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~

Chibicon 2012 cosplay plans!

Hi everyone!

Chibicon is coming up at the beginning of next month and, after some thought, I have finally settled on my cosplay plans for the con. I don't know much about Chibicon, I've barely heard about it before but I heard an anime convention was coming to Oulu and yeah, that's enough to get my interest. xD

My original plans included bringing my Ichigo Kurosaki cosplay back but I read up on Chibicon's cosplay prop rules and it seems like they have some limits in place and well, my supreme super-sized zanpakutou would probably end up collecting dust all con day in the cloakroom and that would be kinda uncool. Very uncool. My Ichigo cosplay just isn't that impressive without the oversized butcher knife. Chibicon's rules don't like big props and that means Ichigo has to remain sulking in my closet.

So what am I cosplaying instead, then? Something else from Bleach, of course.

I'm gonna go with Byakuya's first appearance version. Anyone who has watched the anime or read the manga might remember that the first time he shows up in the series is when he arrives in the real world together with Renji in tow. What makes this version different from his standard attire is that he isn't wearing his captain's coat and instead appears in just his shinigami garbs. It's a peculiar thing, I'm not sure why the cloak was omitted but regardless this version exists canonically and that means I'm gonna cosplay it!

As much as I would like to do Byakuya's default outfit I just don't have the energy to make another captain's coat right now. I thought that this version would be a nice middle-of-the-road option where I get to do a character I really like in a version that's quick to put together and on top of that it's one that's rarely done. If ever?

I've already made those kenseikan hair pieces or, as I like to call them, "hair bananas" lol. I made them very budget-friendly by bending and stacking two layers of cardstock paper on top of each other and then using thin cardboard for the bottom and I shaped it with staples and secured it with duct tape for stability on the underside. It probably sounds incomprehensible and yeah, this was a bit of a trial and error project where I had to make do with what I had easily and cheaply accessible. During my first test run they were too big and thus troublesome to attach; I had to use strategically placed bobby pins to keep them somewhat in place. I later modified my kenseikan and now they sit a bit better and are easier to attach.. although I could still use a helping hand to fasten them, heh.

I've also made his scarf. It was very easy to do. We had this whole pretty white fabric roll at home and I wrapped several meters around my neck in front of the mirror to check the drape before commiting, lol.

I measured around 2,5 meters of that fabric (yes the whole width, huge scarf is huge) cut it out and sewed it. It feels like I'm having a whole curtain wrapped around my neck. xD I hope this thing doesn't get hot and I also hope I won't need to pin it in place lol. Damn you Byakuya and your über-precious-family-heirloom-crème-de-la-crème scarf...

That's all for now, bye!
Shiro Samurai out~