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It turns out I live less than 10 miles from the MangaNext con location. I found this out on Thursday when I called up ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rinzei who happens to be chairing the con. I had thought I missed it while we were on our trip but was happy to be proven wrong. I woke up around 9 on Saturday morning and changed into my shinsengumi costume, which looked like this. It is really hard to do a samurai top knot up on your own, let me tell you. (As you can see it in this picture, I was wearing the geeky-ist, most historical tabi (two toe) socks in the world today - they were black with a picture of Kondo Isami and the word's Shinsengumi written on them. One of my friends gave them to me in Japan, but I never thought I'd have an excuse to wear them.)
I got to the con around 11am, met up withrinzei then headed over to the Tanuki Bujinkan dojo demonstration. I'd never met any of them but I introduced myself and watched their demo (it was fun to watch how amazed everyone was by stuff we do everyday). After that, I headed into the dealers room and was seduced by a Gaara plushie and a Urahara plushie, and a Saitou pin. I left after that and wandered around the con, made friends with a guy cosplaying Vizard!Ichigo and ended up sword duelling with him and his friends for a bit. After that, I visited the artist galley, bought some cute postcards, and continued to wander. I chatted with a lot of miscellaneous people from artists to con goers to staff. I ended up in the games room at one point, marvelling at the people playing a full game of Rock Band(?) with drums, guitar, bass and vocals (the funniest thing was to see Kakashi playing the bass *L*), and played several rounds of one of the PS2 Naruto fighting games (not near as good as the Japanese gamecube one). I spent some time in the library as well, and read the first issue of Monster (good, but not what I was in the mood for) and volume 5 of Kaze Hikaru, which seemed appropriate since I was dressed as a Shinsengumi. There are things I don't like about Kaze Hikaru but I find the shonen ai stuff hilarious, and I really like the characterizations of Saitou and Hijitaka (I have a bit of a crush on Hijitaka actually). I chatted with more people there and got into a loud argument about how emo and/or gay Sasuke is before going down to the artists' area and commissioning some art. Then, I chatted with more people until the cosplay skits and runway started. The skits were mostly so so, but the last one had a guy cosplaying as LeLouch from Code Geass singing Viva La Vida. It was brilliant. The runway had some great stuff, though I think the best costume of the con was probably Ryuk from Death Note.
After that, I ended up chatting with artists and friends in the artists' area for quite awhile. I got one of my commissions which was a gorgeous Kakashi pencil drawing of him with chidori. It's amazing. I chatted more until 10 then decided to head home. I didn't want to waste money on food so I'd basically been keeping myself going on candy (thank god for Halloween), one donut hole and a small bag of pretzels.
Next morning, I took my time showering and putting up my hair in a bun. I put on my Yondaime hokage t-shirt and headed over to the con. I picked up my art commission of a cute picture of Yondaime, then wandered about taking advantage of the cheaper prices on the final day to get some nice postcards etc. From there, I went up to chat withrinzei then read Prince of Tennis until it was time for the cosplay chess. That was fun to watch with everyone having a good time and being witty and staying in character. I went back upstairs then to read some more Prince of Tennis before watching some Bleach. After that I got roped into the feedback session for a bit before saying goodbye and heading back home. The funniest thing I saw today though was a guy cosplaying Trunks get absolutely mobbed by fangirls. I was snickering so hard when they all shouted his name and surrounded him for a group hug.
rinzei who happens to be chairing the con. I had thought I missed it while we were on our trip but was happy to be proven wrong. I woke up around 9 on Saturday morning and changed into my shinsengumi costume, which looked like this. It is really hard to do a samurai top knot up on your own, let me tell you. (As you can see it in this picture, I was wearing the geeky-ist, most historical tabi (two toe) socks in the world today - they were black with a picture of Kondo Isami and the word's Shinsengumi written on them. One of my friends gave them to me in Japan, but I never thought I'd have an excuse to wear them.)I got to the con around 11am, met up with
rinzei then headed over to the Tanuki Bujinkan dojo demonstration. I'd never met any of them but I introduced myself and watched their demo (it was fun to watch how amazed everyone was by stuff we do everyday). After that, I headed into the dealers room and was seduced by a Gaara plushie and a Urahara plushie, and a Saitou pin. I left after that and wandered around the con, made friends with a guy cosplaying Vizard!Ichigo and ended up sword duelling with him and his friends for a bit. After that, I visited the artist galley, bought some cute postcards, and continued to wander. I chatted with a lot of miscellaneous people from artists to con goers to staff. I ended up in the games room at one point, marvelling at the people playing a full game of Rock Band(?) with drums, guitar, bass and vocals (the funniest thing was to see Kakashi playing the bass *L*), and played several rounds of one of the PS2 Naruto fighting games (not near as good as the Japanese gamecube one). I spent some time in the library as well, and read the first issue of Monster (good, but not what I was in the mood for) and volume 5 of Kaze Hikaru, which seemed appropriate since I was dressed as a Shinsengumi. There are things I don't like about Kaze Hikaru but I find the shonen ai stuff hilarious, and I really like the characterizations of Saitou and Hijitaka (I have a bit of a crush on Hijitaka actually). I chatted with more people there and got into a loud argument about how emo and/or gay Sasuke is before going down to the artists' area and commissioning some art. Then, I chatted with more people until the cosplay skits and runway started. The skits were mostly so so, but the last one had a guy cosplaying as LeLouch from Code Geass singing Viva La Vida. It was brilliant. The runway had some great stuff, though I think the best costume of the con was probably Ryuk from Death Note. After that, I ended up chatting with artists and friends in the artists' area for quite awhile. I got one of my commissions which was a gorgeous Kakashi pencil drawing of him with chidori. It's amazing. I chatted more until 10 then decided to head home. I didn't want to waste money on food so I'd basically been keeping myself going on candy (thank god for Halloween), one donut hole and a small bag of pretzels.
Next morning, I took my time showering and putting up my hair in a bun. I put on my Yondaime hokage t-shirt and headed over to the con. I picked up my art commission of a cute picture of Yondaime, then wandered about taking advantage of the cheaper prices on the final day to get some nice postcards etc. From there, I went up to chat with
rinzei then read Prince of Tennis until it was time for the cosplay chess. That was fun to watch with everyone having a good time and being witty and staying in character. I went back upstairs then to read some more Prince of Tennis before watching some Bleach. After that I got roped into the feedback session for a bit before saying goodbye and heading back home. The funniest thing I saw today though was a guy cosplaying Trunks get absolutely mobbed by fangirls. I was snickering so hard when they all shouted his name and surrounded him for a group hug.