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~

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.