whole event was delightfully slow-paced and full of friendly vibes. So yeah, if you're into Pokémon cards, Magic the Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh! and the likes you will definitely find kinship and company here to chat and battle against. I think there might have been some sort of tournaments and stuff going on too because I saw some card playmats that were reserved for something? And if you're a board game enthusiast then Maracon is keeping you well-fed and entertained for hours as well.

Bonus pic: don't take the bad bread.

Is Maracon something up your alley? Remember that you're welcome to attend all the Maracon events even if you're not a member of Cryo's club! 

Thanks for reading! I'm still not done with con summaries for this year hehe..
~ Shiro Samurai out.

Lens review: G&G Blossom Blue

Hello and welcome to my blog!

It's been a while since I last did a circle lens review (weird innit? xD) but there's one on the plate today and it's the G&G Blossom Blue! For those unaware G&G, Barbie and Dueba are all different names for the same brand – it's quite common with circle lenses that lenses are rebranded and/or relabeled and thus you can sometimes find the same lenses sold under different names.

Let's get this review started~

Base curve: 8.8 mm
Diameter: 14.3 mm

Water content: 38%

Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)

This is a pretty blue lens with a swirly flowerish print, it's rather cutesy in style and a safe choice for cosplayers when it comes to versatility – in fact I bought these as unspecified stand-ins for whenever I next needed blue lenses for any cosplay; these are generic enough (in a good way) to fit a wide range of characters. These pack a punch of color but I think this might be one of those lenses where the intensity of the color will depend on how light/dark your natural eye color is – I have very light gray-blue eyes and these are quite vibrant on me!

One lens in. 

The color appears a single shade of blue with a black thick limbal ring, there's no gradient effects so in a way it looks flat and 'anime' which, again, makes it suitable for costuming and lolita fashion etc. :) The black outer rim is very noticeable and it adds greatly to the illusion of large, animated doll-like eyes. This is the kind of circle lens style I personally feel can look a bit weird without any kind of eye makeup to frame in the eyes, but of course it will depend on several factors like how large your eyes are and such.

I feel like these have a slightly smaller pupil opening than other similarly large circle lenses, which means that less of your natural eye color shows through in the middle. I personally appreciate this because sometimes the transition can look jarring, especially if there's a big difference between the colors or when there's no blending to make the shift smoother. Regardless, I don't notice any impaired vision or colored corners at the edges of my vision.

Lens photos coming below! All photos are taken by me during an October afternoon with a semi-clear sky. There's no color filters or such on the close-up photos and that's so that the colors would appear as true to real life as possible.

Indoors, natural room light.

Indoors, yellow room light.

Flash photo.

Bathroom light.

Indoors, facing a window. (not sun side)

Outdoors, back against the sun. (facing wall)

Outdoors, facing the sun while under a shadow.

Outdoors, facing the sun.

I have naturally sensitive and dry eyes but I've managed to wear these twice for a full con day (8 hours approximately) with little to no issues, which marks these as very comfortable in my book. They're thin and easy to insert and despite the lower water content I didn't feel that they dried out any faster than other lenses with higher water contents? Water content I feel isn't really a good indicator for comfort anyway so I tend to not judge based on that. But yeah, these are some of the comfier lenses I've worn lately and based on comfort and overall versatility I would repurchase these if needed.

All in all this is a great staple lens, it sits interestingly between 'classic' and 'unique'  because it feels like I've seen this design many times before but when I try to search for it I realize that no other design has those same petal spikes lol. It's a beautiful and colorful lens and can really make you look ethereal and lively! It's honestly a good lens to have lying around for when the need crops up. I also would like to mention that this is lowkey a chameleon lens because the vibrancy and shade of blue it appears to be changes a lot depending on the light conditions – as in sometimes it looks like a darker medium blue and other times it's this really captivating intense blue!

Distance photo time!

You can check my Nekocon 2025 summary and scroll to the America cosplay photos to see how the lenses look under the shade of greenery outdoors, which is notably darker than on the photo above.

Short summary:

Color: 8/10
A cute and soft, very flattering blue shade that shows up great on light eyes.
Design: 8/10
Beautiful yet simple flowery design, it draws your gaze in and looks lively and adorable!
Opacity: 7/10
I can't speak for how well these would show up on darker eyes but for me they're definitely opaque enough to be a good purchase. Nothing crazy but just right for a lot of uses.
Enlargement: 6/10
I'd say a bit on the large side but nothing insane. Great dolly size.
Comfort: 9/10
One of the comfier lenses I've had in a while. I don't feel them at all and I can wear them for a full day at events despite having dry-ass eyes naturally. 

Naturalness: 2/10
Not much in the way of being natural; the black rim is way too pronounced and the color is too.. well, colorful to really pass lol.

Cheers and stay tuned for more lens reviews coming up!
Shiro Samurai out~