Extremely Belated Con Reviews

I went for all three days of this con in May. I wore Haruhi Fujioka on Friday, Lloyd Irving on Saturday and a half-finished Martel Yggdrasill on Sunday. Crystaldemy9 was my wonderful Mithos on Saturday and I met with a lot of friends and talked to a lot of new people.

Friday was mostly meeting people and chilling. It wasn't a busy day inside the hall and a lot of stuff was looked at and conversations had.

On Saturday, I went to the Tales panel, although Crystaldemy9 and I were late to it and couldn't participate in the contest to win the PS3 and lunch with Hideo Baba. Still, we weren't too disappointed on account of the fact that the moment we stepped into the hall, Hideo Baba stopped what he was doing, pointed and waved at us, having recognised our cosplays. We then went to his signing, met and talked to him. Whereupon a gaggle of Tales cosplayers formed just by his stand and just sort of... stayed there, attracting more and more people until a Namco Bandai official came to talk to us.

I remember thinking we were about to be moved on for blocking the Xillia demos. But no. Hideo Baba had sent this person to ask us if we would mind hanging around a bit longer until the end of the signing so that he could get a photo with us.

On Sunday, I went with my boyfriend to get his copy of Tales of the Abyss signed and so spoke with Hideo Baba yet again. Although the day was again spent meeting and lolling around with friends while looking at some brilliant stuff.

You might be thinking, there was a lot of Tales in that weekend. Well yes, there was and I thought that would be a once in a lifetime experience, meeting Hideo Baba, seeing so much Tales. That's why I haven't focussed on much else for what was actually a pretty packed con.

But I was wrong because:

My wonderful boyfriend took us both to Japan Expo, which he later announced was for my birthday. The biggest convention in Europe was an absolutely amazing experience. I met so many brilliant people from all different countries. You know who you are. It was really great to spent time with you all.

I arrived at the con on Thursday, when I'd planned to enter the Tales of Ambassador Contest with a friend. I wore a finished Martel Yggdrasill cosplay and I performed a skit on stage for the very first time. It didn't go amazingly up there, but I'm very glad I did it because it was a great experience to have. And once again, I met some brilliant people and saw some perfect cosplays and skits backstage. I can't emphasise enough how much fun this day was. Backstage we were visited by the judges, who included Katsuyuki Konishi and Hideo Baba. And I may have had a conversation with Mutsumi Inomata, one of the Tales character Designers, in which I praised the character designs without actually knowing that this was who I was talking to until afterwards.

The days have all blurred into one from here on out. But I know that much melon bread was eaten, many things bought, and a lot seen and done. I went to certain talks. And saw Katsuyuki Konishi (VA for Lloyd Irving) dub a scene of the ToS: OVA. And I was also standing in the crowd (and maybe shrieking a little) when ToX2 was announced as well as the dual audio on ToS Chronicles.

I won't keep rambling on about details - there was SO much to see. There were huge models of things, like Alphonse Elric, and walls covered in animation stills from Puella Magi Madoka Magica. You name it, it was there, pretty much. I will just say a final shout out to the lovely German and French people I met and spent time with. You guys made the con so much better.

Short review for this! Alcon is one of those conventions that focuses more on chilling and hanging out with people. There is a gigantic slide nearby and a lot of fun was had on that playground, both late a night when the children were gone and again in the day.

I didn't cosplay Thursday, just met people I hadn't seen in a long while and enjoyed food and the entertainments of the night.

Friday was Yuan day. I wore Yuan for the penultimate time and had a photoshoot with friends, who were all cosplaying different series, but for my boyfriend, who wore his in-progress Kratos cosplay that we spent the morning attempting to rescue the wig for. Photos were taken, panels attended and food eaten. Much derping was done.

Saturday was Lloyd Irving day and saw yet more derping, panels and photos, although I had lost my suspenders (braces) so I hadn't planned on getting any. The best thing probably to happen on this day was that I was chatting to a person on the door outside the panel and somebody leaned over and said something like, "Great Lloyd cosplay - I really love your wig. Lloyd is my favourite Symphonia character."

It was Twinfools, one of my cosplay idols. The guy who got me into wig styling. I don't think I've recovered from the feelings that came with that moment. My convention was made.

Sunday was predominantly panels, dealers hall, meeting people and yet more derping as Haruhi Fujioka this time.

And now this very long, rambling and probably boring account of my summer is completed.