Otakon and everything that led up to it
I was so busy that I didn't even post who I was going to be cosplaying at Otakon. If you care, I was Johnny (Tales of Destiny), Anji Mito in pink (Guilty Gear), Sano (Airgear) on Friday. Saturday, I was Jinnosuke (Yo-Jin-Bo), Johnny, and then Jin again. Sunday, Georik only.
So you've been to my sewing parties, but none of them, not even last year's Katsucon could compare to this one. From the beginning of July up to 4 on the Thursday before Otakon, it's been one long sewing party over at Yale/Brian's. Everything got moved there, including my serger, my sewing machine, Jacquie and even Pepe (Jacquie's dog). So I'm just gonna recount everything from the beginning. LJ-cut for great justice.
Around the same time, I moved all my stuff into Yale/Brian/Mazin's, Jacquie's red CRV got crashed into by some teenage dirtbag with an expired license, running a red light. And it's not the first time said dirtbag has done such a thing -- in fact, her parents had hidden the keys to the car, but she still ended up crashing into Jacquie's car and totalling it. The insurance company declared it totalled because the axis had been completely fajuzzled, and they tell her that they'll call her to let her know the total amount that she's going to receive. She bought it from her friend's parents, so she got it for 1.5k and wasn't expecting much for it. This means that she doesn't have a car, so we move her and Pepe into Brian's place to sew with us. After three weeks of not getting a response, she calls them, and they, nonchalantly (as if it were her business to call her) told her that she was going to get 5k for it (we still don't know how that figure appeared), and she had to send a bunch of information over, and that they would send over the 5k. Now the insurance company gave her a rental, but as it was easier to get to her work from Brian's place (and do sewing), she continued her stay with us. And she'd check just about everyday for the money. Finally, her rental is about to expire in a couple days (it's been at least 3 weeks since she sent out the information) and so she gives an angry call to the insurance company. And not even pretending to be doing their job, the insurance lady responds "...Oh. Yeah, we have all your information. We'll send out your money in 3 to 5 business days." That's right, they most likely have had the information for a good week at least, and didn't bother to do their job. Finally about a week after that phone call, Jacquie got her money, and used it to buy a nice spacy station wagon from her friend.
Oh, that's right. Yale sewed. I didn't have time to do his costume for him, so he did it himself. A little big at the neck, but good for him. I was about to throw rocks at his window or something.
During the time that Jacquie had her rental, Jacquie, Brian and I had an adventure over in New York. Magenta came along too since she needed a ride back. We stayed at Jacquie's aunt/uncle's place again. I was once again on the ever-elusive quest for gold PVC because I needed it for Johnny. While on our way to find fabric stores, we passed by some kind of festival, which included both Jacquie and I buying hats and ties (including a birthday present to Yale). :( I should've bought a white tie, because I've always wanted one, but I forgot...so I bought one Phoenix Wright-red tie, a black tie, and another black tie to be used for Ouran cosplay. We also ended up going to Magenta's dad's tattoo parlor in which Jacquie looked at tattoos, and I bought a frikkin awesome shirt for one dollar (not even one dollar + 5 cents!!). We were supposed to go to the pride parade/festival the next day, but we couldn't find it and just headed over to Magenta's dad's place because Jacquie wanted to get a tattoo done.
Ask her about it, she loves talking about it.
And yes, I found gold PVC, even if it's not as nice as the one that Lyn gave me. I also found orange PVC for Akiagi's Pinky:ST pants, red chinese brocade with medallions for Teikoku Cosplay, feathers for Johnny (though on a smaller scale...the actual size I needed were 20 dollars at least!). I also got a discount on gold tassels for Johnny from the chinese lady at the YKK store XD.
Oh geez, Otakon. First hotel. Brian G got 3 rooms that were originally for TAS members/our awesome friends. However, Jacquie and I needed a room and I would've liked to fit more people in the room. So we ended up with a Jew room, an Asian room, and the Fire Hazard room (AKA fit as many people in it as we can). Which actually ended up being one of the best rooms I've stayed with. No drama, and lots of /b/lackup.
:( However, I called Ken late Thursday night, and he informed me that he was going to be wearing Tales of Destiny on Friday. I had planned for Saturday, so I hadn't had time to try on the costume, and the pink skirt wasn't finished. I would've worn Animamundi as I had originally planned, except that it would've only been me, as Jacquie was still working hard to fix her Bruno skirt-thing. So somehow I threw together the skirt...OH JESUS, I HAVEN'T EVEN TOLD YOU ABOUT HOW I MADE THAT THING. It's an octopus skirt with 2 layers, using a pattern that I modified so much that it changed from having two side seams to having four seams not at the side...and sippers in the shoulder seams. Also, armor with crazy detail, scarves out of fabric that Joann's REFUSES to have in the right color so that I had to use the leftover from Assassin, and a pink skirt that I made with no pattern and no experience making skirts. Also, hat. Enough said.
Also, Gaiken and Manoha. Photos will be uploaded/found later for proof.
Friday was really busy (both during and before the day) so that I had two breakdowns (one Thursday night, and one Friday night). But somehow, my costumes looked finished enough........even if Johnny kept falling apart on me. Also, no one knows Johnny :(. I need to wear it again for Katsucon...where I won't boil. Speaking of which, it was great weather!
Friday, we accidentally stumbled across the Tomokazu Seki panel. While Ken went back to get his artbook that he wanted sign (Tomokazu Seki is the voice of Stahn, the main character), the staff passed out tickets for autographs. So Ken and I gave up and vowed to stand in line 2 hours beforehand or something like that. I also found another Leon cosplayer who I hung out with most of the weekend. It was really cute because it was her first costume, and Leon was Ken's first costume too, a looong time ago.
Saturday, Mimi returned! Yay! :( I'm sorry Ben, but I had to seamrip your handstitching because I couldn't finish it in time. After visiting Hirameki really quickly, I changed back into Johnny for the Seki panel/autograph. I got into the line with TAS, but found the other Leon already in line, so I went to go hang out with them. Eventually Jacquie came along as well.
(This has been un-lj-cutted for awesome.)
Inside the panel, there was a line in the middle for anyone who wanted to ask Seki a question and they could also ask for vocal requests for characters as well. I must say that Seki recounted a bunch of really funny stories about fellow seiyuu...even more hilarious because we know who he's taking about. Apparently they keep it pretty dark in the recording rooms. So once, Hoshi Shoichirou fell into such a heavy slumber that when he woke up, there was a spider spinning a web on his face. Another time, Seki was trying to keep awake by jamming a mechanical pencil into his lap. However, he was so drowsy that he accidentally stabbed the pencil into the lap of the person next to him - Yamaguchi Kappei. XD Anyway...onwards to the awesome
Annie, the Leon cosplayer, really wanted to hear Seki scream out "LEON!" from one of the scenes in Tales of Destiny and was nervous and asked me to get in line with her. So I did, and tought up a random question to ask so that I wouldn't look lame just standing there (as they had given me a ticket for Seki's autograph for being in the question line as well).
(You can find Annie's question and response here. It's really cute...I'm the blonde with the red outfit right behind her BTW.)
My question to Seki basically went like this:
"I have heard you do BL/Boy's Love voices before, including Sapphirus from Apocripha. And while Midorikawa Hikaru said that everyday, he was ashamed to meet him fater after doing BL voices, Akira Ishida said that he loves making H noises. What is your opinion?"
The translator starts translating, but then looks up and asks me "Did you have a vocal request as well?"
ME: "Sure" in that whatever, why-not kind of tone. I was going to ask for Sapphirus making fun of Alec or something.
This is his response to me:
"I haven't been doing much BL work recently, but back when I was doing those, it was much, much fun and esier to do uke-type role. Because all you have to do is be passive and react. When you were doing seme roles, you really had to be reactive (?) and came up with all the innuendo until they got off. And that was really embarassing to do, so I tried not to do those kinds of roles. "
"This is probably something that I'll never get to do again in Japan, but since we're here especially for Otakon in Baltimore, I'd like to do a combo of uke and seme all by myself."
(In my head at this point, I'm going "OH JESUS, WHAT DID I JUST GET MYSELF INTO???? THIS IS BRILLIANT.")
The translation is cut off in the clip, but basically what Seki says is "What's the matter? You say you don't want to do it, but your body says otherwise." "No~ stop~"
Afterwards, many people came up to me, and said that they should've just ended the panel there, because that question was the most amusing one. And thanks to me, we all got Seki porn XD.
Annie's friend didn't want her ticket for the autograph and gave it to Ken. So we all went to the autograph session. Annie got her ToD:remake signed, Ken got his artbook signed, and I got my Johnny hat signed. Everyone was really confused what I made him sign...until I put it on my head XDDDD.
Rest of Saturday, I hung out with Ken, Jin, Ania, Jiah and Mimi at the Hirameki booth as Yo-Jin-Bo. We even went to dinner with Aldo-san and David-san. Spencer and Jacquie were also about to eat, so I asked them to come join us. Afterwards, Jacquie and I were originally going to walk around the Artist Alley or whatever, but I wanted to change out of Jin which was quickly falling off me and we ended up staying tehre for the rest of the evening, hanging out with the rest of my fellow /b/tards, and dressing up Ichigo XD.
Sunday, I hit up the "I can't believe you haven't seen this!" panel and got to see clips of Ring wo Kakeru (Agito's favorite manga) which is a really...specialy...boxing anime (there are explosions! In the ring!), Onii-sama e, an anime about a movie bed that starts Katamari-ing stuff, and even Lupin IN SPACE. It was pretty crazy. After I got all packed, Jacquie and I headed back to the dealer's room to meet up with Lyn in Animamundi, and we basically spent the rest of the con trying to sell Hirameki games XD which was actually really fun. They gave us lots of free games, Starbucks, and even offered us a place in their hotel room for next year for 10 dollars (which would be amazing). Even when dealer's room closed, we were hanging around. XDD I felt so special whenever a con staffer would be annoying and come and tell me that the dealer's room was closed, in which I would respond that I was doing promo in cosplay for Hirameki and they left me alone XD.
Only sad thing about Otakon? I missed the 4chan panel, including 4chan city 2 and the legendary trap :(
But this was actually a good Otakon because of the people I was with. Makes me want to come back next year...of course, only if it's $10 for hotel, and I lose my badge. Now that would be an epic con, I'd enjoy myself immensely if next year would be like that.
Well guys, Anime USA is up next. Definitely doing Teikoku, hopefully Ouji-sama, and if I can, Phoenix Wright. But we'll see. :3 Definitely come down for AUSA!!
Also, I'll be avoiding LJ like the plague for the next week or so. After the last HP book, I don't trust you guys to be indirect with your spoilers. THANKS MS. "I CAN'T BELIEVE D DIED" fuck you. and your little dog too. I'm reading through all of them for like...the 5th time. (I always forget what happens in the previous book).
So you've been to my sewing parties, but none of them, not even last year's Katsucon could compare to this one. From the beginning of July up to 4 on the Thursday before Otakon, it's been one long sewing party over at Yale/Brian's. Everything got moved there, including my serger, my sewing machine, Jacquie and even Pepe (Jacquie's dog). So I'm just gonna recount everything from the beginning. LJ-cut for great justice.
Around the same time, I moved all my stuff into Yale/Brian/Mazin's, Jacquie's red CRV got crashed into by some teenage dirtbag with an expired license, running a red light. And it's not the first time said dirtbag has done such a thing -- in fact, her parents had hidden the keys to the car, but she still ended up crashing into Jacquie's car and totalling it. The insurance company declared it totalled because the axis had been completely fajuzzled, and they tell her that they'll call her to let her know the total amount that she's going to receive. She bought it from her friend's parents, so she got it for 1.5k and wasn't expecting much for it. This means that she doesn't have a car, so we move her and Pepe into Brian's place to sew with us. After three weeks of not getting a response, she calls them, and they, nonchalantly (as if it were her business to call her) told her that she was going to get 5k for it (we still don't know how that figure appeared), and she had to send a bunch of information over, and that they would send over the 5k. Now the insurance company gave her a rental, but as it was easier to get to her work from Brian's place (and do sewing), she continued her stay with us. And she'd check just about everyday for the money. Finally, her rental is about to expire in a couple days (it's been at least 3 weeks since she sent out the information) and so she gives an angry call to the insurance company. And not even pretending to be doing their job, the insurance lady responds "...Oh. Yeah, we have all your information. We'll send out your money in 3 to 5 business days." That's right, they most likely have had the information for a good week at least, and didn't bother to do their job. Finally about a week after that phone call, Jacquie got her money, and used it to buy a nice spacy station wagon from her friend.
Oh, that's right. Yale sewed. I didn't have time to do his costume for him, so he did it himself. A little big at the neck, but good for him. I was about to throw rocks at his window or something.
During the time that Jacquie had her rental, Jacquie, Brian and I had an adventure over in New York. Magenta came along too since she needed a ride back. We stayed at Jacquie's aunt/uncle's place again. I was once again on the ever-elusive quest for gold PVC because I needed it for Johnny. While on our way to find fabric stores, we passed by some kind of festival, which included both Jacquie and I buying hats and ties (including a birthday present to Yale). :( I should've bought a white tie, because I've always wanted one, but I forgot...so I bought one Phoenix Wright-red tie, a black tie, and another black tie to be used for Ouran cosplay. We also ended up going to Magenta's dad's tattoo parlor in which Jacquie looked at tattoos, and I bought a frikkin awesome shirt for one dollar (not even one dollar + 5 cents!!). We were supposed to go to the pride parade/festival the next day, but we couldn't find it and just headed over to Magenta's dad's place because Jacquie wanted to get a tattoo done.
Ask her about it, she loves talking about it.
And yes, I found gold PVC, even if it's not as nice as the one that Lyn gave me. I also found orange PVC for Akiagi's Pinky:ST pants, red chinese brocade with medallions for Teikoku Cosplay, feathers for Johnny (though on a smaller scale...the actual size I needed were 20 dollars at least!). I also got a discount on gold tassels for Johnny from the chinese lady at the YKK store XD.
Oh geez, Otakon. First hotel. Brian G got 3 rooms that were originally for TAS members/our awesome friends. However, Jacquie and I needed a room and I would've liked to fit more people in the room. So we ended up with a Jew room, an Asian room, and the Fire Hazard room (AKA fit as many people in it as we can). Which actually ended up being one of the best rooms I've stayed with. No drama, and lots of /b/lackup.
:( However, I called Ken late Thursday night, and he informed me that he was going to be wearing Tales of Destiny on Friday. I had planned for Saturday, so I hadn't had time to try on the costume, and the pink skirt wasn't finished. I would've worn Animamundi as I had originally planned, except that it would've only been me, as Jacquie was still working hard to fix her Bruno skirt-thing. So somehow I threw together the skirt...OH JESUS, I HAVEN'T EVEN TOLD YOU ABOUT HOW I MADE THAT THING. It's an octopus skirt with 2 layers, using a pattern that I modified so much that it changed from having two side seams to having four seams not at the side...and sippers in the shoulder seams. Also, armor with crazy detail, scarves out of fabric that Joann's REFUSES to have in the right color so that I had to use the leftover from Assassin, and a pink skirt that I made with no pattern and no experience making skirts. Also, hat. Enough said.
Also, Gaiken and Manoha. Photos will be uploaded/found later for proof.
Friday was really busy (both during and before the day) so that I had two breakdowns (one Thursday night, and one Friday night). But somehow, my costumes looked finished enough........even if Johnny kept falling apart on me. Also, no one knows Johnny :(. I need to wear it again for Katsucon...where I won't boil. Speaking of which, it was great weather!
Friday, we accidentally stumbled across the Tomokazu Seki panel. While Ken went back to get his artbook that he wanted sign (Tomokazu Seki is the voice of Stahn, the main character), the staff passed out tickets for autographs. So Ken and I gave up and vowed to stand in line 2 hours beforehand or something like that. I also found another Leon cosplayer who I hung out with most of the weekend. It was really cute because it was her first costume, and Leon was Ken's first costume too, a looong time ago.
Saturday, Mimi returned! Yay! :( I'm sorry Ben, but I had to seamrip your handstitching because I couldn't finish it in time. After visiting Hirameki really quickly, I changed back into Johnny for the Seki panel/autograph. I got into the line with TAS, but found the other Leon already in line, so I went to go hang out with them. Eventually Jacquie came along as well.
(This has been un-lj-cutted for awesome.)
Inside the panel, there was a line in the middle for anyone who wanted to ask Seki a question and they could also ask for vocal requests for characters as well. I must say that Seki recounted a bunch of really funny stories about fellow seiyuu...even more hilarious because we know who he's taking about. Apparently they keep it pretty dark in the recording rooms. So once, Hoshi Shoichirou fell into such a heavy slumber that when he woke up, there was a spider spinning a web on his face. Another time, Seki was trying to keep awake by jamming a mechanical pencil into his lap. However, he was so drowsy that he accidentally stabbed the pencil into the lap of the person next to him - Yamaguchi Kappei. XD Anyway...onwards to the awesome
Annie, the Leon cosplayer, really wanted to hear Seki scream out "LEON!" from one of the scenes in Tales of Destiny and was nervous and asked me to get in line with her. So I did, and tought up a random question to ask so that I wouldn't look lame just standing there (as they had given me a ticket for Seki's autograph for being in the question line as well).
(You can find Annie's question and response here. It's really cute...I'm the blonde with the red outfit right behind her BTW.)
My question to Seki basically went like this:
"I have heard you do BL/Boy's Love voices before, including Sapphirus from Apocripha. And while Midorikawa Hikaru said that everyday, he was ashamed to meet him fater after doing BL voices, Akira Ishida said that he loves making H noises. What is your opinion?"
The translator starts translating, but then looks up and asks me "Did you have a vocal request as well?"
ME: "Sure" in that whatever, why-not kind of tone. I was going to ask for Sapphirus making fun of Alec or something.
This is his response to me:
Click to view"I haven't been doing much BL work recently, but back when I was doing those, it was much, much fun and esier to do uke-type role. Because all you have to do is be passive and react. When you were doing seme roles, you really had to be reactive (?) and came up with all the innuendo until they got off. And that was really embarassing to do, so I tried not to do those kinds of roles. "
"This is probably something that I'll never get to do again in Japan, but since we're here especially for Otakon in Baltimore, I'd like to do a combo of uke and seme all by myself."
(In my head at this point, I'm going "OH JESUS, WHAT DID I JUST GET MYSELF INTO???? THIS IS BRILLIANT.")
The translation is cut off in the clip, but basically what Seki says is "What's the matter? You say you don't want to do it, but your body says otherwise." "No~ stop~"
Afterwards, many people came up to me, and said that they should've just ended the panel there, because that question was the most amusing one. And thanks to me, we all got Seki porn XD.
Annie's friend didn't want her ticket for the autograph and gave it to Ken. So we all went to the autograph session. Annie got her ToD:remake signed, Ken got his artbook signed, and I got my Johnny hat signed. Everyone was really confused what I made him sign...until I put it on my head XDDDD.
Rest of Saturday, I hung out with Ken, Jin, Ania, Jiah and Mimi at the Hirameki booth as Yo-Jin-Bo. We even went to dinner with Aldo-san and David-san. Spencer and Jacquie were also about to eat, so I asked them to come join us. Afterwards, Jacquie and I were originally going to walk around the Artist Alley or whatever, but I wanted to change out of Jin which was quickly falling off me and we ended up staying tehre for the rest of the evening, hanging out with the rest of my fellow /b/tards, and dressing up Ichigo XD.
Sunday, I hit up the "I can't believe you haven't seen this!" panel and got to see clips of Ring wo Kakeru (Agito's favorite manga) which is a really...specialy...boxing anime (there are explosions! In the ring!), Onii-sama e, an anime about a movie bed that starts Katamari-ing stuff, and even Lupin IN SPACE. It was pretty crazy. After I got all packed, Jacquie and I headed back to the dealer's room to meet up with Lyn in Animamundi, and we basically spent the rest of the con trying to sell Hirameki games XD which was actually really fun. They gave us lots of free games, Starbucks, and even offered us a place in their hotel room for next year for 10 dollars (which would be amazing). Even when dealer's room closed, we were hanging around. XDD I felt so special whenever a con staffer would be annoying and come and tell me that the dealer's room was closed, in which I would respond that I was doing promo in cosplay for Hirameki and they left me alone XD.
Only sad thing about Otakon? I missed the 4chan panel, including 4chan city 2 and the legendary trap :(
But this was actually a good Otakon because of the people I was with. Makes me want to come back next year...of course, only if it's $10 for hotel, and I lose my badge. Now that would be an epic con, I'd enjoy myself immensely if next year would be like that.
Well guys, Anime USA is up next. Definitely doing Teikoku, hopefully Ouji-sama, and if I can, Phoenix Wright. But we'll see. :3 Definitely come down for AUSA!!
Also, I'll be avoiding LJ like the plague for the next week or so. After the last HP book, I don't trust you guys to be indirect with your spoilers. THANKS MS. "I CAN'T BELIEVE D DIED" fuck you. and your little dog too. I'm reading through all of them for like...the 5th time. (I always forget what happens in the previous book).