Thursday, August 23, 2007

   Anime Evolution 2007: Day 1
Today . . . involved a lot of travel . . .

Alarm went off at about 5am. Came out of my room to wake up "Pein". She asked that I wake her up in another half hour; I was fine with that. I went back to bed for another ten minutes before showering and all that. After she was up, we both headed into the backyard so we could spraypaint our hair (in her case a wig, in mine my actual head). The gist of everything after that was that we got to the convention a bit after 7am. I was in my Shinsengumi clothes, "Pein" was . . . well, not Pein just yet. That morning she actually dressed as the unnamed blue-haired Akatsuki girl. She looked good, but she was getting frustrated that: A: no one knew who she was or B: people were asking her where Pein was.

Here, have a picture of "Blue".

After walking back and forth for an hour or so, we really started to wonder why in the world we got to the con' so early. Opening ceremonies weren't 'til noon!

My buddy "Icecore" whom you all may remember as the Shinsengumi guy who basically hooked me up with everything I had last year called. He had a specially-commissioned "Pein" headband to give us. So we were told to wait for him to arrive . . . we waited a really long time . . . turned out he was "still getting ready" in the parking lot. Well, when we finally saw him we learned why it took him so long: the freakin' guy has samurai armour now!

Here, gaze at the majesty of "Icecore" in his armour and his TELESCOPING spear!

Well, at about this point in the day my batteries died in my camera. Evidently I didn't put charged ones in when I left the house. I was pissed. Walked back to the car and back with my extra batteries. Those were also dead. I was quite choked. "Pein" was also quite choked that morning that she wasn't Pein . . . well, that and the batteries basically influenced our getting back into the car and driving back to the house so she could put on a new face and wig while I got fresh batteries. Glargh . . . we missed the beginning of the opening ceremonies because of that. Whatever . . .

Honestly? Friday (Day 1) was a really big blur. I mostly just remember walking around a ton, finding people I remembered from previous cons, and just getting my picture taken and stuff. What I DID know, though, was that at 3pm we had a Claymore photoshoot to go to . . .

Claymore is a cool show. Alexa got me hooked on it and I enjoy it a lot. I read on the forums that people were planning a Claymore photoshoot. Here's the catch: none of us were actually COSPLAYING as Claymores or anything! But it was silly, and someone put together a good album of us as "secret Claymores" or "undiscovered Yomas". In my case, I was Yoma fodder and was killed . . . but hey, good times. Pepperoni sticks made it all the better . . .

Here, see Slipknot240's pictures of the shoot and gaze at the glory of my guts being gorged!

Aside from that, it was just more of us all walking around the con' and just hanging out . . . saw a whole slew of people including the "Zack Fair" cosplayer who won the walk-off last year . . . oh, that reminds me, the walk-off today was kinda bad. Oh well . . . day 2 was better. Other than that, just saying hi to people, hugs, laughter, pictures . . . poses . . .


. . . actually, no, that's not true. We had a wardrobe malfunction . . . several, actually. My straw sandals that I bought in Seattle were snapping on me and the safety pins were just barely holding them together. Further, "Pein's" shoe had also broken at the strap and she was having issues. Sooooo . . . once again, for that damn girl's sake (she eventually apologised profusely for making me do all this), we left the con' and went to Value Village so she could find new shoes.

And yes, we were in cosplay. The cashier had fun with that.

Back to the con', I got a call from another girl we'll call . . . "Nine", after the latter part of her screen name. She was another person who was gonna be spending the nights at my place starting that day, was another Shinsengumi member, and an all-around neat person. She was putting together one of our flags for the evening . . . hehe . . . the Shinsengumi were staging a night raid at Anime Evolution!!!

Here, take a look at "Nine", her boy, and two other guys while we prepared for 9:30pm . . .

A bit past 9pm the four of us headed out to the meeting point where the others were already gathered. We walked past the dance/rave going on in the Convocation Mall, got out the flags, the "flashlight paper lanterns" and stepped into formation . . . and then we marched. It was freakin' awesome . . . people would see us, quickly take pictures, or just stare in awe. It was cool.

Here's my photo album of the Night Raid, as photographed by "Pein" who came with us.

The night raid was mostly good save one incident where a couple guys tried to bug us, walking next to us and heckling us. Well, that's part of the joy when your Hijikata cosplayer is also convention staff . . . they got a good warning, eventually left . . . . but they left a sour feeling for a lot of us, sadly. Ah well . . .

When we finished marching around by about 10:30, "Nine" and her boy left for dinner while "Pein" and I headed back home. Oh, another fun bit: once I was in the car, my brother called and told me I could swing by his house and pick up all the DVDs he had borrowed (and never returned). I was asking about this because I wanted to get a hold of all the Transformers DVDs he had so we could watch 'em ("Pein" was really excited about that). So we swung by his place, chatted a bit . . . much like the other family, he didn't bother to comment on why I was dressed funny or anything . . . good times!

Once back we showered and prepped for the next day. Eventually "Nine" and her boy arrived, though her boy immediately had to leave again because a friend of his had a dead car and needed help. The irony of that, of course, is that after he found said-friend his own car battery died! Horrible luck . . . so he didn't spend the night over that night . . . . . "Nine" meanwhile worked on the flag some more and stuff.


That was about it. Rest of the night the three of us just stayed up working on flags, cosplays, or watch Transformers episodes until it was suddenly later than any of us would have liked. So it was bedtime.


Here's my Day 1 album!
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