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AniZona 2: Con report!
Okay, first of all? I feel that I can sum up this whole past weekend with three words:
BEST. CONVENTION. EVER.
But you'll probably want to hear a few more than that. And so...
I was able to leave fairly early and arrive before anyone else from the group, thanks to having only a couple of short early morning classes on Friday. The trick there, though, was that it was the rest of the group who had reserved the room. XD; My mom was kind enough to sit there with all my luggage and assorted supplies while I got my badge and looked for people I knew. Found Kaity (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
keichisfuuma) first, as it happened. ... One nice thing about going to conventions with her is that it's kind of hard to lose her. She is TALL AND OBVIOUS. XD I also ran into my friend Cira from Japanese class, which was a nice surprise. :D
Friday, being the first day of con and all, was mostly the run-around-like-headless-chickens day. The FF7 cosplay gathering was on that day, so I found myself throwing Zax on at the last minute to participate, and that took up most of my afternoon. The group art table got set up at some point, and Catch You was on sale in my absence, but by the time I had gotten back out of Zax and gotten to the table, those tending it were packing up. Buuuuu. I did sell three copies while they had it up, though! Two of them were for outrageously low prices, though, as I had forgotten to tell Kaity what to charge. Um, oops. XD;;;
The biggest highlight of Friday (and Saturday, but we'll get to that), for me, was the cosplayers. Thanks to the imminent release of Advent Children, AniZona was an FF7tastic con. Among others, I counted at least three Clouds, three Sephiroths, three Aeriths, two Yuffies, two Tifas, three Renos, AND A ZAX. Words don't express the glee I felt at not being the only Zax cosplayer. It's always good to find out I'm not the only one who likes him. XD (Zax fandom is a sad and lonely place sometimes.) He was there with one of the Aeriths, too, which just made their cosplay a bajillion times better. I felt a little bad for staring at them so much, but there was something about a cute cosplay duo dressed up as my OTP that made it a little hard not to. XD
assassins_inc are totally awesome. Dan is the best Reno I've ever seen, and Jacqueline is an equally awesome Elena. Their Mousse and Shampoo costumes were pretty badass too (and it's nice to find out it was them. When I saw Mousse, I kept staring at him and trying to figure out where I'd seen that face before XD). And the Mushrooms! LOVE the Mushrooms.
In sadder news, my Zax costume is about to fall apart on me. I had to escape from it after the photoshoot because the armor wouldn't stay on and the remaining thong on my belt was threatening to snap. So after Friday afternoon, I spent the rest of the con in normal clothes. This is officially the least time I've ever spent cosplaying. Oh, well - maybe this'll finally give me the incentive I need to redo the trouble spots. I think I need to beg somebody for shoe help, too. I demand accurate SOLDIER boots.
The con suite was several shades of AMAZING. It was great last year too, but this year, holy crap. It was sponsored by DarkCon, and they went all out. CHOCOLATE FONDUE FOUNTAIN. AND LIKE EIGHT KINDS OF CAKE. Much with the REAL FOOD.
The late-night raves on Friday and Saturday were amazing. I like con raves - I'm not usually much for dancing, but there's a real lure about the idea of dancing in the dark with glowsticks and a bunch of friends and other fellow anime fans. Plus, cosplayers raving. (Zax and Cloud are awesome ravers. Cloud was wearing multiple glowstick necklaces and bracelets and a sparkly LED raver pacifier thing. I think he was holding glowsticks too. Zax didn't have quite so much glowstick bling, but was still awesome.) I ended up joining a circle of people tossing around a glow-necklace ball, which was a ton of fun. The only downside was that the room was not all that big, so with all those fans packed in and dancing energetically to techno music, you could just about drink the air.)
On Saturday, I was pretty much left to my own devices with the group art table, as pretty much everyone else in the group was in the Masquerade. This put me in the unique and somewhat uncomfortable position of trying to manage three people's art on one tiny round table. I managed to ninja it, but it was still weird having to keep telling people that only one-third of the art on the table was mine. I didn't manage to sell any of Kaity's art, which I was kind of sad about. (At least Whitney's stuff wasn't for sale to begin with, or I'd have felt really bad. XD) Catch You sold surprisingly well, though! I sold eight copies on Saturday, four of them to FF7 cosplayers. It totally made my day to sell Zax/Aerith fluff to Sephiroth. XD The real unending squee, though, was when the Zax and Aerith cosplayers came by and bought a copy each. 8D
Working the art table was actually a lot more fun than I expected. I've been resisting the idea for years because I thought it would be a huge bore, but no! I got to see pretty much everyone in the con pass by my table, and I got to actually chat with the other artists near my table. Plus, I got to just sit there and draw and play with colored pencils. Obviously I need to work with the Prismas more often, because while in a general sense I don't like finishing things in real media, colored pencils really work for me. ♥ I got to do two commissions while I was there, too. I will definitely be spending at least a day or two of all upcoming cons behind an art table. It's a blast.
It also put me in a good position to see a bunch of Random Con Insanity. There was a lovely crossplay Sephiroth pushing around AC!Rufus in a wheelchair, which was awesome. And utterly hilarious when, later, they came by again with Rufus pushing Sephiroth. XD Then there was Aerith running by to escape a random 'thug', with Zax in hot pursuit. XD I love con insanity, I really do.
The Masquerade was really impressive this year! The costumes were all pretty awesome, and the skits were great. It seems unfair that Annie/Kaity/Adrienne/Whitney/Lauren didn't win anything at all, though. Annie sewed all those costumes and they were absolutely amazing. They deserved something, even if only a craftsmanship award.
There is no disputing that Heather and her mom deserved that Best Performance, though. We all need to conspire to make Heather sing more.
I missed the yaoi panel on Saturday night in favor of eating dinner with the rest of the group and then going to the rave with Whitney. In all honesty, though, I think I probably had more fun at dinner and the rave than I would have at the panel. I don't get to see my RL friends often enough, and it was great spending time laughing and being an idiot with them again.
Sunday was slow, but still a lot of fun. The "Cosplay Church" held by a bunch of Christian cosplayers was a really cool idea, and I sort of wish I'd stayed to listen to some of it, but I was on my way to the art table. (At this time, I ran intoassassins_inc as the Mushrooms. I took their picture and hugged them both, and got Mystery Goo in return. Win! :D)
The upside of selling art on Sunday was that it was just me and Catch You that time, so no more juggling multiple sketchbooks. And I managed to get one of the bigger rectangular tables instead of one of the tiny round ones, which gave me much more room to work with, even if it did kind of set me apart from the rest of the artists. For all that Sunday was the slow day, with everyone going home, I still managed to sell five copies of Catch You and two commissions! So in total, I managed to sell 16 copies out of my stock of 25. Not bad! Just from that, I managed to recoup my printing costs, and even make a small profit to offset what I spent in the dealers' room. (Which, for once, wasn't actually that much.) Yeah, definitely going to be doing the Artists' Alley thing from now on.
All in all, it really was a great little con. Yeah, nothing will ever quite top the awesomeness of meeting Yoshitaka Amano last year, but I think I had more fun at AniZona 2 than I've ever had at a con before.
My cosplay photos are here. :D
BEST. CONVENTION. EVER.
But you'll probably want to hear a few more than that. And so...
I was able to leave fairly early and arrive before anyone else from the group, thanks to having only a couple of short early morning classes on Friday. The trick there, though, was that it was the rest of the group who had reserved the room. XD; My mom was kind enough to sit there with all my luggage and assorted supplies while I got my badge and looked for people I knew. Found Kaity (
keichisfuuma) first, as it happened. ... One nice thing about going to conventions with her is that it's kind of hard to lose her. She is TALL AND OBVIOUS. XD I also ran into my friend Cira from Japanese class, which was a nice surprise. :D Friday, being the first day of con and all, was mostly the run-around-like-headless-chickens day. The FF7 cosplay gathering was on that day, so I found myself throwing Zax on at the last minute to participate, and that took up most of my afternoon. The group art table got set up at some point, and Catch You was on sale in my absence, but by the time I had gotten back out of Zax and gotten to the table, those tending it were packing up. Buuuuu. I did sell three copies while they had it up, though! Two of them were for outrageously low prices, though, as I had forgotten to tell Kaity what to charge. Um, oops. XD;;;
The biggest highlight of Friday (and Saturday, but we'll get to that), for me, was the cosplayers. Thanks to the imminent release of Advent Children, AniZona was an FF7tastic con. Among others, I counted at least three Clouds, three Sephiroths, three Aeriths, two Yuffies, two Tifas, three Renos, AND A ZAX. Words don't express the glee I felt at not being the only Zax cosplayer. It's always good to find out I'm not the only one who likes him. XD (Zax fandom is a sad and lonely place sometimes.) He was there with one of the Aeriths, too, which just made their cosplay a bajillion times better. I felt a little bad for staring at them so much, but there was something about a cute cosplay duo dressed up as my OTP that made it a little hard not to. XD
assassins_inc are totally awesome. Dan is the best Reno I've ever seen, and Jacqueline is an equally awesome Elena. Their Mousse and Shampoo costumes were pretty badass too (and it's nice to find out it was them. When I saw Mousse, I kept staring at him and trying to figure out where I'd seen that face before XD). And the Mushrooms! LOVE the Mushrooms.In sadder news, my Zax costume is about to fall apart on me. I had to escape from it after the photoshoot because the armor wouldn't stay on and the remaining thong on my belt was threatening to snap. So after Friday afternoon, I spent the rest of the con in normal clothes. This is officially the least time I've ever spent cosplaying. Oh, well - maybe this'll finally give me the incentive I need to redo the trouble spots. I think I need to beg somebody for shoe help, too. I demand accurate SOLDIER boots.
The con suite was several shades of AMAZING. It was great last year too, but this year, holy crap. It was sponsored by DarkCon, and they went all out. CHOCOLATE FONDUE FOUNTAIN. AND LIKE EIGHT KINDS OF CAKE. Much with the REAL FOOD.
The late-night raves on Friday and Saturday were amazing. I like con raves - I'm not usually much for dancing, but there's a real lure about the idea of dancing in the dark with glowsticks and a bunch of friends and other fellow anime fans. Plus, cosplayers raving. (Zax and Cloud are awesome ravers. Cloud was wearing multiple glowstick necklaces and bracelets and a sparkly LED raver pacifier thing. I think he was holding glowsticks too. Zax didn't have quite so much glowstick bling, but was still awesome.) I ended up joining a circle of people tossing around a glow-necklace ball, which was a ton of fun. The only downside was that the room was not all that big, so with all those fans packed in and dancing energetically to techno music, you could just about drink the air.)
On Saturday, I was pretty much left to my own devices with the group art table, as pretty much everyone else in the group was in the Masquerade. This put me in the unique and somewhat uncomfortable position of trying to manage three people's art on one tiny round table. I managed to ninja it, but it was still weird having to keep telling people that only one-third of the art on the table was mine. I didn't manage to sell any of Kaity's art, which I was kind of sad about. (At least Whitney's stuff wasn't for sale to begin with, or I'd have felt really bad. XD) Catch You sold surprisingly well, though! I sold eight copies on Saturday, four of them to FF7 cosplayers. It totally made my day to sell Zax/Aerith fluff to Sephiroth. XD The real unending squee, though, was when the Zax and Aerith cosplayers came by and bought a copy each. 8D
Working the art table was actually a lot more fun than I expected. I've been resisting the idea for years because I thought it would be a huge bore, but no! I got to see pretty much everyone in the con pass by my table, and I got to actually chat with the other artists near my table. Plus, I got to just sit there and draw and play with colored pencils. Obviously I need to work with the Prismas more often, because while in a general sense I don't like finishing things in real media, colored pencils really work for me. ♥ I got to do two commissions while I was there, too. I will definitely be spending at least a day or two of all upcoming cons behind an art table. It's a blast.
It also put me in a good position to see a bunch of Random Con Insanity. There was a lovely crossplay Sephiroth pushing around AC!Rufus in a wheelchair, which was awesome. And utterly hilarious when, later, they came by again with Rufus pushing Sephiroth. XD Then there was Aerith running by to escape a random 'thug', with Zax in hot pursuit. XD I love con insanity, I really do.
The Masquerade was really impressive this year! The costumes were all pretty awesome, and the skits were great. It seems unfair that Annie/Kaity/Adrienne/Whitney/Lauren didn't win anything at all, though. Annie sewed all those costumes and they were absolutely amazing. They deserved something, even if only a craftsmanship award.
There is no disputing that Heather and her mom deserved that Best Performance, though. We all need to conspire to make Heather sing more.
I missed the yaoi panel on Saturday night in favor of eating dinner with the rest of the group and then going to the rave with Whitney. In all honesty, though, I think I probably had more fun at dinner and the rave than I would have at the panel. I don't get to see my RL friends often enough, and it was great spending time laughing and being an idiot with them again.
Sunday was slow, but still a lot of fun. The "Cosplay Church" held by a bunch of Christian cosplayers was a really cool idea, and I sort of wish I'd stayed to listen to some of it, but I was on my way to the art table. (At this time, I ran into
assassins_inc as the Mushrooms. I took their picture and hugged them both, and got Mystery Goo in return. Win! :D)The upside of selling art on Sunday was that it was just me and Catch You that time, so no more juggling multiple sketchbooks. And I managed to get one of the bigger rectangular tables instead of one of the tiny round ones, which gave me much more room to work with, even if it did kind of set me apart from the rest of the artists. For all that Sunday was the slow day, with everyone going home, I still managed to sell five copies of Catch You and two commissions! So in total, I managed to sell 16 copies out of my stock of 25. Not bad! Just from that, I managed to recoup my printing costs, and even make a small profit to offset what I spent in the dealers' room. (Which, for once, wasn't actually that much.) Yeah, definitely going to be doing the Artists' Alley thing from now on.
All in all, it really was a great little con. Yeah, nothing will ever quite top the awesomeness of meeting Yoshitaka Amano last year, but I think I had more fun at AniZona 2 than I've ever had at a con before.
My cosplay photos are here. :D
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*pokes the internet* Is this thing really on? :O
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... I, uh, I need your phone number again. I lost my phone and thus all my contacts. XD;;;
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*HAPPYDANCES*
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*GLEE*
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*so totally not ninjaing a neighbor's unsecured wireless connection* >_>;