Nerdcon 2015 cosplay plans – Bring out the oldie!

Whazzuuuup?

I haven't mentioned to many but yes, I am attending Nerdcon in Umeå, Sweden, this year too! And just like last year I will be a volunteer worker there as well! :D I won't be at the cafeteria though, even though that's what I applied for at first – you see, a week or so before the con Nerdcon informed me that they won't have their own cafeteria like last year (aka there will still be one but it's not driven by Nerdcon) so my working area got changed into the "activity helper/checker and assistant" one. I'm really looking forward to getting some new working experience and I'm hoping that it's gonna be just as fun as last year!

Oh, and in case you didn't know – this year Nerdcon is a 2-day con. Last year it was only one day so yes, they're growing!! Nerdcon is held on 14-15th August, aka starting tomorrrow on Friday. I'M SO LATE WITH THIS POST OMG. As you can see Nerdcon is a bit different, since usually the con days are almost always put on Saturday and Sunday, but Nerdcon is Friday and Saturday instead.

But hey! The reason I'm writing my cosplay plans only one meager day away from the con is because I've seriously had the hardest time ever to come up with what to cosplay!! Pinky promise.

I figured quickly that I will want a cosplay that is easy to move around in, comfortable to wear and that preferably doesn't have big-ish props like swords and such that could get in the way. Thing is that a big chunk of all my cosplay do have swords..................

At one point I considered doing one of my Hakuouki SSL cosplays, then I considered Rurouni Kenshin's Okita but without the swords, then I considered throwing together a closet cosplay Pokémon gijinka or just doing an OC. But the more I thought the less I really felt like doing any of these; my ideas just kept changing and it was getting really frustrating because the con was already so close and I still had no idea whatsoever lol. But then on yesterday, while talking with Sacchan (former Sairu-chan, in case you had missed it) at Jäätynyt Enkeli's place, we first threw it as a joke  – "Hey, how about we do some good ol' Bleach cosplays? :D"

At first it was a joke but then we started seriously considering it, especially me and Sacchan. I mean, we hadn't cosplayed from Bleach in some time and, while neither of us has been active in the fandom for long, we still have some fond memories of the series haha. Today I then checked if I could even find all the pieces for the darn cosplay and yes, I did! I informed Sacchan that it's time to get things bleached and the reply was a glorious "5/5 tissimummu ilmoittautuu! XDDDD".

So yeah, I'll bring out an old cosplay of mine (one of my five first cosplays, zomg!) that hasn't seen the light of day since whoppin' 2011!! :O Yeah I even had to check that up.

Are you prepared for thiiiiiiiis??

 

Series: Bleach
Character: Jushiro Ukitake

Yep, it's good ol' captain Ukitake!

This is the sleepwear/casual wear/I'm-being-sick-in-bed/whatnot outfit that he's seen wearing in chapter 116, White Tower Rocks, in the manga. I don't know if it has an official name but oh well. xD

This is the cosplay I will wear on Saturday.

On Friday I won't be cosplaying – I'll just dress up a bit geekier and cooler than usual! I can't really be bothered to think out a second suitable cosplay (because it was so hard to even come up with the first one... OTL) that I could wear while working because yes, I will work on both days. Also, seeing how it might be stressful when we arrive to Nerdcon, it's just gonna be so much easier to not cosplay on the first day.

That's all for now and bye bye!

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 ~

Desucon 2012 summary

Pfhaah, I'm finally back home from my first summer!Desucon ever. Desucon was held in Lahti 8-10 June 2012. I had a blast, it was so much fun despite more-than-usual breathing problems, ME GUSTA VERY MUCH!! I'm so going there next year again!

My journey to Desucon started on Thursday morning by train. I managed to finish my cosplays in time for the con, although last minute and mom and stepdad modified Ichito's shoes for me because I was busy packing my stuff. :'D It looks a bit ghetto but it works lol.

Yay shoes.. and thus my cosplays were ready ~

I slept in Omenahotels with Jäärä, Ri-kun and Sukka from Thursday to Sunday. So much night derp and fun oh my god. xD PILLS!

I cosplayed shikai!Jushiro Ukitake on Friday and hung out with our Bleach cosplay group. We went to eat in a Chinese restaurang together a bit after the con started. I must say I wasn't too fond of the food. I do like Chinese food in general but I've eaten better.. but maybe that's because me and two others sat in another table from the rest and most of the different foods were on the other table and I didn't bother to go there because I was feeling very weak...

On Saturday morning and earlier daytime I cosplayed Ichito from Asaki, Yumemishi but I changed into yukata!Souji Okita from Hakuouki: Shinsengumi Kitan later because, even though I really liked my Ichito cosplay it was quite uncomfortable and I'd rather not have a headache during the whole main con day. Jäärä cosplayed Miku from the same game and changed into Chizuru also.

On Sunday we had a Hakuouki group with Jäärä as Chizuru, Zkitsune as Harada, Ri-kun as Saitou and me as Okita. I think Sunday was my favorite day in terms of hanging-with-friends-fun. Even though shikai!Ukitake was, again, my most popular cosplay during the con.

Photo by Miika Ojamo

I didn't attend any panels or even buy any merchandise I have so much stuff in my room already.. but the con was very very nice anyway. Lots of nice cosplay costumes and friendly people. I took quite some photos so if you remember being photographed by shikai!Ukitake, yukata!Okita or Ichito (aka white long-haired eyepatch guy) give me a shout and I'll see if I have a photo of you! If you don't know what those characters I cosplayed look like you can have a look at my earlier Desucon cosplay plans blog post. I have photos of Okami cosplayers, Hakuouki cosplayers, Bleach cosplayers, Sengoku Basara cosplayers, InuYasha cosplayers, Digimon cosplayers and some few more like some hobbits from Lord of the Rings (names escape me gah!), Mitsurugi from Soul Calibur and Gakupo from Vocaloid. So if you cosplayed something from these series there's a big possibility I have a photo of you~ I have some photos too of characters I didn't recognize but I thought the costumes were really nice/interesting.

Oh, and of course if anyone has photos of my cosplays I'd really like to have them! My email can be found under the "contact me" text to the left. Thank you ~

Hmm, what more to say.. one thing's for sure.. Desucon was probably my most derp!lungs con ever.. dafuq. Weird it fucked so much now when it has been over one and a half year... *shrugs* Oh well. I think I ended up lololo-can't-almost-breathe 5 times.. 2 of them when going to sleep and the others when walking either to the con or back from the con damn ascents. Not cool... and ironically enough I think all bad breathing derps happened when I was cosplaying Okita or Ukitake.. OTL
lololo someone took a photo when I was recovering and I ended up getting a random chest pain just when the photo was taken.. so needless to say a random person probably got a very in-character Okita photo of me. ._. derp

I'm now suffering this after-con lag hahah (yyyh want more Desucon!) and I'm so friggin' tired right now, I hardly slept in the train back home and ahgjfsgfs. I got home a few hours ago and need to start packing again for another con, this time Uppcon in Uppsala next weekend. I'm leaving 13th June so need to pack my stuff again... but I need a bigger suitcase because I will be staying at my dad's place for some few weeks after the con.

And last but not least:

Thank you everyone for a wonderful Desucon experience! <3

Desucon 2012 cosplay plans!

Alrighty. Here comes my cosplay plans for Desucon in Lahti, Finland, 8-10 June 2012!

Friday 

Character: Jushiro Ukitake

Series: Bleach

It seems our Finnish Bleach group decided Friday to be our group's "main day" so I'll bring my signature cosplay, Ukitake, then. He is my favorite character from Bleach! I will do the default captain version complete with shikai swords.

Saturday

Character: Ichito

Series: Asaki, Yumemishi

Oh sweet Jesus. This will be one of the most obscure cosplay choices I'll ever do... but I don't care because I drool buckets over his design, period. I don't care that he's a cursed psychopathic immortal missunderstood forever alone spirit... he is awesome.

Sunday

Character: Souji Okita

Series: Hakuouki

Ah, Okita. One of my favorite shinsengumis, if not my favorite. I decided to do this version for now because it's a chill "Sunday cosplay" and yeah, Ichito will be quite some work... and I'm a procrastinator.

Kitacon 4 summary

 Sup!

Ah, Kitacon in Kemi is now over. It's the world's most northern con (what I've heard) and only maybe a 25 km drive from my home.. heh, the only con in Finland that can be considered close to me. Normally I have to travel to the other end of the country for cons...

Oh well, my friend Jäärä visited me during the weekend so we could go to the con together. She cosplayed Retsu Unohana in her Turn Back the Pendulum version to match my Jushiro Ukitake cosplay, both characters from Bleach. We both had shikai versions too, meaning I had my twin swords and Unohana had her Minazuki plush... it had a zipper in the mouth so we could carry our money and camera and stuff in it. Very handy. But Minazuki's face kept derping. xD
The con was small-ish but comfy and the atmosphere was right. We just walked around the con and had fun and all that jazz. At one time one of the cosplay competition judges saw us and went "Hey guys, you two should seriously consider entering the cosplay competition!" (or something like that) and first we were unsure but then we signed up anyway. They had actually just closed the registration but they made an exception for us. We competed as a duo by the way, if it was not clear. I was so nervous and me and Unohana were the last ones (number 22) to go up to scene. I'm not really the one to stand on a scene normally and I was so nervous back-stage even though I've competed at two small events before too but I somehow relaxed as soon as we entered the stage together and the audience cheered loudly. We actually got 2nd place together, it felt awesome. Yay we got cosplay medals~

I won't tell so much more about the con but if anyone is interested to read more about the weekend there's some more information in my journal at deviantArt. Now I'm waiting for the studio photos taken of us. I hope I'm not doing stupid faces...

Oh, and we got into the Pohjolan Sanomat newspaper... so there's a big photo of us two in costume. Oh gawd. x)

That's it. See ya!

Kitacon drawing closer

Yay free day from school today, and mom worked until very late and stepdad had evening shift... house for myself most of the day... and that can only mean one thing.. cosplaaaaay~
Heck, I needed to test ponytail!Ukitake (aka Turn Back the Pendulum version) again because that's my Kitacon cosplay and err, maybe it's just me but I find I look totally durp with hair tied back. Oh well, I've considered cosplaying all canon variations of Ukitake so yeah, should do that version at least once too, no matter how silly I look... or not. People say it looks alright though so maybe I'm just being a self-critic again... *shrugs*

Preview photo!

See ya at the con!

Weekend's cosplay photos

Hiya!

During last weekend I tried to ease my depression by taking some cosplay photos... it actually works; I won't be telling any details about said depression but yeah, I think I got some pretty okay photos of my Jushiro Ukitake and Soujun Kuchiki costumes... both from the series Bleach. I will post a few photos here for now.

Jushiro Ukitake

Weird angles wuhuuu! No but really, normally my face ends up looking ridiculous in more extreme angles but this one was kinda cool. Besides it shows off my tsukamaki (read: handle wrapping) really well. I should have taken more outside photos but the sun set so fast it became too dark... *shrugs*

 

Jushiro Ukitake, Captain of the 13th Division... aka Captain Tuberculosis by fans of the series/him. OTL Yeah, he occasionally coughs up blood... end of story. ;_; Love him anyway, he is so gentle and the kindest captain of them all.

Soujun Kuchiki

Soujun Kuchiki, late Lieutenant of Division 6.

The Kuchikis are one of the four great noble families in Soul Society and even though he smiled more than his son Byakuya Kuchiki, at least according to that only official reference (yes, he is so obscure I wonder if I'm the first person outside Japan to cosplay him...) picture there is of him: ref.

Oh well, about this photo, he is a Kuchiki after all... and we all know that a Kuchiki needs to do the I'm-better-than-you face at least once.. hey, they are nobles after all! xD

That's it for now. Bye.

Next con I'm planning to go to...

... is Kitacon 4 in Kemi, 11th February 2012. Finland, duh.

...

Oh, and hi! xD

But seriously, why wouldn't I attend Kitacon when it's close to me? Omg, close, read that? It's almost I can't believe it. Close. I live like... maybe 25 km away from it and well, it's the world's most northern con so EFF YEAH FINALLY SOMETHING CLOSE TO ME. :'DD Wuhuu! Okey, it kinda sucks to live in the north sometimes, ahaha.. I have to travel to the other end of Finland to attend cons and some people believe we don't have internet access here and ride reindeers to school... waitwhat?

Cosplay plans you ask? Well, if my friend Jäärä manages to get up here it will be so much AWESOME, so much awesome I can't sit still just thinking about it. I'm planning to not be a durp this time and actually do Turn Back the Pendulum Jushiro Ukitake from Bleach, aka ponytail!Ukitake... and I will bring my shikai... because I can, no problems transporting them this time. Car rides yesssss! Oops, I'm too hyper I see.. and well, Jäärä would be my Turn Back the Pendulum Unohana feat. Minazuki! And yes, TBtP versions to match, no time-fucks. :)

See ya!

Desucon Frostbite 2012 over

Yeah, Frostbite is over.

It was a great experience and I'm pleased with the con. I was part of the Bleach cosplay group as I mentioned earlier and they all were wonderful people, thank you for the time!
I won't really write another long summary about the weekend here because I've already written one over at my deviantArt and besides I'm tired, so just follow this link link plz :'D if you want to read about how my mildly crazy con weekend went.
Both my cosplays seemed well-received and I got quite some hugs and photos taken of me, even though it seemed, at least for me, that not so many people ran around photographing cosplayers... maybe because the con was crammed with people inside all the time because of the cold weather outside or something. At least I don't like taking photos and having 94389392 people in the background... but maybe that's just me...

But yeah, little about my cosplays: I was a durp and forgot to tie my wig back as Ukitake into a low ponytail as I was supposed to do... eeh, so I was just the standard version of him instead of the Turn Back the Pendulum version which I was supposed to be.
My Gin cosplay went over well for its debut (better than I had expected actually), especially because I had Ri-kun with me as my wonderful Izuru-fukutaicho and we walked around the whole Sunday as a duo.

I took some photos of other cosplayers too but didn't get so many, maybe because there wasn't really all that many cosplays that gave me a wow-factor seeing I'm not really into the currently popular stuff like Kuroshitsuji, Ao no Exorcist, Hetalia and those. But of course I did take photos of those cosplays I liked and found at a proper time... don't really want to bother people when they are eating or busy, ahah.

I have some Frostbite cosplay photos, so if anyone remembers that an Jushiro Ukitake cosplayer on Saturday, or a Gin Ichimaru on Sunday took a photo of you then comment and I will send it to you!

Thank you for a great con and bye bye ~

Sealed state Sogyo no Kotowari sword finished!

 Hello!

Wohooo, I finished it today! Ukitake's Sogyo no Kotowari sword in its usual sealed state. :)
The sword is a modified bokken/bokuto.

Here's the only in progress photo I have:

I did the tsukamaki (read: handle wrapping) some hours ago and recently I went and took some photos. Gosh how bad lighting we have in our house... the only place decent enough for photos is the shower/sauna room, lol.

Whole finished sword

Tsuka close-up

I'm happy with it for now. Might eventually want to add a sheath.. we'll see. Also the tsuba feels a tiny tiny bit too big so I'll maybe remake it one day, but for now it'll suffice.

Sayonara!

Next con: Desucon Frostbite 2012

 Hiiii!

The next con I will attend is called Desucon Frostbite. It will take place in Lahti, Finland, 14-15 January 2012. This is the first Desucon Frostbite to be held, big sister Desucon has been held during the summers for some years (although I haven't attended it yet myself) and Frostbite, as name implies, will probably from now on be held during winters to come.

My cosplays are pretty much set in stone for the weekend. Both days I will be part of a Finnish Bleach cosplay group and naturally that means both my cosplays will be from said series. :'D Here comes the cosplay plans!

SATURDAY - Jushiro Ukitake (Turn Back the Pendulum)

Surprised? I guess not...
So yeah, next in line is the TBtP version of Ukitake or well, ponytail!Ukitake as I like to say. Our Bleach group's main day is on Saturday and of course I'll be Jushiro that day, seeing he's my signature cosplay for the moment.
Because the con is held during winter I won't bring shikai with me this time, so I will just make his sealed state zanpakuto instead and carry it around. It's just way more convenient to be able to carry a sword on your waist instead of having both hands busy holding EPIC_SWORDS_OF_DOOM all the time, although I can't deny I love those things to bits. 

Not to mention whenever I have to go outside I'd rather try and keep my hands warm under the haori and cover my face with a scarf so I can breathe properly because, as everyone probably knows, Finnish winters aren't exactly mild.

SUNDAY - Gin Ichimaru (Captain)

Gin? Yes, Gin.
I'm going to cosplay that always-smiling-sarcasmic-creeper-face-guy. And ironically I suck at smiling...
This will be the first time I cosplay Ichimaru so, err, we'll see how it goes. I'm so used to cosplaying Ukitake (been almost exclusively cosplaying him this whole year, go figure) so I guess it will take some time to get used to acting like an eerie bad guy instead of a happy occasionally coughing candysleeve guy, haha.

See ya there!