イベントレポ：Connichi, MMC

Thought my always belated con reports couldn't get any more late? Wrong!
Beside my usual busyness (Master thesis...), this year's Connichi was very late in September and MMC very early in October, giving me little to no time to write any journals.
Thus, I've decided to write one big entry covering both cons. My costumes were mostly the same, after all.

Let's start with Connichi.






The con
Some of you might remember that last year's Connichi was pretty dissappointing to me for several reasons, so this year things could only get better. And it did.
Reasons?

1. They added a new building (or wing) to the convention site and the new space planning added to a lot less crowded rooms and hallways.
2. For the first time, Eva accompanied us and, being the non-cosplayer she is, brightened the mood with hilarious snide comments. Thank you for reminding me how ridiculous cosplay problems can be!
3. I followed my own advice and simply didn't stress myself or others out. No pressure, just fun. It worked.

The costumes
No big surprises here, because I already wrote about them in my WIP entry, so some parts of the costume desciptions will be copypasta.

	Friday - Fuu Hououji (Magic Knight Rayearth OVA) We decided to re-wear the Rayearth costumes, because they make a great group cosplay and-comfy as they are- are perfect for con Fridays. I highly enjoyed cosplaying with Maddi and my sister again and since Eva took a lot of beautiful pictures that day, I think that now I can retire this costume without any regrets. Below are some of the photos Eva took ↓ Again, our group: Maddi as Fuu, my sister as Umi and myself as Fuu.
	Saturday - Terra (Final Fantasy VI) Our long awaited Final Fantasy VI group. While I love how my sisters came out, I'm rather dissatisfied with my own costume. Or maybe "dissatisfied" isn't the right word - it looks good, really, it's just very far from what I'd originally wanted it to be. The most obvious difference: No shoulder armour. I did make them (Proof), but when I put them on, I just felt bulky and wrong, so I went for the strapless version. Luckily, Terra has a gazzilion of different designs, with and without armour. Maddi's Relm costume, of course, was flawless and her prettiness was dazzling. Next to her and my colourful Kefka sister, I felt very plain, but nonetheless I liked our goup. ↓ First was picture taken by Rose, all the others by Eva.
	Sunday (WCS) - Howl Jenkins (Howl's Moving Castle) Sunday - WCS day. As usual, this was the most stressfull day. To be honest: I'm not sure if it's worth it. This year was comparatively easy going, because we'd decided beforehand not to use any giant props but instead concentrate on telling a story in our performance (for details see below). Howl was very comfortable to wear and I was especially grateful for this cosplay decision, when it got really cold and rainy on Sunday. Our little Howl group was quite popular, propably mostly due to the movie's high profile. And yes, that's my sister as Markl. When I realised that I had still some time left, I decided to sew her a Markl cosplay. It took only one day but I really like the outcome. ↓ 1st row: Stage pictures (taken by Ryu-Phil (1); moma (2&3)). ↓ 2nd row: Con pictures (taken by Eva (1-3) and Franky (4))

WCS
This year's WCS prelims were a bit different than the last years'. Usually, the teams simply submitted their applications a few weeks before the con, but because more and more teams wanted to participate each year, leaving the organisers flodded with applications, they changed the whole procedure and decided to hold a pre-prelim of sorts, an interview. Before that, all applicants were asked to submit pictures of their costumes and themselves and to answer some questions ("When did you start cosplaying?", "What part of your costume do you like most?", "Have you ever been feautured in a magazine?" yaddayaddayadda). This is where things didn't go they way the organisers expected it: Apparently a lot of people couldn't be bothered to fill out the application from or to show up at the pre-prelim, so instead of the expected 50-60 teams, there were only 21 and the organisers decided to drop the interview, seeing no need to further reduce the numbers. I read a lot about how people (read: contestants in the prelims) were mad about all the fuss with the portfolios and the interview, but if you asked me, I'm glad they changed the procedure this year. If people are too lazy to invest some time and effort into the application, how'd you know they will manage to properly finish their costumes and send in all the necessary materials if they actually made it through the prelims and became Team Germany? If the new, more complex procedure resulted in fewer spontaneous and half-assed applications, then it's serving its purpose.

Our team got number 11, if I recall correctly, so we were pretty much in the middle of the stage show. Knowing that we wouldn't have much time to rehearse together (because we're living in two different cities), we had decided on a more simplistic skit in which we wanted to retell the story of "Howl's Moving Castle".
Turns out that was a good decision, because -boy- there went so much wrong on stage fo most teams. Sure, there's always a cosplayer who trips, forgets his or her lines (or choreography) or loses some part of the costume, but this year there was something really strange going on; multiple teams had major wig/costume/prop problems on stage.
We (rather: I... again) messed up some things as well. Right at the beginning, when Maddi went on stage, she accidentally dropped her red scarf. That red scarf, it seems, had been a some kind of sign stimulus for me, because now that it was missing, I not only missed my cue to show up on stage, but I also forgot to take off Sophies braid later on (which was supposed to show her transformation from old to young) and just stood there for awfully long 5 seconds. My feather coat got tangled up so it took me ages to put it on. Then, Maddi tripped as she was chasing Howl and nearly sprained her ankle.
All these mistakes, however, went completely unnoticed by the audience, so the applause we got was quite overwhelming.

Here's the video (taken by therealbigmek):



(the first half is our skit, the second half is the team after us.)

I originally planned to use the video Eva took (better colours and focus) and even to put in subtitles, but apparently my computer is too old to handle HD videos...

Back then, I thought we did great; watching the video again right now, I'd say we were pretty mediocre and simply benefited from the movie's popularity. Nevertheless, I like our performance. After the show quite a few people came up to us saying we made them want to re-watch the movie or that they even teared up a little. It seems like people who liked the movie also liked our skit, which is what I was hoping for, so I'm pretty pleased with myself.
We didn't get into the top 3, of course, not with the skit and costumes simple like that. I'd have loved to know how high we scored, however, but we were told that the judges didn't award points and only appointed the three best teams (if not by scores, then by gut instinct?). That fact made me rage a little inside, because that means they didn't have any scoring tables to begin with, which is unacceptably unprofessional in my opinion.
I was very happy for the team that got 3rd place, because their skit was really inventive and their costumes good.
The team that got 2nd place had the most gogreous costumes, but personally I didn't like their performance, because it was a lot of talking and lame fighting.
The team that won... was a surprise. They'd shown a very funny skit. Their humour wasn't my cup of tea and their costumes (Ranma 1/2) were also more on the simple side, but the audience LOVED them. They differ greatly from the former German teams, so I'm genuinely curious as to how they might change the always drama-heavy German prelims and the finals in Japan.


To sum up my Connichi 2011 experience:

+ cosplaying with Maddi & my sister ♥ ♥
+ Eva
+ Awesome cosplays: Feder as Harley Quinn & Nina as Skull Kid
+ meeting Whitebutterfly & Blackbutterfly and actually find some time to chat♥
+ MTV Game Awards emeriti (XD) meet-up
+ shiny, new dealer's room (although I hardly bought anything)
+ foreign convention panel on Friday
+ nice weather (except for Sunday)

- people leaving their garbage behind at the park (again)
- missed Aigue-Marine's Calla cosplay on Sunday
- didn't take any pictures... at all
- no pictures from MissKrone... at all

Oh, there's one more thing I have to share with you ↓



Yup, that's Eva dubbing her keychain Elmo at Connichi Sunday. This masterpiece had us gigglesnorting the whole train ride back to Berlin.





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--insert weeks of working, studying and sewing--

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The con
To make things short: Mega Manga Con was propably my best con this year. I met lots of people, took beautiful pictures, we had great weather and overall
the con had a very nice stress free atmosphere. This was, however, not due to the con itself. No, the con was horrible. Ill-informed helpers; inexplicable, spontaneous
staff decisions; missing informations and so on. Seriously, it's been a long time since I attended a con this poorly organised.
It's solely thanks to some wonderful people and the great weather that MMC turned out to be such a great experience this year.

The costumes
See above.
As I said before, I didn't have much time, so I only sewed new costumes for Saturday: Kongiku and Yuzuruha from Muramasa: Demon Blade

	Friday - Howl Jenkins (Howl's Moving Castle) Maddi and I had originally planned to wear our Majokko costumes again, but the cold weather made us rethink that decision. Wearing our Howl's Moving Castle costumes instead was great: We finally managed to take a few more pictures, were well-equipped against the cold and the comfy costumes proved perfect for a relaxing first con day. Maddi as Sophie, myself as Howl. Pictures taken by ourselves, edited by me
	Saturday - Yuzuruha & Kongiku (Muramasa - The Demon Blade) These two fox girls were already on my list for last year's Animaco, but due to little time I dropped the project, because I didn't want the costumes to be rushed. This year, I wanted this cosplay no matter what. Some kimono sewing experience from my Yuuko cosplay came in handy, but in the end big parts of the costumes were still done via trial and error, especially the ears and my wig. Speaking of which: I spent three nights trying three times to style my wig and was about to give up when suddenly my sister discovered some hidden wig styling qualities. The hair loopies aren't exactly flattering on me, but I still love the outcome. I'm also very pleased with my fabric choices. I used satin for the kimonos (turned inside out and fully lined) and tafetta for the obis and underskirts. The ears and my tail are made out of fake fur, coloured with copic markers; I like the fluffy little monsters. If I might say so myself: I think my sister and I looked great together (even though neither of us felt as sexy as we were supposed to be) and my day was perfect, when Amapola agreed to take some pictures at twilight. My sister as Yuzuruha (green), myself as Kongiku (orange). ↓ First row taken by Amapola. ↓ Second row taken by ourselves, edited by me.
	Sunday - Terra (Final Fantasy VI) Despite the cold weather, we decided to wear our Final Fantasy VI costume again, because we thought the autumn foliage would make a nice setting for the colourful costumes - which it did. This time around, I didn't feel as uncomfortable next to Maddi and my sister as at Connichi, propably because I was busy shivering. All the freezing paid off, though, because both MissKrone and Franky took some great pictures of our group. ↓1st row: pictures taken by Franky. ↓2nd row: pictures taken by MissKrone.

To sum up my Mega Manga Con 2011 experience:

+ cosplaying with Maddi & my sister ♥ ♥
+ Chatting and meeting a lot of people
+ cold but sunny weather
+ stressless
+ awesome photo shoot at twilight
+ made a bargain at the dealers' room

- lousy management
- aggressive kids at the con site
- ugly con site
- no Eva

I'd love to write an entry covering all my cosplays this year and my plans for next year, but work and uni propably won't allow it.
If you'd still like to see some WIP pictures, new pictures and some tidbits of my private life, have a look at my tumblr: Picture this