✰ 2011 Year-in-Review + 2012 Plans ✰
Another year gone, and another entry spent looking back at the ups, downs, and general mayhem of cosplay antics from the last 12 months. I somehow managed to do a lot in 2011, and yet at the same time, not a lot at all.
This is going to be rather long, and heavy on the videos and photos, so I’ll save your dashboards:
The 2011 Convention Overview
This year, I attended four conventions:
- Anime Matsuri - Houston, TX
- SakuraCon - Seattle, WA
- FanimeCon - San Jose, CA
- KumoriCon - Vancouver, WA
My first convention of the year was different for the first time in all my cosplaying years — During March, I attended Anime Matsuri in Houston, where Rynn and I were cosplay guests; this involved spending almost an entire day hosting panels that no one came to because they were either all in the registration line, or couldn’t find the room (the venue was a mess, to say the least, and hotel staff kept shutting the door and taking down our signs), and also judging the masquerade! That was definitley my favorite part of the weekend. Initially, we had hoped to have our first new set of costumes for the year (Ciel and Lizzie, from Kuroshitsuji) completed for this con, but in the end, we just ran out of time and energy. Instead, I brought Yui and Haku, which turned out to be just fine in the end.
After that, everything kicked into high gear — In preparation for SakuraCon in Seattle, I had one month to completley finish a new skit costume (Japan from Axis Powers Hetalia), as well as finish Ciel, make some adjustments to Mytho, and pump out a whole new costumes: Dare from Dance Central. Somehow, with much hairpulling, sleepless nights, and 5-hour-energies, I managed to pull it off (Did I mention I do all of this while working a full time job, 40-hours-per-week?). Our Hetalia skit, “Flags of Our Fathers” was planned months in advance to be our last time participating in SakuraCon’s Masquerade contest; so we pushed our boundaries a little, hoping to go out with a bang. Although we didn’t win anything in the end, the audience reaction, as well as the number of dumbfounded people who told us we “Got Cheated” (their words), was worth more to us than any dumb plaque-trophy-with-a-glass-egg-on-it. Although in the end, I had fun participating in yet another fantastic skit with my friends, and got lots of great pictures with several wonderful photographers, I have to say that the costumes themselves were not up to my expectations. But, I’ll touch more on that later!
“Flags of Our Fathers” at SakuraCon 2011
After SakuraCon, just over a month later, was Fanime. And wow, let me tell you, the triple-whammy of Matsuri-SakuraCon-Fanime was enough to have me near ready to never go to cons again. I slaved away on two MORE new costumes — Haru from The Cat Returns, and Nice Holystone from Baccano! (of which I have no pictures), both of which were made to cospay with my friend Heather <3. in addition to all of that I was working a full 40 hours per week, and also pitching in to work on our next skit!
For the first time, NOTN decided to participate in Fanime’s Masquerade! Although at one time we had been planning to do a Princess Tutu skit, our lives and schedules didn’t allow for it. So, we looked to our back-up idea, and got to work. Our Portal skit, “Insert Suject Name Here” became out baby. We spent many sleepness nights cutting out prop and set pieces, painting, drafting, the works. I was a Ninja for the first time in a skit, though the performance relied primarily on the ninjas for all of it’s visual effects. Althoguh we had some all-nighters are the con, the audience reaction was PHENOMENAL, and somehow we were still shocked and elated to get “Best Dramatic Skit” for the performance. The video of our skit went viral, being featured on lots of blogs, and even making it onto G4 TV’s “attack of the show” — Easily our most successful skit to date!
“Insert Subject Name Here” at FanimeCon 2011
Outside of the skit, however, my experience at Fanime was a disappointment compared to last year; I wasn’t able to get the Friday off from work, so while everyone enjoyed the first day of the con, I flew in Friday night. I spent half the con separated from the people I knew, and I found that going back to simplistic costumes didn’t bring me to the kind of excitement I was used to. I got to wear Mytho again, extremely excited to attend the Princess Tutu gathering, only to find most of the cosplayers in attendance to be cold, elitist, and giving me and Rynn dirty looks. Still, Portal pretty mcuh made up for that.
And finally, as May wrapped up, it was Break Time. I was so burnt out, that I told myself I wouldn’t even THINK about touching a sewing machine again until July, at the very earliest. In the end, it wound up being more like August, and I just have to say, I REALLY needed that break — I had been almost non-stop ever since WCS Preliminaries at Fanime 2010. For a while, I didn’t even miss it.
And then I watched Puella Magi Madoka Magica, and the urge was back with a vengeance. In roughly a month and a half, Kayla and I pounded out two new costumes — on my end, I cranked out Homura Akemi’s School uniform, from Puella Magi Madoka Magica, as well as School-form Mytho to go with Kayla’s Ahiru/Rue costume. In two weeks before KumoriCon, we also cranked out a new performance, which earned us ‘Best Master Skit’ in the Masquerade.
“Dance of the Crow” as KumoriCon 2011
In General, KumoriCon was extremely laid back, but best of all was when the girls and I were approached by the convention chairman about Ninja of the Night taking over KumoriCon’s recently vacated Hosting slot. We were EXTATIC.
And that was the end of the 2011 convention run. Normally, this would mean the end of con season, and a long dry spell between September, and SakuraCon in April. But, 2012 is destined to start something a little bit different!
The 2012 Convention Plans!
In 2012, I plan to attend five conventions!
- Anime Los Angeles - Los Angeles, CA - January 6-8
- SakuraCon - Seattle, WA - April 6-8
- FanimeCon - San Jose, CA - May 25-28
- KumoriCon - Vancouver, WA - September 1-3
- Connichi - Kassel, Germany - September 7-9
Unless something MAJOR comes up, I can’t see myself missing ANY of these — I have major plans/commitments for all of them. I’ve already purcahsed my flights for ALA, so if you’re going, I hope to see you there! SakuraCon will be primarily for promoting KumoriCon, and Fanime is our new skit-con. KumoriCon is going to be amazing, because this year, NOTN is going to be hosting, and we’ve got some GREAT stuff planned for openign ceremonies, panels, and the Masquerade! I think my biggest trip, however, is to Connichi in Germany. I got this idea in my head back in August, when I realized that I know enough people in Germany to justify going for a convention, and staying a while afterwards. It’s slowly grown into more and more of my international friends planning to go, so I’m REALLY looking forward to this! Once I get the details for that trip all planned out, you can be sure I’ll be making a post about it here!
The 2011 Costume Review
For those of you who weren’t keeping count, or just skipped the huge block of text above (I wouldn’t blame you), this year I completed seven new costumes!
- Ciel Phantomhive - Kuroshitsuji
- Japan - Axis Powers Hetalia
- Dare - Dance Central
- Haru - The Cat Returns
- Nice Holystone - Baccano! (not pictured - NO PHOTOS! ;_;)
- Mytho (School Form) - Princess Tutu
- Homura Akemi (School Form) - Puella Magi Madoka Magica
In addition to these, I also fixed up my Prince Mytho costume from WCS finals, and rewore that as well. I also borrowed a Canada costume from Kayla, and wore that for part of KumoriCon.
In general, I’m not very happy with the costumes I made this year. Since WCS, I seem to have hit a wall, skill-wise. I felt like everything I touched, I was screwing up on things that never gave me problems before, making ‘dumb rookie mistakes’. The craftsmanship on Ciel is something I’m very proud of, but it was so much work to put on and wear, plus it wasn’t all that flattering on me; a major disappointment. Ciel was the only costume this year that really forced me to continue with the level of craftsmanship I’d come to expect of myself. Dare was a mess, and I know how I’d do it differently now. Japan, School-Mytho, Nice, and Haru were all so simple, I feel like I short-changed myself by doing so many plain costumes, and was unable to ignore the smallest of flaws and feeling just plain awful about them. Even though I liked the characters (I wouldn’t have done it otherwise), the level of complexity in the outfits wasn’t enough for my new tastes. I love my Homura costume, and while I felt really cute in it, it’s hard for me to take too much pride in her because both her costume and Kayla’s Madoka costume were made by both of us, a complete team effort. It’s made me realize, more than ever, that I really want to move forward with doing more beautiful, elaborate pieces, not just to be flashier, but because it’s more challenging, and it’s something I can really be proud of.
And finally, the 2012 Costume Plans!
In 2012, I plan to make/debut eight new costumes!
- Homura Akemi (Magical Girl) - Puella Magi Madoka Magica
- Maka Albarn - Soul Eater
- Garnet til Alexandros (Dagger) - Final Fantasy IX
- Elizabeth Midford - Kuroshitsuji
- Velvet of Valentine - Odin Sphere
- Rue (Fire Festival) - Princess Tutu
- King - King of Fighters
- Yuki Nagato - The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
One or two of these may or may not happen, but I’m not telling you which ones ^_~ Depending on time, I may squeeze in some others, too, but no promises. I’m really excited for all of these projects, and hoping that 2012 will be the key to breaking me out of this skill-blocked funk.
