Manifest Cosplay Part 2: The Con
Moving on from the Amaranth ball, the main event of our Melbourne trip was the con itself. If I had to sum up the whole Manifest experience in brief, it would be with this picture:
Manifest would be the first really big con we've ever been too - since massively overshadowed again by the TGS, but that's a whole other post. I wouldn't call it a bad con overall, but a lot of things about the experience gave the very firm impression that the people in charge haven't quite figured out how to make something that size run smoothly. The first con we ever went to (and still one of our favourites) is Swancon, which gets around a few hundred guests a year and always runs from a hotel, and one of the other ones we still have a big soft-spot for is Genghiscon, which gets maybe a hundred or so. Wai-con, the main local anime con, is getting well past the thousand mark these days and recently graduated from running at universities to renting out a couple of halls in the convention centre, and it's probably a very good thing they did. By contrast, the university where they hold Manifest is a really pretty area, but I can't help but feel that the con outgrew that venue a few years back and no-one will admit it yet. As it is, the con is spread over three main buildings, one of which is quite a considerable hike away, and notably lacking in nearly enough maps and signs to make finding the room you want anything but an ongoing hastle. I also can't figure out why the non-pre-registered ticket line moved so hideously slowly - maybe a metre or two per half an hour. I'd swear a lot of people must've spent half the con in it just waiting to get in.
Since pinneagig runs a stall selling assorted posters and bookmarks and other odds and ends based on her artwork, we spent most of the day in the fan traders room. This was separate from the main trader's hall (which was already hard enough to find), but I'm inclined to be very grateful for that considering that the one time I stuck my nose into the main trader's hall, it was so packed that I could hardly see what was for sale. For better or worse that was most of the con for us. When you're both cosplaying and running a stall you don't get much time left over for anything else, but we're used to that as the con experience and selling her stuff is always quite a lot of fun.
I had to leave early Sunday morning and not much was happening on Friday while we were there, so Saturday was the main con day for me. Having done balldress!Millia a couple of nights before, it was time to bring out the regular Millia costume for the main con.
I tried to go for as much accuracy as possible, down to funny little square-shaped bits and illogical floating shoe cuffs, the one main concession being that you'd better believe I'm wearing modesty shorts under that tiny skirt. The wig was the longest I could get hold of from the Cyperous catelogue, because the last thing you want to do with Millia cosplay is cheap out on the hair, but it was a regular nightmare to brush out after it'd been sitting in a suitcase for a few hours. Oh what I'd give to actually have Millia's prehensile hair...
I'm aware Millia's not the best known character out there, so I wasn't too surprised that not a lot of people recognised me. What I wasn't expecting was to be misidentified more than once through the day - as Bridget. I know Bridget's Internet Famous and all that, but apparently blonde hair, a white and blue costume and a short skirt is all it takes to define a character (muttergrumblemutter).
Mind you, that still wasn't nearly so many times as velithya got stopped and asked what the writing on her headband said. Though I'm still sure she arranged her hair to cover up the 'Ro' of 'Rock You' on purpose.
pinneagig was there as Robin from One Piece:
pinneagig behind the stall. Note the One Piece flag at the front, which people would occasionally come past and try to buy from us.
velithya joined us as Sol again (and was very helpful in running the stall too <3).
We had a lot of fun with our taunt poses that day, as you can see.
We mostly stuck up at the traders hall until the cosplay competition rolled around, and I do have to say there was some fantastic cosplay there. We didn't manage to get many good photos during the comp itself because the cosplayers weren't really at a very good angle for photography, but once again Eugene got a whole lot more good photos than we did. I was especially impressed by the Saint Seiya group, including a guy who was wearing these massive wooden wings that meant the poor guy had to stay standing up all day, a Freya and Kuja who'd done a truly stunning job, and an Elite Beat Agents+Hard Gay cosplayer group who (big surprise) had put together a dance routine as a skit and won the audience choice award. No prizes for us that day, but against that kind of competition that really wasn't any kind of let down.
After the comp, we were joined by yiji_chan (a friend who moved to Melbourne earlier this year <3) as the real Bridget. Since the day was wrapping up by then, we took the chance to run off and take a whole lot more photos.
Did I mention how one of the nice things about the venue for Manifest is that it's a really pretty area? Once we got away from the main crowds, we found some great backdrops for cosplay pics.
What with all those big stone archways, it even looked a bit like Sol's Guilty Gear battle stage.
Sadly, without having actual psychic power over my hair, there wasn't much more than this I could do to mimic any of Millia's real finishing poses.
Can't help but think Sol doesn't look so impressed that he won this one.
I imagine Sol's thinking "All these fucking blue-and-white blondes around and still..."
Then, somewhere around the end of the day, we got a bit silly:
Most of our other friends from Perth who'd come over to Melbourne with us that year were in a huge cross-country Lamento group. We didn't manage to grab all of them for photos that day, (which was a shame considering what a huge and epic group it was), but we still managed to get some nice pics of them. This included alyssea as Konoe, k_chan009 as Kaltz, twinkl33 as Rai... and here I run abruptly out of LJ names. ^^;
Boyband posts, FTW!
(If you guys haven't already seen all of Eugene's pics, I would also point you all to this one and this one in particular from the cosplay comp and recommend you check out the rest of his shots too).
So that was about it for me for Manifest for this year. A fair few more photos that didn't make it into either this or the previous ball post are up in my photobucket gallery for Manifest, with some extra pics from the ball and of the Lamento group under a couple of subfolders (should case anyone still want to see more after all this photo spam).
Manifest would be the first really big con we've ever been too - since massively overshadowed again by the TGS, but that's a whole other post. I wouldn't call it a bad con overall, but a lot of things about the experience gave the very firm impression that the people in charge haven't quite figured out how to make something that size run smoothly. The first con we ever went to (and still one of our favourites) is Swancon, which gets around a few hundred guests a year and always runs from a hotel, and one of the other ones we still have a big soft-spot for is Genghiscon, which gets maybe a hundred or so. Wai-con, the main local anime con, is getting well past the thousand mark these days and recently graduated from running at universities to renting out a couple of halls in the convention centre, and it's probably a very good thing they did. By contrast, the university where they hold Manifest is a really pretty area, but I can't help but feel that the con outgrew that venue a few years back and no-one will admit it yet. As it is, the con is spread over three main buildings, one of which is quite a considerable hike away, and notably lacking in nearly enough maps and signs to make finding the room you want anything but an ongoing hastle. I also can't figure out why the non-pre-registered ticket line moved so hideously slowly - maybe a metre or two per half an hour. I'd swear a lot of people must've spent half the con in it just waiting to get in.
Since pinneagig runs a stall selling assorted posters and bookmarks and other odds and ends based on her artwork, we spent most of the day in the fan traders room. This was separate from the main trader's hall (which was already hard enough to find), but I'm inclined to be very grateful for that considering that the one time I stuck my nose into the main trader's hall, it was so packed that I could hardly see what was for sale. For better or worse that was most of the con for us. When you're both cosplaying and running a stall you don't get much time left over for anything else, but we're used to that as the con experience and selling her stuff is always quite a lot of fun.
I had to leave early Sunday morning and not much was happening on Friday while we were there, so Saturday was the main con day for me. Having done balldress!Millia a couple of nights before, it was time to bring out the regular Millia costume for the main con.
I tried to go for as much accuracy as possible, down to funny little square-shaped bits and illogical floating shoe cuffs, the one main concession being that you'd better believe I'm wearing modesty shorts under that tiny skirt. The wig was the longest I could get hold of from the Cyperous catelogue, because the last thing you want to do with Millia cosplay is cheap out on the hair, but it was a regular nightmare to brush out after it'd been sitting in a suitcase for a few hours. Oh what I'd give to actually have Millia's prehensile hair...
I'm aware Millia's not the best known character out there, so I wasn't too surprised that not a lot of people recognised me. What I wasn't expecting was to be misidentified more than once through the day - as Bridget. I know Bridget's Internet Famous and all that, but apparently blonde hair, a white and blue costume and a short skirt is all it takes to define a character (muttergrumblemutter).
Mind you, that still wasn't nearly so many times as velithya got stopped and asked what the writing on her headband said. Though I'm still sure she arranged her hair to cover up the 'Ro' of 'Rock You' on purpose.
pinneagig was there as Robin from One Piece:
pinneagig behind the stall. Note the One Piece flag at the front, which people would occasionally come past and try to buy from us.
velithya joined us as Sol again (and was very helpful in running the stall too <3).
We had a lot of fun with our taunt poses that day, as you can see.
We mostly stuck up at the traders hall until the cosplay competition rolled around, and I do have to say there was some fantastic cosplay there. We didn't manage to get many good photos during the comp itself because the cosplayers weren't really at a very good angle for photography, but once again Eugene got a whole lot more good photos than we did. I was especially impressed by the Saint Seiya group, including a guy who was wearing these massive wooden wings that meant the poor guy had to stay standing up all day, a Freya and Kuja who'd done a truly stunning job, and an Elite Beat Agents+Hard Gay cosplayer group who (big surprise) had put together a dance routine as a skit and won the audience choice award. No prizes for us that day, but against that kind of competition that really wasn't any kind of let down.
After the comp, we were joined by yiji_chan (a friend who moved to Melbourne earlier this year <3) as the real Bridget. Since the day was wrapping up by then, we took the chance to run off and take a whole lot more photos.
Did I mention how one of the nice things about the venue for Manifest is that it's a really pretty area? Once we got away from the main crowds, we found some great backdrops for cosplay pics.
What with all those big stone archways, it even looked a bit like Sol's Guilty Gear battle stage.
Sadly, without having actual psychic power over my hair, there wasn't much more than this I could do to mimic any of Millia's real finishing poses.
Can't help but think Sol doesn't look so impressed that he won this one.
I imagine Sol's thinking "All these fucking blue-and-white blondes around and still..."
Then, somewhere around the end of the day, we got a bit silly:
Most of our other friends from Perth who'd come over to Melbourne with us that year were in a huge cross-country Lamento group. We didn't manage to grab all of them for photos that day, (which was a shame considering what a huge and epic group it was), but we still managed to get some nice pics of them. This included alyssea as Konoe, k_chan009 as Kaltz, twinkl33 as Rai... and here I run abruptly out of LJ names. ^^;
Boyband posts, FTW!
(If you guys haven't already seen all of Eugene's pics, I would also point you all to this one and this one in particular from the cosplay comp and recommend you check out the rest of his shots too).
So that was about it for me for Manifest for this year. A fair few more photos that didn't make it into either this or the previous ball post are up in my photobucket gallery for Manifest, with some extra pics from the ball and of the Lamento group under a couple of subfolders (should case anyone still want to see more after all this photo spam).