Matsucon 2023 – Gamer panic and gamer bliss

Hello geeks, spooks and cheeky pumpkins!

 

I was at Matsucon this past weekend and I'm here to tell you all about my latest con trip, woo! For those not in the know Matsucon is an annual anime convention in Oulu, northern Finland, and this year's edition was held on 28-29th October – which makes it coincide with Halloween. This mashup was visible in the decorations like a Gengar plush at the info desk, pumpkins on promotional material etc and added an extra layer of fun and festive atmosphere. After all, most people with a geeky bone in their body also tend to enjoy Halloween because of reasons (dressing up, dark/creepy aesthetics, supernatural stuff etc) so there's a lot of overlap and yeah, I personally find it a good call that Matsucon incorporated Halloween elements into their set this year.

But enough ramblings so let's go~

Matsucon information booklet.

I left for Oulu on Friday afternoon and my travel companion for the con was Firith. We had booked a Sokos hotel room for the weekend and that meant I didn't hijack my aunt's apartment this time lol. The hotel room was tar themed and quite nice and we spent Friday night just destressing and preparing for the con. Oh, and eating the dinner buffet at Itsudemo aka stuffing our faces way too full with sushi and honey cake.

Our tar themed hotel room. Me like.

I had applied for a con volunteer position prior which meant I was part of the work force and I just so happened to have the first morning shift so yeah, I had to be at the con 9:30 in the morning. My original plan was to cosplay on Saturday and go casual on Sunday. Yeah I know, I didn't do a cosplay plans post before the con and that's simply because I didn't decide until last minute on what to wear. ^^" Oh well, when Saturday morning came I felt quite uncomfortable with the idea of cosplaying because of practical, physical and mental reasons and so I ended up going casual.

Thanks to my phone's GPS flipping its shit around (and messing up my efforts to use Google Maps for navigation) I ended up taking detours through Oulu's centrum while I tried to waddle my way to Pohjankartano where Matsucon was held.
I found my way inside the building, claimed my worker's badge and scurried up the stairs for the work briefing before my shift would start at 10. I had applied to work at the gaming room, which meant my shifts consisted of a lot of nostalgy-fueled sounds Tetris music rentfree in your head anyone? and assisting willing gamers in any way needed – sometimes it was just inviting curious onlookers to come play, sometimes explaining how a game works or assisting in how to play 8-bit Super Mario and other times just being there for company or playing versus games with a lone gamer. It was a very nice, feel-good job and not too stressful.

 

The gaming room, my workplace.

My first shift ended at 12 and after that I was free to roam the con for four hours before my second shift for the day would start. Somewhere around this point I contacted Firith to ask if he was already at the con because there had just been an announcement that the Saturday tickets were sold out at the door. This surprised me because of how early it happened but yeah, thankfully Firith reminded me that he had pre-ordered his tickets already a long time ago so there was no panic.

 

My original plan was that I wanted to attend the Studio Ghibli concert that started at 12 but when I found the room that it was held in a few minutes past it was already locked. That was quite the bummer as I remember other cons where you could still enter if you were a bit late. Oh well, no can do.
I went back to buzz around the main area and quickly checked through the sellers and did a first run at the Artist's Alley by myself. I did run into Sallukka and their boyfriend Dongrieg and we swapped some words and after that I soon found Firith as well. Both friends were about to participate in the cosplay competition and were waiting for their turn with the judges so I left them to vibe together while I hurried over to the Green Room. I had gamer responsibilities to do.

Near entrance view of Matsucon. Dealer's Hall area.

Dealer's Hall.

More Dealer's Hall. There was this seller with only Genshin merch!

MION's booth, the Guest of Honor. There was always a line to meet her.

Dealer's Hall view from upstairs.

Before Matsucon I ran into a huge issue. A huge dilemma for a gamer. You see, I've been playing World of Warships: Legends almost since it launched (I'd call myself a better than average player, I currently hold the world record for highest damage game in premium battleship Nassau #flex) and these past 4 weeks there had been a daily event with simple tasks that you need to do and if you completed every day without missing any you'd get an exclusive new commander and of course I had put a fair share of effort into completing these tasks... until I realized that the final two days of the event fell on the Matsucon weekend and if I missed these two then I'd miss out on the main reward and would basically have wasted 4 weeks of effort. *insert panik meme here*

I tried to think of all kinds of solutions before the con but everything fell through last minute (and I can't exactly drive 100 km home every day to go do my dailies and then drive all the way back to Oulu, especially when I don't even have a driving license) and I was desperate. So desperate I asked in the discord if I could somehow borrow a monitor at Matsucon if I brought my own PS4 with me to do the dailies during my off-time. It looked bleak at first but then I was recommended to ask Marko privately if he could bring a small screen to the Green Room. And it turns out that besides being the main technician he is also the Guardian Angel of All Gamers in Distress™ and said it was no problem to bring a monitor as he lived close. Bless his heart!

A gamer's gotta do what a gamer's gotta do.

Once I got done with my dailies I packed away my console and left it at the Narikka (cloakroom) for storage for the rest of the day. I gotta say I really enjoy being a worker nowadays because it also gives you access to the Green Room where you can go whenever to have a quick bite, drink tea or coffee and such and it just helps to make sure I don't get nauseous during cons because yeah, I have a bad habit of forgetting to drink and eat sufficiently. >_< Besides, to me it's fulfilling to volunteer because it's meaningful and so important –  if no one was willing to donate their time to make the con run smoothly then we'd soon have no cons because usually the organizations behind them are non-profit and are reliant on the goodwill of people to function and well, I find it very important that these kinds of events are held because a lot of those who have an interest in this kind of pop culture also often deal with difficulties to fit in elsewhere and might be vulnerable – cons might be their only safe spaces and where they feel they belong as their geeky, most authentic and colorful selves. This is based on my observations and experiences over the years and, although I'm not here to generalize, it does seem to me that groups that are minorities in society are the majorities in these pop culture spaces; cons seem to attract certain types of people who often share life experiences.

Okay, enough deep thinking there. Back on track!

My second work shift started at 16 and that of course meant that I couldn't go watch my friends at the cosplay competition. I did make sure to check on Firith multiple times during the day to make sure that he was okay as I knew he has been in a rough patch lately. I did hear later that Sallukka had won some honorary mention award at the competition for best accessory (I think?) so congrats to that!
My shift ended at 18 and that's roughly when the con closed and the party moved over to the night club (tickets were sold separately). I didn't have the mental energy nor interest for the afterparty so once my workday was over I met up with Firith and we called a taxi back to the hotel. Once at the hotel Firith peeled himself out of his cosplay and then we just relaxed for a bit before we met up with Sallukka and Dongrieg for a cup of coffee at the nearby Coffee House.

Lemon meringue cake, yum.

I had a pumpkin spice latte (yeah I'm slowly starting to enjoy some sweet coffees but the ordinary stuff is still yuck as fuck lmao) and a yummy cake with lemon curd! We just hung around for a while and talked about the day and such, just the whole chilling with the bros vibe ya know? After the coffee we wanted something more spicy and so went to a nearby karaoke bar and had a few drinks. Something funny happened at the bar too! So we had a table near a more quiet corner and were just having fun chats when suddenly this middle-aged lady appears out of thin air on my right side. I'm quite shook by the time I register that she's way into my personal space and she's like bending down slightly and tilting her head in this very observing-but-drunk-granny way (it's almost comical I tell you) and then she suddenly says "I have no idea who you all are, I've never seen any of you here before but I love all of you" and then she just up and leaves and we're all just sitting there like "????". XD

After the bar episode Sallukka and Dongrieg left for their hotel while me and Firith raided the Hesburger around the corner. Or more like Firith activated his unquenchable thirst for nuggets and I just tagged along. Then again, he had not eaten anything warm since the hotel breakfast so I can't blame him. xD

Back at the hotel we played on our Nintendo Switches and leisurely watched a movie on TV; it was a Finnish movie about a blind man and it was quite unsettling at times but the way they implemented the reality of blindness throughout the whole movie was genial. It's called The Blind Man Who Did Not Want To See Titanic in English, do look it up if you're intrigued.

Sunday morning came and I slept rather poorly. I was quite anxious on the morning and debated whether I wanted to cosplay at all but I managed to get my shit together and cosplayed anyway. My outfit for the day is actually one of my very first cosplays but just reimagined – it's my original character Yuuto. I kept the main colors of his outfit the same (white kimono and indigo hakama) but compared to the first version I added more pieces to his outfit and changed the wig from a white bob to this silver-blue gradient wig in a similar cut. I did look for the original wig but could not find it anywhere, I think I might have sold it years ago. Anyway, this was a comfortable and simple cosplay to wear and, although I want to tweak it a little before I wear it again, I'm quite happy with the overall look. During the con I didn't wear the correct shoes though because yeah, it had snowed and I did not want to wear geta clogs in the snow.

My Sunday cosplay, OC Yuuto.
(photo by Firith)

On Sunday I also had the early morning shift at 10 but this time me and Firith could leave for the con together as he would not have to wait in the cold for 30 minutes before the doors open in a sleeveless dress that isn't even full length, like the case would have been on Saturday if we left at the same time.

I headed straight for the video games room again while Firith went his own ways. It was quite nice that some visitors from the day before came over on Sunday to play some more. But overall I can say that Sunday was a much more quiet day in the room and our assortment of Nintendo consoles also decreased by one around midday as the NES left the building, leaving the gaming room with a Switch, SNES and Wii. So yeah, there was 100% Nintendo dominance this year. And for those curious the games that were played the most were the Wii and Switch versions of the Super Smash Bros and Mario Kart series along with Tetris on the retro consoles.

At 12 my first shift ended and I had a spontaneous idea to go check out the "Kiss, Marry, Abyss" Genshin Impact program. I watched for a while while the panelist explained the rules but there were quite a lot of people and the whole setup looked rather overwhelming and so I lost interest and left. It seemed like the rules was that the room were split in three halves, one for each option (kiss, marry and kill) and you had to go stand in the right spot according to what you would do to the multiple characters shown on the screen. I was expecting it to be done by like a phone app or something and you would just click on options and then have the results shown on screen what everyone voted. Moving around the room might have worked, I don't really know cuz I didn't stay to watch how it actually unfolded but to me it looked like it would quickly become chaotic cuz there was a ton of chairs and other furniture everywhere (the room was a lecture/auditorium style room). The game's idea seemed fun though!

Artist's Alley view.

This little tip jar amused me too much!

I now did a more proper Artist's Alley run and I was so excited to find that someone actually had somehow had time to do Neuvillette merch! He's my new favorite character in Genshin and I wasn't expecting to find anything featuring him and I just afjdsfdfs when I saw the charm. ;_; I'm posting a con loot photo at the end of this post~
Artist's Alley was located on the second floor and split into two halves, one on the left side of the building and the other on the right side. I felt like it worked decently well but there was quite a lot of crowding on Saturday, hence why I did most of my shopping on Sunday as it was easier to move around and browse the tables. I also gotta say that I liked the variety in sellers – there were both familiar and new faces to me. I wish I could have bought more and supported more artists but I don't have a lot of spending money right now as I'm still unemployed.

Of course I did my dailies in the Green Room again once my shift ended (and I got the final mission reward, yay!) and at some point me and Firith went outside quickly to take some photos of my cosplay. I mainly just wanted a proof picture for now but I will do a proper photoshoot later. :)

During my second shift I was witness to the tragic human tale of a man who bought too many mystery lootbags. I bet this was the best laughs of the whole con lmao. So there was this group of guys in the gaming room (I think they were friends of the other guy who was working at the same time as me, not sure) sitting around the table in the middle of the room and at first I didn't really pay attention to their conversation until I sat on the same table and they were talking about something that apparently caused hilarious regret. And I was curious and asked what they're talking about and apparently I had now pressed the cursed button because one of them said something like "now you have to do it because you asked about it" and I was like "oh no what have I gotten myself into" and this guy then pulls out this tiny rotating fish game for kids where you have to fish up the fishies with a magnetic rod while they open and close their mouths and I just had no way to back out. I had to accept the challenge like a man. And so I fished up like half the fishes and some I got real fast, which earned me some impressed 'oohs' and 'aahs' and then I had integrated myself into the group. They then kept talking about the lootbags and how shit they were and the conversation got wilder and wilder (somehow Rovaniemi's tax money was relevant to this, I guess bro's unemployed too and that's what the sponsor joke referred to xD) and it was absolutely hilariously unhinged crylaughter-fueled regret and the guy who was the one cheated out of his $$$ was laughing like a human siren with his face turning bright red – you ever have that thing where you feel sorry for the poor soul but you just fucking can't stop laughing because he's laughing too? That was how I felt, basically schadenfreude with consent. x) At least he could see the humor and laugh at the whole situation (although it was on his expense) because yeah, not everyone is a champ like that and someone else might just have broken down in a corner because of the huge waste of precious money.

After my second and final work shift ended at 16 (it started at 14, I worked 4h/day so 8h in total) I went to find Firith again and we did a final Artist's Alley round together before we were satisfied with our con experience and then we headed back to the hotel to rest our legs and wind down. Our budgets were almost used up so once we got back to our hotel room we had to brainstorm a bit on the topic of dinner. I happened to check Burger King's website and there was a really affordable campaign and what's even better is that the restaurant was located almost just around the corner from our hotel!

Läskeillään koska soli halp. :)))

And that about wraps up my summary of Matsucon. After the burgers we just returned to our room for the night and on Monday we parted ways and our Oulu trip was officially over; Firith went back to the south and I continued back up north.
Overall I had a great time at Matsucon and would definitely visit it again. I've been to Matsucon twice before (2017 and 2019) and I've always felt that it's quite well organized and an inviting anime con to attend for anyone even moderately interested in what it has to offer. I would say it's worth your time if you live in the north and why not if you live further away as well because yeah, Pohjankartano is a solid building for this type of events and Oulu is a lovely city well worth a visit!

Here's a photo of my con haul:

Square magnets by SaQe-Art, dragon charm by Sysirauta, Beidou
by si3art. I don't know who Neuvillette was from sorry. ;-;

Thanks for reading and Happy Halloween!
~ Shiro Samurai

Nippori 2023 – Another tiny library con

 Hello weebs!

I ended up attending Nippori for the first time last weekend. It's a small library con in Pori, Finland, and that probably comes as a surprise to no one since the name of the event is clearly derived from mashing together 'Nippon' (Japan) and 'Pori' hah. Anyways, Nippori is a free event and the reason I didn't do any announcement on my blog prior is because this was a rather spontaneous last-minute trip – Firith asked me if I could accompany him as he didn't want to go alone due to Pori being quite an anxiety-inducing town. I agreed because it's always nice to go somewhere I've never been before, even if the town has a reputation of being a shithole (if you ask anyone in Rauma at least lol). 

Oh well, Nippori was held on 23rd September and it's a one day event that's split into two different buildings – the first half was held in Pori's library and the later half in Nuorisotalo (lit. 'youth house'). 

 

Let's get on with the summary!
(and a fair warning for foul language ahead)

Nippori entrance, also known as Pori's library.

I should maybe put a disclaimer here that although I'm to some degree affiliated with Mericon I am visiting Nippori as myself, as an ordinary visitor, and my opinions about Nippori are purely my own. I know Rauma and Pori have a longstanding friendly rivalry (because of competing ice hockey teams etc) as do many other neighboring towns in Finland so yeah, I felt I should make it clear that I'm not sent by Rauma to smear Nippori lol. I'm not even a local, I'm from the far north so I have nothing to do with this silly rivalry in the first place lmao.

On Saturday morning me and Firith woke up quite late. We had planned to be at Pori roughly 14:00 as we had organized a carpool with Katriina and her kids. I made the classic mistake of severely underestimating how much time it takes for me to get into costume and that meant that the later half of the morning was panic mode unhinged – hands down the most stressful con morning ever. #whenwillilearn

I had decided on rewearing my Gakupo Kamui cosplay from Vocaloid, yes it's the same original kimono version I last wore at Skecon 2014! I know, that's like 9 years ago fuck I feel old. 

I don't know how but somehow we managed to leave the apartment on time, although I had to put on my cosplay very sloppily and rush my makeup but yeah, we could not afford to be late for the carpool which was waiting for us at Prisma's parking lot – nobody wants to inconvenience other people. I figured I'd just fix my costume once we arrive at the event so it wasn't that big of a deal. And I didn't care too much about my makeup not being slay as I had no plans to photoshoot Gakupo due to unfavorable weather and Firith told me that Pori centrum doesn't really have any good photoshoot locations as it's mostly just dreary concrete buildings.

We arrived to Nippori roughly 14:30 which meant we caught the very last moments of the first half of the event that was in the library. Nippori had split the con into two separate buildings in such a way that past a certain time (15:00) the first building would close down and the second would open. This meant that whatever was located in the library, aka the first building, would be unavailable once the con migrated over to Nuorisotalo. Needless to say we had to immediately bolt upstairs once we got into the library just to have enough time to visit the Artist's Alley before it closed.

General photo upstairs, near the entry point for the Artist's Alley.

I didn't bother to fix or put on the rest of my cosplay because we were so short on time to check out the Artist's Alley, one of the main reasons we attended Nippori. I really needed to pee too but there was no time for that either. xD
So yeah, me and Firith went up the stairs and I guess we both were quite perplexed when we saw a big sign stating something like "queue for Artist's Alley here" – I mean, not to be that guy but that kiiiiiiinda already gave me a red flag that the location for the Artist's Alley must be pretty unoptimal if they have to limit how many people can enter at once and from what direction.

We both looked towards the corridor past the glass door and I swear my first thought was "oh no". I could already tell that this would be an unpleasant experience. I shit you not, the Artist's Alley was placed in an extremely narrow reverse U-shaped corridor with barely enough space for visitors to even move past the tables if someone stopped to look at what was being sold. This was ten times worse than Kummacon's placement last year, which also was in an U-shaped corridor but at least there was a semblance of air quality. I found myself trying to rush through the Artist's Alley's later half because I literally felt like I was running out of oxygen; it was absolutely suffocating once you passed the midpoint of the corridor and the constant bottlenecks and crowding made it unbearable (even though we were one of the last people inside as it was closing down, I dread to think how awful it must have been during the active early hours *shudders*). And as we all know some congoers have a bad habit of stopping to talk with friends in the middle of narrow passageways without paying attention to the fact that they're effectively blocking the flow of traffic and yes, Nippori wasn't exempt of this cancer either. I might be getting old and cranky but I have no patience for these kinds of people – like for the love of god almighty please move out of the way if you're gonna strike a chat with someone in a place where space is already severely limited and others are trying to get through, it's not that hard to be conscious of your surroundings and considerate of the sanity of others, is it?

View of Artist's Alley corridor.

So yeah, hands down the worst Artist's Alley experience to date purely because of how bad the placement was. I don't understand why they didn't locate it downstairs, there seemed to be a lot more room? The sellers were interesting and there were a lot more tables than I expected there to be but sadly I could not browse to my liking as the crowding and poor air quality kept triggering my panic syndrome to the point I had to get out as soon as possible. This was such a bummer, especially because I was really looking forward to the Artist's Alley and wanted to buy stuff.

We arrived a bit too late to be able to check out the other activities that the library half of the con offered – I saw for example that there was a video game room but the door was locked when I tried to open it. Of course, because it was a library, there were a lot of manga put forward that you could borrow and read and I found that very pleasant and yeah, it added to the feel of it being an anime event. There was also this, umm, I guess it was meant to be some kind of art corner or display? Whatever its purpose was I assume it was primarily for decoration and perhaps to show local talent.

 

These Mew stuffies were adorbs!

Part of the art display.

Aside from the Artist's Alley disaster I found the library to be an okay building for an event of this scale. It was quite comfy and there were places to rest your legs and free bathrooms. As far as I'm aware Nippori is held by the library crew in collaboration with the local youth agency so it makes sense that it's those two buildings that they have in use. And as long as the event doesn't explode in size I think it'll suffice.

While I was standing outside the library's entrance I had a very unpleasant experience. There was a group of three teenage boys who approached me and my company, handing out homemade flyers that read stuff like "have you seen this man?" with a black and white photo of an almost naked male model. I had seen these flyers scattered around inside the library and my educated guess is that this trio were not the intended target audience of the event but just delinquents who wanted to harrass "the weird colorful gays". I'm also assuming that Nippori's security guards had removed them from indoors but were powerless to banish them from the outside vicinity of the library, where they continued to disturb visitors by handing out these flyers. So yeah, I was unlucky to be targeted by this group and one of the three boys proceeded to ask me if I had seen the dude on the photo and when I answered the boy's facial expression promptly changed to visible confusion and he proceeded to ask me at least five times in a row if I'm a man and every time I told him yes in my clearly and unquestionably male voice – like what the fuck I'm not gonna give you a different answer just because you repeat the question and I pity you if your masculinity is so narrow and fragile that the mere existence of an androgynous guy in makeup and a colorful costume is a threat to your understanding of the world. Like what do you want me to do, show you my damn ID card and that little M marker on it or mess up my cosplay by not shaving my beard next time? Gtfo and don't approach me until you have amassed a deeper understanding of the complexity of individual expression, that which transcends the stifling norms your limited capacity is currently capable of processing.
Worst part is that this pissflap even asked for my photo and it was clear as day that he had no good intentions (most likely would have made fun of me) and I politely declined, although I should just have been rude at this point as he didn't deserve an ounce of my respect with how blatantly he disrespected me and made me feel uncomfortable. Even worse, I think he took a candid photo anyway. The group then left us alone for a few minutes before this same boy returned to ask me again "Are you really a man?" like for fuck's sake is your hearing comprehension as challenged as your intelligence? I hate that I was as polite to him as I was, I should just have told him to fuck the hell off but years of school-bullying and trauma have made me extremely scared of conflicts and I just shut down when suddenly thrown into uncomfortable situations.
Oh well, I can't really blame Nippori for that (although I wish security would have stepped in to handle them) as this kind of situation can literally happen anywhere and at any time. It did affect my overall mood for the worse and I didn't feel safe at the event after said incident. Who would? I'm pretty sure a lot of other congoers were also harassed by these shitbags during the day and it wouldn't surprise me if they primarily targeted people whom they perceived as female, which would make it even more disgusting as that's technically on par for sexual harrassment...

Just proof that I was in cosplay.
(photographer is Firith)

As the first half of Nippori was closing down we used the help of Google Maps to navigate ourselves to Nuorisotalo with Katriina as the mama hen leading the way. It was surprisingly far away from the library and luckily we live in the age of smartphones or a non-local like me would have gotten lost lol.

After some walking we arrived at Nuorisotalo and it was crammed full of people, as one would expect. It was nice to see the amount of people in costumes and fursuits though, especially considering that it's a small event. I felt like a rather notable percentage of the visitors were dressed up in some way.

Nuorisotalo outside view.

Now I finally got a chance to go to the bathroom for a very urgent bladder emptying and I also put on the missing parts of my cosplay and fixed up the hakama knot. We then went to check out the Artisan's tables which is similar to Artist's Alley except it's more 'official' I guess, like bigger names and sponsor merchants or something like that. I think the general difference is that artists have to apply but artisans are invited by the event? Anyway, the location of the Artisan's tables were a lot better than what the Artist's Alley got – the shopping area was located in an open space room so you actually could move around like normal and check out the tables. This was such a relief and made the browsing experience a lot more enjoyable. I could actually get in the con mood for a bit too.

Nuorisotalo entrance.

Programs and activites for the con's later half.

I was lowkey interested by that Sephiroth panel but as I haven't played the games (yet) I didn't want to risk any spoilers and so I passed on it. In the end we didn't stay all that long at the con so we didn't watch the cosplay competition or anything. Our group mostly just vibed for a bit and did the shopping rounds. I didn't end up buying anything this time but Firith had a field day so at least it was worth it to come here lol. Oh well, window shopping is always a decently fun pastime and so is meeting friends regardless of how briefly it is. Yes, we ran into Gure. :D

Artisan's tables area. Entrance view.

Drawing wall.

I forgot to draw the legendary Buttman on the wall to continue the legacy but oh well, it's too late now. Maybe I remember next time. I gotta say though that whenever a con has one of these taped up somewhere it's always a win in my book, it's a really fun way to encourage creativity and make people socialize!
Oh and there was apparently a cafeteria that sold food and pastries but I had a brainfart and didn't go check it out. Oh well, it's still a very nice addition and something I appreciate as a whole as it gives visitors the option of convenience – they don't have to leave the con area and go walk around in a town where they might feel unsafe because of the way they are dressed etc.

I don't think I have so much more to say about Nippori really. It's a small event that's suitable for locals and those who live nearby and it appeared to provide a decent amount of entertainment with most of the typical con staples that visitors have come to expect. I think battle-hardened congoers would probably get bored after a few hours but for those new to the scene and community it's a good springboard into this colorful hobby, especially because it's free and thus a low threshold event with no barriers attached. The general mood and flow of the event was relaxed, casual and easygoing.
I don't know if I would visit Nippori a second time (especially because of the 600+ km distance, not really worth it for the event alone imo) unless I happen to be nearby for other reasons too. But obviously if you live close and you need to scratch that geek itch then I'd say it's a worthwhile day trip.

Thanks for reading, Shiro Samurai says bye!

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.