k i m m y ' s c o s p l a y

Sunday is usually my lax day at Otakon where I spend most of my day shopping. This year was a little busier than usual, but it was nothing to stressful. I'd never bothered to paint the symbol on the tie fro my Karren Stradfeld (Code Geass) cosplay, so that was a little rushed in the morning.

At a little past nine, I was ready to head down to the con. I decided to stop at the Starbucks at the BBC center before heading down to the AAA autographs. I got there 40 minutes early and the line was already pretty long. Compared to the other lines I'd been in that weekend, this one had been fairly dull. They started signing autographs around 15 minutes late, but the line moved really fast, so it was okay. They were selling the leftover merchandise, so I decided to go and see if there was anything of interest. The trading cards were on sale, so I bought Nishijima's and Shinjiro's set. That made me happy since I'd regreted not buying them on Friday. =)

The group was giving hugs to whoever wanted one, but I passed. I noticed one of the girls wasn't there, but whatever. The rest of the members signed and I was happy. My god the guys are really cute... Nishijima was adorable when he started bobbing his head and humming along to one of his songs while he was signing. (Excuse my fangirlish moment XD).

It was ten past eleven when I got out of the room, so I rushed over to the other side of the convention center for the Code Geass gathering. As much as I wanted to go see the Emminence concert, I decided to pass it for the gathering and more shopping time.

As I got onto the escalator heading towards the fountains, I quickly spotted a Zero, Lelouch and the Kaguya-hime I saw on Saturday. There were two guys supporting the rebellion, Pizza Hut style, which really amused me. XD (Sorry, it's kind of an inside series joke). We took a few photos and talked a little while. We were all surprised at the complete lack of Code Geass cosplayers that weekend. I was expecting to at least see a C.C. and maybe a Suzaku or Euphemia. *sigh*

After a while, we decided to go and raid the video room showing Code Geass. We all started singing along to the opening as we'd just got there on time for the start of the third episode. About five minutes later, we headed outside. Our Kaguya suggested playing this fun card game she got in the Dealer's Room. I can't remember exactly what it was called, but I had fun. ^^

A quick round later, I said my goodbyes because I really wanted to go down to the Dealer's Room to get my shopping done. In about an hour, I managed to blow most of my remaning spending money. I still needed to get a souvenir for Jiji, but she's not really into anime and the Jrock stuff was pricey. In the end, I got her an Otakon band thingy.

I had about an hour before Artist Alley shut, so I figured I'd go and check it out. One thing about it's location that I absolutely hated was that it was impossible to find. Everyone kept telling me to go in different directions. I must have gone up and down the same flight of stairs 3 times minimum. On my journey to find the Alley, Potetofurai spotted me. I'm glad she did because I was dying to take a picture of her Yuto cosplay! It was adorable. <3

I finally had enough brains to go and ask Information for directions. My long journey had come to an end. What a relief. As I wandered the Alley, I saw so much beautiful art. If I had more than 10$ left, I would have bought a lot more than I did. There was one person selling this really cute "Guide to Katakana/Hiragana" using chibi anime characters. I was so tempted to buy it, but I didn't want to blow my remaining money on one thing (plus I'd spent part of it by the time I saw it). I picked up two Ouran prints and a cute chibi Killua fan made trading card. As I was finishing my tour of the Alley, I fell in love with this one girl's art. Her prints were 10$ a piece and there were two that I really wanted to get. I was going into my mom's money to buy her prints, so I really couldn't afford to buy more than one. When I told her I coudln't decide which one to choose, she was really nice and gave me a discount. I loved the pieces so much that I couldn't turn down her offer. I bought a Death Note print and funny enough, a Harry Potter one off of her. She couldn't give me something to carry the big DN print, but I told her it was okay. When I got to my hotel room later, I was worried that it would get ruined on the way home.

As I got back to my hotel room, I had the chance to sit down and look back at my weekend. Despite going alone this year, I had a really good time. I got to hang out and talk to friends I made last year as well as a bunch of new people. I actually went to a lot more events this year compared to the last two years I attended where I spent the majority of the time just walking around. While the last two years felt a lot more like cosplay oriented cons, this year felt like the year of waiting in lines. ^^

Surprisingly enough, I hardly took any pictures this year. That's not to say there weren't some fabulous cosplay that I regret not taking pictures of. I just didn't feel like the motivation to take my camera out. I also hardly went to any of the cosplay gatherings. I went to the JE one and the Code Geass one. I happend to pass by some gatherings, but I only bothered to take pictures of the Sailor Moon and Trinity Blood ones since I love the costumes.

Organization at the con seemed relatively good to me. The only events I went to that didn't start on time were both of the AAA events (concert & Sunday signing). Lines moved quickly and were for the most part, orderly. The only one I didn't like how they went about it was the free for all at the Saturday Seki signing. I also wasn't happy about the convention blocking off some of the escalators and then not having them running on Friday. Oh well. Nothing's perfect.