Expo report and squees
Basically, the whole weekend can be summed up as a big ball of awesomeness followed by an overly heavy suitcase.
Full set of photos and videos can be seen here (there are lots!). I'm not putting photos up here because my computer is being a slow bitch right now: http://www.flickr.com/photos/16309434@N03/sets/72157626862649146
On Friday I was a bit nervous because I felt nauseous and could barely eat anything. I heard on the news that there was an outbreak of E-Coli and was like ‘Noooo, I don’t want to miss the Expo because of a deadly disease!’ But I was fine when I left my flat and was out in the fresh air. By that time I was too excited to feel ill.
Our hotel was much closer to Excel this time, only 4 stops away and right next to the DLR station. And best of all, it wasn’t in Barking!
We had 2 rooms between 3 of us and this time I was designated to stay on my own. A part of me was ‘What’s wrong with staying with me?!’ but I got a room and a double bed to myself! And Vicky and Katie’s room was a mess but mine was nice and tidy by comparison!
Saturday:
I slept on and off during the night because of the excitement but was soon charged with energy when I got up.
This is the first expo where I wore a cosplay outfit I made myself. Last year I painted my Hello Kitty shirt but that only took like half an hour. I accidentally deleted the photos of the creation of the outfit but thankfully still have shots of the completed outfit (see the link above).
I had some disasters making it and I know it’s not very good. But I didn’t expect it to be perfect on my very first try. And once I got to the Excel centre and looked at all the other costumes in amazement, I realised that people don’t see mistakes on your outfit, they only see your character.
Even so, the fact that out of 60,00 people no one recognised my costume or asked for my picture might say a lot!!
I spent the first few hours hitting the stands and went on a massive shopping binge. When I checked my wallet I thought ‘how can I have spent that much already?!’ I slowed down after that for fear of becoming bankrupt, but I spent most of the afternoon in the theatre anyway. I did buy an incredibly cute Kero plushie in the afternoon though.
After lunch was the other thing I was excited about - The Futurama panel. I love the show and think it has some of the best writing out of any cartoon I’ve seen. I also adore the voice actors, thanks to my voice-actor-obsessed boyfriend, so it was great to have the opportunity to see them. Lauren Tom is probably my favourite female voice actor. I’m a huge Friends fan so I like her because of that too!
I got into the theatre early and sat through the panel before it, and then dashed forward to steal a seat in the second row!
The actors were so awesome. They were so funny and did lots of samples of character voices. Maruice LeMarche started off by saying something along the lines of ’Welcome, puny humans!’ in the Morbo voice. Also, it was apparently the 60’th birthday of the man who wrote Pinky and the Brain so LeMarche, who of course was the voice of The Brain, got his phone out and recorded the whole audience singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to him. That was so nice!
After that I did some general wandering around. I went outside for some air and couldn’t believe how many people there were. Literally everywhere you looked, there were groups of people. They estimated that there would be 60,000 but I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more.
There was more stuff going on too with the MCM Fringe Festival. There was a big screen outside showing movie trailers and a stage on the grass by the hotel. I watched a bit of the awesome J-Pop dancer. I wanted to dance too but the people around there were so crazy and reckless that I had to escape while I was still alive.
Last of all was the Masquarade and Euro Cosplay Qualifier. It was just as great as usual. In fact it gets better every time. Favourites of mine were the Bladebreakers, The Nothing Card from Cardcaptor Sakura, the scary monster from Pan’s Labyrinth and of course, lots and lots of Final Fantasy. The winner was a Skeksis from The Dark Crystal. It was so fricking cool and creepy!! Just the type of thing we need to represent out country in the championships.
Then it was time to wearily make our way back to the hotel and finally have some dinner. We watched Titanic and had a girly chat about which of the knights of Camelot are the hottest (Gwaine and Lancelot are the favourites)
My bag was so heavy it felt like I’d bought a lot of stuff, but when I laid it all out it didn’t look like much after all. I guess it’s because there was so much in my freebie bag. I got a poster of X-Men First Class (which I wanted to see anyway. If I like it I can put the poster up!), a Yu-gi-Oh poster, which I thought my boyfriend would like but it got mixed reviews, and a whole boxset of some show called Xcaliber. But the fact it was free might be an indication of something!
My costume held up pretty well. I was paranoid that it would all fall apart but it was fine. My shoes were rather scuffed by the end of the day, but at least they didn’t give me blisters like they had been doing while breaking them in. I was constantly paranoid about the length of my skirt and pulled it down about every 10 seconds. I kept thinking ‘I shouldn’t be feeling a breeze around there!’ Next time I’ll do the sensible thing and wear shorts underneath.
Sunday
An extra hour in bed and I slept much better, probably because I was so exhausted from Saturday! For this day I decided to wear another one of my goth-loli dresses, with a mesh glove shirt underneath. I was messing about with outfits one time when I was bored and came across this one and thought ‘I must wear this at the expo!!’ I wish I had a mask to go with it then I’d look like a goth-loli magical girl!!
There was still a lot of people but it looked very quiet compared to the crowds on Saturday.
My first task was buying the things I didn’t get on Saturday or had decided overnight that I just had to get. Unfortunately some of them had sold out, but I wasn’t that desperate to get them. Plus I picked up lots of business cards and leaflets. I also got to have a proper look at the stuff I didn’t see on Saturday because of the huge crowds and picked up some things I hadn’t spotted the day before.
I had been planning on getting one of the awesome £20 FF13 figures (I don’t care what Spoony says, I love that game!) but then I saw some little ones for only £6.50. I know the quality isn’t as good but I’m not that fussed. And it saves me a lot of shelf space! I still like my little Lightning figure.
I missed Masa-Kun the violinist on Saturday but I caught him on Sunday. I love classical music and I love anime and game music, so it’s great to hear them both together! Behind me was a group of J-Pop dancers but I was like ‘screw you and your J-pop, I am listening to this classy violin!’ I didn’t get to hear him play the Sailor Moon theme like last time, but maybe I will some other time.
I sat on the edge of the grass to rest my aching feet. It was far windier that I expected and I really regretted not wearing shorts. I wasn’t the only one who accidentally flashed my underwear!
I took one last look around the stands but felt satisfyingly shopped out, so I went to rest in the theatre. I forgot that there was a Futurama panel on Sunday too. Baka me!! I saw some of it and got some good voice acting advice for Joonas. And apparently Billy West likes English accents more than American accents!
Once again we waited for the masquerade and were thankful for a sit down. Oh I shouldn’t be saying that! I’m getting old! At least I had some manga to read this time. There was a funny moment when the staff were ready to lead us to the theatre and said ‘Release the hounds!’ and everyone howled!
Another great masquerade again. There was Rapunzel, lots of Final Fantasy, dancing maids, unbearable cuteness, Cookie Monster and a huge Clamp group. My camera finally wore out of batteries and decided to die, but thankfully not until the very last entry.
So it was over and we sadly had to go home. Just as we were leaving the sun came out! Where the hell were you?! At least I didn’t get rained on until the journey home on Monday. As we were going back to the hotel for dinner there were still tonnes and tonnes of people hanging around outside. If it wasn’t for the wind then I would want to stay too. I wander how long some of them stayed there…
We were so exhausted in the evening. We watched Pirates of the Caribbean 2 but by the end we were practically falling asleep.
I regulated my funds but still had plenty left over by the end which I can use at the next con I go to. I couldn’t get everything I wanted. All the manga was either overpriced or just clearance stuff. But I got lots of nice things:
- Kero plushie
- ‘Sorcerers & Secretaries’ and ‘Forbidden Dance’ mangas. I bought them to check them out since they were so cheap it doesn’t matter if I don’t like them.
- Fruits Basket fan book.
- Mini Skelanimals plush. Now attached to my suitcase.
- FF13 print
- FF13 Lightning figurine
- ‘I like men in a gay way’ badge. I’m kinda obsessed with badges.
- Kitty hat. I refuse to take it off ever. Katie says it’s very me.
- Candy and Pocky.
- Sword necklace
- And best of all, a full set of Sakura Cards!!
I kind of have post-Expo blues now. I’m thinking of going to London Anime Con in July and using my excess funds. I’m also planning on improving my Tokiko costume and if I can, making her Buso Renkin.
I think the next outfit I’ll try and make is Sereh from FF13 as most of it consists of stuff I can just buy. Joonas said he would be Snow so we can do couples cosplay! And if I get cold he’ll give me his coat which will be so cute!!