Some of you who read my Kitacon summary might remember that I mentioned that I had a quick cosplay photoshoot during the con. I debuted my Hatori Sohma costume and my friend Firith did Ayame Sohma to accompany me. ^^ It was quite chilly outside but we managed to get at least a few usable photos, even though a big chunk was unusable because of wrong focus or just not sharp enough. The photographer was my brother and he's sadly not very camera savvy, but we did the best of the situation and got a few good shots.
I just want to note that even though I used a real cigarette as a prop (Hatori is a smoker) on one of the photos I'm not a smoker myself. Firith let me borrow a cigarette but it wasn't lit.
I don't have anything else to say. Thanks for viewing! Shiro Samurai out.
Ah, Kitacon. That one comfy but small local convention that I've been attending for years. This year it was held on 29th October in a building called Sauvotalo in Kemi, Finland. As per usual I went there with my friends; a con with free entrance that is not far away is always a good way to brighten up an otherwise ordinary weekend.
Kitacon 2016 poster.
But before I get to the actual con summary I want to tell you a bit about the pre-con Friday!
Sacchan was sleeping over at my place and on the day before the con we were at a small Halloween party that Frozen Angel held at his apartment. Fun part is that during said small party I got really tired early but, of course, once I got home, took a shower and prepared to go sleep I... yeah, guess what? My tiredness just disappeared into some deep dark void and suddenly I couldn't fall asleep before I had tried 400 different sleeping positions and done a sacrifice to Satan. I don't remember exact times but I'm pretty dang sure I got less than 5 hours of sleep that night and, once our alarm clocks rung on the morning, I was so fucking tired I kept pressing the snooze button long after I should have gotten up. ._. I swear it was impossible – for a moment I even considered just staying home because of tiredness but, most of all, because my stomach was rampaging and shit was flying, literally. Yay, poop stories. In other words I was feeling really nauseous when I woke up; I had bad pains in my lower stomach and needed to run to the bathroom at least three times within 15 minutes – it was horrible. I constantly had the whole "I might puke" sort of feeling going on too. The con morning curse.
Once I actually managed to drag my ass out of bed it dawned on me that I had less than 1,5 hours to get ready (aka put on cosplay) before we had to sit in the car and be on our way to Kemi, at the latest. I realized that no way in hell would I have enough time and so I just became a filthy casual and jumped into the car. I also was too afraid to put on my cosplay only to realize that my nausea might get worse at the con and then I'd spend a too big chunk of my time frequenting bathrooms... No thanks.
But yeah, we got to the con a bit past 11:00 local time, safe and sound. I was being really wary and observative of what my body was doing and, because of this, I felt too unsafe to go attend the one and only panel that interested me. Oh well, it would have been too awkward to just suddenly leave because of an urgent need to run for the toilet...
Our company chilled around for a while, checked what the con had to offer and so on. Some sellers I recognized from earlier years but I think there was some new stuff for sale too. I didn't buy anything but a few items caught my interest, especially those kind of surprise bags. I mean, there were Pokémon themed ones! I also saw that someone was selling an used copy of Mario Party 6 for 44 € and I was really tempted because it's one of the Gamecube games that I'm still missing in my collection...
At times it was quite crammed, especially in the Dealer's Hall, but it was manageable.
Random main hall (incl. Dealer's Hall) photo.
After about an hour or so, maybe less, Sacchan told me that she'd go pick up her little brother because he also wanted to attend the con. I decided to come with her for company; she didn't live so far away anyway so I wouldn't be gone from the con for too long. Besides, I realized that my berserk stomach had calmed down a bit and I thought that it would be easier to change into my Hatori cosplay at Sacchan's home than at a small bathroom in the con, which were almost always occupied anyway. I wasn't patient enough to play the toilet waiting game.
Once we arrived at Sacchan's home I threw my cosplay bag into the caravan on the yard and went to say hello to their 13-year-old dachshund mix Piki. ;A; He's such a cute black sausage dog, I just can't. ♥Sacchan put on the heat in the caravan because it was cold as fuck in that shit. I froze my butt off doing my makeup in there but I'm a true Finn and endured it like a man, lol. I was literally doing my makeup in my underwear and a leather jacket.
Oh and yeah, of course when I cosplay a character who only has one eye visible you can be sure that I'm gonna mess up the eye makeup and yeah, guess which one eye got covered by the wig? :-DD The one with the more succesful makeup of course – the other, visible eye, looked like a case of "end my miseryyyyy".
I didn't check the time when we got back to the con but our fetch-Joni-and-put-on-my-cosplay trip maybe took an hour or so. I remember Firith calling me and asking where we were; I of course told him that I had started to feel better and were putting on my Hatori cosplay so that we could have a quick photoshoot together later on.
At the con we quickly reunited with the group and just chilled around for a while.
Dealer's Hall items. Surprise bags always tempt me...
Pokémon merchandise.
We all wanted to go check the Artist's Alley upstairs since that has turned into one of my "must visit" priorities at cons lately. I don't know but I've kinda started to take a bigger interest in Artist's Alley merch and now I find myself buying more from there than from the actual merch sellers, if that makes sense. I just love seeing all the items that every person creates (it's always a surprise what's up for sale at each con!) by hand and, as an artist myself, it makes me happy to support the work of artists that I like by buying their products. Fan-made merch have a different feeling to them since each piece is unique, you know.
One half of the Artist's Alley.
I remember when I was at Artist's Alley in my Hatori cosplay a random person came up to me, excitedly, and asked if I was cosplaying Sebastian. I assumed they meant the one from Kuroshitsuji and I answered that I was Hatori. They just left without a word and I felt really awkward...
I can sorta understand the mixup though because both wear a suit and have black hair but yeah, neither their suits nor their hair style is the same so... *shrugs* It's not the first time someone mistakes my cosplay for Sebastian Michaelis – the same thing happened several years ago too when I cosplayed Toshizo Hijikata's Sweet School Life version (also wearing a black suit) from Hakuouki but, then again, this one makes a lot more sense because they're basically hair twins, almost. Fun fact is that both times I got mistaken for Sebastian I cosplayed different characters but had the same wig, except that my current Hatori wig is actually my former Hijikata wig that I cut shorter and styled.
Those dolphin plushies were so cute. I always had a thing
for marine animals ~
At Artist's Alley I found one of my favorite sellers in the north – it's the lovely tammukkasart's and hirnuperna's table! It's funny because I've been pretty much a regular at their table, almost always buying something at each con. I hope I don't sound like a stalker now, lol. I just love that they create merch from several different fandoms (as well as animals etc) and they are super fun and nice to talk to! I actually spent some time just babbling away and it was fun when they remembered me from previous cons, omg! It always feels so surreal somehow, ahaha. ;u; If I'm completely honest their table is one of the ones that I'm always hoping to find when I go to all these smaller local cons – it's the same people I bought my dragon form Haku (Spirited Away) and Magikarp scarves from and yeah, every time I wonder if there's any new ones up! Can't wait for the Gyarados one I heard was in the making.
Actually I got one of those Yamato no Kami Yasusada (Tourabu) keychains as a freebie and I was about to drop my jaw on the floor! ;O; I almost didn't believe it and I had to ask again to be sure if I had heard wrong. I can't really even start to describe that mix of sudden surprise and happiness – they're so kind that I just... just... asghfdsjghfds. ♥ Do check them out (the names link to their tumblr accounts) and shower them with love! >//< I'm sorry by the way that the photo above is a bit grainy, it was taken not long before the con closed and the sun had already started to set, hence poor light conditions because yeah, this is northern Finland in the beginning of winter. Kaamos is approaching.
Of course there was the ogligatory sweets shop selling pocky, ramune etc.
Kitacon in itself doesn't have a huge lot of entertainment value but that's all the more reason for why I always go there with friends. It's one of those slow-paced comfy cons you go to and chill with your pals at. I didn't really care for watching the cosplay date nor the cosplay competition so most of my time I actually just spent walking around and then having a quick photoshoot outside with Firith as Ayame Sohma and me as Hatori. Those photos will be posted in a separate post so stay tuned for that, if you're interested.
This was one of the most interesting things up for sale for
a long-time Pokémon fan like me. The amount of nostalgy.
I'm actually surprised that seemingly no one recognized my cosplay. Or well, if someone did then they didn't tell me about it. Fruits Basket is a rather well-known series but, then again, Hatori looks extremely generic (black-haired guy in a suit) and not very interesting in a costume sort of way so yeah, I can understand very well. Oh well, not like I mind at all because I wanted a cosplay I could move around in freely and without any discomfort or annoying swords to carry, lol. Sometimes it's such a freedom to not constantly have to worry about bumping any props I might have into walls etc or potentially ruining my costume by sitting on the floor. Hatori was a good choice for this kind of slow-paced con because of its ease of wear. I sometimes feel like donning a more impressive cosplay is a bit of a waste at small cons anyway, because of the additional worries that comes with it.
Obligatory cosplay selfie. Bathroom edition.
It was nice to meet some friends I hadn't seen in a while as well, like Ronja. We didn't end up talking all that much but it was really nice to see her again and have a quick chat. I'm sorry though if I seemed a bit distant or something because yeah, at some point I was really freaking hungry and it was the only thing I could think of. xD
Oh yeah, some hours into the con everyone in my company were indeed hungry so we decided on where to go eat; most wanted to go to Subway but there were some votes for Hesburger too. I belonged to the Subway group together with Sacchan and her lil' bro Joni and because we're lazy fucks we took the car there. Real reason is that it was cold, mind you. We all took the cheapest (daily) option and I decided to try it with two sauces instead of just one – it was good to mix barbeque and ranch dressing, hehe.
The con's cafeteria sold some cute bakeries.
Sometime after eating I went into that one crafting room at the con. I don't know what its proper name would be in English but you know, that kind of room where you can draw and do creative stuff – it's really common in most cons I've been to. I ended up doing one of those doodle puzzle piece thingies to kill some time, it was fun. Sacchan drew her signature Buttman and then she drew... Hijikakka. Don't ask. xD
Yes, it's a Hijikata poop pun.
Made by Sacchan.
I also paid a visit to the gaming room a couple times. As soon as I entered I felt hyper nostalgic because there were only 8-bit and 16-bit games in there! I saw someone playing my childhood drug Super Mario World on Super Nintendo and all the memories just came flooding back! All the games were even played on those old fat televisions – all the better because it gave the right feeling.
The first time around I tried playing some Megaman 2 but that... didn't go so well. Damn those frogs and those falling chocolate bridges!
Megaman 2 gaming. Yes, that's the chocolate bridges I meant.
I'm not sure if Kitacon always had a video game room or not but, if they did, then I feel really fucking dumb right now. :)) I just can't help but wonder because if the gaming room was in earlier Kitacons too then I could have spent a lot more of my time in there enjoying myself while playing classics instead of being bored because hey, I love old-school games and playing them make me a happy geek. I don't own a SNES currently big sister wanted it back ffuu ffuu so any chance to play childhood games at a con is already a pretty sure way to tempt me to go there.
The last 30 minutes or something I spent at the gaming room as well. This time the Super Mario World was free and so I of course picked up the controller and played. It was fun to notice that even after years and years of not playing the game I still remembered secrets and where enemies appear etc. :D Of course I was far from as good as I used to be at the game but still definitely not bad. I really should buy myself a SNES one day, I need this shit in my life.
My loots. Everything's from Artist's Alley!
Articuno acrylic phone strap, Yasusada keychain and a magnet.
We stayed at Kitacon until it closed and even after it closed we had to stay there and wait because we got some problems with the car *coughnogasolinecough* and didn't want to wait outside in the cold. We got home safe and sound and, all in all, I really enjoyed this year's Kitacon surprisingly much. The video game room definitely did a lot in terms of giving me something to do. ^^ Sure that the con has free entrance and probably not a big budget or anything but considering how small it is it's a good one, I'd definitely keep on attending Kitacon.
I'm probably forgetting to tell a lot of stuff but I feel like this post is already getting a bit long so yeah, thanks for reading and yada yada. Shiro Samurai out.
Some days ago I felt like it was high time to grab myself by the collar and do a makeup try-out for Hatori Sohma from Furuba, whom I will be debuting at Kitacon shortly. This costume was originally supposed to be worn at Cosvision earlier this year but yeah, shit happened. :/ I did a costume test a while ago too but I never actually tried out the makeup and, well, nowadays I don't feel too comfortable just improvising something on the con morning. Too high risk of fucking it up.
I noticed when I took out the wig that, since I originally styled it before Cosvision, some of the hairs had gotten crooked while being packed away and well, now their default positions are really wonky and ugly. I'll need to run it down with a straightener and, possibly, wash and restyle it before the con because yeah, it looks like crap right now. Hatori would never let his hair be unkempt, lol.
Some Hatori selfies ahead (aka no photographer) ~
Oh and yeah, the lenses I'm using are the Flora Diva Violet, great for bishounen characters!
I'm not 100% satisfied (can someone teach me how to makeup? ;_; it's so harrrrrd) and I don't think this will be the final look that I'll don for the con; I'm fairly likely to at least try changing it up but this should give you guys a general idea.
I'm still trying to figure out how to make the whole "anime eye" look work on my eyes because it feels like no matter what I do my (deep) eyelid crease gets in the way and fucks it all up. It's extremely frustrating and especially when none of my current liquid liners dry fast enough and yeah, then I accidentally open my eyes too early or something and, BAM, all my hard work is smeared all over my eyelids. >_> Also, lower lashes are a bitch when you're trying to use liquid eyeliner under your eye. People always told me I have beautiful long lashes but they're honestly a pain in the ass and constantly in the way, lol. Anybody wanna trade? orz
Psst, I'm going with the manga version –on which he has violet eyes– instead of the anime. I highly preferred the manga anyway and it was the one I first checked out – I honestly think the anime is crap (sorry!) but the manga is really good. Another good thing is that Firith will join me as Ayame Sohma, which should be a lot of fun as well as help with character recognization because, err, Hatori sadly looks like a really generic anime guy in a suit. Too bad I don't have any seahorse or dragon plush to carry with me, that could help as well...
That's about all I have to say for this quick costest. See you at Kitacon!
My next convention will be Kitacon in Kemi, Finland, held on 29th October in Sauvotalo. I see no reason not to go there seeing that I live close and Kitacon has always had free entrance, woop! Free local cons are always appreciated for a poor student like me, lol. I will go there with Sacchan and some other friends and, as per usual, I have little to no expectations of the con itself – Kitacon rarely has any kind of big things happening and I always spend a huge majority of my time just derping around with friends and chilling at some random corner. Not like it's a bad thing though because it's really relaxing with a small-scale con every once in a while. ^^
At first I wasn't sure if I could be bothered to cosplay, since Kitacon has always been one of those small "hang with friends" type of conventions, but after some thinking I decided to bring a costume – especially when Firith asked if I could do a pair cosplay with him. Firith was considering to bring Ayame Sohma from Furuba and asked if I could join in so that he wouldn't have to be lonely Ayame again; he even said that going solo in said cosplay had started to taste like wood. I can wholly understand, solo cosplaying is rarely as fun as group cosplaying when you get the chance. So of course, as the good friend I am, I decided to spare my pal from another wooden experience.
Cosplay plans in 3.... 2.... 1...
Series: Fruits Basket
Character: Hatori Sohma
So I decided on going with Hatori, mainly because he fits with Ayame, is easy to wear and I was originally supposed to debut him earlier this year anyway but then shit happened and yeah, it's been bugging me since then. ^^" I needed a costume that I can easily change out of because –as how things seem right now– after the con I'll be heading for a Halloween party so yeah, nothing too complicated that takes hours to take off. Hatori is a lovely character anyway, one of my favorites from Fruits Basket. I'm glad I get a second chance to debut him together with Firith as Ayame ~
That's all for this quickie. Hatori makeup test coming soon so stay on the line!
My next convention will be no less than Närcon on 28-31 July in Linköping, Sweden. I'm honestly super pumped about attending the con (even though it has its faults) with my friends and yeah, I can't wait! ヽ(＾Д＾)ﾉ As things seem to look right now I will be traveling to Närcon with Sacchan, Ronya and Vicktor. There might still be place in our northern carpool for one more person though, maybe... *hinthint*
You see, for months now I've been fretting over what to cosplay and now, finally, it seems like I have an idea about my cosplay plans that might actually hold for longer than one week. Maybe.
I've honestly been scrapping my plans and changing them every second day or something and, meanwhile, time is running out and now I don't even have enough left to safely order a new wig etc. D:
But after a lot of thinking I managed to come up with some costumes but one of the main days still lacked a cosplay – either Friday or Saturday. I thought that I'd be pretty much forced to recycle a cosplay by now, for aforementioned reasons (lack of tiiiiiime), but I felt unsure because most of my cosplays are really hot to wear during summer and yeah, Närcon is not Närcon without its infamous heat wave!! I really don't like overheating at cons –which happens easily– and I want to believe that, by now, I should have learned from my mistakes... or not. Oh and yeah, it's also quite common that it will rain during Närcon, which makes me iffy to wear any cosplays that includes vintage silk kimono, out of fear for water stains – this and the heat wave limits my cosplay recycle choices a lot. (´＿｀。) *sniff*
But now, hopefully this will be my final cosplay plans!
There will be a Fruits Basket cosplay group meet on Thursday, hence why I will bring Kazuma there and then change to Greece once either the meet is "over" or when it gets too warm because it will.
Lugia will be a kimono-style gijinka and for Friday I thought long and hard before I finally decided on recycling Ibuki; I even asked over at my Facebook page for cosplay suggestions and one of my friends said Hakuouki and that's when it hit me – I haven't worn Ibuki much! I've fixed some size issues with the costume earlier (so he's ready to be reworn) and, best of all, it's my least toasty of all my current Hakuouki cosplays!
In a way both Friday and Saturday can be considered main days and thus I thought that I would maybe rather wear Lugia on Saturday because it will be quicker to put on and yeah, Ibuki will take a while and on Friday I'll likely have more energy and hype (or 'pepp', as we say in Sweden) to put time and effort into Ibuki's demanding makeup. Dem Hakuouki eyes. I know myself well enough that during a 4-day con I will be the most energetic and hyped on the first two days and on the third day I'll probably have the "still fun but I've seen everything" syndrome and on the last day I will just want a bubbletea and then go home and take a long shower, lol. So yeah, Ibuki first and Lugia second felt like the best way to roll.
I do have some small stuff to try out before all my cosplays are ready (mainly makeup and circle lens tests) and I might also need to make some accessories for Lugia (depending on what my finalized design will be) and restyle the wig for Greece. I'm just hoping that the gloves I ordered for Lugia will arrive on time, otherwise I will just have to deal without and add them for another time...
But yeah, I might do some pre-Närcon costume previews, makeup tests, circle lens reviews yada yada! Keep an eye out!
Cosvision is really close now and I'm honestly kinda panicking here; I haven't even started packing yet and we'll leave on Friday morning or afternoon, oops. I'm just a bit all over the place and I'm currently super stressed about a shitlot of things, argh! But yeah, with this post at least I get one thing less to fret about, namely knowing that my Hatori costume works and looks as it should. Mostly.
Hatori in the anime. Just to show what color reference I'm going with.
It's heavily implied in the manga at least that Hatori is pretty much never seen wearing anything except formal wear. He also wears very expensive designer's suits but yeah, since I'm a poor student I can't do the same, obviously. ( ; 3;) I do have a few suit jackets but they're all second-hand findings so ssssch about that. I went with a black one since that's the standard color and at least he has a black one on the screenshot above.
This one looks dark brown though...
But yeah, I decided to roll with black this time since black is always black and my pants were black anyway. Hatori should technically have other colors too if that's the only things he wears lol; I'd be bored out of my mind if my whole wardrobe only consisted of black suits...!
I did a super quick outfit try-on, to check that everything looks okay, and luckily at least it doesn't look like shit, lol. The wig might need some further styling but as I said on the wig post I'll do that at the hotel. ^^" Oh and yeah, I completely skipped all makeup (sorryyyyy) because I honestly couldn't be bothered just for the sake of one crummy mirror photo. I had no photographer available. I'll just improvise the makeup on the con morning and pray to the cosplay gods that it succeeds...
Note: Obviously (dirty) mirror photo. Hence why the covered eye is reversed.
I crappily blurred out the whole background, since it was really distracting because of the mess and yeah, blended in too much with all the black too. Oh and yeah, ignore the blank stare please – I guess I did the 'memory suppression' on myself, lolololo. I haven't decided yet if I'll keep the jacket open or closed; Hatori does both though so it doesn't really matter in terms of character accuracy. Oh well, whatever I do Hatori does not really have any signature traits that makes him stand out from all the other "handsome and properly dressed men" in anime so yeah, I might not be recognized anyway. x) I guess the only thing really making him a bit less generic-looking is the blocked left eye but yeah, that's about it. I hope having Firith running around as Ayame Sohma with me will help people know that I'm supposed to be a Sohma family member too and not just a random guy in a suit, lol.
This is the last post you'll see from me before Cosvision! Hang on and I'll be back after 23-24th April with a con summary! ~ Shiro Samurai out.
Cosvision is really close now and I thought it's about time that I finish Hatori up! I actually have the whole costume ready, save for the wig. Closet cosplay, ssch.
I decided to sacrifice my old Hijikata wig for Hatori since I've bought another pure black wig for Hijikata, to match with the ponytail clip-on. You see, this wig, while it may look black on first glance, is actually a super dark brownish black and it looked horrible with the clip-on because, in some lights, you could clearly see the color difference – it started to annoy me more and more over the years, lol. So yeah, seeing how I'm not using said wig for Hijikata anymore I thought I could give it a new life! I don't like having perfectly usable wigs just lying around and collecting dust...
Wig before cutting. Front and side.
Hatori actually changed his hairstyle slightly in both the anime and in the manga; I couldn't find any manga references on a quick search so I decided to go with anime images since there is no difference, as far as I can remember – I'm pretty sure the only notable difference on the manga and anime portrayals is his eye color.
I decided on doing the long-haired (the first version) instead of the short one, mainly because I like it a bit more. The short-haired version somehow looks so generic; I always thought long-haired Hatori was more recognizable in some way.
Hatori with long bangs...
... and with short bangs.
The reason he's covering his left eye is because he's almost blind on said eye. Fuck you, Akito. Hatori is a tragic character and I guess that's why I like him; I tend to prefer the more calm, quiet and kinda cold characters anyway and Hatori totally fits the bill.
Regarding styling the wig I didn't have to do all that much. I mainly shortened the bangs, straightened the sides –since they were wavy– and cut them shorter as well. I'm aware that the wig is not super accurate but I decided on leaving the sides a bit longer than what he has, mainly because I need something to frame my face because otherwise I look like shit... and then I feel uncomfortable.
Wig after cutting.
I will probably need to put in some more styling products and use some pins to keep certain parts in place but yeah, I'll save that for the con – don't want the styling to wear off before I even get to the hotel, lol. Might need to thin it down a bit too but yeah, we'll see.
Sacchan helped a bit with the cutting too, mainly to get both sides the same length since I have tendencies to fuck that up, haha.
Not so much more to say. I still need to do a preview test for Hatori, oh shit!
My next convention will be Cosvision in Hämeenlinna, Finland, on 23-24 April. I'm not sure if I've revealed it anywhere but there ya go – I'm coming after all!
The con is less than two weeks away now and yeah, I thought it would be about time to finally decide on what I'm going to cosplay there since, honestly, I've had a lot of problems with my cosplay plans changing every other day. ^^" I'm still not 100% sure that this is the final line-up but it should be – assuming that no sudden cosplay malfunction happens or such.
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Regarding the con itself I need to say that at first I was unsure if I would even attend Cosvision. I was on the very first one in 2014 and now that the second one is coming up I felt very conflicted about attending; one part of me remembered how much I enjoyed the first Cosvision and the other part reminded me of how uncomfortable I've felt at bigger conventions lately. In one way I had been waiting for the return of Cosvision very eagerly and, on the other hand, my anxieties were telling me that it's gonna be a waste of money because I might not even feel okay there. I felt so torn and it was horrible to try to decide on what to do.
One thing was sure though – I refused to go without a group of friends. And thus I quickly learned that my brother, Frozen Angel, really really really wanted to go. I didn't really want to let him down because he's been hyped about the con ever since I went to the first one and told him what a blast it was; I guess he regretted not going back then and now he wanted to make up for it. I also managed to get Sacchan interested and that made me feel safe and understood because now I had someone else who knew what I was feeling; we both were really uncertain about attending because we've both been feeling bad at cons lately, for various reasons, but then we just decided to gamble and went all "I'll go if you go and if we feel shit at the con then we'll just withdraw to a corner and play Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate together." – yaassss! Originally Ronya was supposed to come with us too but she had to jump out a few weeks before the con would roll in because of health reasons. I still hope we'll get to go to a con together soon. :'( Sorry about all the gloom but yeah, I'm really just hoping that Cosvision will be fun and that I won't feel shit there because, honestly, who wants to feel bad somewhere where you're supposed to feel safe and happy? I'm hoping it will have the same relaxed atmosphere as it had back when it was in Turku – I really want this to be a successful trip and not another Desucon Frostbite 2015.
But here comes the cosplay plans!
Saturday
Series: Pokémon
Character: Darkrai (gijinka)
This is the result of my "holy shit, I need to come up with a Saturday cosplay that I can pull from my closet!"-panic when I realized I had less than two weeks to go. Then again, I don't really mind because Darkrai is pretty cool and come on, he's like the Freddy Krueger of Pokémon, lol. Darkrai might not be one of my favorites (he's more Frozen Angel's type of Pokémon) because I prefer Cresselia and Arceus more from the same generation's legendaries/mythicals but yeah, I love me some black and spooky shit.
Sunday
Series: Fruits Basket
Character: Hatori Sohma
Hatori was not originally on my cosplay list (I had considered doing him once but that's about it) but then Firith asked me if I was interested in a Furuba pair cosplay –with him as Ayame– and I thought "why the hell not?". I mean, I haven't cosplayed from Fruits Basket in a while and Hatori is a very likable guy from the series – actually, he's my third favorite character from it. :)
I'll go with the random suit version instead of the probably-more-well-known vest and white doctor-ish jacket outfit. Oh and yeah, I'll do the long hair version and the manga portrayal instead of the anime version, which means that I'll have violet eyes instead of those weird dark greenish-gray eyes he has in the anime. Violet looks more fab, period. My reasoning though? The anime sucks and the manga is awesome and, besides, the manga is the original source anyway.
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That's about it for my plans. I hope to meet some friends at the con and I pray that it's gonna be worth it. I can say already now though that, as far as the cons in Finland go, I'm very unlikely to attend any other big con for the whole year; I'll still attend the local small cons but otherwise I'm really trying to save my money and prioritize some other things in life that are coming up this year. I have some Swedish cons in mind *coughnärconcough* that I want to go to but we'll see what my money situation says when the time is closer...
Thanks for reading and stay tuned for cosplay previews! Bye bye ~
A few days after Tracon it feels good to come back and write a little about it. This time I don't have all that much to say I hope so let's get on with it!
But first...
Have some ducks!
(from Sorsalampi outside Tampere-talo of course)
My journey to Tracon started early on Friday morning. Me, Jäätynyt Enkeli and Hasakitsuki woke up, ate breakfast and put in the last stuff in our suitcases and then we waited for my stepdad to come pick us up from our apartment. He drove us to Liikekeskus Corona in Kemi where we waited for the carpooler to turn up. Meanwhile we waited we went inside to Prisma and bought provisions for the trip - Moomin lemonade and candies, what did you expect?
We drove to Oulu where Jäätynyt Enkeli jumped off at the bus station (he would take the train) and then we went to pick up the driver's cousin from Oulu and then the journey down started. During the car trip down I mostly just played on my Nintendo DS and PSP and lagged. It didn't feel like it took super long (then again I'm used to traveling long distances) and soon enough we were in Orivesi. Yes, Orivesi, not Tampere. The carpool duo stopped here so me and Hasakitsuki had to take a train from Orivesi to Tampere, luckily one came after around 30 minutes. Now we hadn't preordered train tickets but that proved to be a good move and that's because when we were at the train the train conductor never came.. or it was that one guy who super-speeded past the cart. FREE RIDE AAAAWWW YEEEAAA! >8D
Oh well, at Tampere train station we were met by Ri-kun, exchanged hugs and walked to Omenahotels.. but before going to the hotel we went to a nearby foodstore to buy something to eat at the hotel. At Omppu we just chilled around until Jäätynyt Enkeli arrived and when it got late we went to sleep.
Saturday
The first con day arrived. We woke up at 08:00, had some breakfast and then started to put on our cosplays. All three of us had simple/casual cosplays so it didn't take all that long until everyone were ready. My cosplay for the day was Kureno Sohma from Fruits Basket and Tracon would be his debut con. I'm kinda happy I didn't choose Hijikata for Saturday because Saturday was a rather hot day and I would so have toasted.. c'mon, even Kureno was toasty! D: Then again, having a flashier cosplay on Saturday would have been more fun I guess.. Well well, our group of four walked to Tampere-talo and soon we split up because me and Hasakitsuki had to find the Fruits Basket group. It soon turned out that the meeting time had changed from 11:00 to 11:50 or something but we found everyone and took some pictures together. After that the group kind of split up and I just randomly walked around the con building, taking pictures of cosplayers, meeting friends and checking out the dealer's hall.
Random Kureno self-picture feat. pocket monster bird!
15:00 it was time for the symphonic wind ensemble at Iso Sali -which I had been looking forward to- so I went there with Ri-kun, Jäätynyt Enkeli, Hasakitsuki and Sairu-chan.
Symphonic wind ensemble playing the Red/Blue Medley from Pokémon, duh
I must admit that I didn't recognize any of the songs except the Pokémon medley (oh my god the waves of nostalgy when they played that one! <3) but that didn't stop me from having 45 minutes of my life well spent.
After the symphonic wind ensemble we all were super hungry except Sairu-chan so we headed out to town to get something to eat. Sadly Sairu-chan had to go back to the con half-way to help a friend or something and change cosplays but oh well. We ended up roaming a kebab place not too far away from the con and of course that meant what was on my plate was a..
Kebab animal!
Or well, we are more used to it in this form:
I must say the kebab was surprisingly good! I wonder how come I have only eated kebab maybe 5 times in all my life.. this needs to change!
With kebab animals inside me we rolled hihi back to the con and had a photoshoot at Sorsapuisto outside Tampere-talo. Gosh I love this place!
Soon enough we moved to another spot and had a follow-up photoshoot.
Again photographer was Jäätynyt Enkeli.
I didn't really do anything special on Saturday so I don't have so much more to say, when we got tired we just walked back to Omenahotels and derped around the rest of the night. I must say that the Saturday weather was surprisingly hot, felt like a summer day even though it's autumn! Not that I really complain though, Kureno isn't the warmest of cosplays. *coughunlikeprettymuchallmyothercosplayscough*
Oh oh, that reminds me! I met two of my con friends at one point and they told me this one pretty awesome story or whatever to call it - basically they had spotted me as Kureno from a distance and been asking themselves something like "is it [insert one of my internet nicknames here] or is it not? He's not wearing a kimono but it looks like him.. is it or is it not?". The thing is, I've pretty much always worn kimono cosplays to conventions (like, 95% of the time) and some people know me by that and well.. when I suddenly turn up in western clothes it seemingly throws people off and they don't instantly recognize me. :'DD Well, me too. lol My trademark is kimono style BOAHAHAAH ~ ... ehrm, yeah.
Sunday
We woke up one hour earlier than on Saturday, which meant 07:00 it was time to lift our asses up from the bed. Oh, ya know, everyone had casual cosplays on Saturday but Sunday was like.. how about the total opposite? :DD Yeah, so for me it was rasetsu!Hijikata and for Hasakitsuki oni!Chizuru from Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan, Ri-kun turned into Bilbo Baggins from The Hobbit and Jäätynyt Enkeli into his signature cosplay - Kratos Aurion from Tales of Symphonia. So yeah, there was contact lenses, kimono dressing, horns to put on your forehead, making ears pointy and gluing of feet hair going on in the hotel room on a Sunday morning. Hey, seems perfectly normal to me!
What also is perfectly normal is having a suitcase that is overflowing with ~STUFF~ and having Chizuru ordering Hijikata to sit on it so that there would even be a slight chance of getting it closed. It's not like we got it fully closed but almost.
This is how you do it!
(shitty photo quality is shitty, taken with my old camera by Jäätynyt Enkeli)
We left the hotel around 10:00 and walked to Tampere-talo with all our luggages. I'm happy no one died because it wasn't all that awesome.. and the weather wasn't either; kinda cloudy and boring but not cold at least.
When we got to the con I put on the rest of my cosplay - namely the ponytail, swords, headband and... blooooood ~ >8D Yup, it was weirdly fun to get your face and hands red! Hasakitsuki's face when a bloody Hijikata came out of the bathroom was pretty fabulous. When I was all donned up we went to walk around the con a bit and low and behold, we spotted Kazama!
Just had to strike a rival battle pose ~
Soon enough we decided to go outside to have a photoshoot because the weather forecast had promised slight rain around 13:00 to 15:00 and well -as our luck would have it- when we reached the wooden dock next to Sorsalampi and had taken a few pictures it started raining and the umbrellas came out - save the silk!
Luckily the rain ended soon enough so we just stood there waiting under our umbrellas until it ceased. Then our photoshoot continued! (and our efforts to not get ducks photobombing everywhere as well...)
Of course I also got my time to shine alone and some pretty cool gusts of wind made me look 20% cooler!
Photographer is still Sairu-chan.
Under the photoshoot someone else had laid their power-hungry eyes on ochimizu...
A CROW!
After ending our Hakuouki photoshoot I went to shoot Ri-kun's Bilbo Baggins cosplay. I must say that meanwhile I was shooting their cosplay I noticed that not all people around me were con-goers, then again it makes sense because we were in a pretty well-known park in Tampere. I swear some of the looks I got from the non con-goers were priceless, the best one being that little boy (maybe he was around 8 years old) who passed me by and stopped and stared with these huge eyes and open mouth. His expression was something between fear and fascination (or both?) and even when he had passed me his head turned back and he still stared at me while he walked. I swear his eyes were glued on me for what felt like 5 minutes.. xD I was trying not to scare him by doing a creepy smile or something because hey, it's perfectly normal [not] to have a bloody samurai with white hair and red eyes who walks with an obvious limp next to you. But yeah, pretty much everyone who wasn't a Tracon visitor stared at me.......... :'DD I wonder if anyone thought I was actually hurt..
After the photoshooting was over we bumped into Anniilaugh as Battousai version Kenshin and well, Kenshin got a sip of our drink of madness.. which is made by the blood of Moomins.
"This looks suspicious.."
One bad thing was that I missed the Zelda piano concert! It started 13:00 and during that time we were photoshooting our cosplays outside, damn! I had really wanted to go see it but meh, shit happens I guess. :'( Oh well, maybe this chance comes again...
The advertisement for the Zelda piano concert
When inside we went to sit in the cafeteria to relax. My hurt foot had been, well, hurting, over the weekend because of all the walking around so sitting down for a while was really appreciated. Hasakitsuki bought a bread to eat and we just sat there chilling.
Hijikata chillin'
Because I missed the Zelda concert I didn't have anything else to keep track on time for.. except that the carpoolers had informed me that we would need to leave 17:00. I decided to not go eat during the con time because if we went to eat outside it would probably take us an hour or two and I wanted to spend as much time with my friends as possible, especially Ri-kun whom I probably wouldn't see anymore for the year.
You know, except for the fact that it was pure awesome to be all bloody it was quite a bother sometimes too, mostly because I couldn't really touch anything without having to think first. Sure as hell I didn't want blood on my silk kimono because I don't even know if this thing washes out! With that said, I needed help whenever my cosplay was going everywhere as well as with carrying stuff and that help was always in the form of a certain oni. But despite the extra brain activity needed to do anything myself I'd totally want to be all bloody again!
assistant!Chizuru fixing headband
The Sunday went by really fast, really.. or more like, the whole Tracon did. During the last hours I just hung around with my friends; sadly Sairu-chan had to leave a few hours before us and I didn't get to say goodbye to her... :'( Neither did I get to say goodbye to Ri-kun. ;_; But at least one hour or so before we left I decided to take a roof photo of our group (except Sairu-chan who had left) looking up.. funny thing was that this random masked guy ninja'd his way into the photo just at the right moment! And the scary part was that I didn't even notice him until like 5 seconds after the photo was taken. Damn.
Random masked guy ninja photobombing.. WITH STYLE
With that I'll end my Tracon summary. All in all it was a great con (with surprisingly little rain for a change, if compared to the other cons of the year) and Tracon still stays as my favorite Finnish anime convention. Tampere-talo is just such a great location to host a convention in!
Oh, and lastly here's a cosplay photo video of all the photos I took of other cosplayers during the con weekend:
Thanks for a great con and bye bye ~
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Wait, you really thought I'd just let you leave like that?
This time I don't have any bonus pictures but I have... BONUS GIFS MOTHAFUCKAAH!! >8D
When I tried to get up - also known as "Chizuru, don't step on my hakama dangit!"
Drinking ochimizu... it's seemingly not very effective.
