Mericon 2025 – Mermaids, sailors and a soldier!

Greetings and yo ho!

So Mericon was held for the third time last weekend or, well, the past Saturday on 2nd August to be precise. After all it's still a free one-day event and yup, still arranged by Rauma's main library. And just like on previous Mericons the nautical theme continued this year as well and it probably always will because of Rauma's history. :)

Everybody onboard, let's go!

Rauma's main library, aka Mericon, entrance.

Since the con's figurative keel was laid three years ago I have remained an integral part of Mericon's inner crew. I may not have as much influence as during the first year and well, the main responsibility has shifted a bit to allow Mericon to anchor safely, meaning that now the library and Rauma town are keeping the main responsibility of arranging the event together while me and Firith, the original creators whose brainchild it was, are now in a role more akin to consultants. ^^ This is a natural progression and the most convenient long-term for all involved parties – Mericon is growing up~

But yeah, back to the actual summary! So me and Firith arrived in Rauma the day before Mericon; we had booked a night at the Scandic hotel (not recommended in summer, there's no air conditioning!) for convenience since it's literally just next to the library. Earlier on the same week we participated in a Mericon work meeting to iron out the last details. 
Oh, and I procrastinated with starting to work on my panel until there were like three days left and then I sat glued to the laptop and compiled my pages 5 hours straight for two days. xD Even in the hotel at night I had to change some final things lol.

Halfway done with 20+ pages. Stinky meme was a whole mood. 

At the hotel we arrived pretty late. The room was ridiculously small but we managed; I mean it really showed in every possible way that the building was from the 70s. :'D The room was the ugliest I've ever had in a hotel, no cap – depressing gray walls with no decorations and the bed took up like 75% of the space. Thankfully the bed was amazing though because it was hard enough that I woke up without any lower back pain. So often in hotels the bed is too soft and then I am hurled over like a shrimp lol.

Late hotel room dinner. Rescued a meal from Tokio Sushi with ResQ app!

It was really difficult to sleep due to the complete lack of climate control in the room (yay for heat waves...) but eventually morning dawned. For once I was happy it was morning and wanted to get out of bed fast lmao. Before we did anything else we went for the breakfast buffet downstairs and it was pretty awesome – so much fancy-ass stuff like pickled cranberries, fresh cinnamon rolls, dried apple slices and real fruit smoothies! I basically stacked all the expensive and healthy ingredients into my oat porridge and felt like some fitness junkie. xD

Back in the hotel room I debated whether I could be arsed to cosplay. My reasoning was that my makeup would probably melt off my face before I even got out of the room because yeah, it was stifling inside and I get oily rather easily (having combination skin kinda sucks). But I felt like I had already committed because I had no spare clothes with me and thus didn't really have any other option anyway. So yeah, I started putting on my cosplay and almost immediately noticed that oh, this is one of those days. :)) You know those seemingly random occurrences when, despite doing the skincare routine etc, the makeup and especially foundation just won't go on smoothly. In truth almost nothing worked out on the morning, I couldn't even put on my blue contact lenses because my eyes felt super itchy and dry when I tried to! So yeah, I ended up going without contacts, which I normally wouldn't do because it clearly feels like my costume isn't complete lol; natural eyes just don't look right to me nowadays on anime characters, even if the color is correct.

Anyways, we left the hotel pienen paluujuoksun jälkeen kun unohtui edi ja vesipullo minibaariin and headed over to Mericon. I was one of the three cosplay competition judges and Firith was the, uhh, 'cosplayvastaava' (basically the one in charge of guiding the cosplay contestants, planning the competition etc) so we had to be at the con in time to do our jobs.

Mericon entrance view.

One of the first things I did once I arrived at Mericon was to ask the library workers, aka the other Mericon crew, where to put my belongings because I carried with me my laptop and personal stuff, camera bag etc. I asked if I could use the cleaners' locker like last year and thankfully it was available so I could get my valuables behind a lock.

Mericon general area (info to the left) feat. new Dealer's Hall.

This year merch sellers were allowed!

I noticed almost immediately upon entering Mericon that there's been some changes in what was located where and, more importantly, that there was a sort of mini Dealer's Hall with a couple merch sellers and some artists with established businesses were moved there as well! This was probably done to free up slots in the artist's alley for those with less experience (similar to how other Finnish cons have artesan's and artist's alley separated). One of the merch sellers was the local Pelivaari, a shop selling nerd culture items like TCGs, retro games and all kinds of collectables. I personally think it's high time the library loosened up the archaic rules and allowed small businesses to attend and Pelivaari was one of Mericon's first sponsors. After all a lot of people go to cons for shopping and it's a great way to lift up local entrepreneurs in the area who sell items of relevancy to the event. 

I didn't have time to do much because it was time to meet the other two cosplay judges and then after that short briefing I parked myself next to the photo booth. The reason? Await the cosplay competition contestants and photograph them once they arrived from the first phase of the judging (where the two other judges judged their costumes). I was the photography judge so basically I reviewed how well they posed and if it was character-accurate etc.

General area view and the photo booth to the left.

Quite literally the only photo I have that proves I was America. :D

I spent a sizeable chunk of time near the photo booth waiting for contestants to drop in. While waiting I had an interesting encounter with a middle-aged couple who clearly were tourists from abroad. I saw that they were looking at me in a curious way, almost as if they had questions about what's going on. I spoke to them first in Finnish but they asked if I speak English. They spoke in such a clean, natural way that made me think they might have been from England because there was no English-isn't-my-native-tongue accent. :D So basically they asked what's going on and why people are dressed up in costumes, if there's some kind of theater going on or such. There clearly was no malice or disdain in their tones and they seemed genuinely interested. I explained that there's an event for popular culture going on right now in library and that the reason I'm standing here is because I'm a judge for a costuming contest and waiting for contestants to show up. I explained what cosplay was and how it's basically dressing up as characters from fictional sources like movies, games, comics etc and then I asked if they knew what anime was and the man's eyes lit up and said something like "oh those Japanese cartoons right?". They asked if they were allowed to be here due to the event because they had no idea there would be anything out of the ordinary in the library and I assured them that it's a free event and that they're free to participate in anything they see and that the library is open to the public like normal.  They were honestly so delightful and full of curiosity, not like some typical judgmental boomers at all lol. Before they left they asked if this costuming event is held frequently and I said that they were lucky because it's only once a year, for one day, and they happened to be at the library on the right day! Oh and they really liked my costume lol, kept complimenting me. Miten kehuja otetaan vastaan apuea :'D

If I didn't need to stay alert I would have picked up some Tarzan to read...

Whenever I noticed that the gap between one contestant and the next was drawn out I speeded across the building to snap some photos for this summary. I'm glad in hindsight that I took these opportunities when I could or I would have no photos to show now. My schedule was very packed this year and I had very little free time to actually explore or participate in anything. The cosplay competition and everything that goes into it ate up a big chunk of my time at Mericon this year; i was pretty fun though, I would probably have gotten restless if I had nothing to do lol.

You could borrow some board games etc, the library was fully functional!

When I was on the later half of photographing the contestants I noticed that Firith and one of the library workers suddenly were approaching me with very suspicious smiles. I just knew they were about to try to drag me into something! And right I was –  they needed people for the cosplay catwalk. Normally I would absolutely not participate in this kind of activity because I have a debilitating fear of being on stage and center (thanks anxiety disorder for that one) but one of the two Marias, the one dressed as the sea with a perch plushie safety-pinned to her butt, suggested that we could go on stage together if it made it any easier. I guess I didn't have a choice because there was only a mere handful of participants and Mericon needed fillers or there would be a real risk of having to cancel the activity and that wasn't an option since it's one of those that draws public. Getting participants was made even harder because cosplay contestants weren't allowed to participate because that's a standardized rule in cons apparently. Mericon just didn't have that many people in character costumes but we got enough in the end to host the catwalk.

So yeah, I stepped up on stage and accidentally on Maria's toes lol and then I quickly bounced back to photograph the final contestants. I saw a big imposing guy dressed as Jason Voorhees and I apologized to him for having to wait for me while the photo booth was vacant for a few minutes. Thankfully, despite his intimidating presence, he was really chill. :')

There was a PS4 available for anyone who wanted to play.

One of the cosplay contestants had cancelled last minute because they got sick, but luckily we had someone interested who applied to compete on-site so, in the end, we still had six cosplay contestants. Sometimes things just work out. I'm relieved we got the sixth one back because having five contestants and three who will win prizes feels kinda bad, like singling out two. Six is the magic minimum number because then you can view it as half-and-half and it feels more fair and less like exclusion.

All contestants on stage.

After I had photographed everyone it was time for the actual cosplay competition to begin. It's a very simple format and worked identically to previous Mericons; it's the type that we in Finland call 'lavajuoksut' so basically the contestant walks up on stage, does a few poses and then walks out and the next one walks in and does the same etc. I'd say it's the most classic one and the easiest type for beginners and those having stage fear.

We judges agreed on the winners and everything went well, no drama. In fact I didn't hear of any drama or bad things happening during Mericon, it seemed like no issues cropped up during the whole duration of the event.

Marine animal art on display, aww!

After the cosplay competition was over I finally had a short window of free time and went to check out the Artist's Alley. It was located in the same place as always, although of course the artists were a mix of old and new faces. I like how there's different ones every year, it keeps things fresh.

General view of the cafeteria/lounge area.

But before I get to the Artist's Alley I want to briefly mention that this year Mericon had a special guest, Merenneito Riia. She held a panel about mermaiding and such and I'm not gonna lie, I'm bummed that I couldn't go listen because it overlapped with my work responsibilities. :'C I've been lowkey interested in the mermaid swimming (and costuming) hobby for a while now and she seemed so sweet and genuine based on the small chat I had when I bumped into her later during the day. 

Real mermaid talk~

Okay so, back to the Artist's Alley visit lol. I mean it's one of my con traditions by now and one of my number one priorities to check – you never know what treasures you will find!
The Artist's Alley is in the "reading room" I guess you could say, the part of the library where you go to read newspapers, magazines or just about anything that you want to read in silence in a dedicated room. It's shaped like a reversed L lying down and it works well with the natural light coming in from the glass windows lighting up the place. Except this year some rainwater came in and I heard the table positioning had to be moved slightly. xD

Artist Alley's beginning...

.. and the other half.

I found some nice Honkai Star Rail heart-shaped pins and a small Lord of the Rings print with Legolas, Gimli and Aragorn in action poses that I really liked the art style of and will put up on my fridge. :) 

Oh, speaking of art and artists... Most people have probably noticed that the marketing on social media for Mericon leading up to the event had a revelation of Mericon's new mascots. These two mascots are a gray cat with a blue scarf called Meri and a young sailor named Rauno. I am the original creator of these two. :D Janika Wahlman made the cute mermaid chibi version of Rauno also seen in the marketing! Probably not too surprising seeing how I'm the artist behind the painted signs in use since the very first Mericon. I guess it's not too farfetched to say I'm Mericon's official illustrator at this point lol. 

Mericon leaflets feat. Rauno the sailor!

Of course there was a drawing room just like on previous years, only difference was that this year it was moved upstairs since the room where it used to be, just next to the lecture room, has been enlarged and with that the wall separating the two rooms was removed. It felt weird walking in there the first time because the damn wall was missing. xD

Drawing room and pin/badge workshop just outside.

Oh and there was a drawing competition and this year's theme was to draw a mermaid. The best artworks in the three different age brackets won a prize and it was the library workers who kept this workshop running and acted as judges. I heard it was very popular this year! There were a lot of entries for the contest and Janika showed me and Firith some of the artworks and oh boy it must have been so difficult to choose just one winner per group because there were so many amazing entries. I'd feel bad, honestly, I kinda wish we could have rewarded more entries with prizes because so many were deserving. Libraries just don't get big budgets allocated to them anywhere in the world. :'( #justiceforlibraries

After I had stashed away my Artist's Alley purchases I went to the changing rooms to grab my laptop and stuff needed for my panel, which was to start at 15:30. Or well, was supposed to. Because of course I run into multiple technical difficulties and to make it worse my laptop was incompatible with the cable for the projector because it doesn't have an HDMI port and I was not aware of this prior. Great. :)) Thank lord I had borrowed a flash drive from Firith's parents that I had my presentation in, just in case. But despite that we ran into another problem and that was issues with opening the presentation because it was done in LibreOffice and none of the building's laptops had that same program and yeah, it was a nightmare to get it to work because we weren't allowed to just install it either. Eventually we got it to work but at this point 20 or so minutes had already passed and, to make it worse, the text formatting on my slides were majorly fucked up when opened on this other program (was it Adobe Reader? I can't remember) and my 10h+ of hard work looked like garbage. :( It was quite upsetting (although it's no one's fault really) but at least the photos appeared correctly... 

And lastly it was time for my tall ship panel!
(photo by Janika Wahlman)

Because the texts were distorted and missing in parts that also meant I lost a lot of my references and had to tell some parts from memory, which wasn't ideal with my level of nervousness and ADD. Thankfully the listeners were patient and understanding, although I had expected more people to show up. Luck in misfortune though because I wasn't proud of the delayed start and how the technical difficulties made my presentation appear to the listeners; it just looked sloppy and all my well-placed memes and stuff were rendered unintelligible. :( I also couldn't even finish my slides (only got about halfway) before time ran out because the con closed. Maybe if I had an earlier slot I would have had time but whatever, at least this chaos gave me some very valuable experience on what to do before I rerun this presentation anywhere – reserve a longer time slot and carry with me adapters so that I can use my own laptop and avoid issues. Oh and this was good exposure therapy lol.

The guest book returned but there was this new feedback sign too!

With that Mericon was over and it was time to head back up north, especially because next weekend it's already time for Matsucon in Oulu. Coniputki ei lopu koksaan :'D

I want to give cheers and thank yous to Rauma's main library workers and the volunteers who helped make Mericon successful once again – it wouldn't be possible without you all! We're a small but tight-knit bunch keeping this event running and we all should be proud of the fruits of our labor. Let's keep Mericon afloat in the future too, library cons are accessible for everyone and have the added bonus of keeping libraries relevant in the youth sphere~

Thanks for reading, next up is Matsucon!
Shiro Samurai (aka KaamosWolf) is out~

Mericon 2025 lineup!

 Hello everyone!

It's just about time for Mericon it's literally tomorrow and of course I will be there! This is the third Mericon coming up and I will once again be a part of the workforce to some extent, to be more precise I'm one of the cosplay competition judges and you might also find me at the photo booth. But I'm also doing something new at Mericon that I've never done at events before – I'm holding my first ever panel (or activity, program, lecture... whatever they call it nowadays)! I'm super nervous but I've wanted to talk about my tall ship sailing experiences since the very first Mericon but I kept chickening out because Mericon is thematically a perfect place to hold a talk about marine topics! It's slotted into the later half of the event so come listen if you want to hear some fun and chaotic sailor stories~

But anyways, I will of course cosplay at Mericon too. Sadly I don't have an outfit that fits the nautical theme this year but there's a reason for that and the reason is that I haven't been back home since Nekocon and that means that I have exactly two costumes to choose from – which made the choice rather easy because yeah, I have to factor in ease of movement cuz I'm part of the crew.

So with that said...

Character: America (Revolutionary War)
Series: Hetalia

Yeah, who would have guessed? xD No but really, it's a fairly easy cosplay to move around in and put on and that's priority number one. I want to improve Gaogamon a bit before its next outing so my options were either rewearing America or going casual and, err, I'd rather not be casual when I have a functioning costume with me.  Of course, ideally, I would have preferred to wear something that would fit better with my panel (and the con's theme) but I ran out of time for my original plans to work and I was dumb and didn't think of taking with me any gear so I could pull together a pirate-inspired outfit before I left hindsight saves no one when you're 500+ km away from home. :') 

With that said, see you hopefully at Mericon this Saturday! It's free entrance so come on over~

Nekocon 2025 – Team Rocket can't capture Digimons!

Hello peeps!

I was at Nekocon last weekend and now it's time to write my con summary about how this year's trip went. So yeah, Nekocon was held during 19-20 July in the Music Centre (Musiikkikeskus) building in Kuopio, Finland. This is my third Nekocon experience to date, I've been attending it annually since my first one in 2023. :)

Let's get to the summary~

Mine and Firith's con journey started on Friday morning. We had planned to drive down because it suited our plans better this year as we would stay in the south after Nekocon and continue towards Eura and Mericon in two weeks – no point in driving all the way back up and then soon drive down again. 
The car trip down went well and this time we were spared from tractor meetups and other road rage inducing experiences. I did have to handsew the elastic belt loops of Gaogamon's tail in the car though so yeah, the classic last minute fixing happened haha. Somehow I managed to lose my seam ripper in the car and I'm still sad about it; maybe it fell out of the car during one of our many stops because I had it in my lap last time I saw it. It sucks to lose things you've had for a long time no matter how inexpensive it was because it still had some emotional value... and this is the kind of shit I beat myself up over.

We were laughing at silly and dirty town and street names like Alapitkä (hard to translate but if you're dirty-minded it means that you're long down there lol) and Makkaramäentie (lit. sausage hill road)... xD I mean that's how you entertain yourself while on a long road trip, right? Another one is counting yellow cars and coming up with meanings for register plates on passing cars...

You know when everything becomes Pöljä (means something like dimwit) that Kuopio is close. :'D

We arrived at Kuopio somewhere between late afternoon and evening and before we went to our hotel for the night we drove to Kuopio's centrum and grabbed our con tickets in advance from the booth outside the Lumit building, which is part of where Nekocon would be hosted the next day. We had also been tasked with retrieving Sallukka's and Dongrieg's tickets because they would arrive (also by car) much later than us and would thus miss the chance to grab their tickets. I mean no one wants to queue on the actual con day unless you absolutely have to, right?

After we got the tickets we headed to Rauhalahti spa hotel, just like on the two previous Nekocons. We might have cemented this as a Nekocon must-have package because yeah, the spa is included in the hotel price (which is reasonable and comparable to a standard hotel) and nothing is as refreshing as jumping into the spa after a sweaty summer con day lol. And yes, this year's Nekocon was just as hot as last year's and we were positively dying.
We checked in at the hotel and, as cosplayers usually do, our belongings spread across the hotel room like wildfire. We had an unholy amount of luggage with us which required multiple trips to the car to empty it so yeah, there was a lot of stuff. xD I unpacked my cosplay parts and put them on hangers etc on the balcony – I mean we didn't have access to an ironing board so you gotta do what you can to minimize wrinkles lol. We were lucky to have a room with a balcony this time because it meant we had a functioning AC. 
Because we arrived before 9 PM it meant we had time to jump into the spa on our arrival day, which was quite nice after that long trip down. The rest of the night was spent relaxing and preparing for the con morning by going through skincare routines, ditching the beard etc.

Kuopio's Music Centre, aka Nekocon main building.

We had mutually agreed on a no-stress Saturday and that's because there wasn't really any activities that piqued our interests enough to warrant an early morning lol. Although in hindsight we might have been a bit too sluggish to get going. XD We woke up respectably early at around 9 in the morning for being millenials at least and immediately went to the breakfast buffet. Rauhalahti hotel buffet is not as large as on the Sokos hotels we've frequented but it has the necessities eli karjalanpiirakat. 

After we were done eating our fills we went back to the hotel room and we, uhh, were supposed to put on our cosplays, which... well, we eventually did. We just took a reaaaaally long time getting into gear because we were tired and hovering in lazybum territory lmao. I did struggle with Gaogamon's makeup because I had not been able to do any practicing beforehand so yeah, caking my face up took a stupid amount of time. To make it worse I had forgotten my matte eyeshadow palette at home and both my liquid eyeliners decided to be unreliable and randomly start showing signs of dying just now because why wouldn't they? :)) Needless to say I wasn't happy with my eye makeup at all and I will do it differently next time lol. Firith didn't need nearly as much time as me to finish Tanemon's makeup, aside from some false eyelash rage. xD Putting on all my cosplay parts was quite the struggle too because I had so many moving parts (the floofy pelt, long scarf, bandages, boxing wraps etc) and my tail didn't stay secured as well as I had hoped. Had to use a safety pin to stabilize it and even despite that it was still a bit too floppy to my liking. I will have to rethink the attachment method for future use.

Once we finally had our costumes on the clock was something around 3 in the afternoon. Honestly we've probably never arrived to a con this late before, this has got to be a new record. xD It was a very hot summer day and before we did anything else we quickly walked past Lumit to take some proof photos before our faces melted off. Despite our efforts to do more summer-friendly cosplays we were still overheating lol. 

Lumit, the secondary Nekocon building.

Despite the super warm day it was fun to be in costume and we got a couple adorable interactions by the younger congoers. I just wish I wasn't so socially awkward and could manage to say something else than just a 'thank you' when someone comes up to me. :') I always come up with replies in hindsight and after the occasion has passed – one of my useless superpowers lol.

Taisteluturri vauhtikorvilla.

After the minimal camera session behind Lumit we decided to check out the Artist's Alley, especially because we knew that some of the sellers were only there on Saturday and others only on Sunday. Just like on previous years the Artist's Alley was located inside Lumit and inside Lumit were also the video game room, the flea market and probably something else I'm forgetting. Lumit is a separate building from the Music Centre but they're just next to one another so it's easy to navigate from one to the other.

I had one fun encounter as Gaogamon when near Lumit – I spotted a pair of Team Rocket Grunt cosplayers and asked for their picture because they were super cool. While I was grabbing my phone I said something silly along the lines of "I'm a Digimon so I can safely snap a photo without being stolen by Team Rocket!" which made everyone laugh. :'D For once my social anxiety gave way to be a goof around strangers.

View towards Lumit's entrance, general area and AA.

One of the Artist's Alley corridors.

There were quite a lot of artists this year too and some I don't remember having seen before, which is always nice. There was a good variety of items for sale but of course when I'm in the market for pins to decorate my ita bag with that's when most booths don't have pins. How come my luck is always like this? xD I remember years ago pins were super common but now it felt like only a few tables had pins for sale. *sniff* Oh well, I still ended up with a loot haul bigger than what I expected I would find!

View of the general area and AA from another angle.

I quickly checked out the video game room and there was some kind of game tournament running on the big scene I think? I didn't stay to watch though because a new intrusive thought had entered both mine and Firith's brains – what if the Aina Kesä bubble tea stand is out there in the town square this year too? There had been no marketing nor mentions about it on Nekocon's social media channels at this point and so we decided to enter detective mode and go check it out ourselves. 

The video game room. My eyes spy Double Dash...

We left Lumit and walked up the road towards the market square; it looked very similar to the previous years and there were normies everywhere staring just like previous years too lol. It didn't take long before we spotted the boba stand and the next thing that happened was a beeline straight towards it! We also saw some other colorful people who were clearly Nekocon attendants so we definitely weren't the only ones needy of cooling drinks!

The milkshake that brings all boys to the yard.

The sellers were super friendly and the drinks were yummy! Apparently this year there was a 10% discount for everyone who had the Nekocon ticket (which is a band on your wrist) instead of last year's version that had the discount for those who were dressed up. I mean this year's is more fair because not everyone cosplays or dressed up all fancy at cons so why should the casually dressed be excluded from a Nekocon collaboration? 

After we had finished our drinks we decided to go back to the hotel so that we would have time to invade the spa before it closes at 9 PM. 

This day was a rather quick run at the con but that's mainly because we arrived so late and only checked out Lumit and the town square; we had agreed on saving the Music Centre for Sunday instead. No need to rush when it's a 2-day event and especially because Nekocon had little to no must-see activities and so we were free to schedule our time how we saw fit. This chill approach allowed us to make sure we had time to make use of the spa facilities which, truth be told, is probably 50% of the reason why we attend Nekocon at this point. x) And the bubble tea stand is probably 30% and the rest is Nekocon itself lmaoooo.

Höpsöt päänahat roikkumaan feat. Wario-lippis.

We yeeted ourselves out of our costumes, showered and then hurried to the spa. We cut it a bit late but still had roughly one hour of pool time so yeah, it worked out. Might have consumed a hamburger at some point too. That was in fact my second chicken burger in a row, I couldn't stomach the thought of a third one for the remainder of the trip lol.
The rest of the night I think we lazily watched the first Lord of the Rings on television and inhaled a bag of chips.

On Sunday morning we did better. Or well, we woke up roughly the same time as the day before but we didn't idle for as long in the hotel room after breakfast. My cosplay for the day was also a lot easier to put on so that played a part too lol. I debuted my Revolutionary War America cosplay from Hetalia that I've had near-completed for years, oops. I was expecting this costume to be breezier to wear than Gaogamon but in hindsight I'm not sure if it was any lighter at all. xD Well at least there were less moving parts so I had an easier time moving around without constantly having to adjust something!
This time we didn't have same series cosplays like our Digimon gijinkas on Saturday – Firith did an Espeon gijinka and borrowed my old ears and the red forehead gem. I was a bit nervous before the trip because in my bathroom cabinet I have a bunch of unmarked sfx liquids and I wasn't entirely sure which one of the bottles was the spirit gum but yeah, luckily I picked the right one to take with me and so we could glue the gem without having to use eyelash glue as a substitute or some shit.

Once we both had our costumes on we, once again, drove to Nekocon. Firith's car was parked in a shadeless spot on the hotel's parking lot so you can imagine that boiling hot out-in-the-sun-all-day car smell when one opened the doors, it was like stepping into a sauna on wheels. xD The AC couldn't start up any sooner!
We arrived at the con in a much more reasonable hour of the day than on the day before. But before we entered the main building we pulled out my trusty old camera and did a quick mini photoshoot near the vegetation. Because there's only two photos I'm not going to post them separately but instead add them to this summary. 

Cosplayer: Shiro Samurai (America)

Photographer: Firith

Photo editor: Shiro Samurai

I'm somewhat relieved I managed to repair the ahoge because it had been crushed during transport. For once it was useful that I had packed with me all kinds of repair kits just in case, hah.

Once we had taken turns photographing each other's costumes we finally were ready to step inside the main con building. The Music Centre held within it the Dealer's Hall, Artesan's Alley, organization booths, panel rooms and cafeteria and basically everything else that wasn't in Lumit. We did not explore every corner but from what we could see it seemed like almost everything was placed in the same way as on previous years – as in the layout was super familiar. I'd say it works so why change it? What I don't like though is how horrible the indoors air quality is in the Music Centre, it has always been bad (even during the old Animecon days) so I've come to expect it but yeah, it very quickly becomes suffocating and especially upstairs in the Artesan's Alley where there's massive glass windows.

Artesan's Alley upstairs.

Cutest birbs made by momomaumau!

I was quite surprised to have some people come up to me and recognize that I'm from Hetalia, especially as its glory days are long past. The interactions were wholesome and lowkey adorable and I was so relieved to have nice interactions because I was mentally prepared to get cancelled lmao.

I bought a few more things from a couple artesan tables (artesan's and artist's alleys are separated in Finland because the former are seen as more professional, they usually are entrepreneurs and have higher selling volumes and experience than the standard artists) and we also browsed the dealers both in the upper floor and on the main floor.

Merchandise seller upstairs.

There were some Nekocon promotions. That Blastoise thou.

We didn't attend any activities or panels today either and so we mainly just browsed all the shops. If I had unlimited money I would have bought a lot more stuff but I don't and so I had to limit my spending sprees. That Blastoise plush made me feel hyper nostalgic though because I have a very similar one but the old-school version from the late 90s or early 00s when it had leather cannons; I still have it somewhere and it's super precious to me (Blastoise was my very first favorite Pokémon) but the leather has degraded a bit over the years. :'< I was tempted to buy the new one so I could have tortoise twins from the past and future lol. Maybe next time!

Dealer's Hall main area.

This seller had a lot of retro stuff that made my geeky heart tingle. ;_;

There was a kimono/wafuku shop in the Dealer's Hall too!

I don't think I have so much more to say about Nekocon, I mean I didn't really spend that much time at the con itself and what time I did spend was spent browsing and buying stuff. :'D I don't feel like a con trip has to be filled with activities to be worth it, I'm very much content just supporting some artists etc and seeing all the wonderful cosplayers while enjoying the atmosphere. Of course if there hadn't been such a summer heatwave I probably would have spent more time indoors or well, at least in the video game room hahah. 

During the con's final hour we went to get more boba!

All in all I'm happy with this year's Nekocon and I would definitely return next year, unless something unforeseen happens like Firith's car dies for good. The weather was perhaps a bit too hot for my liking but hey, we Finns from the far north shouldn't complain because half the year is winter and darkness! 

Thanks for reading! Mericon is coming up soon so that's where I'll be heading next~

Nekocon 2025 cosplay lineup!

 Hello frens!

Nekocon is right around the corner this weekend aaaaa and yeah, I know, this cosplans post is a dumb amount of late. I would have liked to publish it sooner but I swear my plans were changing every second day, no joke. I just could not settle on what to cosplay for the longest time because I wanted something new but also something I wouldn't boil to death in. We've been having crazy warm weather lately and apparently the Nekocon weekend will be warm too and well, I don't want to be miserable during one of the highlights of the year lmao. :'D I really need to make more summer-friendly cosplays... 

After a lot of back-and-forthing I think I've finally come to a point where my plans won't change anymore. *crosses fingers* It's not the first time I'm very last minute with cosplay plan reveals but better now than not at all!

Let's goooo~~

Saturday

Image source: Digimon wiki

Character: Gaogamon
Series: Digimon

I've always been a Digimon fan, I just haven't cosplayed from it yet – which actually is kinda weird when I think about it. As a kid I never really understood the "you have to choose one" rivalry between Pokémon and Digimon, I genuinely enjoyed both? Over time Pokémon won the mass appeal and Digimon got stuck in an underdog kinda position but honestly, the original Digimon anime went hard because it had a more dark and mature story that hit some really deep themes (especially when you consider it was a kids show) compared to Pokémons episodic and light-hearted animation. 
But yeah, it's about time I showed this long-running franchise some love and ever since I saw Gaogamon in the Digimon World: Next Order video game I was like hell yeah! 

I'm reusing bits and pieces from previous cosplays for this one (happened to have stuff with fitting colors..) combined with some newly made props to make it recognizable. :3 Obviously I'm making a gijinka, not a fursuit. xD A fursuit would be cool though but I have no experience how to make one so it ain't happening in two days lol.

Sunday

Character: America (Revolutionary War)
Series: Hetalia

I've had this cosplay lying around since early 2021 so maybe it's time I finally debut it lololol. I figured it was technically one of my lighter cosplays lighter than 3+ layers of lined kimonos at least and, although I don't have the shoulder/cross belts, the costume is still complete enough to be wearable. I don't have any kind of props for now but that's fine since America will be my chill Sunday cosplay. 

That's it. These plans should be final unless something unforeseen happens. It's a bit amusing that both of my costumes have the same color palette with blue, red and white – that wasn't intentional at all. xD

Oh, and I should maybe mention as a sidenote that it's been like 10 years since I watched Hetalia and it's just a silly gag show to me that I originally watched because one of my big interests has always been history and world history happened to be the basis of the show (regardless of how accurately it portrays things). I don't think of myself as part of the fandom, the show was amusing at times and a bit questionable at others but left no big overall impact on me; I'm mainly cosplaying from it because some outfits are cool-looking – just like with any other anime I casually consumed lol.

See you at Nekocon, meow!

Lens review: Vassen Dolly Plus Red

Hello there!

As I promised earlier I would review the red lenses I used on the costest for Prussia and here it now is. This is a review for the Vassen Dolly Plus Red, a circle lens that used to be quite popular among cosplayers and I assume that such is the case even today.

Without further ramblings, let's do this!

 

Base curve: 8.6 mm
Diameter: 14.5 mm

Water content: 42% 

Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)

 

This is a large and very colorful lens with an 'anime eye' design, hence its popularity for cosplay purposes and j-fashion in general. There's a distinct, black limbal ring that adds to the big eye effect and makes you appear rather youthful. This is one of those lenses that is very easy to like as it simply just looks so good on most people!

One lens in.

This is not a lens that you wear if you wanna look natural, that's for sure. You wouldn't pick a red lens for that in the first place, right? :D The red color is very obvious, it's not an insanely bright lens (not crazy lens levels) but still vibrant enough to show up even when viewed from a moderate distance. The color coverage is superb but be prepared that some of your real eye color will show through the pupil hole – as is the norm on bigger circle lenses.

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

 

Indoors, natural room light.

Indoors, yellow room light.

Bathroom light.

Flash photo.

Indoors, facing a window. (backyard, not sun side)

Indoors, unlit corridor with weak natural light in the distance.

Outdoors, back against the sun. (facing the wall)

Outdoors, facing the sun while standing under a shadow.

Outdoors, facing the sun. (it was about to get blocked by a roof)

As per usual these lenses were also part of that box of unopened lenses I had forgotten about. I found it after pretty much every single pair in there had expired so I'm only wearing each pair I review until I get the necessary photos taken and then I immediately discard them. That means I wear a lens for approximately 10-20 minutes and that's what my comfort grade will be solely based around – obviously it's not optimal so take it with a big pinch of salt. Also, please don't wear expired lenses for any prolonged time – it's potentially dangerous and just not worth it. Just don't.

What I can say about the comfort is that these lenses appeared to be really comfortable; I barely felt them in my eyes and they were thin and easy to insert. I did not experience red corners in my vision field nor blurring. I would say they were comfortable and if these lenses had been fresh I could likely have worn them for 4-5 hours (I have dry and sensitive eyes naturally) which is good in my book.

I would definitely recommend these lenses if you fancy red lenses in general or if you need this style and color for cosplaying. Also great for alternative fashion, goths and basically anything that you want to have red eyes for when dressing up. I think it's a really beautiful lens with a great color that's intense without being overwhelming or excessively fake-looking. You can't really go wrong with these, in my opinion.

Distance photo!

Yup, this was from the Prussia cosplay test as well.

Looking for reviews of Dolly Plus lenses in other colors?
I got you covered: Green, Blue, Violet, Brown, Gray

Short summary:

Color: 8/10
Vibrant, clear red color that simply looks great. Eye-catching.
Design: 8/10 
Simple 'manga style' lens with a big black rim. Dolly in style but very flattering on most people.

Opacity: 8/10 

Color coverage is very solid, no doubt that your eyes will look red with these.
Enlargement: 8/10
The black limbal ring adds to the illusion of big eyes but yeah, these are notably enlarging.

Comfort: 8/10 

Thin and I didn't really feel that I was wearing lenses. Easy to insert.
Naturalness: 2/10

Red lenses will never be natural for obvious reasons and these are too cartoony as well.

Thanks for reading, stay safe~

Shiro Samurai out.