Närcon 2016 cosplans – The Guardian of the Sea and more!

Yo peeps!

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!

See ya later, alligator ~

Cospicky review: Hakuouki Sanosuke Harada cosplay costume!

Hello fellow geeks and cosplayers!

At the end of last year I happened to find out that Cospicky, a store focusing on cute fashion and cosplay items, had a good sale going on! I was bored and, honestly, quite curious of what they had to offer so I, of course, started to scroll through the site! :D Much to my surprise I found that they carried the western version of Harada's outfit from Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan. As a big Hakuouki fan and as someone who has already made his spear a long time ago (just for fun and so that I can cosplay his Japanese/shinsengumi kimono outfit one day!) I was really tempted to order the costume. 

The thing is that I've never bought a full costume from an online shop before, so of course I was a bit worried that it might not fit, poor fabric choices etc. Luckily Cospicky offers a convenient custom size possibility, which erased one of my biggest worries right away and made me lean over to the "let's buy it!" side, haha. I mean, with the sale the costume only cost me a measly 87 dollars (with the custom size additional cost included) and that, say what you want, is super cheap! Oh, and I got free shipping too! o/

So yeah, seeing what a deal I got I just had to buy it and, with the order placed, I also soaked up a "seeing what I paid for it any smaller inaccuracies are fine" way of thought. I honestly can't even imagine getting it for cheaper than this!

Full Sanosuke Harada costume.
Photo by Sacchan.

This review is all 100% my honest opinion. This is not a sponsored review – I paid for the costume with my own money; I just wanted to review the Cospicky store and the costume for the sake of spreading the word about a good online store and, of course, to help and inform the community. ^_^

I placed the order on 11th November last year and I got an email saying that it was completed and shipped on 11th December – exactly one month later. Notice though that I ordered a custom sized costume, which might very well be a reason for why it took one month to make/ship; I'd assume that those pre-made sizes would get through faster. Oh and yeah, on my order confirmation email they said that because it's custom made it would take around 2-3 weeks to make.

The costume arrived around 20th December something – I'm sorry but I can't remember exact date anymore. ^^" The packaging was nothing special, just one of those big-sized white bubble wrap envelopes. Then again, my costume was pretty much all fabric so it doesn't need any extensive protection; it's not like fabric will break in transit, lol. I also want to mention that my parcel went through Germany, which is nice, because it might help to avoid additional custom/postal service charges since it's within Europe.

Inside the padded envelope were all the costume pieces, packed together nicely in a ziplock bag – it all gave a very neat and professional image. With the order there also came a Studio Ghibli postal card with a hand-written personal "thank you" message. I got one with My Neighbor Totoro motif, it's very cute! 

Costume as it arrived, in a ziplock bag.

I had wanted to cosplay Harada's western outfit for a while but it was one of those "not sure if I can be bothered to make it myself" cosplays, lol. The main reason for this is that I want to make Okita's, Hijikata's and possibly Shinpachi's western versions myself and, well, I'm not sure I'd feel like doing Harada's on top of that because yeah, they all are rather similar to begin with. Once in a while you can afford to take the easy route, right? ;) And besides, I had wanted to try ordering from an online costume shop for a while now and Cospicky seemed just like a perfect store to start with!

All costume parts laid out.

What is included:

• White shirt

• Black vest

• Jinbaori-style long coat

• Black pants

• Red arm wrappings

• Belt

• White sash for carrying sword

What is NOT included:

•  Wig
• Sword
• Spear

• Boots

Personally I am very selective and picky when I browse online cosplay costumes; I always scrutinize even the smallest details and compare with official reference photos to see how accurate they are. I always try to find the most accurately made costume possible but I also keep realistic expectations in mind – you can't get something that's 100% accurate, well-made and with quality fabrics for cheap. Most times you get what you pay for and that's exactly why I didn't have super-mega-skyhigh expectations for this costume, even though it looked surprisingly damn accurate on the stock photos on the site itself.

Detail photos ahead!
(all photos below are taken by Sacchan)

Front close-up. Notice the patterning on the tie.

Buttons.

Lining.

Upper back. Please ignore the dust.

Belt.

Side ties.

Side trims.

Costume information and thoughts

When I took out the costume from the bag my first impression was that the fabric choices were actually pretty damn good – and this is coming from someone who has spent a good lot of his years helping and playing around in mom's fabric store; I've basically been surrounded by fabric rolls all my life. By good I mean that for example the fabric for the dress shirt actually feels like I could just as well have bought it from any normal clothing store's shelves or something. The jinbaori coat also feels sturdy and is made in a heavier fabric and heck, it's even lined in the right color! The hand wrappings are made of some fabric that feels a bit coarse in texture and that's awesome too. Also, I was surprised that the white sash was of some reaaaaally soft, flowy and elastic fabric with a sort of silky-smooth touch to it; it somehow, weirdly enough, reminded me of swimsuit fabric although that's not what it is, lol.
So yeah, ain't no shining satin monster here! I guess the fabrics are all synthetic (they do feel like it) and, according to the store, it's "uniform fabric". It's obvious though that the parts are not all made out of the same fabric. Oh, and the trims on the coat and the belt seem to be some kind of fake leather-like material.
I was also relieved to notice that the buttons on both the vest and the shirt are the "male way", aka so that when it's buttoned it is closed left over right and not vice versa. I've seen my share of cosplayers –especially female cosplayers– who wear women's shirts etc when doing a male character and, honestly, it irks me. I'm a stickler for details, okay? I understand that there might be problems finding a fitting/flattering men's size or just not wanting to spend extra money on the same piece of clothing (which you already own, except in women's version) that you'd only wear for a cosplay but yeah... still. :/

I want to say though that upon putting on the costume I was nervous. I was half-expecting that at least something wouldn't fit, even though I gave the correct measures for everything – and I even put a couple extra centimeters to most measurements, just to be extra safe. I started putting on the parts one by one and when I got to the pants I took a deep breath. You see, pants have always been my main problem when it comes to finding fitting clothes. Much to my surprise the pants went on –and stayed on– with not even the slightest issue... WHAT IS THIS SORCERY?? Same thing goes for the rest too; there wasn't anything that didn't fit me or that was uncomfortable to wear. I must admit that I'm really positively surprised that, in the case of Cospicky, custom size really effin' means custom size in its purest form. I sure as hell would order from them again! *thumbs up*
Oh, and if anyone wonders why this is such a big deal it's because I've heard and read countless stories about people ordering online costumes and, even though they would pay extra for custom size, the costumes would still, in reality, be either a pre-made size anyway or fit all kinds of weird.

And if we get back to the whole accuracy thing for a while I want to say that Cospicky is one of those stores on which you will get exactly what is pictured – rare candy! I remember staring at the Harada costume's stock images before purchasing it and noticing that even the silk tie has an elaborately woven design on it and well, when I received the costume and took it out I noticed that the exact same tie design was on mine! I'll say it again: THE COSTUME LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE ON THE STOCK PHOTOS – 100% FOR REAL!!! So yeah, you better look at the photos closely because you'll receive the exact same thing, down to the letter. Or at least I did.

Please note that on all photos on which I'm in costume I am wearing my own white sash and NOT the one that came with the costume. 

Front view.

Side view.
Note: it was very windy.

Back view.

Link to Cospicky main page: Cospicky Cosplay Store

Direct link to costume: Cospicky Hakuouki Harada Sanosuke Cosplay Outfit

I pretty much only have good things to say about my purchase and I would really recommend Cospicky for those who want to buy their costumes for whatever reason you might have. ^_^
I also want to state that I think that there is nothing wrong with buying costumes – it doesn't make you any less of a "real" cosplayer. Truth is that not everyone can sew, or heck, even like to sew! Some people also, like me, occasionally just want to choose the easy/comfy route, even if I could have made the costume myself if I would have wanted to; there's no shame in being a little lazy at times. :P Oh, and I think I also got this costume for cheaper than what it would have cost me to make it myself anyway, so that's also another reason for this choice. 

So yeah, as long as you have fun with cosplaying there is no rules or any "right way" to do it and anyone who says anything else needs to get off from their high horse. 

Cospicky store & Sanosuke Harada costume rundown – Pros and cons:

+ Good fabric choices
+ Everything fits (note: custom size)
+ Looks exactly like on stock images
+ Sewing quality is great
+ Accurate to original character
+ Shipping and making time as promised
+ Good packaging
+ Excellent, kind and professional customer service
+ Affordable prices

+/- Dress shirt and vest are cut so that they will always be open at the chest

- Vest is square shaped = boxy fit
- Some minor detail trims on the coat are missing
- Coat is a bit too long
- White sash is really cheaply made
- Arm wrappings are too short to cover your hands/wrists well (aka don't stay in place)

I want to point out that most of the cons were visible on the stock images if you paid attention to them. They are also minor in the sense that they're easy to modify and/or replace.

List with thoughts of all the clothing pieces:

Belt: The belt is notably thinner than your average belt and yes, it kinda feels like a "costume belt". It's still fully functional (and adjustable) though and the holes are in the right places so yeah, it's a non-issue since the thing works like any normal belt.
Vest: The vest is square shaped (aka not slim fit), which means that it gives a really boxy and unflattering fit, but this is not a real problem either because you tuck it under your pants for the costume and then you can just adjust it so that the excess fabric is in the back, where it won't be seen. Also, because you wear the coat over it the general shape of the vest isn't visible; you could also just whip out your sewing machine and take it in at the sides, if wanted.
Shirt: The dress shirt has a sort of wonky fit/attachment at the armpits so it feels a bit tight at that spot, even though everything else is loose and comfy. I could also mention that the shirt is shorter than your average dress shirt but yeah, it's still long enough so that you can tuck it into the pants, so it's not really a problem. The sleeves are full length, in case you wondered – on the photos I have rolled them up so they appear shorter because yeah, that's the way Harada has his sleeves. :) Oh and yeah, regarding the cut of the vest and the dress shirt I just want to mention that because it is made so that the chest will always be a bit exposed it also means that, although you can close the upper buttons, it will look really bumpy and weird; they are not supposed to be closed. Then again, because it's done like this you are sure to always show a bit of chest, which is exactly what Harada does, lol. So yeah, it's both a plus and a minus, haha.
Coat: The jinbaori-style coat is the highlight of the whole costume and for a good majority it's really well-made. The only cons I have is that it's a tad bit long, but I can deal with it (it reaches half-way below my knee when it should end at my knee), and that some of the edge trims on the bottom of the coat are missing – for example the back slit has no trims at all, even though on official art it appears to have a black trim, and the same thing goes for the horizontal bottom trims that should be black too; the white front trims running down the lapels/flaps, the arm opening trims and the side seam trims are all white and thus accurate, though. Then again, it's not a hard mission to add those missing black trims...
Sash: The white sash is like... what the fuck? I don't even know. (・_・)ヾ It feels so off with its cheapness when the rest is so nice. I mean, it's basically just a rectangle of smooth elastic fabric, nothing more. And by nothing I really mean nothing – there's not a single stitch on it! I would have expected it to be at least folded in half and sewn shut but nope, I can even see the pencil marks where it was cut. ._. Besides it's too short for my liking; I'd prefer it so that I can at least wrap it around myself twice but this one only wraps once and barely gives me room to do a knot to secure it in place. I think I'll gladly just use my default white sash instead that I've been using for a lot of cosplays, lol. It's my trusty friend that has served me for years ~
Arm wrappings: I really like the color and fabric choice for these! The fabric feels very slightly rough to the touch but not enough to be itchy or anything. The big problem with these though is that I wish they were much longer – I can only wrap them like 4 times around my wrists/hands before I run out of length and, well, I'd need them to cover and layer up more (looks dumb otherwise) and thus they are unusable. Also, because of the short length they don't stay in place really well either; I had to be very careful with what I did with my hands or they'd start to undo themselves, even though I pulled the wrappings tight and tucked the ends under previous layers. I ended up replacing them later with boxing wraps.

I also want to note that the Harada costume that Cospicky is selling is the GAME VERSION and not the anime version, the difference being that the game version has those black ties at the side seams, which the anime version lacks.

Harada Sanosuke reference image.
note: game version

Okay so, to conclude this review I want to say that my final score for Cospicky, based on this experience, is very good. I'd definitely recommend them and I sure would feel safe to order from them again. Oh and yeah, you get free shipping if you buy for over 80$ too, which is awesome!

Final Grade (from A-F): B+
Recommend to others: Yes

The main things dropping my grade from an A- to B+ is the cheaply made sash, the way too short arm wrappings and that the jinbaori surcoat is a bit too long, along with the small things mentioned above in the detailed description of each item. Then again, I guess the coat length issue is kinda my fault because I didn't think of providing a measurement of how long I wanted it to be so yeah, they probably went by defaults. (the coat is long on their stock photos too)

Thank you for reading and I hope this was helpful! (*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)

Shiro Samurai says goodbye!

Skecon 2015 – Not quite as good as last year

Hello peeps!

It is finally time for the Skecon 2015 summary! ^o^
As you probably know I once again attended Skecon in Skellefteå, Sweden. It was held during the first weekend of July (3rd to 5th) in a building called Folkparken.
This time our traveling setup was a bit different, mainly because a guy known as Jäätynyt Enkeli was not with us this time. :( Our Skecon invaders consisted this year of me, Hasakitsuki, Sairu-chan and her little brother! Yep, this means that Karri couldn't make it after all...

Skecon advertisement in the Skellefteå bus stop! :'D

Our journey to Skellefteå began on Friday morning. Seeing how the convention opened its doors at 13:35 we could take a very early bus and arrive at Skellefteå just in time! (the bus ride takes around 4 hours)
We had decided on taking one of the earlier buses so that we would have a bit more than one hour of time before the con opened. But because of Jäätynyt Enkeli being abroad Sairu-chan and her bro couldn't sleep over at his place (they live in a different town and our apartment is way too small) the night before and so there ended up being some complications with the buses. Me and Hasakitsuki got onto the planned bus but when I didn't see the second half of our company in there anywhere I started worrying. I tried to call and text Sairu-chan multiple times during the trip, but to no avail. I started getting really worried.
What if she had forgotten or overslept?
What if she had taken the wrong bus?
What if something else had happened on the way?
It was really distressing to not being able to reach her at all! I spent most of the bus trip worrying about her and her brother and hoping that I'd see them safely at Skellefteå when we arrived there...

One thing though! I want to mention that a few days before the con I decided to repaint my wooden swords that had arrived for a while ago – yep, I needed them for my Skecon cosplays.
These I ordered online so that I have a wooden generic katana set for all those cosplays that don't really need specific swords; I'm too lazy to make new swords for all my samurai cosplays, haha. XD My old ones broke because of an accident after Tracon 2013, so I got replacement ones...
But when I got the swords I noticed that the blades had this silver paint that was motherflippin' BLING BLING SPARKLING GLITTER MONSTERS!
I was just like... WHY?? ლ(ಠ益ಠ)ლ

I totally took my silver spray paint and went outside to repaint the blades before assembling them – so much better! Bling katanas are just not realistic lol. ._. I swear these were so sparkly that they could have repelled even Satan himself!
Funny thing is that I bought the swords from the exact same seller on eBay and my previous ones definitely weren't glitter-treated... 

Before photo on top and after on bottom.

So yeah, back to the Skecon journey!
Me and Hasakitsuki jumped off at a bus stop close to Folkparken and –holy bugamajoola– was it steaming hot!! The air was so warm it was stifling and humid like hell! Keeping my black hoodie on was like being boiled alive – since when does it get this friggin' hot in northern Sweden?!?
Oh well, we dragged our mountain of luggage to Folkparken and there we just sat down on the floor and watched people appearing from all directions. It was horrible to wait outside because of the heat, especially because I'm kinda heat sensitive and start to feel sick if it's really warm. I also burn really easily so I'm kinda forced to overdress and wear long-sleeves when it's boiling hot... :<

Skecon entrance around one hour before doors opened.

While sitting there and waiting I was really trying to scout for Sairu-chan and her bro, but I didn't see them anywhere! I tried to call her a few times again but no answer either. :( I was just crossing my fingers that she would show up any minute while I was looking at the ends of the different paths one could take to reach Folkparken...
The clock struck the time for the doors to open and this one Skecon worker came out and trolled everyone; he just went like "ARE YOU READY FOR SKECON GUYS?! :DD" and when everyone shouted "YESSSSSS" he just turned around and went all "one minute more" and abruptly closed the door and went back inside. xD It was both hilarious and frustrating at the same time lol.
It did take more than one minute after that before the doors opened but hey, they did!

I got my con ticket without any issues and went straight upstairs to go take a shower because, oh god, the toast! Showering seriously felt so good after standing outside in that humid heat...
After showering I started putting on my cosplay – Hajime Saitou from Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan. It didn't feel like the best idea ever to put on a semi-heavy cosplay when the weather was so devilishly warm but oh well, cosplay plans are cosplay plans and it would have been a waste to have the costume taking place in the suitcase and then not using it; especially when it's a cosplay that takes much space, like most of my kimono cosplays do. *shrugs*
I struggled with my makeup for a while but after some hours I was finally done, costume on and all. But guess what guys? :D Yeah, of course as soon as I had my costume on and was ready to go photoshoot (which was one of the main reasons I brought Saitou to Skecon) then it had to start raining cats and dogs for the rest of the day! Murphy's law strikes again. ._.
This totally means that I got no photoshoot, which was quite the bummer. Why did I bother?
But to compensate I at least took a few selfies, while hanging around, just to prove that "yes, I was in cosplay" on Friday.

Luckily I did find Sairu-chan and her bro soon after I had changed into cosplay; it was so nice to see that they had made it here safely!
She explained to me that she had missed the first bus (aka the one we had planned to take together) and they had then proceeded to take the second bus that left a bit later. They basically got to Skellefteå around one hour after me and Hasakitsuki, no biggie.

Because it started raining so damn much I spent the whole Friday indoors just checking stuff out. There were some scene games being done and I ended up watching the "mummy" game, which consisted of two teams and one person per team being the mummy. The mummy was to stand still while the other team mates wrapped them up as fast and neat as possible into a... well, mummy. Then the audience got to choose which mummy was the "more mummy" one and that one was declared the winner. xD Part two consisted of the two mummies breaking out of their bandages as fast as they could, without any outside help. The one who got out first won.
It was funny because the teams were called "Team Awesome" and "Team Pretty Okay" and, funnily enough, team Pretty Okay was the one to win lol.

Mummy game going on.

Later on Friday there was a lone guy doing an iaido display.
Of course I went to watch! I'm a big budo fan and I love Japanese swords and samurai and all of that kind of stuff! :') It was cool to see him doing all these moves and, after it was over, I went up to talk with him. We ended up hanging together for the whole con! Woop woop, new friends! :D

Iaido display.

I checked out the video game room several times and there were plenty of different game consoles you could pick from! Everything from good ol' Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 to the new generation consoles!

Gaming room!

Video game tournament lists!

As you can see above there was a Mario Kart: Double Dash!! 2 versus 2 tournament being held this year too. Last year me and my bro Jäätynyt Enkeli signed up for this tournament and we ended up combing home grand victory and crushing everyone! x) You can read about it over at my last year's Skecon summary, if interested. ;)
But yeah, seeing how my dear brother wasn't here this time I didn't participate. Also I kinda didn't want to have people recognize me and go all "OH SHIT, IT'S THAT GUY AGAIN WHO PWNED EVERYONE LAST YEAR" at me, oops. xD I did consider going to watch the tournament though, although my presence might have been... interesting...

Someone had started making Vegeta but quit...?

When it got late I changed out of cosplay and our full company headed to the sleeping accommodation place, which was a school. At first we ended up going the wrong way because we thought it would be in the same place as last year, which it was but still wasn't. We did find our way and I need to mention that yeah, it was very close to the previous sleeping accommodation and we could have walked the "wrong way" and still got there. OTL Different building though.
We fell asleep without any problems, even though for some reason we were the first ones to go sleep and I saw no one else in the same classroom (even though matresses and sleeping bags were put down) even past midnight – were everyone party harding?
The derp discussions before we fell asleep were glorious though. XD I'll just say that it ended up with Metaporn Metapod fanfic ideas and some really disturbing things lol.

Saturday morning came and we lagged around after our alarms had rung. We ended up going to the con during a time that we thought was late... just to realize that when we got to the con the cafeteria wasn't even open so we couldn't get instant breakfast! What you mean it opens at 10? :c
Oh well, it was no big deal so we just sat on one of the tables next to the cafeteria and waited for our brains to start running. Eventually the cafeteria opened and we bought some frozen pies to eat that we threw into the micro. Too bad my pie was cold so it wasn't pleasant to eat, but I managed.
After getting some food I just checked the merchandise hall and went to double-check if the kyudo display really was cancelled and yes, it was. :'( It was supposed to be during Saturday afternoon but it was cancelled because someone got sick. It was a big bummer for me because getting to do kyudo is one of the things I enjoy the most at Skecon. Also the bouncy castle was nowhere to be seen, which was bummer number two...

Oh well, I went to check the merchandise hall and stuff until I felt like changing into cosplay. Luckily on Saturday it wasn't as deadly hot as the day before, so putting on cosplay didn't feel as blergh. What felt blergh though was putting on my colored contact lenses!
I swear that during the whole Friday my eyes had alternated between feeling dry and irritated to being watery. It was horrible and I had hoped that it would go away by Saturday but guess what? LOLFUCKINGNOPE. :'DD
I wasn't keen on wearing my lenses but I did so anyway, just for the sake of the photoshoot. I was hoping that my eyes wouldn't start crying and because of some miracle they didn't – I could even stand the lenses for longer than I thought!

My cosplay of the day was Kojirou Sasaki from Iza, Shutsujin! Koi Ikusa.
(yes, this is the obligatory cosplay selfie)

I had to style my wig when I put it on but it went nicely. I just put some pins here and some pins there and put styling products into the bangs.
When I was done I asked Hasakitsuki for a photoshoot, but poop happened I AM THE GREAT MIGHTY POO and I got Sairu-chan to photoshoot me instead. Much to our disappointment it of course started raining half-way through our shoot and we had to cut it short and return back inside. Aargh weather,  y u do dis? >:C It was all nice just before...
At least we got a few good shots although most of the time the camera wasn't cooperating and, when it was, then of course my face wasn't cooperating. :-DD

Cosplayer: Shiro Samurai (Kojirou Sasaki)
Photographer: Sairu-chan
Photo editor: Shiro Samurai

We returned back inside and after a while everyone –including the iaido guy named Nils who had become part of our group– had gotten fairly hungry so we headed out to town to find food. A bit past half-way it started raining and I was cursing myself for not having changed into my everyday shoes instead of keeping on wearing my brand new geta, which took a lot of damage from all the fucking stones on the way...
I kept being behind everyone else because I had to constantly stop to poke away stones that had got stuck under my geta. At this point I was feeling kinda bad so being constantly behind everyone made me feel a bit left out.
When we finally reached Subway I was feeling anxious and, when it was my turn to order, I just felt all kinds of stress so I didn't manage to order anything and just went to sit on one of the tables instead. I hate getting these kind of anxiety attacks in public places...
Everyone sat and ate their sandwiches while I was hating myself for making a fool out of me; I didn't even manage to answer the person at the counter because I stumbled on my words. I must have looked like an idiot. ._. I just felt like a mess and then I started feeling sick which led me to lose my apetite anyway...

We walked back to Skecon just in time for the Vocaloid concert, the main selling point of the whole con. I honestly wasn't really in the mood because I was still feeling anxious, but I took a chair and went to sit and watch it anyway.

The Vocaloid concert started off with Miku (of course) singing Senbonzakura.

Watching the concert made me cheer up, even though it was a  big disappointment that there were no Gakupo nor Kaito songs, even though that's what everyone had said that they wanted to see when Skecon had asked over at Facebook for song suggestions. :( I recognized some of the songs were the same ones from last year too. I guess I was less fascinated by it this time around because I had already seen it once before and the novelty had worn off a bit; it was still a cool concert of course but for someone who pretty much only listens to Gakupo it was quite the letdown that there were no Gakupo songs even though that's what people had commented that they wanted the most.

Notice the two kendo peeps in the audience on the photo above; their shinai swords had glowsticks on them and during the concert they did multiple kendo swings with the swords (haya suburi) so it gave a sort of light saber effect. xD It was hella genius and actually entertained me more than the concert itself. LOL What you mean I used to do kendo and love it?

The audience was in the mood!

Luka Megurine sang a couple songs, one of them was Just Be Friends.

Rin and Len Kagamine duet song.

People in the audience going wild!

The audience did this thing that you hold the person in front of you on the shoulders until you make a human train and then you just walk around being all noisy and hyped and try to get as many to join in
as possible. :'D
I've seen people do this many times but most times I'm just too lazy to tag along... hahaah.

Skecon's own maskot Rosu finishing the concert with the
*surprise surprise* super popular Karamelldansen song.

I honestly don't remember what we did directly after the Vocaloid concert but I think we just hung around with Nils in the cafeteria and chatted for a while. At some point a guy cosplaying Obi-Wan Kenobi from Star Wars showed up and Sairu-chan's bro went to ask him for a photo. I took this opportunity in use and took some photos of him too – he was hella cool!
He ended up sitting with us and then we started talking and he talked about his costume and how expensive it and the light saber was. He also had a Hakuouki drinking bottle and he had no idea it was Hakuouki. xD I ended up suggesting a photoshoot for Obi-Wan and we went outside to take some pics – it was super fun and it got me fully back into the con mood!

One of the Obi-Wan Kenobi photoshoot pics!
Photography by me, Shiro Samurai.

 ★ Check out the rest of the Obi-Wan Kenobi photoshoot pictures here! ★

Both Nils, Obi-Wan Kenobi (alias Mattias) and another guy ended up in our company and we talked until it was around midnight and that's when I finally went to take off my costume. It was a lot of fun to hang around these guys!

Random con photo of the main scene area.

After I had taken off my cosplay everyone had kinda just gone somewhere and we decided to go sleep. It was funny to see Nils sleeping on the couch at the sleeping accommodation's hall (aka not in the classrooms) on the following morning; we had earlier seen that another random guy did it and everyone had thought "man, wish I had been clever enough to do that!". xD

Sunday morning came and I felt like a goblin. Holy shit did my eyes feel bad!
I felt so slow and blöärägshjshj that I seriously couldn't be bothered to put on my Sunday cosplay; very few were in cosplay anyway and there was a random Sunday market outside, which made the outside area filled to the brim with non-congoers and thus not very good for photoshoots – who wants a lot of people and market stands photocrashing in the background? Not me!
So yeah, I was in my casual gear on Sunday and it felt relieving. I was just way too tired to cosplay on the last day.
Most of the day I just spent hanging around and then the very last hours I spent playing Super Mario World (OMG my childhood! ♡) in the gaming room together with Sairu-chan's brother. That was one of the highlights of the con – we had shitloads of fun!

Random con photo showing the "garderob" area, aka where you dumped all
your stuff that you didn't want to carry around the whole weekend.

Merchandise hall feat. glorious photobomb!

I am probably forgetting to mention so many things but oh well, shit happens. :'D I need to mention though that at some point I was sitting in the cafeteria area and then I heard that a certain song was playing.. "I AAAAAM THE GREAT MIGHTY POO, AND I'M GOING TO THROW MY SHIT AT YOOOOU ~". At this point I cracked up so badly because seriously, just a few days prior my awesome friend Marcus had started singing this song, during a gaming night, and now it was playing at Skecon and I actually got to hear the whole song for the first time! Coincidence or not??

Okay so.. Skecon is always great but this year it wasn't quite as good as last year, in my opinion. This is mainly because the things I was looking forward to the most didn't happen. :( And because the weather screwed up my photoshoot plans.

What made Skecon a nice experience was all the people I met there, both new and old faces! There's always so many awesome people attending that it's hard to not find someone who's a blast to be around. I want to thank everyone who talked to me and who made this Skecon a great experience!

Thanks for reading and bye bye! ~

Shiro Samurai out.

Skecon 2015 – Cosplay plans revealed!

Hello everyone, how's it rollin'? ;)

As some of you might know, Skecon is soon around the corner and I am heading there as per usual! I'm a Skecon-lover since 2012, aka when the very first one was held. ♡

In case someone here is now like "Skecon?" then yeah, it's a small but constantly growing little anime convention held this year during 3-5 July in Skellefteå, Sweden. What puts Skecon apart from other similar events in the north is that the people behind it are ambitious like no one's business and they also have the passion to get unique/refreshing entertainment to the con itself – basically saying that Skecon does things other cons don't, and by that I mean good things. For example, last year they were the first con to hold a Vocaloid concert in all of Sweden and veeery likely the rest of northern Europe as well! The Vocaloid concert will be held this year too, by the way. *hint hint* 

Yep yep, Skecon isn't one of my favorite conventions for no reason. ;) It's just such a comfy con with a wonderful location, a lot to do (gaming room etc) and it's just awesome overall – certainly one of the cons that I'd hate to miss out on, period.

But hey, I think that's enough pre-hyping so let's get to the cosplay plans now!

At first I had a different line-up in mind but then I thought that I felt more like cosplaying these characters instead; I just hope that the weather won't be horrible because I wouldn't be smiling about either rain or a case of oh-holy-shit-I'm-being-grilled-alive. -.-

But now, cosplays!

Friday

Series: Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan
Character: Hajime Saitou

It's time to step back into the Hakuouki wagon again!
You thought my interest had maybe calmed down a bit by now? Lolnope! :'DD neverrr
Saitou is nice to cosplay and I really want to have a new photoshoot too; Skecon has wonderful photo-friendly areas outside so I'm thinking that this should be the perfect opportunity to get some good updated shots of this costume!

Saturday

Series: Iza, Shutsujin! Koi Ikusa
Character: Kojirou Sasaki

Another cosplay debut!

I've actually wanted to cosplay this guy for a few years now and finally I'm getting around to it! I just hope that the wig won't betray me because I have yet to style it... x)

Otherwise I'm really not expecting anyone to recognize who I'm cosplaying lol. If someone does I'm gonna be so surprised that I'll eat pickles for the rest of the month...

Sunday

Series: Rentarou Satomi
Character: Black Bullet (anime version)

New cosplay!

I've already mentioned at the beginning of the year that I was planning on cosplaying this fellow and now it's happening! I likely won't have the gun this time around though because well, money issues. :< I'll add it later. I really don't have 1000+ SEK to spend on a prop right now. *coughairsoftreplicacough*

The reason I'm doing the anime version is because in the anime he has brown eyes (manga has blue) and so far I've only watched the anime, so it feels more "right" to do the anime version for now, heheh.

~~~~~~~~~~

And that's my plans for Skecon 2015! I want to mention though that I might change on which day I wear what cosplay if the weather is really hot, rainy or such.
I hope to meet many familiar faces at the con and I'm sure that it will be a blast! I'm also hoping that the bouncy castle will return because seriously, dangnabbit! 

I'm just really excited because Skecon is something so wonderful – I get hyped just thinking about it!

That's all!
Stay alert though, I might do some kind of cosplay test-run post just before the con!