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Time for my ACen con report!
It started on Thursday afternoon, when Sarah picked me and Kala up and took us to the hotel. In all the years that I've been going to cons, I'd never gotten to the convention the night before it started. It was kind of nice though. We got there before everything got really crowded. It also gave us a bit of time to get to know the people staying in our room. We ended up with about eleven people in our room and I only knew four of them previously. The people in our room ranged from ages 16-26. Luckily, we all ended up getting along pretty well. We spent that first night hanging around our hotel room, chatting about J-rock and K-pop, and listening to K-pop (as we did for most of the weekend) while Jade did make-up for some of the girls. (This led to Jen getting her nickname Glitter because of how enthralled she was with her glitter make-up.) There were also some pretty interesting/amusing conversations because half of the girls were already sleep deprived from their drive up to the con.
Kala with the ever popular Mr. Fishykins. No, seriously. She'd be carrying him around for her Seyshelles cosplay and people would compliment her fish and ask where she got it.
Glitter and Loki hanging in the hotel room.
We all got up fairly early on Friday morning. I think the first half hour of the morning (before we could actually bring ourselves to start functioning) was spent watching Sarah hot glue the sandals for her Iruka cosplay to her feet, lol. When she was done I felt much more awake and put on my Kuranosuke cosplay. Then, Jade did my make-up and helped me put on my fake eyelashes. After Kala finished putting on her Seychelles cosplay, we went down and browsed the Artist's Alley/Dealer's Room. I was surprised at the amount of recognition that my cosplay got! It wasn't an insane amount, but it was more than I was expecting. I wasn't sure how many people would know who I was (cause Kuragehime isn't the most well known series), so I was surprised when I got even a little bit of recognition. When people kept recognizing me throughout the weekend it made me pretty happy. And since I didn't have a very common cosplay, the people who did recognize me tended to be pretty excited. It was nice~
My Kuranosuke cosplay! Cosplaying a reverse trap (a girl cosplaying a guy who crossdresses) is quite fun.
Kala was a cute Seychelles!
Goofing around with Sarah (Iruka) in the hotel room.
Found this posted on the wall of the convention center. XD
Takuto and Setzer. I took this pic for Greta because she loves Takuto. :)
Ran into an adorable Firo cosplayer! She even talked with a New York accent. She gave Kala and I each a domino because we recognized her! So much Baccano love~
Cute Pandora Hearts cosplayers.
An awesome Scott Pilgrim group.
NYAN CAT~
Nicole, Zury, and Emilia arrived at the con Friday afternoon. I helped Nicole put on her Tsukimi cosplay so that we could walk around together. She was so cute! And she even found a booth in the Artist's Alley that was selling crocheted jellyfish (though they didn't have a pink one), so she bought one.
Kuranosuke & Tsukimi~
With Nicole's new jellyfish (that we named Tequila).
The only Wy cosplayer around.
Me and a really tall Fujimoto cosplayer! We both saw each other at the same time and asked for each other's photo. Fujimoto thought we should take the pic together.
We bothered Emilia a bit as she was doing her job handing out flyers for a new con. She was really pretty as Mima from Perfect Blue.
Emilia then pointed Nicole and I towards The Enthusiasts photobooth when we said that we should get some nice pics taken of our cosplay. The Enthusiasts do free photoshoots and you then have the option to purchase photos if you wish, so Nicole and I signed up for a photoshoot time. We wandered around for a bit until it was our turn for photos. I think the photos turned out pretty cute!
That night we met up with Emilia because she was done with work for the day. We decided to go to the late night Hetalia panel. It was somewhat similar to Hetalia panels I've been to before in that the audience could ask the panel of nations questions. It was funny, but some of the jokes got old pretty fast. I did enjoy the Prussia that was hosting the panel though. Prussia's character was spot on, while some of the other countries could have used a bit of work. England was pretty in character as well. The countries then staged a mock U.N. meeting, where the audience was allowed to place their votes too, which is something that I've yet to see another Hetalia panel do. After the Hetalia panel we were pretty tired, so we decided to turn in for the night.
Saturday was a big day at the con! We were already pretty sleep deprived from Thursday night, so we slept late and got a bit of a late start Saturday morning. I put my Kuranosuke cosplay back on and spent forever fiddling with my fake eyelashes and make-up before I was ready to go. Kala dressed up as Wy from Hetalia. (Wy's so obscure, I think one person recognized her the whole con.) Then, Sarah, Kala, and I ended up at the Sixh./h.NAOTO fashion show. I love h.NAOTO's clothing, so it was pretty cool to see the fashion show. The first part of the show was the Sixh. fashion show (their label is under h.NAOTO), with IBI and MINT's clothing. IBI and MINT also modeled in the show, too. God, IBI is so attractive. Then, the h.NAOTO show started. It was a bit different in that it had a slow, creepy feel, with ambient industrial background music. It was pretty cool. We cut out of the fashion show a bit early though to get good seats for Yoshiki's radio show!
My only semi-decent shot of the fashion show. Sadly, my pics of IBI and MINT were blurry.
Saturday at the con can really only be described as Yoshiki Day! That afternoon everything I did was Yoshiki related. (For those of you who may not know, Yoshiki is the drummer for the J-rock band X Japan, the band who pretty much started the rock and visual kei scene in Japan.) Sarah, Kala, and I first went to the live recording of Yoshiki's first radio show. SiriusXM Radio has given Yoshiki his own English radio show. He recorded the first episode at ACen and our group was at the first table, front and center for the whole thing! Before the radio show began, the camera crew interviewed our table. During the interview, I was an interpreter for a girl cosplaying Mana (because Mana only whispers his answers to people because he doesn't want to break the female illusion with his male voice) lol. The show got started a little late, but I feel that can only be expected with Yoshiki. They played X music while we were waiting and I chatted with the other fans at the table. Then it was finally time for the show! Yoshiki showed up and it was awesome! He sounds adorably shy when he speaks in English, which I think is because he's slightly uncertain about his English though his English is actually pretty good. He seemed slightly uncertain about what to talk about at times, so he would turn to us fans and ask what we wanted him to talk about which is how we got him to talk about things like SKIN and his new comic book with Stan Lee. Yoshiki also had three guests on his radio show, h.NAOTO and two other American voice actors who's names I've forgotten (because I didn't care that much about them ^_^;). Yoshiki also acted as a translator during his interview with h.NAOTO, where they talked about the fashion show they had both put together at the Tokyo Dome last fall. I enjoyed listening to Yoshiki's show! It's actually going to be broadcasted tonight, so I'd like to tune in and hear what the finished version sounds like.
It's Yoshiki!
Yoshiki interviews h.NAOTO.
After the radio show, it was straight to the Yoshiki Q&A panel. They pumped us up first by showing video of recent X Japan concerts. Then they brought out Yoshiki. They talked about what Yoshiki was currently doing (like writing the theme song for the new Hello Kitty series lol) and showed us some video of the recent concert/fashion show that he helped create. Then Yoshiki wanted to answer our questions, so some lucky fans got to ask him questions. I think my favorite part was how when asked about X's image he talked about how when X first started, taxis wouldn't pick him up because of his outrageous hair. I also thought it was amusing how when people reminded him of his current and past projects he would be like "Oh, I did do that. I forgot," lol. It sounds like he's got so much stuff going on that he forgets what he's got going on. They then played us a video about Yoshiki's charity, The Yoshiki Foundation, and it's charitable efforts, including it's efforts during the recent disaster in Japan. I almost started crying, like I usually do when I see images of the disaster in Japan. Sarah was getting teary, too. After that, Yoshiki talked a bit about how important charity work was to him. Then they wrapped up the panel and it was time for the autograph session!
They made us walk all the way from the convention center to the back of the Dealer's Room for the autograph session. It must have been an amusing scene, all these X fans racing our way through the Dealer's Room to get in line. But we did finally get in line and we actually weren't too far back in line. We waited for a bit and then Yoshiki showed up and the signing began. He actually had to do all of the signing with his left hand, as opposed to this right hand, which was in a brace because he had hurt it by playing piano too much. He still signed a decent number of autographs. I was pretty nervous when in was my turn, but I did manage to tell Yoshiki that it was great to meet him and I think I remember him saying that it was good to meet me too, but the experience is a bit of a blur. He signed my X Japan tote bag (that I had bought specifically with the intention of him signing it), I thanked him and then I was on my way. I can't believe that I met Yoshiki! Kala and I then crowded together with Sarah, while she showed us that Yoshiki had signed he con badge on the emergency contact line. XD
Proof that I met Yoshiki! Even though you can't see my face. XD
By the time all of that excitement was over, it was almost time for dinner. We were back in the Dealer's Room, waiting to find Emilia, when 6 PM hit. All of the sudden a huge cheer when up from the middle of the Dealer's Room and balloons flew up to the ceiling. I realized they were celebrating the fact that we didn't get raptured, lol. (The impending rapture was a running joke the whole con. Afterwards we kept joking that we wouldn't even be able to tell if the rapture did happen because it wasn't like anyone at the con would have been saved anyways!) After that, we found Emilia and then Emilia and I briefly met up with our friend Mike (a Sebastian cosplayer who we met at ACross last year). We chatted with him for a short while and then us girls needed to go grab dinner. We went back to our room to eat and then met up with Kala's boyfriend to go to the Oregon Trail panel. The Oregon Trail panel was funny and quite inappropriate. Four people were picked from the audience to travel the trail and were given random inappropriate nicknames. We then played through the actual Oregon Trail computer game. The travelers had to complete certain tasks, like playing QWOP and answering anime trivia, at certain intervals in order to be allowed to hunt and select how to cross the rivers. If they gave incorrect answers the audience got to choose what they would do. We would always inevitably chose to ford the river and kill off one of the travelers. The travelers would also have to make up stories about how they got certain ailments and died, which tended to be amusing. We cut out of the panel a bit early in favor of meeting Nicole back at the hotel and chlling out in the lobby though. We ended up meeting up with Rachel, who we had met at last year's ACen and talking with her for a while. When people started getting tired I left the group with the intention of going to bed, but found myself on the other side of the lobby, talking J-rock with some of the girls from our room. It was nice to actually have people to talk J-rock with at this con, cause most of my friends tend to just be into anime and manga. Then, I decided it was bedtime because we needed to be out of the room early next morning.
Tiny Sailor Moon cosplayer!
Squalo and Xanxus. This Squalo was really excited to see my Kuranosuke cosplay and it made me happy!
Tieria and Lockon
FOREVER ALONEEE
She'll shank you with that umbrella.
A shot to show just how long the back of my wig is.
Mrs. Nesbit!
Rachel and her friend as Yami & Yugi
Sunday was pretty chill. I decided not to cosplay because we were packing everything up so early. We checked out of our hotel room by 9 AM because the Hyatt had a contest where if you checked out by 9 AM there was a chance that they would pay for your hotel room. We didn't win, but it was worth a shot. At that point most of us said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. I stayed with Emilia, Nicole, Zury, and Kala. Emilia was driving us all back. We spent the morning making last minute purchases in the Dealer's Room and picking up commissions. I swung by the h.NAOTO booth one more time to drool over the clothing (that I couldn't afford) and IBI (cause IBI and MINT were working the booth with h.NAOTO). I was browsing the clothes when the female translator came up to me and said that if I wanted h.NAOTO would be happy to help me put together an outfit. Then I turned around and h.NAOTO was standing behind me! I sadly told him that I loved his clothing, but I didn't have much money left for shopping. He speaks some English, so thanked me for the compliment and remarked that many people don't have money left on the last day of the convention. It was cool to talk to him! After we were done browsing, we went and basked in the lovely warm sun in the garden, while we watched some of the photoshoots going on outside. There wasn't a whole lot left to do and we were tired, so we decided to load our stuff up and leave the con.
Glitter says goodbye to Mr. Fishykins. She became quite attached to him!
We watched these adorable Princess Tutu cosplayers doing their photoshoot in the garden.
The spoils of this year's ACen. My X Japan bag that Yoshiki signed (!), a Gundam 00 print, a Howl's Moving Castle print, origami crane earrings, a picture of the Joker riding a llama (that I got for 25 cents), a Baccano print, and the domino Firo gave me.
Though it would have been awesome to have more of the DLS (my usual cosplay group) there, ACen was pretty fantastic this year! I had a great time cosplaying Kuranosuke and meeting Yoshiki. Sadly, this ACen will be my last con for a while. I'll miss going to American cons while I'm in Japan! There will always be more to go to when I get back though, so I'm not too sad.
It started on Thursday afternoon, when Sarah picked me and Kala up and took us to the hotel. In all the years that I've been going to cons, I'd never gotten to the convention the night before it started. It was kind of nice though. We got there before everything got really crowded. It also gave us a bit of time to get to know the people staying in our room. We ended up with about eleven people in our room and I only knew four of them previously. The people in our room ranged from ages 16-26. Luckily, we all ended up getting along pretty well. We spent that first night hanging around our hotel room, chatting about J-rock and K-pop, and listening to K-pop (as we did for most of the weekend) while Jade did make-up for some of the girls. (This led to Jen getting her nickname Glitter because of how enthralled she was with her glitter make-up.) There were also some pretty interesting/amusing conversations because half of the girls were already sleep deprived from their drive up to the con.
Kala with the ever popular Mr. Fishykins. No, seriously. She'd be carrying him around for her Seyshelles cosplay and people would compliment her fish and ask where she got it.
Glitter and Loki hanging in the hotel room.
We all got up fairly early on Friday morning. I think the first half hour of the morning (before we could actually bring ourselves to start functioning) was spent watching Sarah hot glue the sandals for her Iruka cosplay to her feet, lol. When she was done I felt much more awake and put on my Kuranosuke cosplay. Then, Jade did my make-up and helped me put on my fake eyelashes. After Kala finished putting on her Seychelles cosplay, we went down and browsed the Artist's Alley/Dealer's Room. I was surprised at the amount of recognition that my cosplay got! It wasn't an insane amount, but it was more than I was expecting. I wasn't sure how many people would know who I was (cause Kuragehime isn't the most well known series), so I was surprised when I got even a little bit of recognition. When people kept recognizing me throughout the weekend it made me pretty happy. And since I didn't have a very common cosplay, the people who did recognize me tended to be pretty excited. It was nice~
My Kuranosuke cosplay! Cosplaying a reverse trap (a girl cosplaying a guy who crossdresses) is quite fun.
Kala was a cute Seychelles!
Goofing around with Sarah (Iruka) in the hotel room.
Found this posted on the wall of the convention center. XD
Takuto and Setzer. I took this pic for Greta because she loves Takuto. :)
Ran into an adorable Firo cosplayer! She even talked with a New York accent. She gave Kala and I each a domino because we recognized her! So much Baccano love~
Cute Pandora Hearts cosplayers.
An awesome Scott Pilgrim group.
NYAN CAT~
Nicole, Zury, and Emilia arrived at the con Friday afternoon. I helped Nicole put on her Tsukimi cosplay so that we could walk around together. She was so cute! And she even found a booth in the Artist's Alley that was selling crocheted jellyfish (though they didn't have a pink one), so she bought one.
Kuranosuke & Tsukimi~
With Nicole's new jellyfish (that we named Tequila).
The only Wy cosplayer around.
Me and a really tall Fujimoto cosplayer! We both saw each other at the same time and asked for each other's photo. Fujimoto thought we should take the pic together.
We bothered Emilia a bit as she was doing her job handing out flyers for a new con. She was really pretty as Mima from Perfect Blue.
Emilia then pointed Nicole and I towards The Enthusiasts photobooth when we said that we should get some nice pics taken of our cosplay. The Enthusiasts do free photoshoots and you then have the option to purchase photos if you wish, so Nicole and I signed up for a photoshoot time. We wandered around for a bit until it was our turn for photos. I think the photos turned out pretty cute!
That night we met up with Emilia because she was done with work for the day. We decided to go to the late night Hetalia panel. It was somewhat similar to Hetalia panels I've been to before in that the audience could ask the panel of nations questions. It was funny, but some of the jokes got old pretty fast. I did enjoy the Prussia that was hosting the panel though. Prussia's character was spot on, while some of the other countries could have used a bit of work. England was pretty in character as well. The countries then staged a mock U.N. meeting, where the audience was allowed to place their votes too, which is something that I've yet to see another Hetalia panel do. After the Hetalia panel we were pretty tired, so we decided to turn in for the night.
Saturday was a big day at the con! We were already pretty sleep deprived from Thursday night, so we slept late and got a bit of a late start Saturday morning. I put my Kuranosuke cosplay back on and spent forever fiddling with my fake eyelashes and make-up before I was ready to go. Kala dressed up as Wy from Hetalia. (Wy's so obscure, I think one person recognized her the whole con.) Then, Sarah, Kala, and I ended up at the Sixh./h.NAOTO fashion show. I love h.NAOTO's clothing, so it was pretty cool to see the fashion show. The first part of the show was the Sixh. fashion show (their label is under h.NAOTO), with IBI and MINT's clothing. IBI and MINT also modeled in the show, too. God, IBI is so attractive. Then, the h.NAOTO show started. It was a bit different in that it had a slow, creepy feel, with ambient industrial background music. It was pretty cool. We cut out of the fashion show a bit early though to get good seats for Yoshiki's radio show!
My only semi-decent shot of the fashion show. Sadly, my pics of IBI and MINT were blurry.
Saturday at the con can really only be described as Yoshiki Day! That afternoon everything I did was Yoshiki related. (For those of you who may not know, Yoshiki is the drummer for the J-rock band X Japan, the band who pretty much started the rock and visual kei scene in Japan.) Sarah, Kala, and I first went to the live recording of Yoshiki's first radio show. SiriusXM Radio has given Yoshiki his own English radio show. He recorded the first episode at ACen and our group was at the first table, front and center for the whole thing! Before the radio show began, the camera crew interviewed our table. During the interview, I was an interpreter for a girl cosplaying Mana (because Mana only whispers his answers to people because he doesn't want to break the female illusion with his male voice) lol. The show got started a little late, but I feel that can only be expected with Yoshiki. They played X music while we were waiting and I chatted with the other fans at the table. Then it was finally time for the show! Yoshiki showed up and it was awesome! He sounds adorably shy when he speaks in English, which I think is because he's slightly uncertain about his English though his English is actually pretty good. He seemed slightly uncertain about what to talk about at times, so he would turn to us fans and ask what we wanted him to talk about which is how we got him to talk about things like SKIN and his new comic book with Stan Lee. Yoshiki also had three guests on his radio show, h.NAOTO and two other American voice actors who's names I've forgotten (because I didn't care that much about them ^_^;). Yoshiki also acted as a translator during his interview with h.NAOTO, where they talked about the fashion show they had both put together at the Tokyo Dome last fall. I enjoyed listening to Yoshiki's show! It's actually going to be broadcasted tonight, so I'd like to tune in and hear what the finished version sounds like.
It's Yoshiki!
Yoshiki interviews h.NAOTO.
After the radio show, it was straight to the Yoshiki Q&A panel. They pumped us up first by showing video of recent X Japan concerts. Then they brought out Yoshiki. They talked about what Yoshiki was currently doing (like writing the theme song for the new Hello Kitty series lol) and showed us some video of the recent concert/fashion show that he helped create. Then Yoshiki wanted to answer our questions, so some lucky fans got to ask him questions. I think my favorite part was how when asked about X's image he talked about how when X first started, taxis wouldn't pick him up because of his outrageous hair. I also thought it was amusing how when people reminded him of his current and past projects he would be like "Oh, I did do that. I forgot," lol. It sounds like he's got so much stuff going on that he forgets what he's got going on. They then played us a video about Yoshiki's charity, The Yoshiki Foundation, and it's charitable efforts, including it's efforts during the recent disaster in Japan. I almost started crying, like I usually do when I see images of the disaster in Japan. Sarah was getting teary, too. After that, Yoshiki talked a bit about how important charity work was to him. Then they wrapped up the panel and it was time for the autograph session!
They made us walk all the way from the convention center to the back of the Dealer's Room for the autograph session. It must have been an amusing scene, all these X fans racing our way through the Dealer's Room to get in line. But we did finally get in line and we actually weren't too far back in line. We waited for a bit and then Yoshiki showed up and the signing began. He actually had to do all of the signing with his left hand, as opposed to this right hand, which was in a brace because he had hurt it by playing piano too much. He still signed a decent number of autographs. I was pretty nervous when in was my turn, but I did manage to tell Yoshiki that it was great to meet him and I think I remember him saying that it was good to meet me too, but the experience is a bit of a blur. He signed my X Japan tote bag (that I had bought specifically with the intention of him signing it), I thanked him and then I was on my way. I can't believe that I met Yoshiki! Kala and I then crowded together with Sarah, while she showed us that Yoshiki had signed he con badge on the emergency contact line. XD
Proof that I met Yoshiki! Even though you can't see my face. XD
By the time all of that excitement was over, it was almost time for dinner. We were back in the Dealer's Room, waiting to find Emilia, when 6 PM hit. All of the sudden a huge cheer when up from the middle of the Dealer's Room and balloons flew up to the ceiling. I realized they were celebrating the fact that we didn't get raptured, lol. (The impending rapture was a running joke the whole con. Afterwards we kept joking that we wouldn't even be able to tell if the rapture did happen because it wasn't like anyone at the con would have been saved anyways!) After that, we found Emilia and then Emilia and I briefly met up with our friend Mike (a Sebastian cosplayer who we met at ACross last year). We chatted with him for a short while and then us girls needed to go grab dinner. We went back to our room to eat and then met up with Kala's boyfriend to go to the Oregon Trail panel. The Oregon Trail panel was funny and quite inappropriate. Four people were picked from the audience to travel the trail and were given random inappropriate nicknames. We then played through the actual Oregon Trail computer game. The travelers had to complete certain tasks, like playing QWOP and answering anime trivia, at certain intervals in order to be allowed to hunt and select how to cross the rivers. If they gave incorrect answers the audience got to choose what they would do. We would always inevitably chose to ford the river and kill off one of the travelers. The travelers would also have to make up stories about how they got certain ailments and died, which tended to be amusing. We cut out of the panel a bit early in favor of meeting Nicole back at the hotel and chlling out in the lobby though. We ended up meeting up with Rachel, who we had met at last year's ACen and talking with her for a while. When people started getting tired I left the group with the intention of going to bed, but found myself on the other side of the lobby, talking J-rock with some of the girls from our room. It was nice to actually have people to talk J-rock with at this con, cause most of my friends tend to just be into anime and manga. Then, I decided it was bedtime because we needed to be out of the room early next morning.
Tiny Sailor Moon cosplayer!
Squalo and Xanxus. This Squalo was really excited to see my Kuranosuke cosplay and it made me happy!
Tieria and Lockon
FOREVER ALONEEE
She'll shank you with that umbrella.
A shot to show just how long the back of my wig is.
Mrs. Nesbit!
Rachel and her friend as Yami & Yugi
Sunday was pretty chill. I decided not to cosplay because we were packing everything up so early. We checked out of our hotel room by 9 AM because the Hyatt had a contest where if you checked out by 9 AM there was a chance that they would pay for your hotel room. We didn't win, but it was worth a shot. At that point most of us said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. I stayed with Emilia, Nicole, Zury, and Kala. Emilia was driving us all back. We spent the morning making last minute purchases in the Dealer's Room and picking up commissions. I swung by the h.NAOTO booth one more time to drool over the clothing (that I couldn't afford) and IBI (cause IBI and MINT were working the booth with h.NAOTO). I was browsing the clothes when the female translator came up to me and said that if I wanted h.NAOTO would be happy to help me put together an outfit. Then I turned around and h.NAOTO was standing behind me! I sadly told him that I loved his clothing, but I didn't have much money left for shopping. He speaks some English, so thanked me for the compliment and remarked that many people don't have money left on the last day of the convention. It was cool to talk to him! After we were done browsing, we went and basked in the lovely warm sun in the garden, while we watched some of the photoshoots going on outside. There wasn't a whole lot left to do and we were tired, so we decided to load our stuff up and leave the con.
Glitter says goodbye to Mr. Fishykins. She became quite attached to him!
We watched these adorable Princess Tutu cosplayers doing their photoshoot in the garden.
The spoils of this year's ACen. My X Japan bag that Yoshiki signed (!), a Gundam 00 print, a Howl's Moving Castle print, origami crane earrings, a picture of the Joker riding a llama (that I got for 25 cents), a Baccano print, and the domino Firo gave me.
Though it would have been awesome to have more of the DLS (my usual cosplay group) there, ACen was pretty fantastic this year! I had a great time cosplaying Kuranosuke and meeting Yoshiki. Sadly, this ACen will be my last con for a while. I'll miss going to American cons while I'm in Japan! There will always be more to go to when I get back though, so I'm not too sad.