Anime North 2011 Recap
Warning: This entry is very verbose and babbling. I'm still overtired from the past couple weeks, but if I don't write this out now, it'll never happen. Also, large images scattered throughout.
Another year, another Anime North. This year almost didn't happen, but roommates appeared in April and the trip was salvaged.
Cosplay Highlights: Paprika on Friday; Young Delphine on Saturday (and in the Masquerade); and koi yukata on Sunday.
For the first time, I had none of my usual roommate with my at this AnimeNorth. Instead I travelled with Ian, Andrew, and Andrew's sister Nicola who we were introducing to the insanity that is fandom. (She likes anime and video games, but doesn't really know anyone else that does.) Friday was fun watching Nic react to everything from the crowds to the cosplay to the lines. Everything was new. Including the crazy cosplaying roommate who didn't have time to finish her costume before the con, so brought her dressform with her.
Friday was fairly subdued. I ran around in Paprika and people actually recognized me which made me insanely happy. Best comment though was the one guy who said (essentially) "I know you're not cosplaying, but you're the splitting image of Paprika." Which is amusing to me as the wig doubles the size of my head. (Well...not really, but I have a tiny head with very fine and short hair. My main issue with wigs is that they're too *big* and I look strange (to me) with all the hair.) Didn't do a whole lot: chatted with friends working the dealers' briefly before heading back to the hotel to continue work on the costume. I wanted to go to the 25+ meetup but wasn't sure where it was and had no means to contact the people who did. (I found out Saturday that I did have the location, I just missed the link completely in the email. Was very annoyed at myself at that point.)
Quick bit of history on the Delphine costume: I had originally planned to wear it (completed) for Ad Astra. Unfortunately, my ability to procrastinate meant that I only got about 75% of it done (missing the sleeves and lattice-work; wanting to redo the obi) for Ad Astra and most of that was done in the last week before the con. Post Ad Astra I was burnt out and had no urge what-so-ever to work on costuming. I attempted to jump start the urge by working on a couple of personal projects (capelet jacket and a summer dress (which I once again, didn't fit before almost finishing it so I have to take most of it apart to make it fit properly)), but that didn't really work. So for most of April and May I would look at the costume, sigh, and go do something else. I did, however, redo most of the hat/crown/headpiece/thing in early May using Heat'n'Bond instead of sewing on the red bits. I can now see why people like applique and Heat'n'Bond.
(Capelet I made, dress I did not. Better pics when I finish sewing the lining and put on the last button. And when I have someone else taking the pictures instead on the timer function.)
ANYHOO, week before AnimeNorth, I finally get the urge to finish off the costume (yay looming deadline!). So Tuesday, I go to try on everything to see how it fits and to test my sleeve prototypes when I notice that they cats had at some point, clawed at the side of the dress. If it had been made of anything other than satin, there probably wouldn't have been any damage. But satin = easily damage. So I went from having just the sleeves and the lattice-work, to having to redo everything (except the shoes... I want to redo those, but I knew it wasn't happening for AN.) Crazy person that I am, I figured that I have three full days to work (for once yay unemployment), I can get it down as long as I'm diligent.
Ha!
By about 10pm on Thursday night I had remade the dress (fully lined and fitted properly now), the obi (in a half-size too small, but I guess that's better than the two sizes too big the last version), finished off the headpiece, completely restyled the wig, and made the sleeves. What I had yet to do was the latticework. And pack. And sleep as I was the only one with a licence going down and the car was being rented in my name. So I made the decision to bring everything with me, and work on it in the hotel room. I figured I had a few more hours max left on it... I could get it done Friday night with maybe an hour or two on Sat after I went to a couple of costuming panels (which were really good and informative and now I want to dye and paint stuffs).
I spent probably 3 hours Friday night doing the vertical slats and the pinning horizontals in the front. Thankfully, Andrew did his usual 2am zombie-in-search-of-food thing and was able to help me with the back as my proportions are close to, but not quite the same as my dress form. Saturday afternoon, I spent another three hours doing the latticework on the back. And even then I ended up gluing most of the slat-to-slat joints because I ran out of time.
(This is about 1:30pm on Saturday. I still thought I'd have time to sew everything together. At about 4:00 I had gotten all the ribbon sewn to the dress, sleeves, and collar, but not itself. At that point I figured liquid-stitch was in my future.)
Oh, I forgot to mention that I had a 5pm Saturday deadline on this because I decided to be ambitious and enter the masquerade. I ended up being a bit late for the green room and showing up closer to 6. (Which actually worked out quite well as I ran into lelola at the greenroom entrance. Which was the only time I really saw her over the weekend which just makes me sad.
Overall I'm happy I did the masquerade. Will I do it again? I don't know. The competition is extremely fierce at AnimeNorth and I don't know if it's worth the insanity. I'm definitely not ruling out participating again, but it's definitely got a feel of go big or go home. I'll definitely participate in smaller masqs, but AN may be a no go for me (at least solo and while I'm writing my own performance...).
I did learn a lot doing it this year: satin is pretty in person but not so great on stage; I need to stop looking at my feet when walking; I need to practice posing more; I need to spend more time on the stage (it seems so much longer while I was up there, but the video of my performance says otherwise); I can't compete against the mechas and mascots; and my stage skits/mc intros/things are crap.
Best part of the Masq for me was talking with people in the green room. I met the people I sat in line with at my first convention back at CNAnime2002(?), got to examine a couple of costumes close up to see how they were made, chatted ever so briefly with mai_sheri, Kudrel, Melting Mirror, and others who's names and handles I'm unsure on. And Sunil recognized me as the cupcake girl from Ad Astra. Only thing that would have made it better would have been not forgetting my camera back in the hotel room.
I stuck around until the end of the masq to see all the performances (as they separated the Artisan/Masters from the Novice/Journey and put them at the end this year.) and then headed back the hotel room to change. Slow progress across the bridge due to pictures and shoes (which were infinitely more slippery and uncomfortable at AN than at Ad Astra; not sure why), changed and then headed back to the Doubletree for the awards announcement. I didn't win anything, but my green room den did quite well for itself overall and I knew other people who also made off like a bandit with prizes. I had been hoping to run across friends at the awards but everyone had already run away so it was another quiet night for me. =(
Picture taken from this Flickr. Colour adjusted somewhat to try and compensate for the insanely yellow light.
Sunday, woke up way to early (due to sleep habits and cats, I now wake up after 4-5 hours of sleep no matter if I need to get up or not), wandered down to the hotel hot tub (which was more like lukewarm bathwater) and soaked for an hour while chatting with the AN Gaming Staff. Good guys overall, but the latecomer to the hottub was definitely trying too hard to flirt.
Spent Sunday in my yukata and geta. Geta are so much fun... but so sloooow. I felt like a little old lady with a walker would be faster than me at times. Ended up getting shanghaied into the fashion show when I went to grab my masquerade photo and look-at the winners list again. Very glad I did as they were some absolutely gorgeous kimono I got to look at up close. (Again, I need to stop looking at my feet when on stage. Tho, to be fair, I was trying not to fall and not to make insane amounts of noise while walking across the stage.)
Thanks to sarcasm_hime for the photo. Tho I just realized I forgot to ask permission. Crap. Please don't hate me.
Drive home was normal; stopped for Denny's and Starbucks for dinner. Got back into Ottawa around 9:45. By the time I got back to the apartment after dropping everyone off and returning the car the rental agency it was 10:30ish. Which was good as I had to be up at 6am so I could get to the first day of my new job on time.
TL;DR: Anime North was a lot of fun. I participated in the Masquerade; while fun, not sure I'll do it again. Spent too much in the dealers room. I need to coordinate meeting up with people better as I only saw people in run-by's for the most part. Also, no more hotel costume workshopping.
This patlabour mech was also a journeyman in the masquerade.
Crow Soldier from Princess Tutu. So many pretty pretty feathers.
Katamari group. The miso soup cousin was the Simon in the previous pic.
This Link was adorable. Mom would sing the victory tune and Link would thrust his little sword into the air. So adorable.
Green room of the fashion show. J-rockers (mainly hidden), Lolitas, and the Kimonos. So many pretties stuffed into a tiny space.
The entirely of the kimono group lined up all pretty. So many things I wanted to steal away.
Surprise kittens. These are my two boys, Loki (black) and Luce (white fluffball). Pictures are here because I love them so and need to share them with the world.