This time I'll tell you about the wonderful weekend I spent at Maddi's place last week. I had already planned to visit her in summer, but couldn't make up my mind whether I should choose Japan Day (big German-Japanese festival) or Dokomi (small anime convention). In the end, I chose Dokomi, which turned out to be a very lucky decision later on, since Japan Day got postponed until October due to 3/11.
The convention
It was my very first Dokomi and after what I'd heard before I didn't exactly have high expectations. I knew the convention site was going to be ugly and small. I knew there weren't going to be a lot of merchants. I knew there weren't going to be a lot of people. I knew it was going to be rainy. All of these predictions came true.
Nonetheless, I had a great time! Even though the convention site was located in the dodgy part of Dusseldorf (or so I was told) and wasn't pretty at all, we found fitting locations to take pictures in with our costumes. There were only a few merchants, but I'd already spent a lot of money in the Japanese book stores in Dusseldorf anyway XD There weren't that many people, but thank to that I got to actually meet up and talk to those who were there. On Saturday it was raining a lot, but that, too, was very fortunate, as you will see later.
The costumes
I'd already told you last entry what I was going to cosplay, so there's not much of a surprise here.
Maddi and I did pair cosplay both days. We decided on easy and comfortable costumes. At least we thought we had...
 | Saturday - Luka Megurine (Vocaloid) I'd found this artwork by ばず at random when I was browsing through pixiv and thought it'd make a nice cosplay. I especially liked the 80s-ish design and the decorative seams. Sewing the dress was a bit tricky - Because it's so tightly fitting, I had to sew very neatly. It took me some time to figure out the collar, but eventually I made it. I was really proud of the fabric I'd chosen, but when I took a few test shots I realised that the pinstripes were too subtle, so I had to by fabric paint and retrace them. We also couldn't find nice buttons, so we painted some cheap ones. By now I'm quite experienced with painting buttons... We had a lot of pictures taken in these costumes ↓ 1st row pictures: Andy K a.k.a. Squirrel of doom ↓ 2nd row pictures: Franky ↓ 3rd row pictures: Maddi/Myself, editing by me. |
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 | Sunday - Creamy Mami (Magical Angel Creamy Mami) From the very first beat of the opening song, Creamy Mami had me. I'm such a sucker for retro stuff. So here it is: My cosplay of the mother of magical girls. Compared to Luka, this costume was on the easy side, but I was struggling with the sleeves nonetheless. I'm still not sure whether there's too much fabric or too little, but they don't look and stay up the way I want them to. I'd also like to curse anime girls for having such strange proportions. Looking at the reference I know that my skirt needs to be much shorter, but if I shortened it only a single inch the whole world would see my butt. Not sure if want. I am, however, more than pleased with my wig. It's the first time cutting and styling a wig into a whole different style (it was a slightly wavy wig reaching down to my back when I got it). Considering that and the fact that I had no curling iron I think I can be quite proud. Maddi cosplayed Magical Emi on Sunday, who isn't from the same series as Mami, but they're both part of the Majokko Club, which is a whole set of magical girls animes made by Studio Pierrot in the 80s. ↓ 1st row pictures: Puddingpampe ↓ 2nd row pictures: Franky (1&2) & Artflower a.k.a. Katrinkleeblatt (3) ↓ 3rd row pictures: |  |
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In short:
+ cosplaying with Maddi ♥ ♥
+ talking to a lot of people I usually couldn't
+ awesome picturesssss
+ learned how to spell "squirrel" correctly
+ nice weather - even when it's raining XD
- unfriendly and ill-informed con staff
- sewing stress
- high heels weekend = pain
I uploaded a couple of pictures at Animexx, have a look: C L I C K
My next convention will be Connichi in September. Until then I'll be busy again with my master's thesis.
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