Holiday Anime Faire (Days 401 - 403)

Note: Holiday Anime Faire was not 3 days, I just haven't updated in that long, and it wasn't good enough to get its own post.

So Holiday Anime Faire was on Saturday, December 4th. My boyfriend and I went as Pacman and Clyde. Response to our costumes was amazing, as always. We even had little girls, whom I didn't think even knew what Pacman was, telling us that they loved our costumes.

We entered the cosplay contest, in hopes of winning free Fanime tickets. We didn't, Fanime tickets weren't even offered as a prize. *sob* There were no "places" in the cosplay contest (1st place, 2nd place, etc.). Instead, there were just six winners, my boyfriend and I being one of them. Among us were Pedobear, The Gorillaz, and Sailor Moon.

Usually, after a con, I feel really inspired to work on my cosplay, but Holiday Anime Faire didn't make me feel that way. I have the mild urge to sew, nothing more. It's really disappointing.

READ MORE - Holiday Anime Faire (Days 401 - 403)

Days 398 - 400

Woo! So nothin'! Got a couple more orders for hats, and made the patterns for a few. But I'm too freaking lazy to actually make any. *sigh*

So Holiday Anime Faire is this Saturday! I shall be there in my Clyde cosplay with my boyfriend as Pacman. I'm looking forward to seeing some of my cosplay buddies again and entering the cosplay contest with some real competition. =D

READ MORE - Days 398 - 400

Cosplay Survey II

Most Accurate Cosplay
Franziska von Karma (Ace Attorney)

Most Difficult Cosplay
Amaterasu (Okami), so much foam and fur and cardboard and hot glue guns and razors and PAIN! (Totally worth it)

Easiest Cosplay
I think Lady Mario. It just sort of fell together.

Most Out Of Character Cosplay
Chi (Chobits), I don't think I'm capable of being an airhead. D=

Most Fun-to-Cosplay
Franziska von Karma, so fun and easy to get into character.

Sexiest Cosplay
Swimmer Girl (Pokemon Platinum), it's a bikini for goodness sake.

Most Comfortable Cosplay
Clyde (Pacman), believe it or not. Sure, the head is a bit awkward, but it's not that bad at all, and the rest of it is just normal everyday clothes.

Least Comfortable Cosplay
Amaterasu (Okami), with the wig and the wig cap and the mask and the teeth (which make it so that I can't close my jaw all the way), I get a major headache by the end of the day. Chi is a close second, because the elastic for the ears cuts into the backs of my ears.

Costume with longest hotel room prep time
I think Chi (Chobits), because I have to lighten my eyebrows and get the ears, wires, and wig on.

Costume Garment you wear out of costume
The undershirt that I use for Chi

Favorite Wig/Hairstyle:
Franziska von Karma (Ace Attorney), it's so blue and beautiful.

Favorite prop
Pokeball beach ball, it's lots of fun =D

Favorite accessory
My ocarina for my Link cosplay, even though I bought it way before I decided to cosplay Link. It still counts, right?

Ever been in a group cosplay?
Eh, not officially. I've run into people cosplaying from the same series, and I cosplay with my boyfriend, but I've never followed through with a plan for more than two people.

Ever cosplayed a pairing with someone?
All the time =D Hideki/Chi (Chobits)

Pairing support=y/n?
Sure, why not?

Ever been to a photoshoot?
All the time =D So much fun.

Ever entered a contest?
Five times, Super-Con, Comic Arts and Anime Teen Expo, Kin-Yoobi Con, Holiday Anime Faire, and Animation on Display.

Ever won an award in a contest?
Four times, Comic Arts and Anime Teen Expo, Kin-Yoobi Con, Holiday Anime Faire, and Animation on Display.

The Costume you'll never finish
Navi (The Legend of Zelda and the Ocarina of Time), even though I want to so badly!

The Costume you've always wanted to make
A mascot suit, though I haven't decided what yet.

The Costume you'd wear if it weren't for your body type
It'd like to think that I don't like my body type stop me, so I'm gonna say pretty much any male character. =[

The Costume that you can't make for lack of money
Harley Quinn (Batman), unless I make the body suit on my own, which I'm not ready for.

Show us your best cosplay photo
Franziska von Karma (Ace Attorney), taken by [visual pie] studios at Yaoi-Con

READ MORE - Cosplay Survey II

Fanime Costumes (Days 242-246)

I'm still working on getting photos, so bear with me here. My full review is here, on my convention blog, this is not a full review.

On Day Zero of Fanime (Thursday), I cosplayed my original human-form/gijinka of Pikachu, and my boyfriend wore a fleece Magikarp hat that I made for him a few weeks ago. Pikachu is one of my fly-under-the-radar costumes, as I call them. I wear it when I want to cosplay, but don't want to attract too much attention. I got a great reaction overall, and on girl even said I had the cutest Pikachu outfit she'd ever seen, so I was really flattered. Surprisingly, my boyfriend's hat got more attention than I did. Apparently people still do very much love Magikarp. "Splash Attack!" I do regret wearing heels to stand in line for two hours but, eh, live and learn.

Day One (Friday) I was my original human-form of Amaterasu from Okami. As usual, I was pleasantly surprised with the response to it. I was extremely flattered when the masquerade winners from last Fanime, Chief Pikachu and Charlie the Charmander, geeked out over my costume and asked for pictures and hugs. The response is always big to Amaterasu because it's a really detailed, in-depth, and eye-catching costume, but at Fanime, people actually knew who I was (though I was mistaken for Princess Mononoke again..). My Amaterasu is not officially retired. I may remake parts to make it more accurate (in my opinion) and comfortable, but other than that, I'm done with it, it's too uncomfortable.

On Day Two (Saturday) I was Clyde (the orange ghost from Pacman) and my boyfriend was Pacman. We expected a huge response and lots of love toward these costumes, of course that's not why we did them, but it was a nice perk. However, we didn't expect just how much attention we got. We were stopped literally every ten steps, and every time there were at least three photographers. Good thing we weren't really rushing to go anywhere. People really liked the pants, which was surprising but pleasing, because they were a lot of work.

Day Three (Sunday) I cosplayed Chi and my boyfriend was Hideki (Chobits). I thought that this was going to be another fly-under-the-radar costume, but I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of attention it attracted.Everyone geeked out over me again, this time because my ears were open with AV cables hanging out. People kept saying that it was a brilliant idea and that they'd never seen it before, but i know I've seen it somewhere before, there's no way I came up with that idea all by myself. I actually want to re-make the ears, but more on that later. We went to the CLAMP gathering, which started late because the Tsubasa gathering ran over. It was alright, though, because I ended up talking to another Chi cosplayer and we got swarmed by photographers, probably because we were the same height and our dresses almost looked opposite, so that was pretty cool. When the gathering finally came around, there were five Chi's, and everyone started calling out for a Hideki. It took a while for it to click in my boyfriend's head, but he finally ran out to the cheers and screams of onlooking fangirls. After that, four of us Chi's had a mini photoshoot with Chronoclix, a relatively new cosplay photography site. I'm very happy to help them get off the ground. I also wore Chi the Fanime's Black & White Ball and even had a picture of me taken there.

Day Four (Monday) was very short, and my "costume" fell apart pretty quickly. I pretty much looked like I had run through the dealer's room and grabbed every super popular stereotypical item I could find, haha. I had a short blue wig, steampunk-ish aviator goggles, cat ears & tail, and fingerless black ruffly gloves. However, instead of seeing it as a super-stereotypical "uncool" thing for me to do, for some reason, I thought (and still think) of it was a satirical portrayal of the general anime fandom. Maybe I' just too full of myself. But it amused me, and I will probably wear it again. Unfortunately, in my rush to get ready, I didn't put my ears on right, and they fell off later, so I took of the tail and ended up looking very wannabe steampunk-ish, which just amused me even more. [Pictured left is me with the wig and gloves, but no goggles or ears.]

READ MORE - Fanime Costumes (Days 242-246)

Day 136

So being sick is no fun. Yeah. That's about it. I really wanted to get started on my and my boyfriend's Pac-Man costumes, but then I realized that in order to get the proportions right, we'll have to make them, or at least take the measurements, at the same time. So maybe some time this week.

These costumes could take anywhere from a week two three months, depending on how much money we have available and what style we're doing all of this in. The super easy way out would be cardboard, paint, and black clothes. Which, believe me, is tempting beyond belief. The harder but still ridiculously easy way is covering the cardboard with fleece, and then having black clothes. We really, really want to go with fleece. Just because we can, and it should looked cleaner and smoother than paint over cardboard. The hardest would be fleece over cardboard with black clothes that have the Pac-Man game grid on them. You know, the blue walls that you have to maneuver around in the game. I'm still working on ways to do that to shirts and pants and stuff, but I think that that detail would really help put our costumes over-the-top and make them stand out.

An option that we're not really considering is full-body cardboard suits, mainly because that is a lot of cardboard and a lot of work. Not to mention, it wont' be comfortable or practical at all, and I doubt we'd even be able to transport them to conventions.

READ MORE - Day 136

Nostalgia Attack is Super Effective Against All Types! (Day 135)

So Fanime costumes have been changed AGAIN. Haha. It's s good thing I've got like three months or I'd be pretty pissed. Now instead of a Mario and a Boo or Shy Guy (stilts or none), we are going to be a ghost and a Pacman.

I've already chosen my ghost. I shall by Clyde! Because Inky, Pinky, and Blinky just don't cut it for me. I'm surprised I remember all of their names. *nostalgia attack*

I'm still working out the entire costume plans, but I think I've got a general idea of how I'd like things done >_> It's just a matter of doing it. In any case, I'd like to get a complete group (three more ghosts at least) but knowing my luck, this won't happen, so I won't waste my time or money or get my hopes up *emo child*

I also got a couple of pairs of leggings, one for my Pikachu and one for my rave outfit. Though I may use them both for my Pikachu *begins plotting*.

READ MORE - Nostalgia Attack is Super Effective Against All Types! (Day 135)