Otakon 2009 Con Report Part 2/4
We started the day bright and early at 5am. Except, being Kintaros and very much in-character, I slept for an extra thirty minutes. ^^; Anyway, we got up and got into our Den-O costumes in the mostly dark room. I'm amazed I didn't end up looking like some crazy hooker or something considering I couldn't see shit, but oh well. I got changed into Kin-chan, which basically amounted to de-boobing, putting on the kimono, stealing Zip's sandals, putting the yellow extension in my hair and putting it in a ponytail.
There was already a pretty impressive line when we got outside, but we got a pretty decent spot in line. I spent about 80% of the time sewing more orange trim onto ze Chichi dress, another 10% spazzing and getting pictures of cosplayers that went by, and another 10% either griping about the smokers in line - and DAMN were there a lot of smokers in line! Geez! - or being retarded with Kamenoji and Ryuuta. Fun tiems. Except for the cigarette smoke. That made me want to puke, headbutt every smoker I saw, and left me with a huge headache. =|
Us in line.
zipchan is Ryuutaros and yugikitsune is Urataros. Photo courtesy of tohma2004 .
Me working on my Chichi dress in line. I had a guy come up and go "this is the first time I've ever seen someone working on a costume in the registration line." and was all shocked. I just smiled my "go away and I won't have to kill you" smile. xD
Xingke and Suzaku from Code Geass R2 that I found in line.
Arcana, Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl from Yugioh.
Sven from Black Cat.
Many death glares at chain-smoking congoers, pictures, and random retarded jokes later, and we finally got inside. I left Zip and Yugi to register for their badges and called to pick mine up - I was working with ACP and Funimation. In exchange for a free badge I would work in the Funimation booth in the Dealer's Room for a few hours over the course of the convention. While waiting on my badge I got to see a few of the cosplayers that were entering the costume contest, including a Sora from Kaleido Star, a Jet from Cowboy Bebop that seriously looked like he just jumped out of the TV screen, and others.
After picking up my badge I found Zip and Yugi again and we decided to explore for a bit. We wandered over to the Starbucks and got coffee, because there's a running gag in Den-O that involves the Imagin drinking coffee. Lots of coffee.
Then we wandered around and went to the Artist's Alley, which was closed, so we decided to sit down and have a pow wow for a few minutes beside the entrance, which is where the registration line was wrapping, so we had some fun messing with the people in the line. We let a few of them see the schedule and the con book, and Zip had an impromptu 'fight' through the glass with a random guy. I got some other interesting pictures while we were wandering around exploring the con center.
Rock (Black Lagoon) with the megaphone, and Eveille in her Hikaru (Magic Knights Rayearth) cosplay.
These four were made of so much win that I actually had to abandon Zip and Yugi just to take this picture. =D
Wandering for a while longer, we went over to the Indoor Fountains (which seemed like they were always crowded with people ALL THE TIME). We got recognized by a few people there, including a Rorschach who went "Kintarosu!" and glomped me, and a Zetsubou Sensei cosplayer who would be cosplaying Decade on Saturday.
The lack of Kiva cosplayers has left me in despair!
Zip managed to get us a photoshoot in our Den-O costumes with photoninja, but due to time constraints we had to cut it short. So instead we decided to meet up with him on Sunday for the 'real' photoshoot.
After that I headed back to the hotel room to finish up Chichi. Fortunately in the four hours of waiting in the registration line I basically finished sewing the trim on Chichi, so all I had to do was ghetto hem the belt, the wrap thingy, and ghetto rig the boot covers. Did I mention it was ghetto? Because it was pretty ghetto. Once I finished Chichi I rushed over to the convention center, hell bent on getting to the Funimation booth in time.
I got kidnapped. LITERALLY. By a group of really kickass Dragon Ball Z cosplayers. Their costumes were all very, very good and were actually the same ones that did the first skit in the masquerade. So after the impromptu photoshoot, which made me feel about a million times better about my costume and how much I had to ghetto-rig it.
I rushed to the dealer's room!
But I got lost on the way, and then I got lost in the Dealer's Room and ended up ten minutes late to the Funimation booth. But oh well, I still got there in time and got to stand around as a prop, basically. I'm still not entirely sure what I was supposed to be doing there, but at least I got to see the Dealer's Room, and I got to pester one of the Funimation execs about Soul Eater. Apparently, and it's not like they were going to great lengths to hide this fact either, they'll be making an announcement in early September at New York Anime Festival. They couldn't tell me who voices Soul, however. =(
But while I was at the booth, yugikitsune came by in her Pantera-form Grimmjow costume of awesome smexiness and I got a picture of her, and a few other cosplayers that wandered into the booth.
I live with this! I got to watch her alternatively squeeing at the wig and cursing at the gloves as she quite literally put this costume together a couple of days before the convention. And at the convention. xD
Kaioshin (Dragon Ball Z) that was working the Funi booth at the same time as me.
There were TONS of Hetalia cosplays all weekend, but these were some of the better ones. And they had a tomato! =3
Faust VIII from Shaman King. I flailed. Zip flailed. It's so rare to see anyone from Shaman King at cons any more, and Faust with his creepy awesomeness was one of my favorite characters.
After a while they let me free to roam the Dealer's Room, so I did. Since I was working on a very, VERY limited budget I wasn't expecting to buy anything. Then Yugi all but dragged me over to a table where they were selling little 2" superdeformed figurines of DiEnd (Kamen Rider Decade) for $1. ONE FREAKING DOLLAR. How couldn't I buy it? So I bought one part of my depressingly small amount of con-swag. And he's ADORABLE~~~
This picture is life-size too. So cuuute!
After that Yugi and I prowled the Dealer's Room and I found more cosplayers~
(left) This Kefka (FF6) was very well done. And CREEPY. And IN CHARACTER the whole time.
(right) Washu from Tenchi Muyo~
I think this is one of my favorite pictures taken at an anime con EVER. Ling, Ranfan and Meichan from Fullmetal Alchemist. ♥♥♥
Also ran into burloire , gwiffen , and rofltrain in their awesome Sengoku Basara cosplays. =D
On our way out of the convention center, Yugi stopped to have a cat fight (ahaha look at me I made a pun! *shot*) with a Shirosaki.
Since it was getting close to Soul Eater photoshoot tiems, I thankfully got out of Chichi and into Tsubaki again. And, yeah, the only way I'm ever wearing that version of Tsubaki again is if I get a Masamune cosplayer to pose with. It is DONE. Spartoi, on the other hand...
Now, as for the Soul Eater photoshoot. I got pictures. LOTS of pictures. And I don't have room for all of them here. So all of them from Thursday, Friday AND Saturday can be found here: http://s239.photobucket.com/albums/ff239/artikgato/Otakon%2009/Soul%20Eater%20photoshoots/
These are just some of my favorites. ^^
Me in my Tsubaki costume. Yep, definitely retiring it. Photo courtesy of MadHattr999 of cosplay.com.
Could it be? Gasp! It is! It's the monkey meister and his Deathscythe!
That's zipchan in her Chapter 60 Ponchocape!Chibi!Medusa, with her Stein harem. Read the manga, bitches. ^_~
I think this is my favorite picture from the shoot, if not from the whole WEEKEND. Because it makes absolutely no sense at all. <3 extremelele as Black*Star, Heartless Halo as White*Star, and myself as Tsubaki in one f*cked up family photo. =D
After the shoot it was time for EPIC DINNER TIEMS starring a few D.Gray-man cosplayers and featuring random guest appearances from Yin and Tsubaki. So Zip got changed into her Rhode Camelot cosplay and we went to the Indoor Fountains to wait on some Exorcists. And of course, while I was there I got PIKTARS.
(left) Behold the awesome that is Towel!Viral. (right) Kougaiji from Saiyuki. I squeed and fangirled, naturally.
And then it was ON TO THE DINNER. We went to this Mexican restaurant that served tapas. But since all three of us were really, really broke we just ordered one and split it three ways. The mashed potatoes were, like, godly. Basically, since we couldn't all sit together the Exorcists (Allen, Lavi, Kanda, Miranda and Krory) sat at one table and the two Noahs (Rhode and Tykki) sat with the two non-D.Gray-man losers (aka Yin and Tsubaki). The Tykki we sat with was a lot of fun, though, and we'd already sorta met her at Katsucon via the dating game. That and she kept making cracks like "mmm, delicious Exorcist heart". And she let me have some of her steak, because I probably looked like I was freaking ravenous or something. Not that I could eat it with a straight face when she kept going "Oh yeah, you eat that meat". xD
After the dinner Yugi and I went to get changed into street clothes, since my Tsubaki boots were killing me and she wanted to get out of her Yin dress. Back over at the convention center we ran into the D.Gray-man people again and I FINALLY got a picture of zip in her Rhode outfit with the creepy-ass Millenium Earl plushie I made for her.
I guarantee you that thing is like 4000% creepier in person. XP
So we did that and then decided to go hit up the "Yaoi-ing game" in the hopes that it was as entertaining as the Katsucon Yaoi panel. Which it was. Unfortunately the "BL Games" panel wasn't, not because of content or how it was run, but because some boring-ass industry guy like hijacked the panel and started...talking. A lot. I actually fell asleep mid-panel without meaning to. xD
Three costume changes and a ton of pictures...and to think Friday was my more 'laid back' day. =0