Holiday Anime Faire 2011

I attended Holiday Anime Faire on Saturday, December 3rd, 2011 with a few friends. The tickets were each good for two people, and my mom ended up buying a ticket for me, she came to the convention much later. Holiday Anime Faire is a very small convention in Fremont, CA. It's pretty much my home con, and so I attend every year, regardless of the quality of the convention. Like I said, it's very small, almost everything is in one room.

As usual, I didn't have my camera on me. My friends and I started the day around 11:30am by looking at all of  the dealers and artists. There weren't many of either, but the dealers all had really, really nice things, so there was a lot to look at. We weren't particularly interested in the art class going on because none of us really draw, and we glanced into the viewing room (which was showing Pokemon) but didn't stop in.

We ended up finding a quiet room off to the side (actually the volunteers' room) to kill time in before the costume contest. The volunteers and staff didn't seem to mind anyone being in there, since there was nothing and no one in the room anyway. Other attendees stopped by and hung out in the room also, just to get a break from the crowd, I guess. Since the convention is held in a small location, there weren't very many places to sit, and even though there weren't very many people, the small space made everything very cramped. It was hard to walk without bumping into people.

We hung out for a while, I pretty much just watched the other few people in the room. I enjoy people watching at conventions, even though I guess some people might find it creepy. I don't just sit there and stare, I just mentally knowledge what they're doing, and if it's interesting, I keep my eyes and ears open for it. Not much more than just staying aware of my surroundings. Anyway, in the volunteer room, two little girls dressed as sushi practiced their presentation for the costume contest. It was really adorable. At some point, two of my friends left, and one stayed behind to keep me company.

Around 1pm, my friend and I left the volunteer room so that I could enter the costume contest. I tried to convince my friend to enter too, as it's a very relaxed costume contest, not very serious, but she didn't seem interested, so I didn't push it. The contest started late, and consisted of all walk-ons, with the exception of the two girls dressed as sushi. They sang a song that they wrote called "Becoming Sushi" to the tune of "Coming Home". It was so, so cute, I think their mom had a lot to do with it though, she was giving them directions from the side of the "stage" area.

Everyone else was instructed to walk on, state their name, character name, and series they're from, and strike a pose. Some people had more to say, others were very brief. The entire contest was over rather quickly, as it usually is. I'm not entirely sure what judging was based on, though I know some of it had to do with audience favorites, as it always does. I'm pretty sure that judging criteria stemmed from when the convention head had no one to help her with the contest and didn't know how to judge. It's pretty much just tradition now.

I was surprised at how well my audience judging went (it's just based on cheers), since I was cosplaying a non-cannon Christmas version of Yoko from Gurren Lagann. It was somewhat of a last-minute decision to cosplay her. I was originally going to be the official Christmas version of Chi from Chobits, since I already had that costume made, it's comfortable, and it's cute, but I really wanted to finish Yoko's rifle and bring it to compete with. (Though the rifle is still not 100% complete, that's a different story.) I didn't cosplay time-skip Yoko like I did for Kin-Yoobi Con because that costume still needs a lot of work, and Holiday Anime Faire is a very kid-friendly convention, so I didn't feel like walking around in a bikini. In addition, it's December. Not quite Bikini season. I didn't do an official Christmas version of Yoko because I couldn't find one. At the convention, my friend told me about one, but when I looked it up later, I really didn't like it anyway (and it was another bikini).

Judging for the contest went pretty slow, almost as long as the contest, which was short for a contest, but long for judging of a short contest. If that even makes sense. I think that since the contest was so short, judging should not have taken as long. I won "Special Recognition for Costume Construction" along with another girl dressed as Bowser from Mario Bros. Because the convention is very kid-friendly, they don't use terms like "first, second, runner-up", etc. You either get a title or you don't, and everyone get s a prize just for entering. I think it's an extremely refreshing change of pace from other conventions where the costume contests are very competitive. I still love the competitive contests, it's just nice to be in a more relaxed one on occasion.

photo by AnimeCraft Entertainment

After the contest, my friend and I went outside with a couple of photographer buddies to take pictures.

We managed to get into this little courtyard that was seemingly blocked off, you had to go out a side door from the convention. To be honest, we weren't sure if we were allowed to be there, it is a public park, but like I said, the area appeared to be completely closed off. No one came to tell us that we weren't allowed to be in there, and we could be seen clearly from both the front of the building and from inside the convention space.

We each had individual photoshoots, and then we had a photoshoot together, even though we we cosplaying from different series. We were both Christmas versions at least, haha. I've been itching to do a photoshoot for a while, so I had a lot of fun.

photo by Ben Lam

Getting the photo on the right was a lot of fun, the photographer was actually standing on the arm of the bench that I was sitting on. During the photoshoot, my mom showed up, and I had to stop the 'shoot to give her her wristband to get into the convention. The photoshoot was finished shortly after, and we found out that we were stuck in the courtyard. The door that we had come through to get there was locked from the outside, which makes sense, they don't want people sneaking into the convention through it. I called my mom, and she let us in.


I hung out with my mom as she shopped around for Christmas presents. Anime conventions are great places to get presents for pretty much anyone, since they have unique things and not all of the merchandise is anime-related. I also bought some nachos, as I do every year at Holiday Anime Faire. They're not particularly good nachos, they're not even spectacularly priced, or anything. Usually, attendees get a voucher for free nachos with their badge purchase, but there's wasn't one this year. Even so, like I said, I always get nachos, so I had to. I was also very hungry. I also bought a Kamina plushie from on of the dealers as they were closing down. I love Kamina so very much, and it was only $14! I'm not sure if that was the original price, or it the price went down at the end of the day (some dealers do that so they don't have to pack up as much stuff).

I was asked for a photo in the Santa sled that the convention has, so I had to stray away from my mom, even though I was really eager to leave. I was tired, and the convention was more or less over. The dealers were all packing up. The Santa sled was fun, but hard to get in and out of with my rifle strapped to my back. Shortly after that, we left. We dropped my friend off at another friend's house, and we went home.

All in all, it was a fun day, pretty relaxed compared to a bigger convention, a nice little outing.

Kin-Yoobi Con 2011 (Days 1 & 2)

I attended Kin-Yoobi Con as a staff member on Friday, August 5th and Saturday, August 7th with my boyfriend Ed, my friends Perla and Monica, and my mom. The convention was held in the main cafeteria of Chabot Collage in Hayward. I cosplayed at Yoko from Gurren Lagann on both days and had an Artist's Alley table to sell fleece hats and various jewelry.

Day 1, Friday - We arrived at the convention some time between 9am and 10am. The convention officially opened at 10am, but as staff and an Artist, I got in early. My boyfriend is also staff, and since my friends and mom were helping me with my booth, so they all got in early as well.

The first thing we did was set up my booth, which took longer than expected (it did last year too). This year, I had wire shelves to put some things on and more wig heads than I did last year. I wish I had pictures, maybe someone else got one that I can use, because I really liked the way my booth looked this year. It still kind of looked amateur, since it was crowded, didn't have a sign, and nothing had price tags on it, but I still liked it a lot. It was a huge improvement over last year, when I had no shelves and only a couple of wig heads, and everything was just laid on the table. Unfortunately, this year my table skirt didn't want to stay on. Ah well, I still had a tablecloth.

The convention opened at 10am, but it was hard to tell that it was open until about 10:30-ish when there were more attendees. The first thing that I actually did for the convention was host the panel "Magikarp: A History" with my boyfriend. Compared to the response at Fanime and even AoD, the turnout at Kin-Yoobi left much to be desired. The room was pretty much filled, but it was a very small room. Also, I can no longer stand hecklers or people who sass-back. At the beginning of the panel, a kid asked "Is sassing-back allowed?" and, trying to be a good sport, I told him "Keep it to a minimum." I could say two sentences without him interrupting me. I felt like he interrupted Ed less, but maybe that's just my imagination. Other than that, the panel went pretty well. Of course there was lag on one of the videos, it seems to be unavoidable, if it isn't one video, it's another. So that's something we still need to work on. Also, we still talk to fast. I have no idea how that happens, because when I rehearse on my own, I go really slow. I can only assume that it's nerves. That, and I feel bored talking about the same thing for the 3rd or so time, so I tend to speed through it.

Ed and I hosted what was supposed to be "Anime Improv" but we decided would be a better time slot for the Anime Dating Show Game, which somehow didn't get scheduled. It's a game show based on old 70's dating game shows, where there's one bachelor and three bachelorettes (or vice verse). In the original version, the bachelor and bachelorettes cannot see each-other, but in our version, the bachelorettes can see the bachelor. It's just easier to pull off that way. The game started off a bit slow, it was difficult to get volunteers, I think because the implications of a "dating" game can be quite heavy, but after the first round, people got more into it. It was the same way last year as well. It's a fun time, it's really just for laughs, no real date involved.

After a few rounds of this, another staff member, DC, asked if he could do Anime Improv. I was previously told that DC had an interest in helping out on the main stage more this year, and I was glad to have someone else run Anime Improv, as it did not go so well last year when Ed and I ran it. I believe the attendees had a good time last year, it was just not up to Ed's and my standards of improv, which are apparently pretty high. DC didn't do what we thought he meant, but it still turned out well. Instead of having the audience come up and play improv games (which is what we expected), he improvised a comedy routine and basically told jokes the entire time. He's really amazing at it, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Ed and I were happy to be able to get off stage and not have to deal with an event that we weren't looking forward too, so it went well.

Somehow, we ended up not having Anime Feud, which was sort of fine with me, since I didn't have much of anything that I needed to run it (this is why I don't do things 90% of the time). We ran Anime Jeopardy, which is exactly what it sounds like. We played two rounds with a different set of contestants each time. The questions were from last year, so they were out-dated, but that didn't seem to matter. here's a video of part of it that I found on YouTube.


We also hosted Anime Word, an anime/video game spin on the show "Password". Participants are split into two teams of two, a guesser and a hinter. The hinter is given one word to make the guesser guess and a list of words that they (the hinter) is not allowed to say. It sounds a lot more complicated than it is. Last year and at previous events I hosted while someone else ran the technical side, but this time, I just wasn't into it, so I decided to run the tech while Ed hosted. As per usual, it didn't go as I had imagined, but people once again seemed to have fun, and that's what counts.

Around 4:30pm, I began to get the lolitas organized for the fashion show. Originally, I was told that the fashion show was going to be at 5pm, however for some reason, on the schedule posting the the mail hall, it said that the lolita fashion show was at 6pm. So I talked to the girls that showed up at 4:30 for instructions. I told them how the show was going to be run, that they would be allowed to talk about their outfits themselves after being introduced, and where to walk. After this, a couple of more girls dressed in lolita showed up and were directed to me for instructions. In total, I think we had seven girls.

The fashion show went more or less without a hitch, it definitely was not anywhere near a professional level, and I'm hoping that no one expected it to be. After the fashion show, the girls and I moved to the panel room for a Q&A session. Audience members could ask the lolita girls questions about lolita fashion. The girls actually ran the session the session themselves, I stayed in the room with them to supervise, since I wasn't sure that the girls were prepared to do Q&A, and because I was interested in what they had to say. I've had a mild interest in lolita for a while now, and I really enjoy learning about the fashion. I'd like to be able to make my own lolita dress, but there seem to be so many rules, I still can't get a grasp of it all. Also, I don't know if I was surprised or not, but after a while, a majority of the Q&A attendees were men. Now, giving them the benefit of the doubt and trying to assume that they weren't perverts with a fetish for lolita, fashion can be confusing to men (or anyone, really), and lolita is even more confusing, at least to me, than regular Western fashion. So maybe these men were actually looking to educate themselves. I think three of the seven or eight men in the room asked questions, and one man was a videographer recording various parts of the convention.

After the fashion show, I didn't really have much else to do. I sat around at my booth, wandered some, packed up, and went home. Another notable event of the day was the Fan Art Competition, though I can't remember when exactly it took place. One of my friends competed, but unfortunately didn't win. She seemed to have fun at least! I almsot wanted to compete, but I really can't draw and didn't want to embarrass myself.

Day 2, Saturday - I woke up on Saturday feeling incredibly sick. I can only assume that since I didn't get enough sleep Thursday night, my immune system was down on Friday, and I rapidly caught Con Plague. My throat hurt and I was nauseous. My friends and mom went to the convention without me around 11am, I think. I wanted them to go and have fun, but they wanted to set up my booth for me so that I had more of an opportunity to sell things. (I have such good friends.)

I finally got up around 1pm and slowly got dressed. We (my mom and I) left the house around 1:30pm, but then had to go back because I forgot things (and then it turned out that I didn't need those things anyway). We arrived at the convention around 2:30, and I had to immediately get on stage to help with the Wheel of Fandom. Wheel of Fandom is essentially "Wheel of Fortune" where contestants spin a wheel to determine points and then guess a letter to try to form a word or phrase. In Wheel of Fandom, there are only phrases (no single words), and they're all from anime shows. We've been using the same phrases for three years (this was the third year), and they're still just as difficult for contestants every time. Earlier this year, we had come up with new phrases, but they weren't implemented, presumably because we weren't sure whether or not we had all of the letters we needed for the new phrases, and nothing was done to update the game.

In any case, I didn't have to host the game, I only turned the letters over and set up the phrases. By the way, that's the worst job to give to a dyslexic. I somehow managed to put three T's into the word "Rotten" (put R-O-T-T-T-E-N), which really threw off the contestants. At some point during one of the games, another girl joined me on stage to help turn letters and set up puzzles. I was confused until I realized that she was the same girl that turned letters with me last year, though I'm still not entirely sure who she is, I've only seen her during Wheel of Fandom.

Immediately after Wheel of Fandom (4pm), I began getting ready for the cosplay contest. I feel so incredibly grateful that I had the help of FoxBerry and Natalie (and later Kris). They basically ran all of the judging and got all of the contestants numbered and in order like I asked. On the other end of the brilliance spectrum, I'm not sure who did it, but when I asked for one side of the room to be cleared so that I could seat contestants, all of the chairs were taken away, leaving me nowhere to actually seat contestants. Luckily, my cosplay group helped set up the chairs, as did a ton of random people. I hit a snag when for some reason it was assumed that our guests judges would sit in the back of the audience, but they did end up sitting up front where I had originally wanted them to.

The cosplay contest went alright, it's hard to say whether or not it was better than last year's. I feel like it was run better, but that was definitely because of FoxBerry and Natalie. Our guest judges were Travis Willingham and Laura Bailey. Laura was surprisingly very into the judging (though she and Travis couldn't make it to the pre-judging because they were hosting an event). She really took an interest in the costumes and seemed to enjoy herself. Travis didn't seem as into it, but it could be that he was just very laid-back, because once deliberating started, he showed interest and was very fun when presenting the awards.

I had the judges (FoxBerry, Natalie, Travis, and Laura) present the awards on stage. I haven't seen this done at conventions before, usually the Emcee announces, but I really liked the way that it worked. I liked how it let the judges interact with the contestants as opposed to being faces behind a desk. My cosplay group won Best In Show, though I didn't compete, I was still very proud, I helped with the prop! Haha.

7pm was the beginning of the Anime Date Auction. Participating in the auction is pretty fun, seeing how much you're "worth" is fun, and this year, the money was being sent to Japan. However, being half-dressed (as Yoko), I didn't want to go alone. I was going to buy my friend Harmony (dressed as Nia from Gurren Lagann), but instead we decided to be sold together as a pair. The first couple of acts had really well planned-out performances, as good as, if not better than most acts in the cosplay contest. So my friend and I got a little uncomfortable, as we didn't have anything planned. After a quick discussion and a brilliant idea on Harmony's part, we ran to the computer, pulled up a song, and asked for it to be played when we went on stage.

Our names were called and we held hands as we ran on stage. We took our places and waited for the music to start...

We were perfectly adorable, if I do say so myself. However, things went downhill from there. The bidding began and went up fairly quickly. We ended up being sold for $40 (the same price I went for last year) to a guy that I was none to happy to have to spend time with. After getting off of the stage, the guy that bought us didn't budge from his seat to pay, and I was going nowhere until he did. As far as I was concerned, he owed $40 to Japan, and he was going to pay it.

I took this awkward pause to explain to Harmony that I didn't have a good history with this guy. We ended up calling him out on not paying, so he had to get up and pay before we would sit with him. I was pretty much unaware of her intentions at this point, but Harmony was an amazing bro and took it upon herself to try and distract the guy from me. She did this the entire time, as I tried to stay as far away as I could while still trying not to ditch her. It was an extremely awkward time. We went to the back hall where there was an unofficial party going on, but we eventually went back to the main hall to see how our friends' date was going. (Three of our group members had been auctioned off together and were bought by a large group.) At some point, we half over-heard, half were told that this one girl was sold for $123, because she said that she would go on a date, liked bondage, and had lots of "cute outfits". I'll admit, part of me is just plain jealous that she god sold for so much. However, I still call shenanigans, because well that's not the kind of service Kin-Yoobi is running, quite frankly.

We watched the dating auction for a while, and a photographer got on stage to be auctioned. Harmony and I decided to pool our money and bought him for $7. Somehow, the evening got both more awkward and less awkward at this point. it was really awkward when we couldn't entirely figure out what to do with the guy that bought us. Harmony was ready to leave him (as was I, honestly), but he did pay $40, so we took him with us to hang out with the guy we bought. The guy we bought was very nice, we took a photo with him and just talked. He even at least attempted to make conversation with the guy that bought us. Turns out the photographer lives in the same city that we do!

I left for a while to check on my booth and ended up doing a short interview with the videographer that I mentioned earlier. He had talked to my mom at some point when she was at my booth, and she directed him toward me. It's unfortunate that he had to wait so long to talk to me, but it was a very busy weekend.

I came back to find that the cosplay group was doing a photoshoot with the photographer that Harmony and I bought, so I joined in. The guy that bought me and Harmony lurked awkwardly to the side. It was a very fun photoshoot though, the photographer had a lot of good photo ideas, and we all had fun.

My friends had packed up my booth for me and my mom showed up to take us home. It was an exhausting weekend with many ups and downs, but as always, Kin-Yoobi had a very friendly, high-energy feel to it, and kept me in a fairly good mood almost the entire weekend.

Pictures coming as soon as I can find them!

Fanime Con 2011 (Days 0 - 4)

I attended Fanime Con 2011 every day from Thursday May 26th to Monday, May 30th, the convention was held at the San Jose Convention Center in downtown San Jose. I cosplayed a Koffing gijinka (Pokemon), 13-year-old Franziska von Karma (Ace Attorney: Investigations: Miles Edgeworth), and Clyde (Pac-Man). I attended the convention with my boyfriend, Ed, and met up with several friends throughout the weekend. We attended as both panelists and general attendees.

Day 0, Thursday - Because we were panelists, Ed and I could not pre-register for the convention, but we were told that we could pick up our panelist discount slips Thursday night (between 8pm and 10pm). So we left home around 7 to get there in time, not knowing what kind of line to expect. I cosplayed Koffing for the trip, since it's ridiculously comfortable, Ed didn't cosplay anything because none of his costumes are really "casual".

When we arrived (about 7:45pm), we waited around for a while until 8 when we began looking for the Stage Zero Information Booth where we were supposed to pick up our discount slips. We found it, but no one was there, so we asked a couple of friends (Jerry and Ashley) where it was and what was going on. Eventually we learned that the discount slips weren't ready, and wouldn't be until the next day. We were pretty upset, since we had made a special trip for it, also the discount slips were to be ready for pickup 8am to 10am on Friday, and we didn't want to get up early.

The good thing about going on Thursday though was that we were able to get started on our Cosplay Scavenger Hunt. I came up with the Cosplay Scavenger Hunt after a convention in 2010 when I realized that I never take enough pictures and I usually forget the camera. The goal was to take a bunch of pictures of a variety of cosplayers and people, both for memories in general and to show friends and family who didn't go or are just curious about what goes on at conventions. I thought that other people might enjoy it as well, so I posted it as an event on facebook and took a couple of suggestions for things/people to find. A lot of people seemed interested and said that they were going to play, but I currently don't know how many people actually did.

I also learned that my Koffing cosplay makes me completely invisible. Twice during the weekend (once on Thursday and once on Saturday) that I can remember, a friend was standing next to me (different friend each time) and completely didn't see me. I find it hilarious and insulting at the same time.

Day 1, Friday - Thanks to Fanime's disorganization this year, we had to get up way too early to get to Fanime in time to pick up our discount slips and badges. Thankfully, there was no line for discount slips, the staff that had them were extremely friendly, and I was overall pretty happy with their attitude and my interaction with them. I'm still upset that they didn't have their stuff together on time, and that there was no e-mail to warn us that they wouldn't have them, even though they claimed that they would send one if there were any changes, but that doesn't change the fact that they were very nice people.

Also luckily, the registration line wasn't very long at all. We stood in line for about half an hour, which was nothing compared to previous years of standing in line for 2+ hours, even when we pre-registered! Part of me wishes that we pre-registered this year too, it would have been the same price if we had done it the first day that it was available, but everything worked out in the end anyway.

Once we got our badges, I was asked for a photo, in which I used my riding crop to pose. A staff member saw and recommended that I get it peace bonded. For those who don't know, peace bonding generally means putting a zip-tie around the prop and writing down the name and badge number of the owner. unfortunately for me, some idiot who didn't know what he was doing (actually two idiots) decided that they had to peace bond my riding crop to my pants! After talking with FoxBerry and her boyfriend, we went back and had it taken off because it was previously stated by a staff member that Fanime was not peace bonding props to people's bodies because it's dangerous. When I went back, the woman working at the peace bonding station was absolutely mortified that someone had done that to me. She cut it off immediately and re-zip-tied the crop on the handle so that I could still pose for photos with it.

After all of that, the first event that we went to was the BAC at Fanime gathering. After a group photo, we played (well I watched) some cosplay improv, with games like "Questions" and "Freeze". We also played/watched a game where people tried to guess and act out how Ed and I met and started dating, and Ed and I had to say "Ding!" or "Buzz!" when they got a fact right or wrong. That was a lot of fun, haha, even though they couldn't guess where our first date was, they did get a lot of smaller details right, and it was fun to watch.

Afterward, we went to lunch with my friend FoxBerry and her boyfriend at Jack in the Box. Normally, I don't eat at Jack in the Box because of their cancer warning on their drive-through window. (It states that food there has chemicals in it that, when cooked, have been known to cause cancer. I know that pretty much everything, especially fast food, causes cancer, but it seems that not all fast food restaurants have had major enough issues to be required to put a sign up. Carl's Jr. also has this sign though. McDonald's and Wendy's do not.) While walking the two blocks or so to eat, Fox asked me if I was wearing sunblock, to which I replied, "No, but I should be fine." Haha. Guess who got sunburned.

When we were finished eating, we headed back toward the convention center so that I could attend the Ace Attorney gathering, where I was of course, in the sun for about another hour, contributing heavily to my sun burn. I was cosplaying 13-year-old Franziska von Karma. The gathering was pretty well organized, though there was a little bit of confusion in the beginning and during a shoot when I was coaxed into the shot only to hear "Why is there a Franziska here with us?" I had no idea why I was there, someone told me to get in there. Ah well.

We then browsed the Artist's Alley, Dealer's Hall, and Gaming Room. I got to play Puzzle Fighter, my favorite game to play in arcades and conventions, and I beat I think three guys who challenged me. Eventually, someone came along and wiped the floor with me though. I was only upset because in one-player mode, I was on my last challenger, the furthest I had ever gotten, and all of that progress was lost.

Around six, I headed out to find where the Hangry & Angry fashion show fitting was. We were told to meet in the lobby of the Marriott, which is really vague when you think about it. We weren't told who or what to look for, so I just went up to a group of extravagantly-dressed women standing with someone official-looking with a headset and asked about it. Thewy told me "Go upstairs, past the viewing rooms and karaoke room, behind the curtain, and into the open door." Which sounds a lot easier than it was, considering that they failed to mention the long, scary hallway leading to the curtain. However, I did find where I was supposed to go.

I was one of the first girls to arrive at the fitting, and I showed up while they were discussing makeup. I was originally asked to help with makeup, but I am nowhere near as professional as the girls who were doing it (they were fashion design students) so I didn't feel the need to offer my help, even though there were only two makeup artists / hair stylists for fourteen girls. I signed in and patiently waited for further instructions. It turned out that I wasn't even capable of doing the makeup that they wanted (a smokey eye, which I've somehow never learned how to do properly). While waiting, the girls there chatted a bit and were all very friendly. We were introduced to the designer of the Hangry & Angry line, Gashicon. She didn't speak English, but she had a representative with her who translated, though she had a heavy accent, which hindered some communication, everything worked out in the end.

When I got the e-mail confirming that I was chosen as a model, I told myself that if models were not treated well, I was going to leave. The entire preparation and show took a huge chunk of my time, and after bad experiences in the past, I refused to be treated poorly and disrespected after volunteering my time. Fortunately, this was not an issue. both Gashicon and her rep were very nice and respectful, as were all of the models and the makeup artists. The fitting took about an hour, and then we went home, because there just wasn't much to do, and I still had packing to do.

Day 2, Saturday - We woke up eeeeeeeearly so that I could get to the fashion show on time. I was to be there at 9am to get ready and rehearse for the show at noon. Having been in shows before that supposedly take 3 hours of prep time but really only take half an hour, I was pretty upset. However, it really did take us about three hours for everything, and I was glad to have the time to talk to some of the models and just kind of relax.

Of course, this did not go off without a hitch. First, the doors that I had originally gone through to get to the dressing room were locked. I went around another way and found a model talking to a Fanime Con rover. I immediately knew what was going on when I reached the conversation. This power-hungry rover was refusing to let us in. The other model and I immediately began throwing a fit, complaining that we did not get up at practically the crack of dawn and drive all the way there to get there on time and not be let in. Because there was a Guest of Honor behind the curtain (Gashicon), "No one is allowed in without an all-access pin." The rover even said, "I'm not even allowed to go back there because I don't have a pin." So he refused to even go behind the curtain to ask if the models were allowed in.

We argued for what felt like forever as more models and a makeup artist showed up and began complaining with us. The crazy rover put another rover in charge, telling them "Don't let anyone behind this curtain." and went to call staff. Meanwhile, I texted a friend who's on staff to come help us. Turns out we had both contacted the same staffer, haha. Yet, even with staff there, wee weren't allowed to go into the room.

Thankfully, the girl who was there before me began yelling back to the room behind the curtain that models were there and we weren't being allowed in, and Gashicon's representative came out. She explained that she was a Guest of Honor with Gashicon and the Hangry & Angry fashion line, and that she told us to go back there. Would you believe me if I told you that the rover still didn't want to let us go back there? Because he didn't. Even though the rep had the "Guest of Honor" badge and everything. Somehow, maybe the combination of everyone in the area hating him, he did let us in though. And in the room, we continued to whine and complain about what just happened, because that is the most ridiculous thing that we had ever had to put up with.

Things quickly got better after we got into the room though. We were provided with doughnuts, pastries, chips, and water, none of which I ate because my stomach was killing me, but it was still an amazingly sweet gesture. I talked with a couple of the girls about why we had decided to model for H&A and things like that. One girl told me that it had always been her dream since she was twelve to model for a big-name brand. I felt sort of silly, since I had actually never heard of Hangry & Angry before, but I'm unfortunately not very involved with the fashion industry, especially not overseas fashion. It definitely did make me appreciate the opportunity more though.

(Photo by Ben Lam) We rehearsed some of the show, mostly how to get into the right order, how to walk, and what path to walk. It was a long walk and a lot of posing, and unfortunately most of us ended up going way to fast. At the end of the "walk" we were to go off of the stage at the front, then turn around and look toward the stage. I panicked when I turned and there was no one on stage. I haven't done a ton of on-stage performing, but in everything I have done, I've been told that it's really bad to have no one on stage. All I could do was stay where I was though and wait for another girl to come out. Posing and stuff was difficult, because we were told to be "fun" and "cute" which I've never done while modeling before, I'm always told to be super serious and "fierce". I managed, though, I haven't seen videos, and I'm scared to, haha.

Even though the panel slot for the show was two hours, the fashion show lasted maybe twenty minutes, after which the models took a group photo for CrunchyRoll.com and a few for ourselves and Gashicon. We also received free Hangry & Angry t-shirts for volunteering, at which once girl exclaimed, "Yay! Free Brand!" Afterward, we were allowed to change back into our own clothes and leave.

While I was getting ready for the show, Ed went to the Pokemon gathering as Magikarp, but he said he didn't really enjoy it. He said that his costume was pretty popular there, but he was really disappointed that he was in only two group pictures and those was the main group picture with everyone and the Pokemon-only one, even though on the forums they said that there were supposed to be pictures of each type of Pokemon and stuff like that. So I don't really regret not going, other than I didn't get to take pictures of it.

I attempted to check in to the hotel early, but was told that no rooms were available. I left my number with the front desk, and they said that they would call me when a room was open. They didn't. Ed and I browsed the rooms again before sitting down to relax until 4 when I could check in.

This year, our room was on the 12th floor! Which was a pain at first, but it made getting an elevator a lot easier. After checking in, we got a few bags out of the car and put them in our room. We were going to go to my friend Robbie's 'Abridging a Series' panel, but somehow after checking in and getting our stuff, it was already over. I really wanted to go too. So we went home to pick up the rest of our stuff and were driven back to the convention by Ed's mom because we didn't want to have to pay for parking all weekend again. By the time we got settled, it was about 7 and I had missed my meetup with Raciel, who was going to buy hats from me, so there went a bunch of spending money.

We went back to the Dealer's Hall to browse more. I really wanted a Hangry & Angry doll like the one that I walked with in the fashion show, but they were $50 at the H&A booth! When we returned for what was at least the third time though, we went right around the corner from the H&A booth and found a booth selling slightly smaller H&A dolls for $20! So I bought an adorable one that looks almost like the one that I walked with, just in a different outfit. The character is Angry of the Hangry & Angry franchise, and it's so cute!

For a while, we watched the "Cosplay Battle" event hosted by our friend Robbie. Cosplay Battles are basically three-pose fights, two characters face off, they each do three battle poses that are based off of the character that they're cosplaying, and at the end, they decide who lost. It was a lot of fun, and it was run really well, but it started to get silly, so we took a break so that Ed could take a picture of the religious protesters that show up every year to try to "save our souls." Some people say that they're annoyed by them or bored of them, though I really wish that people wouldn't antagonize them. Also, I would be really sad if they suddenly didn't show up anymore. I would feel like they didn't care about us anymore. On the way back from the protesters, we got distracted by the ongoing Disney gathering, where we snapped a few pictures. My favorite cosplayers were the 'Nightmare Before Christmas' cosplayers. They were really good, and I just enjoy Tim Burton movies in general.

We attempted to go to 'Comedy Club at Fanime', but the room was full to capacity, and we didn't want to wait around until two seats next to each other opened. So we sat around the con some more. While sitting and doing nothing, we got a flier to "Rocky Horror Picture Show Live" for that night, and we decided to go to that instead of the rave because neither of us had seen "Rocky Horror" and we thought it would be awesome to see it live. Plus, it was only $10 a person and about a block away. Coincidentally, it was at a theater where my old Improv teacher works. He owns "Comedy Sportz" at a theater called Camera 3.

"Rocky Horror" was something else. I think we should have watched the movie before seeing it live, because the audience kept on yelling out jokes over the audio, and apparently that's just what happens during "Rocky Horror Live". Since we hadn't seen it and didn't know the jokes, we were lost for a little while. It was still fun though, after I accepted that I just wasn't going to hear the movie. There was a lot of audience participation, which included blowing bubbles, throwing toilet paper and toast, and spinning little noisemakers. I got pelted with both toilet paper and toast. It was like they were aiming for me.

We got back to the hotel room around 3am and went to bed. We discussed going to the rave, but we were just too tired.

Day 3, Sunday - Sunday was supposed to begin with dance lessons, but we were too tired, so we slept in. We put on our costumes (Pac-man and Clyde) and hit the convention around noon. Mostly we just wandered around the convention, getting stopped for pictures every couple of minutes and being stuck posing for what seemed like forever. Pac-man and Clyde are always really popular costumes for some reason.

(Photo by Steven)Around 5:30, we went back to the room to change into our Pokemon costumes for our panel. Then we booked it across the convention center to check in to our panel by 6:30. When we arrived, we were greeted with the usual "Oh, you're the Magikarp people!" which I still think is a million times better than being "The Pikachu Chick." We hung out in the Panelist Lounge until about ten minutes before our panel.

Here's where the night got crazy. We were supposed to be in Panel Room 1 (or Panels 1), and there was tape outside the door to mark where there was supposed to be a line. That was completely full, but it was only about 30 people. Next door to our panel, in Panels 2, was the lolita fashion show, were there were about 20 lolitas in line. Panels 3 had no line because there was no panel in the next slot. Across the hall from Panels 1, there was a line that went all the way down to Panels 3. After some deliberation and looking at people in the line, the presence of a Magikarp cosplayer told us that the giant, intimidating line was for our panel.

After discussing this with a staff member, the radio calls began. A Panel Head (someone in charge) came downstairs from the Panelist Lounge to scope things out and more radio calls were made. They were discussing moving us to Panels 3 because it was empty and larger. Almost twice the size, they said. Panels 1 held about 150 people, which is about the amount of people that we estimated (we guessed between 100 and 150 and requested a room that sat between 100 and 200). Panels 3 held 262 people. We ended up getting the transfer at the cost of about 15 minutes from our panel.

(Photo by Steven) So the line had to be moved and directed in by staff. While that was going on, we set up the laptop and argued about whether or not there was supposed to be an audio cable. I let Ed convince me that there wasn't, which led to losing another minute or so when we had to ask Staff to come find it. So other than a couple of minor slip-ups, such as me saying that Lake of Rage was in Red/Blue when it's really in Gold/Silver (one of the most embarrassing moments of my life), it seemed to go really well. The entire room, all 262 seats, was filled, and there were people outside who had to be turned away because there was no more space, and having any more people would have been a fire hazard. We were told by Staff when looking at the line that we had more attendees than the Guests of Honor, including the Japanese pop stars. We were told that the only panel that we didn't beat was Gaia. So we're pretty proud, even though technically they weren't there to see us, they were there to see Magikarp, but it was still pretty flattering that we had an idea that was so popular.

After the panel, we went back to the hotel room to change for the Black & White Ball. I had bought my dress a few months ago at a second-hand shop, and it wasn't until that night that I realized why it was in a second-hand shop, one of the darts came undone from about the waist down, while the other one still went to the floor. Fortunately, it wasn't really that noticeable. I wore Ed's Magikarp wig because my hair was terrible.

The B&W Ball was insanely crowded. We danced some, even though we didn't remember all of the "proper" dances (we mostly remembered the Waltz and the Cha Cha). However, we were only there for about an hour because a couple wasn't looking where they were going and a girl ended up stepping on Ed's foot with her stiletto heel. She didn't step directly on his foot, more on the side of it, and her heel slid down his foot and got stuck in his shoe. He was okay for a couple of seconds, but we had to leave because it hurt him so badly. We went back to the hotel and washed and bandaged his foot.

Then we headed off to FoxBerry's panel, "Digital Makeover: Cosplay Edition". It was a great panel, I really learned things and was interested, but unfortunately it was at midnight and was two hours long. We ended up leaving early because we were just too tired and didn't want to fall asleep at the panel.

Day 4, Monday - Monday at Fanime was short, we woke up, ate some cereal, packed, made two trips to pack stuff into the car, checked out, and went home. Even though this Fanime wasn't particularly eventful (didn't rave or go to the masquerade), it was still really fun, and I'm going to miss it.

Animation on Display 2011 (Saturday, February 19th)

I attended Animation on Display in San Fransisco on Saturday, February 19th, 2011. The convention was held at the Kabuki Hotel in Japantown. I cosplayed 13-year-old Franziska von Karma from Ace Attorney: Investigations: Miles Edgeworth. My riding crop showed up at my door that morning, I found it outside right as I was leaving and had already given up on it. I attended with my boyfriend, though I met up with several friends there.

We drove to the convention from home, about an hour away, and as usual, we got lost trying to find Geary Street. Every single time we go to Japantown, we get lost trying to find Geary. I think MapQuest is laughing at us. So we drove around SF for about an hour, up and down the same street like a billion times, almost got into an accident, it was raining, roads were slippery, it was all bad. Then we finally just thought "screw it" and drove down whatever street names sounded familiar. Strangely enough, that worked!

So we went to get our badges, where staff geeked out a little ("You're the Magikarp people!?") over our panel, haha, it was pretty cool. I contacted my partner for the masquerade so that we could check in, but he was eating, so we decided to peruse the Dealer's Hall. The Dealer's Hall was tiny, but we were in a hurry because it was already about 3:30 and cosplay sign-ins ended at 4, so we didn't buy anything. Funny enough though, we ran into a girl cosplaying 18-year-old Franziska von Karma, and we took a photo together. I had forgotten my camera, but she sent me the picture! I was so excited, as you can see, we even had the proper height difference and everything! I'm even standing a little further back than her in the photo, and I'm still shorter, haha.

Eventually, my masquerade partner showed up, and we checked into the masquerade. We turned in our music for the performance and the judged looked at my costume (my partner chose to be unscored). They seemed somewhat impressed, mostly because I had lined everything. Judging probably took all of five minutes, haha.

After that, my boyfriend and I went to get food in the mall attached to the hotel where the convention was being held. Unfortunately, the mall is split into two buildings, and all of the food was in the building that we weren't in. So we had to make a mad-dash across the court yard through the rain. Waiting for food took forever, but mostly just because I really wanted chocolate taiyaki (fish-shaped pancakes with chocolate filling). So we ate hurriedly and made the mad-dash back across the courtyard and through the convention center to the panel room.

At the last-second, I wanted to change a couple of the slides, but the stupid program froze, so I didn't get to do it. I was actually rather upset. That entire section would have been so much better if I could have done what I wanted. Ah well. While I was trying to make changes, we overheard people talking about our panel, how excited they were for it. Apparently, there had been a line for it all day, because a group of people wanted to be the first in. Later someone told us that our panel was the only reason they came to the convention. Talk about pressure.

The panel went pretty well overall. We were really nervous (70+ people in the room!) in the beginning, so we talked too fast. The bulk of our presentation ended up only taking about half an hour. When I had rehearsed on my own, it took 40 minutes, so I know it was just because we were nervous and talking too fast. We also had backup material, which took another 20 minutes, so we filled almost the entire time quite nicely.

Everyone seemed to have a good time, so I'm quite pleased. There were only two things that really bothered me. The first was this guy sitting over on the side (too close to my bag for comfort, but he didn't seem suspicious) who took it upon himself to interject at random times with random comments and jokes. They were good jokes, though sometimes backhandedly making fun of my boyfriend and I, but I was more annoyed that he decided that it was okay to do this. We didn't know this guy, and it just felt like he was interrupting us.

The other thing that bothered me, and I mean really bothered me, was that during the questions portion, a woman asked "Are you planning on doing this panel again?" and when I said yes, she continued with "Well, next time, I'd like to see more research." Umm. Excuse me? Wow. Are you our teacher or something? Did you know all of this stuff without research before we told you? Would you like to host this panel? By all means, get up here and do it. No? Then be quiet. I know she thinks that she was trying to help, but that was just rude. In any case, all I did was say "okay" and move on to the next question. I'm not sure what else I could have done.

After the panel and gathering up our stuff, I dashed off to the second masquerade check-in, where I had to impatiently wait for my cosplay partner to finish changing into his Phoenix Wright costume. While I was waiting though, I talked to a few other contestants. Everyone was very nice and outgoing, it was really refreshing, since most cosplayers I talk to are shy like I am. I actually kind of learned some about different topics to talk to cosplayers about. Though my fallbacks are always "Did you make your costume or buy it?" and "How did you make that?" and they've never failed to spark further conversation.

My masquerade partner showed up kinda late, but we did have some time to talk and plan out our walk-on. We practiced a little, but not enough. I was nervous again, so, I rushed through practice. I knew that I knew what I was doing, but I also assumed that my partner knew what he was doing, which was unfair of me to assume. It was his first masquerade entry, so I feel like I should have walked him through the whole thing more. Well, now I know.

The masquerade was relatively short, it was over in about an hour. Yet somehow, I got a major headache during it. Which is both surprising and totally predictable at the same time, as I got a headache during AoD's masquerade last year as well. I think it was my wig cap, it's probably still too tight. Could have been a number of other things too, I suppose, loud music, funky lighting, I have no idea.

The "Half-Time Show" was bearable. It was an improvisation show, done with audience members who had experience in improv. It could have gone a lot worse, but it wasn't overly spectacular. Usually they do a game show, which is usually fun to watch (I like to see if I know the answers to the questions lol), but they didn't have enough time to set up the equipment, so they didn't do it.

Anyway, winners were announced, and my partner and I didn't win anything, but I think that most of the people who won did deserve it. The girl that won first place made her shoes! Like, her actual shoes! My mind was so beyond blown.

After the masquerade, we chilled in the lobby for a while. we got swarmed by photographers (usually happens after a masquerade) and just palled around with other cosplayers. I talked to a couple of random cosplayers, and the masquerade grand prize winner geeked out over my costume, which was completely unexpected and so cool. It was kind of like my own personal win.

By this time, it was late, so we went to leave, and then I remembered that I was supposed to sell Sheik's friend, a Sesshoumaru (InuYasha) pillowcase and blanket that I had bought for myself probably 6 or so years ago and just didn't want any more. I considered selling my Sesshoumaru plushie too, but it's so nostalgic, I decided to keep it. Anyway, we had to wait for a little while as Sheik and her friends were changing, and then we left.

Got kinda lost trying to find the freeway again, because freaking Geary doesn't intersect with any of the streets that MapQuest says it does. Freaking MapQuest.

Anyway, overall, I had a great time =D Hopefully I get to go back again next year! Shout out to everyone I didn't mention already (which is like everybody >_> Sorry guys)!

Quote of the Day:
Me: Why the caution tape?
Hetalia Cosplayers (with caution tape): PASTAAAAAA!
Me: Oh. That's why.

(Photo Credits: Photo 1: Sent to me by DarkFujin on Cosplay.com, Photo 2: [Visual Pie] Studios, Photo 3: RoflWaffles on Flickr/Cosplay.com, Photo 4: BlizzardTerrak Photography on DeviantArt/ACParadise/Cosplay.com)