Cosplay questioning

I woke up at 9am and took longer than expected getting ready. My gold headpiece kept on tilting to one side. >.< I got to the judging at close to 10:40am. There were 3 judges that asked about my costume, sewing process...etc. One of them asked about my gold headpiece to which I responded it being made from a metal sheet. She asked where I bought it and my short response was Google. *judges laugh* *me blush* ^^; Ano, I explained further that I had to check out several sites online in order to find the thinnest sheet. The top was a kimono/haori pattern and the bottom of my dress was a perfect circle. 6 yards of fabric for the skirt, 50+ hours with alot of re-sewing. They confirmed my pho-kimono, the two 'false' collars as well as inquired about the equipment that I used.

When they asked about my level I responded with novice. I only competed once and didn't win. They asked if it was alright if I was bumped up to advanced and I responded if 'If you think it is good enough....' They explained that with the size of the convention (being small) and with the quality of the cosplay, it should be advanced. O.O I nodded, thanked them and left.

'Is my gold headpiece straight?'

In between panels, I spent most of my time in the restrooms adjusting EVERYTHING. My headpiece, my hair, my top, the goddess cloth...etc. <.<; I didn't pull out my moonbell for the judging (I didn't feel that it was up to competition quality) and decided not to use it for this con. I kept it with me in case I changed my mind. ^-^

panels = games

I headed to the 'Anime Match Game' which had two teams that were asked what comes to mind when they think of a certain anime. Anime titles were pulled from the audience. And it was interesting to hear the results. I caught the end of the panel 'Learn the Hare Hare Yukai' and watched the group dance. (I would've joined in, but couldn't since I was in a large dress. ^^;)

The following panel was 'Anime Clue' which was hosted by the same people who did 'Whose Line Is It' the day before. Which meant only one thing: hilarity. Mr. Black was the victim.

The group was dressed accordingly with Ms. Scarlett as a guy in a corset and skirt. O.o (I wish I got a pic of him, but it would have scarred my camera. ^-^) Professor Plum was Shuichi (Gravitation) and Mr. Green was Kaiba (Yugioh.) The audience was pulled to ask questions of the suspects as well as search for clues. We found out that Professor Plum was Mr. Black's body guard, Mr. Black dumped Ms. Scarlet (even after having smex with her in the library,) Ms. White is obsessed with cleaning, Mr. Black is blackmailing Mr. Green with incriminating photos of Mr. Green and a horse..... O.o The 'detective'/host ripped up the Blue Eyes White Dragon card (Kaiba cried *hugs*) and Ms. Peacock is a librarian who couldn't read and write and hated the smex in the library.

The clues were a feather (from Ms. White's feather duster,) a love letter from Ms. Peacock to Mr. Black, a blackmail picture of a horse with hearts, a $2000 check to Ms. Scarlet (who was Mr. Black's lover,) and a Blue Eyes White Dragon card. Of course, the most obvious clue was a hollow book with a bottle of poison labelled with the words 'poison'. ^^; A psychic was called to revive Mr. Black for a moment so that the murderer can be revealed: Ms. Peacock. Turns out Mr. Black and Professor Plum has the hots for each other, but they sadly had to separated since Mr. Black became dead after the investigation. *cries* Needless to say, that was fun to watch. ^.^

anime break!

I caught the end of Welcome to the NHK, an anime about a dude who is a hikkimori (hermits/recluse.) It was an interesting anime and the dub was well done. We also watched episode 1 of Pumpkin Scissors which also has a good dub. (Yay for good dubs!)

Professionalism is a must!

The panel after that was a voice acting panel with Kristen Nelson (Megumi, Kare Kano) and Amy Howard Wilson (Nova, Star Blazers.) The panel turned into a 'How to be a VA' panel with questions about 'getting into the door'...etc. They threw out many good points. The main idea is to be professional at all times when dealing with everyone in the industry. Even during rejections. ^-^

and then we rest

There were lots of comfortable chairs in the ESS building and so I decided to rest. I called Jenn-chan and we chatted for a good while. Afterwards, I read some of Ai no Kusabi vol. 1 and ate pocky. Rikuo walked past asking where was Kazahaya to which I replied, 'No idea.' Then of course I asked 'How can you lose your uke?' to which she replied 'Ukes run away all the time.' ^.^ Okaasan bought me lunch and a new clip for my headpiece. The new clip kept my headpiece from tilting in all directions, but since the clip was slightly tilted as it was placed on my head, my headpiece kinda tilted to the right.... <.<;

Eva! The Star Wars of Japan!

I was late to the Evangelion panel (due to lunch) which was hosted by a guy cosplaying the dude from 'V for Vendetta'. He spewed info about Eva with a powerpoint presentation complete with comparison screen shots of the new movies and old Eva and even a gif clip of Ramiel which was AWESOME. We went over all the releases ever made as well as discussed the issues and status of the live action Evangelion movie. We discussed the probabilities of any of the major directors to take on this project and concluded that the most likely one to make it would be Wachowski brothers. Some of the reasons why would be that they don't announce their upcoming projects (many others already have movies lined up) so we have no idea what they'll be doing and they love anime in general.

My fav part was finding out Shamshel is no longer a phallic-looking Angel in the Rebuild of Evangelion movies. ^.^ It was an indept panel of Eva and I totally enjoyed it.

I read too much CLAMP. ^^;

After the Eva panel, I rested some more before the next panel. I saw this cosplay. I have no idea what it is, but it's so simple: an umbrella, a curtain of cloth and two eyes. Kawaii!

The Tsubasa group that did the Tsubasa/Xxxholic panel the day before was holding the 'Everything CLAMP' panel. While we were waiting for the room to clear out, the Sakura and Syaoran started dancing the Riona and Squall dance from Final Fantasy VIII. Of course, I have a vidclip of that. ^.^ We had a tally of what people have read/seen of CLAMP. I have read/seen everything. O.O We discussed over fav series, characters, what we like and don't like about CLAMP. It was mentioned that CLAMP is considering keeping the Tsubasa drawing styles when they draw future works. If this is true, my opinion is that I hope they keep the original drawing styles when they continue their unfinished series. Series like Clover, Legal Drug and X have a specific drawing style already. The feeling would be different if it was drawn in Tsubasa style.

Points to mention are the subtext = buttsex in all of CLAMP series as well as the presence of a teacher-student relationship. Subaru being the be-all of CLAMP's torture plot devices was of course brought up. *hugs Subaru*

Competition time!

I went to the masquerade area afterwards and they ran through the stage directions for the evening. Walk from there to there, stop, smile, wave (do anything that is NOT obscene)...etc. The masquerade started with speaker issues. We couldn't hear anything. All dialogue/music/sound was pre-recorded and the volume wasn't able to be increased. I don't know why, but the music comes out fine. The dancing penguin from last year came out and danced for us while we waited. We ran through about 6 skits without sound (only one speaker was working...the one in front of the judges) before deciding to let the walk-ons go first. Meaning me.

I walked a bit, stopped and curtsied, lifted the sides of my skirt, twirled, stopped in front of the judges and curtsied again. (It took me 3 hours to think this up.) I didn't trip. *whew* The card I gave the announcer was 'Rei' since 'Rai' would be pronounced differently. ^^;

After the walk-ons, a few audience 'wave' games, the speaker system was back at full force and the masquerade continued. They even asked the first 6 cosplay skits to redo their acts with sound. Yay! My fav was 'Game Over'. While we were waiting for the judges to make their decision, we watched the winners to the amvs. My favs were the ones for Kingdom Hearts, Romeo x Juliet and Fullmetal Alchemist. Youtube clips to come later. ^.^

And the winner is...

Since the craftsmanship competition opened to any and all fandoms, there was a variety of costumes. The Doctor Who cosplayer that I met the day before won a judge's award as well as an awesome Bio-shock cosplayer.

The most amazing one was a man who handmade his armor. The chainmail took 2-3 years. O.O The Best Craftsmanship for the novice division was a Seth Trinity Blood cosplayer. There was alot of detail in that costume. *applauds* When they announced my name in the Best Craftsmanship in the advanced division, I was shocked. I went up to accept my trophy. One of the judges: Congrats! You're no longer a novice. Me: *blush*

There were so many amazing cosplays in the competition. I'll put up more here when I find them.

Freedom Gundam!

Judge's award

My fav out of the entire con.

Picture time was after the masqerade. I caught a pic of the cast of one of the skits. It's a guy in a miniskirt. Me (talking to the girl): He looks in that skirt. Totally jealous! Girl: I know! Now I have to give that skirt to him! ^.^

Okaasan came to pick me up. I showed off my trophy, washed a bit of the edges of my cosplay (it was dragging on the ground all day) and went to sleep.