Kitacon 2014 – What do you mean I was supposed to be serious and creepy?

Hi there!

So not so long ago, on the weekend of 1-2 March, Kitacon was held in Kemi. Of course me and my company would drag our asses there because c'mon, it's the closest con to where we live and free entrance!
About Kitacon: this year it was a 2-day con. Actually, the later Kitacon events have for some reason, as far as my crappy memory goes, been only one day but this year they went back to having it last both Saturday and Sunday. I say sweet!

Kitacon poster.

So, back to the beginning. Friday evening me, Jäätynyt Enkeli and Hasakitsuki went over to mom's place to sleep there over the Kitacon weekend because, well, it's closer to Kemi + free ride to the con and back, wopee!

On Saturday morning I woke up, went to shower, had breakfast and started changing into my Sannan cosplay. Too bad for me it took forever to get the goddamn eye makeup to look decent (I had to redo parts of it a lot) and so everyone had to wait for me while I was battling in the bathroom a very serious fight – because cosplay is not so serious business.
When everyone finally was ready mom drove us to Kemi and there we stepped into a building we had never been in before. See, Kitacon has all these previous years been held in another building. I must say that Sauvotalo is pretty cool.

It didn't take long before we found Sairu-chan dressed as Sieni Shiemi!
(random mirror picture and yeah, I have beautiful camera face censor)

We also ran into the epic werewolf guy from Oulun animeseminaari, also known as Karri. He is just too awesome for words and we spent quite a lot of the con hanging with him!

Karri feat. borrowed pink hat

Except for striking chats with familiar faces, photoshooting Sairu-chan's cosplay, checking out the building as well as the Dealer's Hall and Artist's Alley I didn't do anything else on Saturday. There were some interesting panels on both Saturday and Sunday but I either missed or saw the time it was held too late. :( Also I must say that the air inside was pretty bad; I couldn't stay inside the con for very long before getting a major toast effect and needing to go outside to cool down.

Kitacon is mostly a hang-with-friends con for me; it just feels very relaxed, slow-going and chill compared to the bigger and more ambitious cons with a lot of panels and people crowding everywhere.

Random con picture feat. Dealer's Hall &Artist's Alley.

At some point we got bored so we went up to the second floor, occupied an empty table and played some Monster Hunter. It's always a good idea to have a handheld gaming console or something else with you in case you need entertainment!

Gaming time, gaming time ~

We did look for a location to have a sort of "creepy!Sannan feat. ochimizu" photoshoot at some point but it quickly fell through when it became obvious that we were in the middle of the city and Hakuouki and modern buildings just don't work well together... at all. Also, the weather was very dull and gray and I wasn't eager to walk in waraji on more or less stone-y and slippery roads to go see if there would have been some less modern areas nearby.

One thing I did though was buying a Tracon ticket! Yeah, you could buy them in advance at the photo studio for a cheaper special price, namely 15 €. 

Tracon ticket bought! (and Okita plushie photobombing wanting to be on the pic)

Not so much more to say about Saturday because we barely did shit. We did go eat at a Chinese restaurang when we got hungry during mid-day; otherwise we stayed at the con until they closed the first floor and that's when we went back to mom's place to eat salmon soup and sleep.

On Sunday when I woke up early I felt so laggy, lazy and blööörgh that I highly considered not cosplaying at all and just going casual to the con. I probably experienced all possible stages of "can't be bothered" and whatnot but after having my breakfast cereals something magical happened – I felt like I maybe could be bothered to cosplay after all.
So yeah, I put on my Gin cosplay and soon enough our Bleach cosplay trio arrived at Kitacon. At the con we just walked around until Sairu-chan showed up, aka Rangiku Matsumoto and our final cosplay group member. With everyone together we went outside to have a photoshoot... and I can only sum it up by saying "ei siitä tullut helvettiäkään". :-DD

And, if you wonder, the quality was something of this caliber:

I don't even.

Gin demonstrating how to eat cereals!

Everything was hilarious. Even stupid things.

HURR. Gin approves photographing Rangiku.

Yeah, herpsis derpsis everywhere and beyond. My cereals must have been drugged because I couldn't be serious to save my life. The so-called photoshoot was nothing else but glorious photobombs that I failed to eternalize (provided by Jäätynyt Enkeli, of course), laughter, so-bad-it's-good faces and horribly frozen fingers.
Oh well, some hours later it was time for FFFight, this time an improvised one – the pre-planned one was on Saturday if my memory serves me right. I admit the main reason I went to watch it was because Karri would participate and the other reason because there wasn't much else to do.
About FFFight I can say that sometimes it was hilarious and sometimes pretty meh. The final fight between the Dubinators –holders of FFFight– and The Challengers –including Karri– though was something so awesome. I kind of hope it was recorded because it was really funny and I'd like to see it again! "Ylipaino on ylivoimaaaaa!"

such quality. much violent. wow. (FFFight)

I don't remember when exactly it was but at some point in the Dealer's Hall/Artist's Alley someone started a "letkajenkka" and soon there was a long line of people following the leader who was blasting at least the What is Love song from a cellphone and walking around. xD It was beautiful.

Part of the "letkajenkka" line.

I don't have so much more to say about the con itself – it was nice and relaxed just like previous Kitacons. I did hear though that the cosplay competition was pretty bad (I didn't watch it this year) or well, more like that the judges were inexperienced and that some competitors got more attention than others and that it basically was very unprofessional. I hope for the contestants that this will be fixed in the future because hey, even Kitacon's cosplay competitions have had the quality of the costumes rising over the past years and so the judges need to level up to the next level as well and have some actually knowledgeable people judging, so that it's fair to everyone.
Oh, and speaking of other cosplayers here's a little shitty photo video I quickly put together with a few cosplay pics and randoms:

I don't have more to say. Bye bye and thanks for reading ~
Le Samurai is out.

Lens review: Dueba Volte Brown

 Hellou! :>

Another contact lens review incoming – this time Dueba Volte Brown. Seemingly they are also known under the name Dueba Twinkle Brown. I've reviewed the Volte Green earlier so for more details/comparison go check it out. ;)

Lenses in solution, taken in bathroom light.
Sorry about the horrible photo quality.

Lens on my finger.

Base curve: 8.6 mm
Diameter: 14.5 mm

Water content: 38%

Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)

With just one lens in. (bathroom light again)

Indoors, natural daylight.

I bought these some time ago (as usual, I have a bunch of contacts yet to wear and review) and by cosplaying Sannan-san I got some use for them earlier than planned. The first time I used these I wore them for the Sannan photoshoot.

I'm really fond of the design of the Volte series. It just looks plain cool with that swirl and black outer rim. The diameter is 14.5 mm – same as on the green ones. These look almost golden-brown when not worn!

The first time I put 'em on I got in the first lens just fine but the other one stung like hell immediately so I had to take it off. I don't know why it did that but when I tried putting it on again –after cleaning it of course– the same thing happened. This time it wasn't as unbearable so I just waited a while to see if the discomfort vanished and so it did. I don't know what was up with that but it has happened with other lenses before as well. *shrugs*

Oh well, while in my eyes they were comfortable; they don't hinder my vision or anything and I get no random colors at the corner of my vision. Then again that might be because these let a bit of my natural eye color through the pupil hole; my blue-gray eyes blend pretty well with the brown and it comes off as a light brown shade, almost with a golden tint. I really like this shade, it's pretty much what I was hoping for.

Oh, one thing though. I don't know if it's just me or what but I found these getting the "dry feeling" in my eyes earlier than the green ones do. I took them off not long after the photoshoot because they felt dry. For some reason –at least so far– it seems to me at least that the green ones are more comfortable long-term... oh well, I can't tell for sure yet because I haven't worn the browns many times. A bit weird though. xD

Distance photo.
Enjoy Sannan edition without glasses!

These look sort of natural –as far as circle lenses are concerned– because the enlarging effect is quite small and these sport no kawaii-desu-bling sparkles or anything of the sort. Pretty subtle if I do say so.
So yeah, these are not all over your face but noticeable nevertheless. Personally I think the brown ones show up better on my eyes than the greens do, but that might be because green is closer to my natural eye color than brown and thus the difference is more striking with brown contacts. I occasionally have my eyes look green-ish in some lights anyway, hence why sometimes I call my eye color blue-gray-greenish.

Want to see how other colors of the Volte series look? 

Check out these reviews: Violet, Gray, Green

Short summary:

Color: 9/10 
A gorgeous shade of golden-ish brown that looks awesome on my eyes.
Design: 8/10 
I'm a fan of the swirl design, also black outer rim looks really good and gives anime look.
Opacity: 7/10
The edges have nice color coverage but the center blends with your real eye color a bit.
Enlargement: 4/10 
Doesn't seem to enlarge much but this is how I prefer my contacts.
Comfort: 9/10 
Highly comfortable but for some reason I found the green equivalent even comfier.
Naturalness: 4/10 
Ignore the black outer rim and these look surprisingly natural.

That's about it, if you have any questions about the contacts just leave a comment!

Keisuke Sannan photoshoot (aka preview!)

Yoo ~

Today I decided to put on my Sannan cosplay for a preview but it quickly turned into a cosplay photoshoot instead. I swear these glasses had something against me because, sweet lord, how hard it was to put them on! Either my head is huge or the glasses are ridiculously small (well, they are antique) because there was just no way I could get them to go over both of my ears – even just one ear was a hard task. Somehow I still managed to get them on after a lot of laughing and helping hands.
Also, I must say that wearing waraji in the snow is nothing short of suicide – my feet turned into no-feel pieces of meat at the end and the photographer even stepped on my toes at one point. xD Totally worth it because my feet aren't even visible on a single pic... *shot*
It was around 0 °C outside and a bit windy and at the end I couldn't feel my fingers anymore either (they were screaming red!) but it was actually worth it this time.

Now prepare for photo overload!

Cosplayer: Valkoinen Samurai (Keisuke Sannan)
Photographer: Jäätynyt Enkeli

Later on I put on my shinsengumi gear (haori and headband) and BOOM! More action-y pictures!

Bonus picture! 

LET'S HAVE A DRINKING GAME. I DARE YA.

...

 Well, now I'm outta here. See ya!
~ Valkoinen Samurai

Kitacon 6 cosplay plans – Mysterious guys with disturbing smiles

Hello!

My next con will be Kitacon in Kemi, Finland, held 1-2 March. This of course means that Kitacon will kick off my con year 2014 and I dare say it's about time! I've had quite the con withdrawal syndrome since Chibicon in November and I'm happy to finally see an end to it. Finallyyyyyyyyyy.

So let's get back to the purpose of this post, namely revealing my cosplay plans because hey, there's only one week left until the con! So here goes in 3, 2, 1...

Saturday

Series: Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan

Character: Keisuke Sannan

Yep, I'm going to cosplay RILLI Sannan. I do like him (I don't understand the haters, c'mon he's pretty awesome in his own way) and ever since I did that one quick test with the green kimono and glasses –that I helped Jäätynyt Enkeli order– I've wanted to know what it would look like if I cosplayed Sannan properly; soon enough I will know! I must admit I'm very excited for this one and hey, Sannan-san needs more cosplay love! <3 I will borrow some cosplay parts from Jäätynyt Enkeli for this – namely the wig, glasses, green kimono, blue "vest", swords and the black sash.
Oh, also I'll likely end up doing a cosplay preview before Kitacon so prepare for that!

Sunday

Series: Bleach

Character: Gin Ichimaru

Wow, I've only cosplayed Gin twice and the last time was at Uppcon 2012 – it feels like forever ago. Damn I miss Uppcon. ;_; For quite a while I've wanted to wipe the dust off him and give him another appearance and well, now is the time! It turned out that me, Jäätynyt Enkeli, Sairu-chan and Hasakitsuki will have a Bleach group as well so that's probably gonna be fun!

That's it guys, see you there!