Mericon 2024 – Look captain, the ship is back!

Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum trippimehu!

Mericon made waves at Rauma's main library last weekend, more exactly on 3.8.2024. This was the much awaited second iteration of the newly sprouted free-entrance anime convention and, just like on its debut, this year's Mericon held true to its namesake and kept to the maritime heritage theme like the name implies ('meri' means sea/ocean in Finnish) – this is largely a nod to Rauma's long and rich history as a harbor town!

All aboard, let's start the report!

Mericon entrance view, aka the library.

I was part of the work force and one of the organizers, just like last year. My traveling companion and partner in crime was Firith and, though the latter doesn't live in Satakunta region anymore, there might or might not have been a big reason for why we arrived a week early and that's because we were rigging the event up.

The day before the con we migrated from Hinnerjoki over to Rauma to make our busy morning a bit less hectic and this meant that we needed an overnight stay that was within our budget. We went yolo and tried the bed & breakfast establishment Haus Anna near the centrum of Rauma, which turned out to be a most fortunate choice indeed! It was so comfy and much nicer than we expected, especially considering how cheap it was if you opted out of the breakfast (it wasn't included in the room price).

Our room in Haus Anna.

Because we're so very proper and responsible adults we went to sleep early and woke up fresh and ready to tackle the challenges and tribulations of the con morning. *insert cicada-filled silence here* ............. Pfffrt, as if, did anyone of you stools really believe that at this point? :'D Of course we stayed up until well past midnight and woke up with at best 5 hours of sleep and an imminent sense of morning dread. Luckily brainfog and le sleep-deprivation vitutus can be cleared with carbonated caffeine – but sadly facially devastating eyebags cannot.
You see, my original plan was to put on my cosplay of the day already at the hotel.. except I really couldn't muster up the energy on said morning. Like at all. Besides, we were a teeny tiny bit short on time. So I ended up taking my makeup and costume stuff with me in a separate bag (ain't no way I'm carrying around my heavy-ass suitcase with a broken wheel any more than needed!) and so we headed for the main library.

Mericon view towards the entrance door.

Cafeteria tables, plus embroidery exhibition, near the entrance.

Because we were workers we arrived at the con before it officially opened the doors. While Firith did some final errands I headed to the changing rooms in the back to put on my cosplay. I didn't have a lot of space to work with so yeah, I ended up spreading my belongings all over the men's locker room like the chaotic goblin that I am. A funny story is that while I was doing my makeup, standing in front of the mirror shirtless, another worker enters the door. I recognized that he's the technician but his knee-jerk reaction probably was something along the lines of "there's someone doing makeup in the changing room so I must be in the wrong one" and he just closed the door confusedly and it took me like half a second to register that "oh yeah, he's a normal dude not used to other dudes caking their faces up" and so I tried to call out to him to come back lol. xD I got told that we'd by all certainty be the only two using said changing room and so I asked if there's any, well, locker, that I could use for the day because it seemed all of them had someone's name on. Well, he said there was this one that I probably could borrow because it was empty and the key was in place...

I am the cleaning crew!? :-DD

Yes, I have a dumb sense of humor. It helped a lot to have somewhere to put all my stuff to keep it organized, especially because throughout the day I ended up with more crap than what I had when I arrived lol. Roskisdyykkaan panttipullot eiku.
Once I finally had my cosplay on, which was the old-school Team Aqua Grunt from Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire (not the remakes!), the clock was almost opening time. I spent the last minutes before the official con start helping Firith's brother Hermanni with setting up the Playstation 4. He volunteered to help with watching over the video game area for the first half of the day, which was very nice of him!

As soon as the doors opened I ran around taking photos for my blog and I must say it was nice and relieving to notice that as soon as the doors were up people starting arriving in droves. The relief comes from the fact that there had been slightly less marketing this year, when compared to last year, and by that I mostly refer to how last year Mericon was featured in local newspapers before its debut, something we couldn't do this time. I mean Firith is practically the promoting face of the event and it's a bit, err, complicated, to give in-person interviews for a local paper if you live and work in the other half of the country lol.

The guest book from last year returned!

As Mericon is held in a library it also means that it's mostly propelled by the goodwill of the library's own workers to function; they serve as the main chunk of the work force and without them Mericon would be impossible to organize so yeah, my heartfelt thanks goes out to Katriina, Aino, Sami and everyone else whose names I don't remember (I'm awful at remembering names and faces, sorry!) for making it possible for Rauma to have its own manga and cosplay event. <3

Manga pockets put on display! Notice the rope~

The Maritime Museum provided decorations to set the mood!

The library had put forward and highlighted relevant books like manga volumes and "how to draw" art books etc to incite visitors to browse and maybe even borrow something interesting to take it home for a read. After all, one of Mericon's purposes is also to invite and inspire children and youth to the wondrous world of literature, imagination and creative writing – libraries are not just boring and dated relics from the past filled with equally boring and ancient books; libraries nowadays have everything from superhero comics and classical literature to new video game releases, movies, handicraft and hobby magazines, board games, music CDs and scores and some even have instruments that you can borrow! Honestly, libraries are awesome and so underappreciated for what they truly provide – aside from the thousands and thousands of available collections, offered for free, libraries are quite literally one of the only remaining public spaces where you are free to exist and browse without any pressure to buy something or gtfo and that, I think, is a treasure we should value in this increasingly consumerism-crazed and profit-obsessed world. So yeah, get out there and make a library card at your local library (it's literally free) and support it by borrowing anything you fancy – it's so much more than just saving your own money by borrowing instead of buying something new every time, it's an eco-aware action and it also safeguards the future value of libraries and, in extension, the future of humankind's education, preservation and literacy.
...
Many big words, very important, such wow.
...
No but really, this is something that I personally think is a very important topic and an urgent societal issue that should be lifted. In fact, the literacy and attention spans etc among today's children and youth are already deteriorating at an alarming pace and whole school systems are in distress over this negative development. I'm so fucking thankful I did my pivotal school years before smart phones even existed and social media and screens took over everyone's lives. Thank the heavens for being a 90s kid lol.

The drawing room. There were contests!

General view of the con. Info desk to the right.

Notice the massively improved photo booth to the left!

My core task this year (aside from being the graphic artist) was to be one of the three cosplay competition judges. I got roped into this post quite late as a fill-in for the last empty slot. The original plan was that Firith would have done the photography part of the contestants and I would have done the costume judging part together with Springdeer – basically the opposite of our roles when compared to last year. But on the morning of the con we changed this setup last minute so that I would be the photographer again and he would do the judging, there were a few personal reasons as to why but in the end we were both grateful that we swapped because we avoided some potential difficulty bumps. One of them being that my SLR camera (which was the only one we had to use for this task) acted up a few times suddenly it's getting old I guess and just stopped responding randomly and yeah, because I'm the owner of said camera (aka the one most used to handling it) I managed to get it to work every time.

The judging part started 11:40 and I made my way to sit just next to the photo booth, aka the turquoise fabric curtain in the youth sector. I saw no humanly sized chair nearby enough so I just succumbed to sitting on that very tiny children's chair just across the photo spot lmao. At least the approaching cosplay contestants would make the connection that I'm the photographer guy and not some random who just happened to be resting there lol.

While I was sitting there on standby, waiting for the contestants to come over, I had a few interactions with other congoers. There was this guy who told me in English that he had walked past me several times, feeling like I looked familiar somehow but he didn't stop to talk to me.. that is until he noticed the Team Aqua symbol on my bandana and went like "wait a moment, I recognize that symbol" and then he came up to me and asked if I'm dressed as a Team Aqua Grunt. This guy was the first stranger out of two to initiate a conversation with me based on my cosplay, and I haven't had this kind of interaction in years so it was quite something for me. The guy was visibly excited when I pulled out my Great Ball prop from my camera bag (one of those TCG tins) once he asked for a selfie together, it was so precious! We ended up talking about the mainline series and all kinds of stuff and I found out that he's actually from Germany and was supposed to visit his friend or something but it fell through and he ended up randomly going to Mericon instead – quite a wild story!
Firith was already very surprised when the guest book snitched to us that someone had come all the way from Lappeenranta so yeah, when I told that I met this one bloke who came from Germany he dropped all his jaws on the floor. xD

Team Aqua Grunt waiting for contestants!
(I had the gloves but didn't wear them most of the time)

Unlike last year all cosplay contestants who had signed up for the competition (this was done in advance online, as is customary to these kinds of events) actually showed up. Mericon had nine contestants in total, which I feel is a very healthy amount for a small and still new convention!
Mericon is marketing its cosplay competition as a very low-threshold event aimed at first-timers or beginners to gain valuable stage and feedback experience for future competitions – this is also why Mericon is one of the few conventions that allows people to compete in store-bought costumes, as long as it has been modified or altered in some way; for example if you've cut and styled the wig yourself or made the props then it would count as eligible even if the fabric parts of the costume aren't self-made. So yeah, a very relaxed competition it is.

After I had photographed all the cosplay competition contestants (and a couple other congoers who wanted their picture taken) I did a quick stroll through the Artist's Alley and then it was time to gather together with the other judges in the backroom and ponder the winners. We were uniform in our decision and there were no difficulties with reaching an agreement, it was smooth sailing!
A few minutes after that it was time to start the award ceremony where the judges declared the winners and handed out the prizes.

The winners of the costume contest~

After that my main responsibilities for the day were done and I was free to mingle around the con a bit more leisurely. I was quite hungry at this point and I also wanted to yeet myself out of my costume, not because it was in any way uncomfortable to wear but because I wanted to take the colored contacts out. So yeah, I disappeared for a moment back into the locker room. I decided to keep the wig and makeup on because I know that if I remove my makeup or my wig then my face and hair will look like shite for hours before it normalizes lol.

Cafe Käpälä had specially made Mericon treats for sale!

I was tempted to buy a blue cheesecake but I am extremely tight on money right now so I cried internally and headed back to the break room to chug a Megaforce energy drink instead, pärr pärr.
I think it was at this moment that a very weird discussion took place behind closed doors – I don't remember how exactly it started but I think me, Firith, Gure and Selja had just finished our coffee break and were about to stand up but I might have exclaimed something about how I'm so tired that I can't get my ass up from the chair. This regrettable proclamation of human inconveniences propelled my brain juices into Overdrive Thinking™ mode and I said something profoundly deep yet equally confusing – "imagine if your butt could just separate from the rest of your body and gain self-awareness while it rises up from the chair". This illogical grain of disturbing ponder, which had now been perversely released from its shackled confines, prompted us all to consider –at least in our developed minds– if your ass casually floating above your head would lead to an existential crisis and, if it did, whether those newly enlightened butts of wisdom would transcend into a religious awakening of their own – a cult of levitating human yet human-free, intelligent, self-sufficient, superior butts. Firith was quick to voice his stance on the matter by exclaiming "uskon vakaasti lentävään irtoperseeseen" before he exited the room.

Don't ask.

Upstairs were the organization booths.

Which meant Rauma Pride...

... and Hopeanuoli-fanit.

I just remembered another slightly amusing anecdote from the con. When I was still in cosplay during the first hour of the con I went behind the info desk to talk with the library workers about something and as soon as I opened my mouth one of the ladies looked very surprised and then proceeded to say something along the lines of "Oh it's you! Your costume/makeup is so good that I didn't even recognize you until I heard your voice!" – I guess that's a compliment for a cosplayer, right? xD We are the master chameleons after all.

Oh and yeah, my plans to photoshoot my cosplay in Rauma obviously fell through because I changed out of costume a bit prematurely. I just didn't want to stress about it too much because we still had a lot to do for the remainder of the day like packing for the road trip back home on Sunday morning (photoshooting before the end of the con wasn't an option due to our responsibilities) and yeah, I figured I could always just photoshoot some other day when there's less going on. I would have liked to photoshoot Team Aqua Grunt near the canal but another thing that made it difficult was the encroaching appearance of a thunderstorm and I'm terribly afraid of lightning. So yeah, proper photos of this costume will have to wait a bit longer still. 10 years wasn't enough already rip.

Mericon had more signs this year to make navigation even easier.

One of the last things I did before Mericon was over for this time was going through the Artist's Alley together with Firith. I did do a solo run earlier during the day when I got stuck talking with JeMiChi for a good many minutes when we both realized that we had a surprising amount of interests and experiences in common, including sailing on tall ships and being a book author (well, mine's still in progress but still). :D I bought one of her absolutely adorable whale and calf prints too. ;_;

Entrance to Artist's Alley.

Never saw someone selling paintings before! Artist: riikkusga

And the wonderful JeMiChi and her works!

I could probably ramble on a bit more about the convention but I feel like I've said most of the things that I wanted to say at this point and well, I've been drafting this post for like 6 hours straight when we count in the photo editing so yeah, needless to say my head is getting very spongy lol. But anyways, I left Mericon feeling satisfied with the labor of our work and I hope the visitors, artists, dancers and everyone else also enjoyed their time at the event! <3
At the time of writing it hasn't been announced yet if Mericon will be hosted a third time, but I recommend keeping an eye out on their social media channels (like Instagram) to stay on top of any news and information, including the feedback survey which will be made available later!

Thank you everyone who visited, keep sailing towards new shores and adventures~
Shiro Samurai out.

Mericon 2024 cosplans!

Hello nerds and bookworms!

I've barely had time to settle since the blast that was Nekocon but soon I'll be on the road again towards Rauma and the return of Mericon! The first ever Mericon was a success against all odds last year so of course I'll be there to help keep it afloat this year too! Yes, I'll be part of the work force just like last time and, to be more exact, I might have been asked to fill in as one of the cosplay competition judges. I'm quite nervous about this role but hopefully it'll go well since Mericon's cosplay competition is a relaxed entry-level event aimed at first-timers. 

Last year some might remember that I wore a pirate-themed outfit to match the naval vibes of the con, but this time I plan to wear an actual cosplay. Seeing how I'm one of the cosplay judges I want to be in a character costume idk it feels more proper lol. My issue is that I don't have a lot of costumes currently that are in wearable condition so my pool to draw from is very limited. But then I thought that why not, I could rewear that one old costume... or could I? It's far from perfect (I'm ashamed of some parts but fuck it, it's 10 years old so I can cut myself some slack lol) but it's easy to wear, quick to put on the con morning will be stressful and comfortable.

Character: Team Aqua Grunt

Series: Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire 

Not one of my best cosplays by a long shot but whatevs, it fits the con's theme close enough (I mean the design looks kinda pirate-y) and well, it's Team Aqua. Hopefully I can get a photoshoot of this costume before or after the con because this is also one of my many costumes that I quite literally have no photos of. :'D Oh and yeah, because the grunts are just, well, grunts, I will wear a random wig and lenses with it to make it 20% cooler. Besides, in the anime they have varying hairstyles and such so yeah, it's fine lol. 

That's it for this public announcement, see you at Mericon soon!

Mericon 2023 – Your friendly neighborhood pirate

Ahoy me mateys!

 

I'm sorry this summary is a bit late but I've honestly been extremely busy and exhausted with like a million hospital visits and other errands draining all my energy to even function so yeah, better a late summary than none at all, right? So the first ever Mericon was held earlier this month on 5th August in Rauma's main library. Rauma is an old harbor town located in southern Finland with quite a lot of maritime history – and that's also what the con was naturally themed around, name included!

 

I happened to be roped in early into Mericon's planning stages to assist the main organizer with ideas, brainstorming etc. One might wonder how come someone like me, who lives roughly 700 kilometers away from Rauma, ends up being one of the backstage devils? Well, I was offered a 1-week job contract by the library to paint marine theme signs for the event (thanks to personal connections) and it kinda spiraled from there with me acting as a co-organizer and doing various odd jobs to prepare for the event the days leading up to it. It was a really different experience to see how a con is built and being there and making it come true!

Mericon banner outside.

Because of my job obligations I left for Rauma on 29th July, taking the train from Kemi. The rain was pouring down while waiting for the train and I didn't have the bestest of times, despite it being a Saturday. Luckily the trip itself went pretty well, aside from my motion sickness acting up. Of course I was a dumb and forgot any preventive measures at home so I just had to endure it. :)) Oh well, at some point the train got delayed but managed to catch up again and I arrived at Kokemäki during the late night hours where Firith picked me up. He had recently moved to his own apartment in a small town outside Rauma and that's where I bunked for the duration of my stay.

I had Sunday to settle down and learn to know my surroundings before it was time to work and make Mericon happen. Yes, I'm actually still on sick leave, although unemployed, but my doctor gave me permission to take this job as he thought it would be a good opportunity to see if my functioning has improved to the point I can do some lighter, short-duration work within my interests and talents.

Monday came and me and Firith started our daily grind of fixing Mericon's last minute preparations and additions. Firith was one of the organizers too – he works at Rauma's library for the time being so it's pretty obvious that he had a lot to do with the con happening in the first place. And a lot to do with me ending up there too. But as I said my main job was to paint those art signs for the event and that's what I did during the week. It was a bit of a crunch but I managed to finish all six signs on time and during Friday evening, the day before Mericon, I did some odd jobs like picking out the games for the Playstation 4 and making sure everything's updated and downloaded etc. I would also help with random errands like picking up and carrying the items we got to borrow from Rauma's Maritime Museum for decoration purposes – which included old sea charts, a model ship and a wheel from a boat simulator!

Pre-Mericon preparations...

I painted the signs with acrylics and black marker for the lineart on A2 colored cardboard sheets. Upon completion I realized we would need some kind of protective cover and hence began the last-minute panic to find a local store that sold big enough plastic covers. Somehow we had just enough of that magical luck on our side and the problem was solved. For security measures I did tape the lower edge closed with painter's tape too to prevent the artwork from falling out of the plastic sheet as it was only closed on the shorter sides. We used good ol' blu-tack to stick the signs to various surfaces on the morning of Mericon. Oh the smell of blu-tack takes me back to early school years!

Oh and to avoid any confusion I should maybe clarify that yes, I am the painter of these signs although the eagle-eyed observer might notice that they are not signed Shiro Samurai anywhere – they're instead signed with my other handle KaamosWolf, which is my more personal identity that is focused on gaming, art and my other non-cosplay hobbies. This is also the handle I do my art commissions under [link will be added here later].

Rauma main library.

We had to wake up quite early on Saturday morning to do the final preparations for the con and the morning was... groggy and hectic. Thank god for energy drinks. xD But everything worked out well and Mericon opened its doors on time! I was positively surprised to notice that almost immediately after the doors opened congoers and curious visitors started streaming in!

Early view of the main entrance.

On the photo above you can see two of the handful of library workers who wanted to work on the event day to help out and yes, Rauma's library is extra cool because some of the workers totally dressed up for the occasion whether it be as the sea itself or a well-known Ghibli movie character. :D
We were roughly ten people working at Mericon that day, myself included. I know that the main organizer was incredibly busy at all times but despite that everything flowed quite well during the day and it looked like the visitors were enjoying themselves.

Mericon guest book!

Mericon actually had a guest book. I've never seen a con use one before but I know it was there to help us have a gist of how many unique visitors we had during the day and also of course for people to write their greetings and stuff! There were other counting measures in place too but the guest book was a fun little addition to make it seem a bit more personal. :)

What comes to the location itself I feel like the library worked decently for a first-time event of this scale. The building has mainly good light conditions, especially at the entrance and where the Artist's Alley was held (aka 'lukusali') along with good air circulation. I never noticed that the indoor air quality was bad at any place, despite the occasional crowding. In fact the air quality was probably one of the best I've ever had at an Artist's Alley! And what comes to the minor crowding I feel like when the location is a library you have to expect a certain layout with risk of there being a lack of open spaces because, well, organized book shelves you can't just move around on a whim. The library still has to be able to fulfill its role as a library because yes, despite it being Mericon day the library was also open to the general public. Hence why you would occasionally come across grandmas and grandpas smiling at all the colorfully dressed people because they had no idea that this out-of-the-norm opening day (library is normally closed on weekends) was because of a cosplay event. :) I know I kept running into some normies who were amused and having a great time seeing the library being so lively and full with the younger generations.

Bathrooms near the entrance.

Cafe Käpälä had treats specifically made for Mericon!

Pentti Peura's art exhibiton at the entrance.

 

Mericon had a bit of a fluke as Pentti Peura, a local artist, happened to have his art exhibition at the library over the summer and it fit Mericon's theme perfectly! I actually by chance met Pentti a few days before the con, he's a tiny man in his 80s with a sharp mind and an undying passion for the sea and his craft – I wish him many more healthy years and all the best as a fellow artist.

Con activities!

Mericon had a modest amount of activities and panels – there was the obligatory cosplay competition, a couple dance programs and some few other miscellaneous activities, including a book recommendation. I know even big cons have had a hard time with getting people to sign up to host panels and lectures so yeah, Mericon was no avoider of this current strugglebus trend.
There was also a gaming corner with a PS4 constantly in service along with a room open for anyone who wanted to draw and paint. There was also a drawing competition which interested quite many visitors because yeah, a few times when I checked in the room was completely full of eager artists!

All the games you could play on the PS4.

PlayStation room was found near the youth and child books.

Throughout the day there were some gamers. :)

'Piirustuspaja', the drawing room.

 

The drawing room was always supervised by a worker.
Miss Quackfaster could help you with any questions!

As soon as I had a moment to spare I took my liberties to check out the Artist's Alley. My work for the Mericon day was to be the general con photographer and also take the photos of the cosplay contestants, effectively making me one of the three cosplay judges as the photography aspect was factored into the judging process. So yeah, if you saw a pirate bumbling along with a camera in hand that was probably me. :D I need to learn to do the drunken sailor walk for better immersion lol.

Official Mericon poster and Artist's Alley directional sign.

Entrance to Artist's Alley, located in the reading hall.

aroaava's booth.

While I was walking around taking the general con photos I hit a leisurely chat with a few of the artists and what I could gather was that there seemed to be an almost uniform experience of the artists having sold more than they expected from a small, first-time convention – which was great to hear!
I personally bought a few magnets and some other small stuff too, will post a photo at the end of this blog post. :) Artist's Alley is one of the main attractions to me in any con I go to, I enjoy supporting art creators and decorating my home with things and trinkets that make me happy.

The library had put forward a lot of Japan themed literature.

General photo from near the stage.

Upstairs there wasn't a lot going on...

... save for the very yolo-style photography booth.

I'm gonna admit that the photography booth was a very last minute rush job and I'm not too proud of it lol. It fell on me and Firith to fix the fabric and sew the thing and of course the sewing machine broke like the day before the con (Murphy's law!). The original plan was to strap the fabric to two coat racks but when I saw those in person, on the morning of the con, I realized they would be way too low-hanging in case any of the cosplay contestants happened to be even slightly tall. We didn't want the fabric to drag too much on the floor either in case someone would trip on it and securing it between two bookshelves didn't give the desired height either. And yeah, running out of options me and my colleague thought to attach it to the elevator sign and then somehow just drape it over an art installation on the wall with a coat rack securing the other end. I don't know how the fuck it held in place the whole day but it did. xD It wasn't pretty nor professional by any means but it got the job done and yeah, next time we'll have to rethink the whole placement issue because this was clearly something that would have needed more planning prior lol. Luck in misfortune was that because we misjudged the needed width of the fabric it was able to stay put in place – if it had been wider it would likely just have slid off the art installation (cuz of its drooping sides) because the fabric was heavy and slippery and the extra width would have pulled it down...

Most of my Mericon day actually went by while taking photos, running from place A to place B to check that things were working as they should and helping visitors by explaining what kind of event Mericon is to grannies and moms coming over with their shy children for the first time to an anime convention. It's quite important to give a good first impression to those for whom this kind of event is a wholly new and unknown experience because you never know where this hobby might take them!

Themed display area with stuff borrowed from the Maritime Museum.

A pirate's life for me. My OotD was arrr!

Because of my work profile to snap photos of Mericon's happenings I found myself a little all over the place, including watching the dance shows and the cosplay competition. At least one can't say that I had a boring moment! The cosplay judge stuff also went smoothly and we all agreed on who the finalists were. I want to send out my best regards for all the contestants and hope we'll see you all on stage in the future too~

Andromed@ Duo: Special Live.

Cosplay competition in full swing.

But my day wasn't all work either. After landlegging around a fair bit I ran into some familiar faces, namely Auriraitsu and Gure, the former whom I hadn't seen for quite some time! They cosplayed Allan from the new and immensely popular Barbie movie (for good reason, it's a blast) and it was fun to see that those two friends of mine, whom had never seen one another before, ended up bonding quick too. We had our share of weird conversations but I mean, that's part of the fun with whacky friendships right? Regardless it was such a treat to see some long-time friends again!

 

Auriraitsu and Gure being silly. Please never change.

The two last activities for the day were a k-pop random dance and Firith's panel about his cosplaying endeavors throughout the years. I attended the latter. After that the first Mericon ever was coming to a close and it was time to help a bit with taking down decorations and stuff. It felt somewhat surreal when it hit me that it was over.

'Luentosali', the panelist room.

 

Firith's cheeky cosplay panel.

As I'm not an official library worker I wasn't needed for the "aftertalks" and took this chance to spend some more time with Auriraitsu while I waited for Firith to be free for the day. Me and Auriraitsu took a drive over to McDonald's for a quick snack and then we chatted and caught up with life in general. It was a nice way to wind down after a long and productive day. Thanks for the company!

My feelings about Mericon are overwhelmingly positive. I was prepared for either outcome but luckily it wasn't a case of walk the plank or a sinking ship and the feedback has been positive from the visitors too. I even overheard some visitors talking in ways that strongly implied that they were already expecting Mericon to return next year and planning their cosplays for it etc, although no official confirmation nor statement of continuation has been given out at this writing moment. 

Of course there's always room for improvements to be made and some things were admittedly very rushed *coughphotoboothcough* but yeah, all things considered Mericon swam proudly into shore especially when you factor in the reality that it was basically a one-person passion project with no previous con organizer experience and I'm definitely onboard for a continuation if it gets green light from the higher-ups! It is quite likely that Mericon 2.0 will happen because based on what I've heard, as someone with access to behind-the-scenes intel, Mericon was deemed a success by the library staff and it exceeded the expected amount of visitors by quite a good margin. So I think we can all cross our fingers and cautiously raise our hooks in cheer that Rauma has got its own annual con... ;) And then we can rival Pori's Nippori eiku.

Oh and here's my con loot:

Magnets to the left by aroaava and everything else by riishue.

I was lucky with the Käärijä merch because riishue sold out everything! I grabbed the very last print and I'm sooo happy I got it. ;__; All the stickers and the kitty pin under the Cha Cha Cha sticker were freebies, which was very nice of the seller!

Thanks for reading and thanks to all the visitors who happen to read this too!

~ Shiro Samurai (aka KaamosWolf) out.