NDK Day 03: Like a Sisfist from the Magical Girl GoddessAfter waking up early to catch a very late bus (I wasn't late, the bus was), I missed the symbolism in Eastern storytelling panel. Why do they always put the really good panels at ass o' clock first thing in the morning? Put, like, the mecha panels early in the morning and the good culture-related panels later in the day so people can actually go to them.
Anyway, having missed that, I was more okay with lining up early to go to Hidenori Matsuhara's second autograph signing. I had a geas to get rid of, and nothing was going to stop me.
While I was there, I ran into this Korra in line for Todd Haberkorn's autograph line!
And her friend, a Yuna.
After waiting for a while, the line finally started moving an
W̎̉͆̔̆ͩAͪRͦNͮ̊IͪͩN̿̾̅G̓: T͋̅ͣ̔ͫͮ̇̎I̋͒͒̈́ͬ̆̇ͥ̉Mͤ͊ͮE͆̋ ̈́̏͑ͨ̓̾̄Pͨ̉́͋̌͂̚A̾̔͑ͬ͗̓̂ͥR̀͊?͗D͒͐̚O̒̒Xͤ̒͆͆ͩ͛ͪ̅͆Aw, hell, looks like I can't show you what happened here just yet. Let's hit the fast forward button and come back to this later.
[X] Skip to the next chapter.After leaving the autograph signing, I headed downstairs to see if any friends were around on Saturday.
Ran into this awesome Numbuh 5 cosplay as soon as I was on the ground floor.
I thought Madoka was leaving, so I asked her for a photo and ended up following her all the way to her car. If I had known she wasn't actually leaving, I would have stayed in the hotel so I could look like less of a stalker. On the other hand, I got a photo of her with the bow she was about to put away, so....
Heading back to the hotel, I found Murasa, now Sakuya! She was just relaxing in the atrium before she left. I promised to meet her again before she left.
I have no idea what cosplay this is, or if she just wanted to look stylish.
I should mention, I wasn't wearing my wings anymore. I was sick of having to worry about my wingspan instead of taking photos, and I didn't want them to get totally broken apart by the crowds. I was tired of how it took me 15 minutes to put my cosplay on. So I left them home, along with the Third Leg. And then I promised myself that I would prioritize quantity of photos today, to make up for my very poor photo yield over the past two days.
So you'll see more cosplays where I have no idea what character it is, but I took a photo anyway, is what I'm saying.
I wonder if there will be this much SnK cosplay next year.
Ran into another Kenshin! I asked her if she'd seen the live action movie yet and she said no. If she runs across this: watch it, it's awesome!
Ran into Reimu in line for the dealers' room again! I didn't see her after this again, though.
While taking photos of amazing cosplays without knowing what they are is ls fun, it is also sometimes like Russian Roulette. Really fun Russian Roulette.
Masquerade Miku!
Then while hanging out near the doors, I ran into Yukari again! But she wasn't Yukari or even Raiko anymore, she was Shana from Shakugan no Shana! I lended her my orange visors for fun.
We hung out together for the rest of the day. Thanks for tolerating my photo habit, Kate!
The same Seychelles from yesterday, but this time with an adorable stuffed dolphin.
Madorkas and a Coobie!
Then we ran into a Chihiro cosplay. When I brought up my camera to take a photo, Shana started laughing behind me for some reason. I looked up from my camera, saw what was going on, told Shana not to say a word of who had come up behind Chihiro, and took the shot.
Yeah.
Also, Chihiro then offered me and Shana some cookies from this little box. I am told that while I don't understand this joke, the DR fans will. The cookies were yummy, by the way. I don't know if that's part of the joke, though.
A Madoka and Homura near the entrance!
Cosmo and Wanda from the Fairly Odd Parents!
Humanized Ariel. I guess it would be hard to be a proper mermaid Ariel, with the legs and all....
Neku from TWEWY. I only know this because Emka reblogs a lot of it.
I actually have never heard a Night Vale podcast or seen the fanart, but I just kinda threw out the guess ("Night Vale cosplay?") and I was right.
The boxes these SnK cosplayers carry their swords around in will never not be impressive to me.
Saaaaaaaaalute!
Hanging out with the SnK cosplayers, hailing from Persona 3, an Elizabeth.
A very cute Madoka! She was with the glasses Madoka cosplayers yesterday, but I was not against getting a solo photo.
I really have no idea who this character is, but the cosplayer yelled "defend the light!" after me as I walked away. Then I said something about bathing the surface world in flames.
On that day, the surface world received a grim reminder...
Maka and Rei, two friends hangin' out together.
At some point in the middle of all this, we ran into the rest of Kate's friends. You'll see them in a bit.
Ichigo! I'm sure I've seen her around here before, but I really wanted to catch her again.
Mars and Venus.
All the Mikus. Hard to believe that just a few years ago, it was Maka and Miku who were all the cosplay rage.
In which Madoka is accosted by two coobies! They were all very nice people, and we'll be running into that Godoka again later.
By this time, it was 1pm. We went to the lobby, and found Sakuya again before leaving.
Bye, Sakuya. See you again next year!
Yuko Ichihara! I'm so incredibly happy I didn't miss this cosplay and got a second chance to take it after all.
It's Bunny! I mean, Barnaby.
From this point on, I had an entourage-- Kate and her friends. So imagine, if you will, an Utsuho running around taking photos being followed by four other people all chatting and having fun.
ALWAYS PHOTOGRAPH VAMPIRE KNIGHT COSPLAY
I definitely remember this girl being really, really happy that I took her photo. You look great, kid!
At this point, I decided that we needed some fresh air, so I led the group outside.
The Hello Kitty samurai! I'm not sure, but I think I saw him at the Denver Sakura Matsuri in the spring some months ago.
There was a Sayaka and Kyouko hanging out outside. There wasn't rain yet, I believe, but eventually we did get a nice drizzle.
Heading back inside, my feet were hurting, so I decided to lead the group to the video game room to sit down in one of the booths. Ran into this Garterbelt when we'd just come back in.
Sealand! I think his mother was with him, just to keep an eye on him, and he was very excited to be photographed, too.
Kakashi Hatake. I told you I was going to prioritize quantity of cosplay photos.
Zero. Again, I really just wanted to up my photo count. Naruto and Code Geass aren't series I find myself taking photos of very often.
Sub-Zero from, uh, Mortal Kombat? Which is also a game that I haven't played... ahahah. Oops. Well, video games that aren't shmups have never been that interesting to me.
Disappareance of Haruhi Suzumiya! Shana really wanted her photo. After we took our photos, she took out two flyers for the SOS-Dan and gave them to us. I found them really cute, so you'll see them later.
We were just relaxing at this point before going back into the con proper. This section of the video games room is always less crowded than the rest of the con, and because there are fans everywhere to keep the room from getting overheated, it's a really nice place to be.
I had Danny take a photo of me and Kate, because I wanted to remember hanging out with such a nice person.
Speaking of Danny, remember him? He's the one with the Reimu and Marisa plushie puppets from some years ago. I was happy to run into him again.
Someone cosplaying a video game character walked past us to hang out. I asked if I could borrow his sword real quick. He agreed, and I handed it off to Shana so she could look like a proper Flame Haze.
Amon from Legend of Korra.
At this point, we had all rested our feet enough, so we were going to head to the chaos of the dealers' room. I had a Luffy take a photo of our group so's I could remember them all.
You are all wonderful people. Even me!
Clockwise from left: Dan in the red carrying the... that thing from Eraserhead, he was Suika some years ago. Then there's me. Then Danny, carrying Reimu and Marisa. (There are two Daniels, yep.) Then Carter, who I mentally parse as "sweet-tooth friend". Then Kate, as Shana.
Anyway, we're off!
The dealers' room was hella fun. I had entered the dealers' room as quickly as I could on Saturday, picking up three grab bags, but it wasn't fun at all because damn, those crowds. But Sunday is much more relaxed. We looked around artbooks and thumbed through shelves of manga. I pointed out an Oscar figurine from Rose of Versailles to Danny, which, had I known that it was his Achilles Heel, would not have done-- the thing was over $130. But he did get it. I was sorely tempted to get some of the oldschool Sailor Moon S posters, but ultimately declined. What I did buy was a sweet Sakura Taisen 3 poster for only $15!
Then I was out of all the money I had on hand. And it was THEN that I ran into a Wedding Peach poster. Man, you know how hard it is to find merch from old series? Thankfully, Danny spotted me the $20 to buy the Wedding Peach poster, then said that because he only sees me once a year, just consider it a gift. I was overjoyed, and still am. Thanks a
bunch, man.
While in there, I ran into a Kirigiri Kyouko. Photos aren't actually permitted in the dealers' room, but I didn't want to lose my chance and then never get to take a photo of her, so I snapped this one quickly. I wasn't intending to take photos of merch anyhow.
Utterly content with just that part of my haul alone, I enjoyed the rest of the dealers' room quite a bit. There was a guy selling handmade sculptures of characters like Saber, Tohsaka Rin, Mami and Madoka from PMMM, and so on. Very awesome to see. I also somehow got Eden of the East recommended to me before leaving.
While waiting for the entire group to get their purchases, I caught this pair of Ranmas outside the dealers' room!
Joker and Harley too.
At this point, Danny mentioned he was going to head home with all his purchases because he had so many, so we headed up to the rhythm games room where he had all his stuff stashed. I decided that we should all help him out, so up we go to the second floor!
I really have no idea what in the world this is from, but that is one impressive suit.
I wonder if I had restricted myself to taking photos of SnK cosplay alone, how many photos that would have given me?
There's a time skip between this and the next photo. We got all of Danny's stuff from the rhythm games room, which was packing up (and also got small bags of fruit snacks out of the deal). We all packed on his things, because he seriously had a lot. I was carrying his Akagi dakimakura, because there was no way I was going to pass up a chance to have more people stare at me.
Then we headed downstairs. Danny's car was parked kinda far, he told us, so we settled down in the atrium to wait for him to bring it closer.
Melancholy!Haruhi Suzumiya.
Look at this adorable little girl just look at her!!
This is Metroid, right?
Anyhow, Danny returned at this point and we followed him to his car. Or at least I did, Carter and Dan and Kate got lost somewhere behind me and Danny. It was drizzling by this point, so I used Akagi to keep me dry whilst we stashed his stuff in the trunk. Then he went back in to find the others.
I passed America here on my way out to his car and asked her to stay so I could take a photo. She yelled after me, "I'll stay right here just for you!" and then when I came back, she made good on her promise.
Anyhow, after hanging out with Kate and Carter and Dan for a while and going to lunch over at McDonalds', we had to part ways. Until next con! From this point on, I was on my own, and returned to the hotel to rustle up as many photos as I could before going home.
I saw this guy walk past me early in the morning while in line for Matsuhara, but he was wearing the full suit of armour then. He didn't have it on this time, but I was mostly interested in the light he had in his helmet, so I took a photo.
I'm going to guess that this is another Mortal Kombat character.
I got nothing, can someone help me identify some of these characters?
I went into the washroom at one point, only for Tulio here to come in. I was terribly confused and mildly startled by the beard. But no, Tulio was a lady. After she came out, I asked to take a photo of her and Miguel.
See, what did I tell you about Mikasa being all up in this casa?
At this point, I decided that I was gonna head out in a bit, but first, I wanted to make one more circuit of the con.
And a Madoka! Notice how the place is starting to look kinda deserted.
Another Kirito and Asuna! Seems to be a not uncommon choice for couples.
Damn, and I thought my wings and cape and concrete foot boot and Third Leg were hot. How do these bodysuited people stand it?
And then he got into a fight with Pitch from Rise of the Guardians.
Pimp Vader!
Korra and Asami, in the now quickly emptying atrium.
Man I don't even know what character this is, but shinyyyyyyyy.
And a final good experience to top it all off! I ran into Godoka and Coobie again, right before the closing ceremonies (which I've never stayed for) began. I asked for another photo, and they were quite happy to oblige.
This also marked the first and only time someone asked me about the details of my cosplay. I got to show off my nuclear earrings! In particular, Godoka asked me about my cape.
"Hey, are those constellations?"
"Yeah. they're all valid constellations. These to my right are the constellations of the northern hemisphere, and these on my left are the constellations of the southern hemisphere."
Godoka nodded in approval. "That's legit. Gimme a high five."
So I gave her a high five, and got to go home with the goddess' personal approval.
... and then when I realized that after three solid days of nonstop action and very little rest, I was going to have to wake up at six in the morning to go to work...
Some people drink vodka, but I suddenly found myself in need of something... stronger.
That's it for NDK proper! There is still some follow-up to be done, so I will be posting some things later. Hopefully I will then also be able to show you the skipped Matsuhara chapter soon, US Postal Service permitting~
