#Convention Log

[starakex]

Otakuthon 2024 Cosplay Recap

I used to do con recaps and I kinda miss it. I'm still writing down post-mortem entries on costumes offline to keep track of the good and the bad of a costume's first wear, though. It's helped me learned from mistakes and apply solutions to future builds to avoid issues.

While I don't really wanna review the con itself, I think making these logs public is very relevant information to pair up with Build Logs, so it's time to revive the tradition.

So, let's set the stage real quick. This is at Otakuthon, and it's a 35k+ people convention that keeps happening in the middle of a heat wave almost Every. Damn. Year. Also, 35k+ people is very much over the limit the convention area can comfortably take. Also it was humid as all hell. And so, so hot.

On a personal level, I've been dealing with general hobby exhaustion from things like wig burns, The Sensory Bullshit That Is Stage Makeup, and spending too much time stressing over keeping a costume intact for photos. So this year, the goal was "Silly, Casual, and No Bullshit." No wigs, no makeup, and everything has to be carry-able in a bag or two on public transit. Having begun this philosophy shift after last year's Otakuthon, I made three costumes during the year, leading to debut them during the 2024 edition.

Friday!

Friday was Robed Man from hit video game Final Fantasy VII Remake/Rebirth. I made Cloud many years ago, but the exhausting perfectionism bullshit I was carrying within me was keeping me from feeling like making another named character from the series. Figured this would be a silly idea that could be re-worn for future Final Fantasy events. Friday was the perfect day for it since there was a Distant Worlds concert in the evening.

The Good:

Super quick to set up in the morning. Just a little bit of eye shadow to accentuate the dead fish look, throw the whole costume in a bag and it's good to go. More sleep, yay!

My purse fit under the whole thing for a seamless, accurate look, which was unintended but neat.

It was super easy to pull off and put back on within seconds whenever it got too hot.

The Bad:

It's supposed to be lightweight and breathable, but even with a tank top and shorts underneath I was sweating up a storm. The cloak is so big that it became too heavy to catch any air flow.

Despite pre-washing the fabric, the fabric's dye rubbed off on a couple things, notably the silicone on my water bottle and the rubber backing of some pins. Not on skin or clothes, thankfully.

Verdict: Worked as intended. a snap button's stitching broke on one of the scarves but the button stayed in place, so I quickly fixed it when I noticed it. As for the fun factor, it was great. It made for hilarious candid photos, and there was only a smidge of eye shadow to watch out for instead of the whole face being covered in makeup. It's absolutely unrecognizable IRL from the front though in a large convention setting full of costumed people, so not even FFVII cosplayers said anything 😭 It was fun to bring out for the concert, but I'm mostly looking forward to pulling it out for other small events now instead of cons.

Saturday!

Sonic was the costume for the big day. He was one of my dream cosplays when I first got into the hobby as a teen, so finally having it as a mascot cosplay was, well, SUPER HYPE. I was apprehensive bringing in a full-body mascot after sweating my ass off with just a cloak, but then decided I wasn't going to skip my chance to be Sonic and just go for it. I needed to do it at least once... The Good:

EVERYTHING (ish). SO HYPE

It was reasonable to carry in public transport with large enough bags. Not the most optimal, but more than acceptable. Two bags just so the shoes aren't rubbing on everything else.

I could put it on and remove it quickly without help, and wear it partially when I needed to cool off (arms tied at the waist and head in hand)

Surprisingly easy to navigate with. I didn't need a handler at all times, and spent most of my time fullsuiting by myself. Performing was comfortable, vision was very good straight ahead, and range of motion was excellent outside of the head spikes.

Against all odds, this was super comfortable despite the heat wave! The underlayer carried this entire experience. I could wear the full thing and perform in short hour bursts, then remove the head and pull the suit halfway down for a break with a neck fan, often while going to a panel or something like that. I was still sweating (drenched, even), but the underlayer just made it feel hot instead of sticky and disgusting and cooled down very quickly during breaks.

Sidenote, but I think I look really fuckin' cool with the head off and my badass disheveled hair. Like I felt REALLY COOL instead of worrying about ruining my makeup or whatever stressors I'd have with other costumes.

The donut-shaped support inside the head was great at redistributing the weight comfortably. Didn't have have neck or head pain the whole time.

Batteries for integrated head fans and neck fan did not run out with a whole day of wear.

The Bad:

The integrated head fans didn't seem help much. They didn't cool things to any noticeable degree, and the lack of mouthhole makes this a very sweaty head (especially compared to Wurmple; more below). They might've kept the head from being absolutely dogshit to wear, but it's hard to tell if it actually moved air around. Not a massive issue with the regular breaks, however.

Minor gripe, but the fan system I bought didn't have a on-off switch, so I had to dig in the battery pocket to unplug the fans every time I took a longer break.

The shoes, while easy to walk in, force longer strides that gave me quite the calf workout by the end of the day.

No major breaks during the day, but the shoes' rubber soles slightly peeled off in a few spots by the end of the day. Nothing a little contact cement can't fix., and technically "good" since it means I can safely remove and replace it if it gets too worn out.

I need someone to hold the head if I want to go to the bathroom, otherwise I'm having a really bad time.

Sonic looks kinda booby unfortunately but that's the perfectionist talking and I've vowed to destroy that mindset

Verdict: Holy shit this was worth braving the heat wave, worth all the hours trying to get the build looking just right, worth EVERYTHING! The reception from the people was awesome; I haven't talked to this many people in years, and everybody loved the mascot so much. I got to nerd out about Sonic, nerd out about the build, fist bump people and make them smile. It's my first fullsuit and it turns out I also love the performance aspect of it. The build lasted throughout the whole day with no damage (outside of the rubber soles, but I was expecting more than the small amount that began peeling) The perfectionism mindset I've been fighting with for years wasn't an issue because all the things I spent time getting just right are actionable design decisions like scale and material choices, not just "welp, I don't look like what I had in mind wearing this because I'm a real human and not a stylized 2d character."

Sonic re-ignited my love for cosplay and gave me a whole new style of costume I want to keep exploring and working on. Obviously planning to take Sonic out to other conventions if I can troubleshoot how to fit him into a suitcase.

Sunday!

Wurmple was my official first foray into fursuit making proper. I wanted to make a suit for years and finally committed, but I wasn't super interested in making an OC/fursona at the time so I picked a Pokémon I liked that looked interesting to make (I really wanted to sew the grub butt). I made him all the way back last August; he's the first costume from the "fuck wigs and makeup" era. I wanted to go for a bug-catcher summer look, complete with a little bug "cage" and a net. (I was genuinely worried someone might get full size nets a bad rap at the con with the gnome meme currently going on, so I just went with a tiny shrimp net instead.)

The Good:

The head is actually really breathable. Partialing plays a major part in the overall comfort, but the breathing hole is positioned in such a way a neck fan blows straight into it. The only sweaty area is the contact spot between my back and the tail.

It's easy to bring to the con, like the other costumes. Just stuff the parts in a small bag and go.

The dang thing is basically indestructible, so there's no worries navigating crowds or squishing the tail to sit down or whatever.

The Bad:

The vision is terrible. I absolutely need to hang onto a handler or remove the head if I'm doing anything more than standing around and talking. It's so narrow it messes up with my depth perception. The curse of trying to engineer vision out of a weird character design...

I can't really sit down on a chair with this tail unless I shove it to the side or remove it entirely, which is cumbersome since I thread the tail belt to my shorts for extra stability.

The tail is kind of dumptrucky enough that it got caught in the crowd more often than Sonic's whole costume did overall. Probably because Sonic is so massive he commands respect of personal space and Wurmple's bugass is very subtle in some angles, but it's enough of a concern to point out.

Verdict:

People got a good laugh out of Wurmple and more attention than I've gotten for costumes on average in the last couple years, so that was fun. No breakage either, but I expected these results since I've worn it outside a few times now. It was also by far the least sweaty costume of the weekend, being "regularly" comfortable despite the heat wave (in part thanks to the smaller Sunday crowd.) But the vision really dampens the experience enough that I'd rather keep it for furmeets or other less active events than a full-on convention. Enough workarounds to still be worth bringing around, but I'd love making another Pokésuit that doesn't have this glaring vision issue to rep the series!

Closing

Overall, if you ignore the massive crowds in a tiny space and the debilitating heat wave, Otakuthon went super well! It didn't stand out much event-wise to the other years (though getting to meet Shota Nakama and seeing the Distant Worlds performance were two standouts experiences), but the personal end of it, cosplay-wise, was a huge success. The people I got to interact with were all wonderful, and I got to figure out a new costume niche I want to explore more (hint: less wigs, more mascots). I'd say it was one of my favorite cons to date for cosplaying. I'm writing this as the costumes are drying, and my last observation is that save for the fursuit heads and Sonic's shoes, these costumes can survive the washing machine (something I always try to account for) and I'm so very thankful for that. Washing the heads by hand was a wholeass workout in in itself though, but thankfully Sonic's eyes are waterproof and the electronics are remove-able so I can deep clean him for the next event! On the menu for future events: repair Sonic's shoes, implement a on/off switch in Sonic's fan systems, and start planning out a new Pokémon fursuit. Hope this might've shed some light on the kind of post-mortem observations I note down after wearing new cosplays to a con! Thank you for reading.

[linxuelian]

Anime Fest Plus 2024 Convention Experience Log - With Photos!

Hi, hello! As I've recently (as of this post, yesterday morning) attended Anime Fest+ 2024 at Tropicana Gardens Mall, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, I've decided to write an experience log about my day there! While I will be posting a few different cosplays here, since my blog is currently primarily about MDZS, TGCF and SVSSS at the moment, most of the cosplays I'll be sharing will be from these three titles. To add to the fun, I'll also have commentaries on them!

To preface, the largest anime convention in Malaysia is Comic Fiesta, an annual mecca with 70,000 attendees as of the year 2023. Anime, games and comics are popular in this country, so there are smaller cons dotted throughout the months.

Anyway, the crowd wasn't as large as Comic Fiesta. As the structure of Tropicana Gardens Mall is rather narrow, you'd technically have to file through in two to three lines to be able to walk in and out of the place.

The exhibition hall at the fourth floor hosted all performances as well as cosplay booths. You'd have to ride one of the two escalators up to the hall - plebs without a ticket are doomed to be stranded at the bottom of said escalators, unable to sop up the merriment held exclusively above.

Here are some pics though, just in case you were a pleb that day, or just didn't attend the event:

Main hall programs and booths featured mostly Hololive and sexy pretty girl cosplayers and figurines, given the regular, expected fare when it comes to the anime consuming demographic (yes, I'm calling you out, my anime-watching brothers). I didn't take pictures of the doujinshi market out of respect for the art sellers there, but I did buy a beautiful print and got some lovely free stickers from that ONE vendor who sold BL stuff among the throngs of moe girls/Genshin Impact.

Yes, there was only one stall. But that one vendor made my day! Bless your heart, sister!

Now, I'll move on to the highlight - the cosplays. Nothing fills my heart with more joy than seeing happy people wearing colorful costumes and having a blast just being part of the convention scene. To be honest, it's so common to be wearing cosplay outfits nowadays that folk don't even notice you when you're dressed up - and I say this from experience; nobody noticed at all that I was in costume (or they were far too polite to laugh at how shitty I looked LOL, I didn't even dare take pics of myself). These events usually become scavenger hunts for me, to identify the ones from series I know or my tribe (fellow MXTX fans aha!).

First up is an oldie that's a goldie - Mr. Spock from Star Trek (credit: FaceBook user Yasuhiro Orihusay):

Honestly, I did NOT expect to find any Star Trek cosplays there. My dad's a Trekkie, so this was one of the first pics I sent him at the con itself. Live long and prosper, Mr. Spock!

Next, a furry OC:

I wasn't able to get their social media account as they were waiting in line for an autograph by a cosplayer, so unfortunately I'm unable to credit here.

Furries are currently still a new thing in Malaysia - but I'm glad to see them appearing more frequently at our cons, since they do diversify our pop culture scene quite a bit. Furs Upon Malaysia (FURUM) is held annually in Kuala Lumpur. The tickets are always sold out within an hour, so it's definitely growing and also contributing to tourism (Indonesian and Singaporean furries gather there too).

Also, they're fluffy. I love fluffy things. Much thanks, furry fandom, for being fluffy!

Moving on, here's a group cosplay of Jojo's Bizzare Adventure's Six Pistols (Mista from Golden Wind's Stands, if you're wondering which season it's from):

Vibrant and very spot on! I was unable to get their social media account due to the crowd and disorientation on my part. Do try to look them up, though! They were pretty popular, so I'm sure someone would have shared some info if you're interested.

Anyway, here's a White Mage from Final Fantasy (credit: https://www.instagram.com/yari_hayashi/):

Final Fantasy's one of the older franchises, but it's definitely rising again due to the new FFVII remake. I thought he was Garnet until I saw the blond wig. Bless the mages, healing power plus!!

Next in line is one of my all-time favorites, Sailor Moon (credit: https://www.instagram.com/jiahuab0719_cos/):

I'm a Moonie so seeing a Sailor Moon made me pretty excited! I don't see too many Sailor Moon cosplays even in Comic Fiesta - cosplays at our conventions are pretty seasonal and tend to follow trends, from what I've seen. She definitely caught quite a bit of attention with her wings, too. I saw her getting stopped quite a bit, so I'm glad I got a pic before a line formed!

Aaaand! I've saved the best for last! I'll be showcasing the MXTX stuff now. To start off (with a bang), here are two cosplayers of the number one seasonal love interest of the BL world, Hua Cheng a.k.a. San Lang Didi (Grown Up Version):

Credit: https://www.instagram.com/karry.1213/ (donghua version) and https://www.instagram.com/kopiii_cos/ (manhua version)

Remember how I said cosplays at Malaysian conventions tend to be pretty seasonal? Well, the current flavor of the month for the BL world is definitely TGCF - and the hottest flavor is now San Lang didi. You're going to get stopped for photos pretty often for dressing up as this flashy guy, and for good reason too. Donned in striking red, Hua Cheng is the Ferrari of the danmei world.

I overhead Kopiii_cos' friend saying so many people have been asking for photos! Viva Fafa!

Next, we have the ever beautiful WangXian couple cosplays:

Credit: Wei Wuxian (https://www.instagram.com/purple_384/) and Lan Wangji (https://www.instagram.com/anson1510/)

WangXian's a staple when it comes to the MXTX fandom. There's nary a person who doesn't love these two soulmates, and with these elaborate costumes, they've certainly stolen the show! They were the first couple I saw at the entrance of the exhibition hall, which makes sense since there was an OTP contest going on that afternoon.

Moving along, we have the main character of his story, the Crown Prince of Xian Le, Xie Lian (credit: https://www.instagram.com/arkutagwa/):

I gotta admit that this Lian's the sweetest of the Xies so far. Had a field day calling each other cute (what can I say, we both had cute personalities)! Gotta love that charming dimpled cheek, bless!

Speaking of cute, there's also this whole cute pose thing going on with certain attendees (credit: https://www.instagram.com/chzesin/):

I won't lie - I didn't recognize the character at first. But with the dark-gray-to-white ombre, black and red colors to tell you that's a Wei Wuxian, I'm just going to take a gamble here and deduce that yes, that is indeed a Wei Wuxian and include it. Let me know if you don't think it is.

Last but not least, we have our MXTX OTP group:

Credits: https://www.instagram.com/ayafvrvv/ (Luo Binghe) and https://www.instagram.com/close0402/ (Lan Wangji) - the rest didn't share their social media accounts but they did say you can find them through each other's accounts.

Turns out they're a group who'd entered the OTP contest that afternoon. If you're wondering, no, Binghe isn't paired with air (this is Bing-mei, not Bing-ge). There was a large number of attendees that day as it was Sunday, so their Shizun was still looking for parking. I'd gotten lucky since I'd arrived there just as they'd opened up Basement 3 so ZOOM I parked near the escalators with plenty of space to spare. Until today I chalk it up to being last-minute dressed as Xie Lian, the god of good luck for hobos like myself (or, according to popular belief, Hua Cheng's blessed every Xie Lian cosplayer out there no matter how much we look like we've just stepped out of a jungle). I also had plenty of space to sit for a lovely lunch of salad and green tea!

Granted, there were actually a few other Xie Lians there as well (he's the current flavor as well), but I didn't want to chase after them from afar since the flow of human traffic in this particular mall wasn't too conducive for trying to get pictures, unlike KLCC's garden. Usually, more fans are dressed as the two main characters, Wei Wuxian and Xie Lian - or the shous/bottoms in popular danmei. Surprisingly, I actually saw quite a number of gongs/tops this trip round.

So as a bonus, here's a pic with all our dandy gongs/tops together:

A dashing lot, aren't they?

Anyway, this wraps up my experience log as an MXTX cosplay hunter! Hope you enjoyed it! Bless!

[samdyke]

[novahedron]

Do you think he’s evil bc they made him a short king on purpose

[soulsbear]

Guess who hates charcoal and has 3 new rat drawings!!!!

Practicing from screenshots some more

[wolfiemcwolferson]

Spent all of my 20’s screaming about how I can never thrive in my small hometown community because it is stifling and swearing I’ll never go back because the state keeps stripping rights away from us only to maybe finally be accepting in my 30’s that a small hometown community is worth fighting for and the lives there are worth fighting for even if they disagree with me and the rights will only ever be restored if people are there to do the groundwork and maybe that means eventually I’ll go back

[dullahandyke]

neeeeed them to have hatesex

[ID: Aura Blackquill from Ace Attorney and Larxene from Kingdom Hearts.]

[narrativelysignificantturtleduck]

rhode island comic con had this awesome appa photo op and my sister was like "you want to pay to take photos?" and i was like no. you don't understand. i have to. for the mutuals. and for sokka

[frankensteincest]

I have to hand it to mdzs for giving me three people who rise to power and upset the board so efficiently without relying (entirely) on their combat ability but rather on how well they can be a lying liar who lies

[nerice]

editing tge experience is always like. yay act one done that's 1/4th........ (THE LOOMING OF ACT 2 THAT IS 90% OF THIS SCREENPLAY :)))

[nineratsinatrenchcoat]

Am the sleepiest girl in the whole wide world

[linxuelian]

Comic Fiesta 2023 Anime Convention Experience Log - With Photos!

Hey there! After posting my previous experience log on Anime Fest+ 2024, I realized I'd shared photos from Comic Fiesta 2023 on Twitter but never did on Tumblr. Since this happened way back in late December 2023, I've forgotten a good portion of my experience there (I have unfortunately the memory of a goldfish) - so it'll mostly be photos of the crowd and MXTX cosplayers, whom I have some loose commentary on based on what I remember from our very short and random interactions.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this as an MDZS/TGCF fan as much as I do! I spent only a few hours there, but I did have a good time hunting down cosplays from the MXTX fandom during that time.

I'll begin with pictures of the crowd. If you don't already know, Comic Fiesta is an anime convention held in Kuala Lumpur Convention Center, Malaysia, and it's one of the oldest here too. As of 2023, it's opened its doors to roughly 70,000 attendees, which is rather big considering our country's quite small in size. I've heard from my friend that there are attendees from overseas too, namely Singapore and Indonesia, due to the famous people the organizers tend to invite, so it does make sense that it's grown this large over time.

While the convention itself is held indoors, there's a large park outside where cosplayers tend to hang around and take pictures. A number of people don't buy tickets and go into the convention hall either - and I get why; the last time I was in the hall, I was squashed like a sardine, and not the fancy kind, either. We're a sweaty bunch after a good whole morning of lining up.

Anyway, the park is very pretty, as well as mostly green and neatly trimmed:

It's at this park where you can get the best shots of cosplayers, and find some space to line up for photos of them.

It's got this giant Christmas tree up at around this time of year too, which is super wonderful:

With that aside, I'll get to the cosplays. Let's start off with my favorite best girl of all time, Jiang Yanli:

Credit: https://www.instagram.com/clairegsw/

I'll admit I was both surprised and stoked to see a Jiang Yanli cosplayer around! She seemed pretty surprised too to have someone ask her for a picture - she was taking one with two elaborate bride cosplays, but as I'm a fangirl with heaps of love for Yanli, I thought she shone like the brightest star at that event. You go, Claire!

Next up is our boy Xie Lian, who seems to get quite a number of cosplays done of him:

Credits: https://www.instagram.com/ayana_liyana/ and https://www.instagram.com/itsmeira_az/

These two came together and were looking for wild, lone San Lang cosplayers to catch in Pokemon battle-like sequences respectively. Sadly, as it goes in the BL cosplay world, there's always a shortage of gong/top/seme cosplayers in a con. Everyone wants to be the beauty, it seems, and quite understandably too.

That said, here's another beauteous Xie Lian cosplay:

Credit: https://www.instagram.com/jingzu518/

Cute, nice, and also decidedly not looking for wild semes to capture.

Anyway, no Xie Lian is complete without a Hua Cheng by his side in any event, so here's the obligatory couple cosplay I saw by the escalators when I got up to the entrance:

Credit: https://www.instagram.com/njq_03/

This particular Hua Cheng cosplayer's one of the first dudes I've seen doing TGCF cosplay, which is pretty interesting considering the reception of BL by male anime fans in my country hasn't been... the best - or the kindest, from personal experience. But I'm happy to see it and would like to take this as a positive sign of changing times where our BL fandom gets more mixed in demographics.

Speaking of HuaHuas, here's a particularly fun and cheerful one:

Credit: https://twitter.com/meechandes

When I told this HuaHua that there were Xie Lians looking to form a couple, I was told that they already have a Xie Lian of their own! Again, HuaHuas are in great shortage! You'll definitely get a lot of attention dressed as him as he's both very flashy and coveted in the danmei cosplay scene as a character.

Moving along, here's a pic of my favorite best boy Jin Ling, the snazziest and most golden young master in the universe:

Credit: https://twitter.com/koni_kn

This particular cosplayer was kind enough to humor me at a crowded, fast-paced subway. We managed to find a quieter spot to take a picture. Look at how pretty it looks, bless! 😍 I'm so glad Jin Ling got some representation as a side character. He's absolutely the best!

On cue are his uncles, the twin heroes of Yunmeng, Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian (whom Jin Ling will probably deny is his uncle, but hey, Mo Xuanyu's body will uncle him however he wants):

Credit: https://www.instagram.com/feza_yu/

The duo came with their own professional photographer, who also doubled as their translator (thank you, photographer man!). This Jiang Cheng's also the softest, gentlest and shyest Jiang Cheng I've ever met in my life. Legs are safe when he's around since he won't be breaking them anytime soon!

Next on the itinerary are our not-so-elusive, staple-of-any-con Wei Wuxians:

Credit: https://www.instagram.com/ken520.cos/

I dub this guy the Balenciaga Wei Wuxian, because, you know, I took his photo right in front of Balenciaga and he looked like the richest Wei Wuxian cosplayer there. No joke - his outfit even had pleather, and he'd spent about 270 bucks on it. I saw it up-close since he was pretty friendly. His arm bracers even had details sewn onto them instead of just being prints! Talk about luxury! I coughed up jealousy like blood from my mouth.

The outfit is from CQL, but he knows MDZS too. I'm familiar with the donghua but too lazy to finish it, so he's definitely put me to shame here as a fan as well, blast him!

Last but not least, we have kitty ears Wei Wuxian (a.k.a. Lan Wangji's Incense Burner Dream #965):

Credit: https://www.instagram.com/mikaecsr/

Now, I won't lie - I first thought they were wolf ears. But as Wei Wuxian does not like dogs of any kind, nature or breed, I'm going to assume that these are feline ears.

Whatever ears they are, though, Lan Wangji will be sure to get hot and toasty seeing them. Wei Ying, you devil you.

Anyway, this marks the end of my write-up! I hope you enjoyed the descriptions. As I don't have Instagram, feel free to hit up any of these cosplayers I've credited and link them here so that they can download pics of themselves and read what some random Internet weirdo had to say about their outfits.

Over and out!

[the-case-of-evil-dad]

Bruce at Chicago Wizard World, 2011

[the-busy-ghost]

The utter fury of reading about a character in a Victorian novel who is frankly described as ‘ugly’ and googling them only to find out that absolutely every tv adaptation portrays them as ‘brown haired but otherwise conventionally attractive to the 21st century’

[thenineofus]

I am a very firm believer in two things:

Fans should have very limited access to creators

Creators should have very limited access to fans

[porto-rosso]

sigh can my job email me back please i need money