イベントレポ : Connichi 2012

Hello everyone! Those of you who followed my previous LJ blog know that my con reports are always terribly late. And who am I to break this tradition? So, with a three-week delay, here's my report on this year's Connichi in Kassel.

This year's Connichi was different in a lot of ways:
For one thing, we didn't get to stay at our usual hotel close to the convention site, because they had -much to our ... dismay- cancelled our reservation due to construction works. Let me tell you that getting an affordable room in Kassel for the Connichi weekend isn't an easy task - not even when you search as early as January, which is eight months in advance. Luckily, our friend Sarah managed to find a nice guesthouse which was quite cheap and big enough for the five of us. The catch: It was very far from the convention site and almost impossible to reach by public transport. So this year, for the first time, we went to Kassel by car. It's a 5 hour trip from where I live and quite exhausting (even though I only served as co-driver for my sister), but it went considerably well. The road network in Kassel is pretty insane, though. The crossroads and roundabouts are huge and confusing and caused quite some frustration. The guesthouse was really, really nice. Very spacious, nice kitchen (only one bathroom, though), comfortable beds. If everything works out well, we'll propably be there again next year. After all, our hotel is already fully booked, anyway. Yes: 12 months in advance.
Another difference to the prevoius years was that Maddi and I had decided not to take part in the German World Cosplay Summit preliminaries. I can only speak for myself, but it didn't regret that decision for even one second. Apart from all the money and time we saved before the con, it was also wonderful to be able to really appreciate the con itself without having to worry about meetings with the organisers, additional rehearsals and all the emotional stress that comes with taking part in a competition. Even though a lot of people came up to Maddi and me expressing their dissapointment over our not entering I don't think I will take part in the WCS prelims ever again. This year made me realise that I'm not much of a competitive cosplayer anyway and I much more enjoy watching other people's skits than to worry about mine.


Thanks to these changes, Connichi 2012 was a very unique experience for me. Never had I had so much time to chat with other cosplayers, never had I enjoyed a con so much.

That's for the general valuation, let's proceed to the costumes and some more in-depth information about each con day.

My costume lineup shouldn't be a surprise, I already announced it in my previous post.

Friday

	Margaret (Persona 4) Friday is usually the shortest con day, so I decided to rewear my Margaret costume. I had made this (and my sister's) costume back in March. For more information, see my report on Leipzig Bookfair. We had originally planned to come together again as our Velvet Room group, but René couldn't make it, so it was just my sister and me. It was nice to wear this costume once more, since I really want to sell it but couldn't say "good bye" just yet.  Pictures below taken by evaYabai (1), Gildartz (2) and Maddi (3&4, edited by me) My sister Patapata as Elizabeth and myself as Margaret.
As expected, Friday was really short. We didn't get to the convention site until 4:30pm, but we didn't have any plans for that day, anyway, so we just checked the dealer's room (lots of plush alpacas and Nekomimis this year), chatted with other cosplayers and did some grocery shopping. Saturday
	Saturday - Wonder Woman (Odyssey) I was so nervous to debut this costume on Connichi. First, because I'd be wearing a comic costume on a manga/anime con, second, because propably noone would recognise me (the Odyssey arc never got published in Germany, afaik). Wonder Woman turned out to be really popular with the photographers and congoers, though, which made me really happy. I'm also really glad that, contrary to my expections, my armour parts didn't fall apart and the costume survived the day nearly unblemished. I've never had a costume that included that much craft foam armour, so I had been quite worried. For more information read my WIP post. Pictures in the 1st row pictures taken by Andy K., 2nd row by Niklas Liebig, 3rd  row by EvaYabai.  Picture No. 10 taken by Rose, picture no.11 taken by En-Ki.
Saturday was a blast. And hot. But awesome. I was expecting to feel (and be treated) like a "commoner" with my leather jacket and pants, but quite a lot of people recognised me as Diana. One women in her late 50ies (I guess) came up to me telling me that she grew up watching the TV series and requested to take a couple of pictures with me in which she posed like a sidekick. I also managed to have some longer  conversations with Aigue-Marine, who wore her beautiful Daenerys costume that day and later changed to her Wonder Girl cosplay, in which she took some pictures together with me (for most of wich I am still eagerly waiting). Speaking of pictures: I was very lucky to have had the opportunity to have mini photoshoots of sorts with Andy K, Niklas Liebig, EvaYabai, Rose and En-Ki, who each took breathtakingly beautiful pictures of my cosplay. I was told that the red fabric I used for my top looks great in pictures, because it kind of reflects the light in an very interesting way. The more you know! The only drawback that day (next to the sun unceasingly beating down on my leather jacket ) was that we didn't get to see Yaya Han's panel, because it was full. I wasn't so much interested in the panel itself; But I'd have liked to see her in person at least once. But then again, I'm not too sad about that, either, because it was during that panel that I had 3 of the above mentioned mini photoshoots. Sunday
	Frog Queen (original design) I was quite surprised how many people recognised me as the frog prince (given, the golden ball might've been a good hint). I was kind of shocked, though, how little people know the actual story and were talking about kisses and stuff when there isn't even a single kiss in the original fairytale. That's German cultural heritage! General knowledge! It made my fairytale loving self kind of sad. My sister had agreed to be my princess, but because I didn't have much time, I simply altered my old Euphemia cosplay from 2008 instead of sewing a new costume. She had to change back quickly, though, so we hardly took any pictures together. For more information on this costume read my WIP post. ↓ 1st row pictures taken by Des-Henkers-Braut ↓ 2nd row pictures taken by EvaYabai (1&2) and myself (3)
As usual, Sunday was quite short as well, because we spent a lot of time in the main hall to watch the WCS prelims. My feet were thankful, though. It certainly wasn't the brightest idea to wear high heels three days in a row. It felt kind of strange to experience the prelims solely as part of the audience, but we highly enjoyed the show. The Rainbow Riders (Team Germany 2012) acted as anchors and they were hilarious. Seriously, those girls have a tremendous talent for comedy! The overall quality of the skits was a bit lower than in previous years. About half of the skits was very, very entertaining and inventive, the other half, however... wasn't. In the end, Cherry Sky won with an incredibly well choreographed, action packed skit to Kamikaze Kaitô Jeanne. They were among my favourites, as well, and I think they'll make a good Team Germany 2013. After the prelims, we spent some time in the nearby park, where I got to take some pictures with my dearly missed Krone, with whom I hardly get to take pictures anymore since she moved away. Eva took some really nice pictures, as well. The day went by really quickly, but I'm happy I got the chance to talk to some cosplayers I'd only known online before, such as Salyu. I also (very briefly) met Sumikins and Rynn (Team USA 2010), who were incredibly nice. I'm so sad I missed them on the other days, because their craftsmanship is truly superb and I would've loved to see them in costume. We watched the closing ceremony, changed back and drove back home, where we arrived around 11pm, completely exhausted - in a good way.

That was my Connichi 2012 experience. I'm already looking forward to next year!


Con season in Germany is slowly coming to an end. There's only one convention left I'll attend: AniMaCo in Berlin, my local con. This is my lineup:

Friday: Frog Queen (Original)	Saturday:  Fionna (Adventure Time)	Sunday: Azusa Miura (The Idolm@ster)

I also had two photoshoots (Persona and Idolm@ster), which I'll cover in another post. Bye!


PS: I just read through this post (spell-checking etc.) and felt it was horribly unpersonal and flat. So here are some outtakes. Yes, serious business, indeed:






Am I pretty yet?