Närcon cosplay plans revealed! - Hakama warriors overload

I realized there's less than a week left for Närcon and hey guuuuuys, that means I should get my cosplay plans out in the air, right yo? Yes yo! So here we go!

Thursday

Series: Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan

Character: Toshizo Hijikata

The demon Vice-Commander returns again!
A con is not a con without a Hakuouki day (or well, half-day in Sannan's case) with Sairu-chan and Jäätynyt Enkeli! 8D
I can't wait for this!!

Friday

Series: Bakumatsu Renka Shinsengumi

Character: Souji Okita

I really enjoyed wearing this cosplay at Skecon so I decided Okita deserves to see a bigger convention too - Närcon! I just hope my armor won't die...
Oh oh oh, I will also be part of the "Episka cosplayschacket" (epic cosplay chess) on Friday as Okita so if you are going to watch it (I highly recommend it!) keep an eye out for me! ;D

Saturday

Series: Rurouni Kenshin

Character: Kenshin Himura (Battousai)

On Saturday you can say hello or not to the friendly or not manslayer. :DD
Kenshin is a comfortable cosplay to wear and I guess on Saturday I will be pretty adfgsafg on the morning from already having cosplayed 2 days so I'd rather have a cosplay that's pretty easy to put on and chill to wear. Yup. Now if I could find my tekkou before Närcon..

And in case I ain't a complete "fuck this cosplay shit"-zombie on Sunday morning then my Sunday cosplay will be...

Sunday

Series: Sengoku Basara

Character: Masamune Date (kimono)

Yup, kimono!Masamune gets to see new air from being in the closet since last year's Animecon! *blows away dust carefully*
Super chill cosplay to put on and shouldn't be much of a problem to wear either.. except for the fact that I'll be half-blind yey.

...
......
*drum roll*
HAKAMA. EVERYWHERE.
I KNOW. :DD I will be cursing everytime I have to go to the bathroom...

But I promise I have a reason for having this line-up and that's because all these characters have interchangeable cosplay parts between each other in some way.
For example Masamune's white kimono and blue hakama can be used for BRS Okita as well as Hijikata's hakama can be used for Kenshin and the shinsengumi haori is obviously multi-purpose. Also Hijikata's sword belt works for BRS Okita's, well, sword belt too. xD Not to mention all the characters except Kenshin can use the same shoes and Hijikata's swords are generic enough to work for all these guys!
This means I'll save a lot of luggage space which is always appreciated, especially when I'm going to a far-away con.

I guess that's about it, I hope I will see more Finns at the con so if you are attending Närcon too then write a comment here! :D I will be camping with Jäätynyt Enkeli and Sairu-chan and it would be cool to have a "Finnish corner" or something haha!

Let's go to Närcon guys!

Animecon 2013 - Bush samurai and broken car windows

Last weekend I was at Animecon, a Finnish anime convention held in Kuopio. I went there together with Hasakitsuki and my twin Jäätynyt Enkeli. My mom actually drove us all there and we started our journey on Friday morning. It took us around 5-6 hours to drive and when we finally reached Rauhalahti spa hotel we checked in for the room and after a trip to the food store we went to sleep.

Saturday

Saturday was the first con day and me and Hasakitsuki woke up at 8:00 Finnish time, put on everyday clothes and headed for the hotel breakfast. Jäätynyt Enkeli and mom came soon after. After the breakfast (mini donuts yum!) we headed back to the hotel room and changed into our cosplays - my cosplay for the day was the casual/plain clothes version (aka hakama edition) of Hakuouki's Hajime Saitou.
When we were ready mom drove us to Kuopio's Musiikkikeskus where Animecon was held. We came an hour or so after the con had opened its door and so there was no inside rush or lines at the front door.

Animecon outside entrance

We went inside and soon enough I found some familiar faces like Ri-kun, Sairu-chan and Joel who asked if I wanted some mayonnaise after exchanging brohugs, and yes, he was cosplaying Hijikata from Gintama. :D Ri-kun tagged along with us most of the time when we wandered around the con checking out the Dealer's Hall and stuff. I didn't buy anything except Tropical flavor (pineapple & mango) summer edition Pocky from the awesome Japanese guy's candy table. I just had to buy one and taste them and oh God were they yummy!

Animecon Dealer's Hall seen from above

At some point we went outside to have some photoshoots with Hasakitsuki, Sairu-chan and me. Ri-kun joined us half-way into the shoot. We took a whole bunch of photos with everyone but I will just post the ones of my cosplay.

Cosplayer: Valkoinen Samurai (Hajime Saitou)
Photographer: Hasakitsuki

Some hours later our group got hungry and we also found Jäätynyt Enkeli who came with us when we went out to town to eat. We had actually done a scouting round earlier when we checked where the closest food places were and so now when we actually were hungry we knew exactly where to go.. and our road took us to Hesburger. Hyvää ja halpaa paskaa, conikansa tykkää. :DD I had some chicken nuggets and the others had random hamburgers and when we were done we dragged our asses back to the con where we derped around some more, took pictures of cosplayers and stuff. I must say all the Asterix cosplayers were so awesome, especially the guy who cosplayed the village smith and roleplayed the heavy hammer thing after I and Hasakitsuki took a photo of him. xD

I don't have so much more to say about Saturday, we didn't really do anything special, just hung around with random friends and such.

Lagging on the stairs with Ri-kun as Kyo Sohma

Oh, and there were these awesome tinfoil signs places here and there and they were just too great!!

Awesome, right? xD

Mom came to pick us up a few hours after the con had closed and so me, Jäätynyt Enkeli and Hasakitsuki returned to the hotel. We didn't feel like going to Iltabileet (night party) because we are not really loud-music-alcohol-and-dance people. Yeah.

Sunday

Again we three woke up 8:00, put on everyday clothes and headed for the hotel breakfast. I couldn't eat as much today because my stomach was derping and so I left to the hotel room to take a dump before the others. When everyone had eaten we started to put on our Sunday cosplays and for me it meant debuting my rasetsu version Hijikata cosplay. I'm actually surprised I got on my contact lenses super easily this time, had pretty much no problems and it was quick too! Oh, and I'll make a review of the contacts later, didn't have time before Animecon.
When we all had dressed mom had decided to go swim and so she wouldn't drive us to the con.. which meant we had to take the bus. 10:43 or something the bus would depart and so we went to wait at the bus stop... and the bus came late and pissed Hijikata was pissed because I had realized I would have had to go to the con without my swords because they were in the car's trunk.. and mom had the keys with her aghdsaghj. I got tired and annoyed from waiting for the bus so I decided

and went back to the hotel room.. only to realize I didn't have the card key. But luckily I had forgotten to close the back door (or well, not so luckily had I taken the late bus because someone could have walked inside and stolen our stuff...) so me and Hasakitsuki could get back inside. We stayed inside and waited for mom to return and when she did she was surprised we hadn't left. We helped her empty the hotel room and take all the stuff to the car because we had to check out at 12:00. When mom went to the reception to check out it was super hot in the car so I decided to open the window.

BAD IDEA.

Why?

Because when mom came back and tried to close it the window decided to be a dick and call it quits; it made this horrid hi-gais-i-am-broken-now-sry sound and wouldn't go back up and in my mind I was all

Oh shit no...

And then mom got really angry at me because it was Sunday and all the car repair shops were closed and it would cost a craplot to fix and we had to drive back home 5-6 hours after the con and the weather had promised rain and agjfdsghj why couldn't I just have opened the car door instead? WHY DOES SHIT LIKE THIS ALWAYS HAPPEN TO ME?? So yeah, I felt pretty damn bad. Like, really.

oh you fucking fuck take this and this and this and..

Oh well, mom drove us to the con and I was feeling really frustrated and hating myself for a pretty long time before I managed to get on a better mood.. so if I looked like I'd just want to disappear and kick everything then that was why. It didn't really get much better either because we couldn't have any outside photoshoots because the weather went from pretty okay to RAIN EVERYWHERE OH GOD SAVE US. Or well, at least me because I had a vintage silk kimono and I was fearing water stains like hell. We were actually sitting at the outside stairs most of the time even when the rain started. There was this roof so the rain didn't get on us at first.. until it started raining Niagara falls and I leaned backwards to not get rain on me and Ri-kun then turned into a human rain shield to protect me. They had felt like running out in the rain anyway so. We went inside when the rain got really bad and inside we walked around the Dealer's Hall again.
Me, Jäätynyt Enkeli and Hasakitsuki couldn't stay the whole con day because mom came to pick us up.. but at least she came just when the rain calmed down. We bid Ri-kun and Sairu-chan farewell and headed for the car and yeah.. that was Animecon for me. At least mom managed to temporarily fix the car window somehow for the journey back...
I'm a bit sad we didn't get to photoshoot our rasetsu!Hijikata and oni!Chizuru cosplays because of the crappy Sunday weather but oh well, we have time to do that at home. Because of that I barely have any photos of my rasetsu Hijikata cosplay but at least I have this one that was taken when we were sitting at the stairs before the rain started.

Photographer is Sairu-chan.

Oh, and before I end this post.. here's a cosplay video with the few pictures of cosplayers that I took:

I'm also looking for photos of my cosplays, if you happen to have some I'd be very happy to have them. :) You can send them to my email valkoinensamurai[at]gmail[dot]com. Thanks.

Animecon 2013 cosplay plans are set!

I've been changing my Animecon plans God knows how many times in my mind but it's about time I settle on them, preferably now. Hakuouki warning and I regret nothing! 

...

Okay, so in 3.. 2.. 1.. roll on!

Saturday

Series: Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan

Character: Hajime Saitou (casual/plain clothes version)

I've had a lot of trouble coming up with who to cosplay on the Saturday but I settled now on hakama!Saitou because I have only worn this version once before and it's comfortable and looks cool. :) I've worn Saitou's shinsengumi/season 1 outfit many times already and I'd rather not get strangled by that damn scarf every once in a while heh.

Sunday

Series: Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan

Character: Toshizo Hijikata (rasetsu)

 

 RASETSUUUUUUUU ~
Oh good lord how I've been looking forward to cosplay a rasetsu (aka fury) version!

Finally, IT IS TIME aghjdsahjg hehehehe...

By the way, I ordered red contacts here not long time ago and got them just before Skecon. It was the fastest delivery ever or something.. I had thought I'd be lucky if I'd get them before Animecon but sweet Jesus they came in like a week, if even that, from the other side of the world! I approve!!

Oh, and as far as I know some of my pals are having a Hakuouki group on Sunday so I'll go hang with them for a while too. I might be the only rasetsu but who cares.. we all can't be mad at the same time right? xD

 That's it for my part, see you guys at Animecon in case I don't do any rasetsu!Hijikata preview before the con! Sayonara!~