Oulun Animeseminaari 2013 - Photoshoots and gaming

On 17-18 August, aka last weekend, was Oulun Animeseminaari (Oulu's anime seminar) in Oulu duh and of course I went there even though it's a small event.

Valve, aka the con building

I'll take it from the start hey! So me, Hasakitsuki and Jäätynyt Enkeli took the train from Kemi to Oulu on Friday evening. We were in Kemi like 1,5 hours before the train would leave so we went to Prisma with mom and got some provisions for the trip - Angry Birds candies and Moomin lemonade. Fuck yeah!
When the train finally arrived we took our stuff and went into the train to find the seats we had booked. The train trip only takes one hour so it was over rather quickly; I played Nintendo DS to pass the time. At Oulu we hauled our geeky asses to my aunt Leena's place in city and then we spread our stuff everywhere well, not really and played some New Super Mario Bros. Wii until it was time to sleep. I must say it was hilarious, barely any of us has played this game much if at all and so there was always someone who screwed up and died all the fucking time and it was just so bad that it was good. xD But yeah, because we couldn't pass the first castle in the 2nd world (sand world) after OVER NINETHOUSAAAND!!1 tries we gave up and went to sleep... and yeah, it was late too.

Saturday

Saturday morning came. The weather forecast had promised rain for most of the day so our trio decided to change our cosplay plans so that our Bleach day would be Saturday instead of Sunday because at least I don't want to wear Hakuouki cosplays when there's a super high risk of rain...
Okay, so Bleach day it was and for me it was time to dust off my Ukitake cosplay. I swear when I took my shinigami robes out and all and put them on they smelled exactly the same as they had always done. I felt nostalgic. :') Maybe I'm getting old. lol Luckily Captain TB Ukitake is one of these cosplays that's pretty quick to put on so I didn't take forever changing.
When we all were done we headed out for Oulu city with a map drawn by le aunt. We ended up going through city and I must say the best reaction we got was this middle-aged man who biked past us and when he saw us his face gradually went from neutral to super-smile. It was infectious! xD When we got to Kulttuuritalo Valve we went inside and pretty instantly found Sairu-chan, who cosplayed Retsu Unohana. With Sairu-chan at our side our Bleach group was complete! We checked the con building together and well, there really wasn't anything interesting going on so we decided it's better if we go photoshoot now before it starts raining cats and dogs.

Cosplayer: Valkoinen Samurai (Jushiro Ukitake), Hasakitsuki (Kiyone Kotetsu) & Sairu-chan (Retsu Unohana)
Photographer: Jäätynyt Enkeli

Sure I didn't have my shikai this time but I had... cute guys in blue - Sogyo no Kotowari twin plushies! They are made by LadyoftheSeireitei by the way.

   

But then Ukitake wanted a cyclop stingray and Unohana wanted hyperactive babies so.. ZANPAKUTO SPIRITS SWAP!

Oh, and don't you think that was all becaaaaaause... MAXIMUM DERP STORM APPROACHING FAST! TAKE COVERRRRR!

Fabulous hair part.1 - Antennas

Fabulous hair part.2 - Medusa

Lääkehuurut! :DD (high on pills)

I don't know, I had fun...

... and more fun. xD

Hold your laughter man! It didn't work..

MINAZUKIIIIIIIIII *scrunch scrunch*

IT'S SO SOFFFFFFFT

Unohana-taichou, how do you get this thing off your head?
*Unohana ignore*

After the photoshoot we went to stroll around the city and then when we got back to the con the clouds started to look höhöh-rain-soon-hi so we decided to go back to aunt's place before it started raining for realz. There really wasn't anything interesting going on at the con anyway so we left rather early.. and spent the rest of the day playing The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword on Nintendo Wii. It's awesome to have a gamer aunt. <3

Sunday

sghjdsahj early mornings.
Nothing to do but to wake up and put on Hakuouki cosplays, which meant Saitou for me. At least the weather forecast had promised better weather for Sunday so I wasn't too worried about wearing vintage kimono.
When we got to Valve again we met Sairu-chan again and hung around for a while. Soon enough it was time for Thaki's Mies & Cosplay panel (man & cosplay) which I had been looking forward to so me, Hasakitsuki and Jäätynyt Enkeli headed for the second floor to attend it.

I must say the panel was very entertaining and interesting! More of these please! Normally I'm not the one to go to many panels for different reasons (cosplay is hard to sit in or too hot, panel topic doesn't catch my interest etc) but this one sure was awesome, according to me at least! 
After the panel was over we had 30 minutes spare time before the piano concert would start. During that time I photoshooted milli-e's Cai Wenji cosplay because Dynasty Warriors cosplays are <3. After that there was a line forming outside for the piano concert and so I went to stay in that line and soon enough we were sitting down again, this time in the Valve Hall.

Piano guy

He was pretty awesome. He played different game and anime themes like various Super Mario Bros. songs, Tetris theme, Morrowind aka Skyrim theme and the Bratja (Brother) song from FullMetal Alchemist etc. It's a shame that his concert only lasted 30 minutes. I hope he comes back next year and plays longer!
With the piano concert over we headed outside to photoshoot again.

Cosplayer: Valkoinen Samurai (Hajime Saitou) & Hasakitsuki (Chizuru Yukimura)

Photographer: Sairu-chan

Bonus pic!

Sword geek mode activated.

After the photoshoot we decided to start heading back because there was only about 2 hours left until the train would depart. We bid Sairu-chan farewell and walked back to aunt's place. There we packed our stuff, played a little more Skyward Sword and then left for the train station. Of course we got in a hurry and of course I forgot my fucking Moomin lemonade in the fridge even though I had during the whole weekend planned to save it for the trip back and ahjfsgkjfsg, I even drank from it like 5 minutes before departure but I was an idiot and put it back in the fridge thinking it better stay in the cold as long as possible and well.. at the train I was then thirsty as hell the whole time and it was torture. I was so annoyed at myself because the bottle was almost full too because I had been saving it.. ;_; Fuck this shit, always happens to me aghjdfhsajh. Need I tell you that Moomin lemonade is like the best lemonade ever?

Oh well, we got back home to our apartment and me and Hasakitsuki spent the rest of the evening playing Super Mario Sunshine and yes, we were still in cosplay. Problem?

Oulun animeseminaari next! + cosplay plans

My next con will be Oulun Animeseminaari (Oulu's anime seminar) that's held at, well, Oulu, on 17-18 August. It's a small 2-day free entrance anime event here in the north. I visited it for the first time last year and decided it was cool enough for a revisit! Oh, and today I actually ordered the train tickets and I've been wondering so much what to cosplay there but now I'm sort-of-sure what my cosplay line-up is so here we gooooo ~

Saturday

Series: Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan

Character: Hajime Saitou

Yep yep, Hakuouki roll carrying on. But I really want to do a pair cosplay with Hasakitsuki and because she doesn't have many of her cosplays available right now, except Chizuru (and another one that you will find out soon enough) so yeah. Not like I mind, Saitou is awesome and probably one of my favorite cosplays to wear so far and besides, he's like, the least toast-y of the Hakuouki cosplays I have. xD

Sunday

Series: Bleach

Character: Jushiro Ukitake

Yes, Bleach cosplays long time no see!

I've been having a Bleach cosplay break because I pretty much only cosplayed from Bleach the whole 2011 and half of 2012 so, yeah. xD But now with no shinigamis done in 2013 I started to miss cosplaying from this series (even though I'm shitfar behind in the manga and haven't been reading it for.. almost a year now?) and especially Ukitake, who is my favorite character in Bleach. 

I won't be taking with me shikai Sogyo no Kotowari though; I still need to repair it so I will just take normal sealed zanpakuto with me.. and something else that's a secret for now, hohoho. Ah, I forgot to mention this is also a pair cosplay with Hasakitsuki, she will cosplay Kiyone Kotetsu my personal fangirl xD wiee ~

Animecon 2013 - Bush samurai and broken car windows

Last weekend I was at Animecon, a Finnish anime convention held in Kuopio. I went there together with Hasakitsuki and my twin Jäätynyt Enkeli. My mom actually drove us all there and we started our journey on Friday morning. It took us around 5-6 hours to drive and when we finally reached Rauhalahti spa hotel we checked in for the room and after a trip to the food store we went to sleep.

Saturday

Saturday was the first con day and me and Hasakitsuki woke up at 8:00 Finnish time, put on everyday clothes and headed for the hotel breakfast. Jäätynyt Enkeli and mom came soon after. After the breakfast (mini donuts yum!) we headed back to the hotel room and changed into our cosplays - my cosplay for the day was the casual/plain clothes version (aka hakama edition) of Hakuouki's Hajime Saitou.
When we were ready mom drove us to Kuopio's Musiikkikeskus where Animecon was held. We came an hour or so after the con had opened its door and so there was no inside rush or lines at the front door.

Animecon outside entrance

We went inside and soon enough I found some familiar faces like Ri-kun, Sairu-chan and Joel who asked if I wanted some mayonnaise after exchanging brohugs, and yes, he was cosplaying Hijikata from Gintama. :D Ri-kun tagged along with us most of the time when we wandered around the con checking out the Dealer's Hall and stuff. I didn't buy anything except Tropical flavor (pineapple & mango) summer edition Pocky from the awesome Japanese guy's candy table. I just had to buy one and taste them and oh God were they yummy!

Animecon Dealer's Hall seen from above

At some point we went outside to have some photoshoots with Hasakitsuki, Sairu-chan and me. Ri-kun joined us half-way into the shoot. We took a whole bunch of photos with everyone but I will just post the ones of my cosplay.

Cosplayer: Valkoinen Samurai (Hajime Saitou)
Photographer: Hasakitsuki

Some hours later our group got hungry and we also found Jäätynyt Enkeli who came with us when we went out to town to eat. We had actually done a scouting round earlier when we checked where the closest food places were and so now when we actually were hungry we knew exactly where to go.. and our road took us to Hesburger. Hyvää ja halpaa paskaa, conikansa tykkää. :DD I had some chicken nuggets and the others had random hamburgers and when we were done we dragged our asses back to the con where we derped around some more, took pictures of cosplayers and stuff. I must say all the Asterix cosplayers were so awesome, especially the guy who cosplayed the village smith and roleplayed the heavy hammer thing after I and Hasakitsuki took a photo of him. xD

I don't have so much more to say about Saturday, we didn't really do anything special, just hung around with random friends and such.

Lagging on the stairs with Ri-kun as Kyo Sohma

Oh, and there were these awesome tinfoil signs places here and there and they were just too great!!

Awesome, right? xD

Mom came to pick us up a few hours after the con had closed and so me, Jäätynyt Enkeli and Hasakitsuki returned to the hotel. We didn't feel like going to Iltabileet (night party) because we are not really loud-music-alcohol-and-dance people. Yeah.

Sunday

Again we three woke up 8:00, put on everyday clothes and headed for the hotel breakfast. I couldn't eat as much today because my stomach was derping and so I left to the hotel room to take a dump before the others. When everyone had eaten we started to put on our Sunday cosplays and for me it meant debuting my rasetsu version Hijikata cosplay. I'm actually surprised I got on my contact lenses super easily this time, had pretty much no problems and it was quick too! Oh, and I'll make a review of the contacts later, didn't have time before Animecon.
When we all had dressed mom had decided to go swim and so she wouldn't drive us to the con.. which meant we had to take the bus. 10:43 or something the bus would depart and so we went to wait at the bus stop... and the bus came late and pissed Hijikata was pissed because I had realized I would have had to go to the con without my swords because they were in the car's trunk.. and mom had the keys with her aghdsaghj. I got tired and annoyed from waiting for the bus so I decided

and went back to the hotel room.. only to realize I didn't have the card key. But luckily I had forgotten to close the back door (or well, not so luckily had I taken the late bus because someone could have walked inside and stolen our stuff...) so me and Hasakitsuki could get back inside. We stayed inside and waited for mom to return and when she did she was surprised we hadn't left. We helped her empty the hotel room and take all the stuff to the car because we had to check out at 12:00. When mom went to the reception to check out it was super hot in the car so I decided to open the window.

BAD IDEA.

Why?

Because when mom came back and tried to close it the window decided to be a dick and call it quits; it made this horrid hi-gais-i-am-broken-now-sry sound and wouldn't go back up and in my mind I was all

Oh shit no...

And then mom got really angry at me because it was Sunday and all the car repair shops were closed and it would cost a craplot to fix and we had to drive back home 5-6 hours after the con and the weather had promised rain and agjfdsghj why couldn't I just have opened the car door instead? WHY DOES SHIT LIKE THIS ALWAYS HAPPEN TO ME?? So yeah, I felt pretty damn bad. Like, really.

oh you fucking fuck take this and this and this and..

Oh well, mom drove us to the con and I was feeling really frustrated and hating myself for a pretty long time before I managed to get on a better mood.. so if I looked like I'd just want to disappear and kick everything then that was why. It didn't really get much better either because we couldn't have any outside photoshoots because the weather went from pretty okay to RAIN EVERYWHERE OH GOD SAVE US. Or well, at least me because I had a vintage silk kimono and I was fearing water stains like hell. We were actually sitting at the outside stairs most of the time even when the rain started. There was this roof so the rain didn't get on us at first.. until it started raining Niagara falls and I leaned backwards to not get rain on me and Ri-kun then turned into a human rain shield to protect me. They had felt like running out in the rain anyway so. We went inside when the rain got really bad and inside we walked around the Dealer's Hall again.
Me, Jäätynyt Enkeli and Hasakitsuki couldn't stay the whole con day because mom came to pick us up.. but at least she came just when the rain calmed down. We bid Ri-kun and Sairu-chan farewell and headed for the car and yeah.. that was Animecon for me. At least mom managed to temporarily fix the car window somehow for the journey back...
I'm a bit sad we didn't get to photoshoot our rasetsu!Hijikata and oni!Chizuru cosplays because of the crappy Sunday weather but oh well, we have time to do that at home. Because of that I barely have any photos of my rasetsu Hijikata cosplay but at least I have this one that was taken when we were sitting at the stairs before the rain started.

Photographer is Sairu-chan.

Oh, and before I end this post.. here's a cosplay video with the few pictures of cosplayers that I took:

I'm also looking for photos of my cosplays, if you happen to have some I'd be very happy to have them. :) You can send them to my email valkoinensamurai[at]gmail[dot]com. Thanks.