captainecchi

You know, I used to like posting blow-by-blows of my con adventures, but now I think I prefer to chronicle my adventures with much use of lists and summaries.

Otakon 2003 was, in summary, a schizophrenic con. I didn't attend more than one scheduled event, but managed to have a great time at the con overall, mostly by meeting and talking to a stunning number of cool people. This was, of course, in contrast to my rooming arrangement, which was a mess. I had mistakenly thought that shoving 7 people (most of whom I didn't know) into one room might not be a bad idea. Uh, it was. Between the three people who snored, and the Thing in the Bathroom That Would Not Stop Smelling, it was unpleasant enough that I tried to minimize my time spent in the hotel. The heat was another annoying factor, to be faced whenever I stepped outside; as was the general sketchiness of Baltimore. The cheesecake costumes I wore Friday and Saturday made the former better and the latter much, much worse (as evidenced by the numerous people who felt the need to ogle and comment, especially when I wore the Nami costume). jai (who is, much as I suspected, witty and cute and wonderful), said it best when she reached the convention center one day and sighed in relief, saying, "Now people are staring at me because they LIKE what I'm wearing."


There was a surprising number of One Piece cosplayers around. Admittedly, most of them were Luffys and Zoros, and some of them very bad, simply because Luffy seems to be this year's "Hey, it's a simple costume! I can pull it off even though a sewing machine is a strange and foreign instrument to me!" costume. The costumes that seemed to get the most attention were the Buggy and Alvida, largely because I suspect a good number of U.S. Jump readers knew Matt's character and didn't give a fuck about me. On the other hand, on Saturday, I had numerous people approach me to take a picture who I'm sure who had no clue what OP was, but wanted to get in on the cleavage action. Anyway, I thought I'd share some of the OP-related photos we picked up:

On Friday, we saw a particularly impressive Ace. He had all the details down so well--the medallion, the hat with the smiley and frowny faces, the Logue Pose, even the tatoos (as a picture of his back can attest). He even had gone so far as to wear orange flame-y contacts! My initial impression of him was that he was really, really stoned, but I later met up with him out of costume, (carrying a giant sign that said "Gay," no less), and he seemed to be much more talkative. I was dismayed to find out that they had thrown him out of the convention center for not wearing a shirt, despite the fact that he was surrounded by much scantier clad women and men. Wtf?

Also impressive was the actual mascot Chopper we saw (view one, view two). The cosplayer in question is actually the mother of a Sanji cosplayer and artist that we got to know pretty well, shiru, (a.k.a. Shelley; not to be confused with Shiru a.k.a. Sylphiel). I was impressed by "the Elder's" (Shiru's term, not mine!) devotion to anime and cosplay. Jai, who got to spend more time with Shiru-and-family than I did, has even more good things to say about her.

In fact, the best time I probably had at the con was on Saturday, hanging out with Shiru in the artist's alley. Shiru is an amazing artist, and I bought some of her original art, of which she was selling prints for the low, low price of $5. Her cosplay is no less impressive. She took a Sanji cosplay--which is a found cosplay that plenty of people were throwing together with little effort this weekend--and made it wonderful, if only for the amazing job she did styling the wig, and the personality she brings to the character. Of course, we took plenty of photos of the costume, including writhing and twitching Sanji, Mr. Prince with his feet up on the table, to Sanji riding the escalator, and the obligatory pictures of Sanji trying to grope Nami and even Vivi. Later, we dragged her up to the Photo Suite to take pictures with our Alabaster group, but due to some technical difficulties, the picture didn't turn out so great--I may scan it in later, however. In any case, it gave us time to chat about everything, from whether we preferred the OP manga or anime (she's a manga fan.... am I the only one who prefers to watch the anime? But then, I am manga-dyslexic), what pairings she liked (all I have to say is, she's not a scary yaoi fangirl, yaaaay! But she does side with Matt on the Zoro/Luffy being preferable to the Zoro/Sanji. Ah, well), and our shared love of Tommy February.

We were also lucky enough to run into a Kuro and Jango, tagging around with a Soccer!Zoro with a Carue rubber duckie on a string. I guiltily have to admit that I didn't recognize Soccer Zoro; and Jai later told me that it had to do with a color spread I hadn't seen. There's also a picture of our Saturday Alabaster group with Kuro and Jango.

There was also the random Marine we ran into, as well as a Tashigi and Smoker. Later on, we had a chance to visit with Tashigi-cosplayer (better known as Akumi) and Smoker-cosplayer (better known as Akugi) in the artist's alley. Apparently they, along with the Nami cosplayer that's with them (better known as Chibi), and Shiru and her brother, all know each other already. They were glad to welcome us into our little circle, though, and by the end of the weekend we were planning a giant Alabaster cosplay for next year.

We also caught a few other groups of OP main crew cosplayers, like this sleeping Zoro and Luffy, or this Sanji, Usopp, Luffy, and Zoro. Some of the groups wanted to take pictures with us, which led to us posing with a Sanji and Zoro, and us posing with a Zoro.

Let's not forget Mihawk, or the other Buggy cosplayer with an um, interesting color scheme.

.... and let's certainly not forget the massive Friday OP photoshoot. We all decided to take the picture in front of the replica ships on level two of the convention center; but they got blocked out by the sheer number of cosplayers. More amazingly still, once we started taking pictures, EVERYONE on the second floor was suddenly taking photos of us, many of whom, I'm sure, had no clue what OP was. Anyway, here are a few views: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6





And what of our cosplay? Well, unfortunately, we never even saw Kevin Lillard (someone told us he wasn't there, but judging by the fact that there was an Otakon report on Fansview, he was), so I apologize to all of you who looked through tons of bad cosplay pics to find us. Apparently at one point we were photographed (in Buggy and Alvida) for Anime Union, but they don't have their Otakon pics up yet; we may have showed up on cosplay.com, but you're welcome to search that, since I can't figure out their stupid, stupid navigation. We were also photographed for the Baltimore Sun, but they didn't end up using the photo. Ah, well.

Unfortunately, most of the pics we have of our costumes are in groups with others (see above). We may have the somewhat blurry Photo Suite picture scanned in at one point, but right now we don't. More pictures are definitely in order, especially for my Alabaster Nami costume.

As for how they all turned out.... well, I'm much happier with the Nami than the Vivi. The Vivi was finished in a hurry (much of it on Friday night), and I think it shows. Also, the wig turned out to be cheaper quality than I expected and it didn't style like I had hoped, and it didn't fit Jai well, and..... ugh. It drove me nuts. I want to replace it, because I think it ruins an otherwise good Vivi costume.





This was a new record: I only went to one scheduled event at Otakon 2003, and that was the FUNimation panel on Friday night. It was a waste, too. We sat through a half-hour of DBZ and related bullshit, only to be told, at the start of the Q&A, "Oh, and by the way, I can't comment on One Pece, so don't even ask."

I even missed the Masquerade, a rarity for me. According to roommates, it turned out to be pretty good, too, except for the idiots who are still shouting "Chair!" Grrrr....





We did, however, spend a fair amount of time acquiring loot. We left with:

* a print of Shiru's original art ("Gone Fishin'".... it's very cute, in Shiru's own inimitable style)... she was thrilled to be selling her original art, as she said that almost everyone wanted her fan art. I mean, why? I would rather hang original art on my wall, especially since her style is so original.
* Mark Roger's book The Dead, which predates all his Samurai Cat books. This, of course, bears noting that we bought it from Rogers' himself, at his table in the artist's alley. I was delighted to finally meet him, after my failed attempt to find him at I-Con. He's a really great guy, and we wanted to support him more. We would have gladly gone into debt one of his original Samurai Cat paintings he was selling, except that he had already sold the one we wanted, of Tomokato and Shiro both holding, uh, big guns (you expect me to recognize guns?); the only other Samurai Cat one was of Tomokato alone, and it wasn't half as tempting to spend $300 on that one. Instead, we purchased:
* a package of 15-odd Samurai Cat prints, all of which Rogers' kindly signed.
* a yellow Pikmin plushie (bud form; they had flower form, but we chose this one instead). I am ashamed to admit how much we spent on this small plushie, but you have to understand. It's Pikmin. I felt like we had to purchase it just to make up for all the Pikmin I killed in game. We chose the yellow, of course, because between their little ears and the cute sounds they make when they pick up bombs, they out-cute the other colors of Pikmin. In case you want to revel in the cute, we took a picture. We also took a picture of it in my cleavage. Ah, so close to my heart...
* One Piece Animation Log Book, which was selling at Sasuga, and thus not terribly overpriced. For the record: the animation log book spells it "Rogue Town," not "Logue Town," so take THAT, fangirls.
* One Piece stationary set, also from the Sasuga booth. "How many pieces does the One Piece stationary set have?" our roommate quizzically asked. Well, a pen, a pencil, and eraser, and two notepads. This must have come out post-Alabaster, because it features Robin on it, as well. It also misspells "Pirates" as "Pirrates." Misspelled Japanese stationary! What else could a girl want?
* our Photo Suite photo. They only charge half price because it came out blurry, thankfully.





Finally, we took some photos of other cosplayers, too:

Oneesan (the announcer), from Battle Royale
Godzilla has his own posse of buildings to destroy
Captain Harlock
Hellsing photoshoot
Mama Kurata from Kodocha
Luna from Lunar: Silver Star Story
Probably the best Moogle I've ever seen
Naruto
Nausicaa
A mascot Puchu, from Excel Saga
Ronin Warriors pair
Rosiel, from Angel Sanctuary. At least, I'm pretty sure that's a Rosiel. I don't know AS that well.
San, from Princess Mononoke
Shaman King group
Zelda: Windwaker pair
Yohko, from Devil Hunter Yohko




So what's this Legend of Randy thing? Ah, well, see, when I checked into my hotel room, Jai was with me when the bellhop brought the bags up. At this point, I was wearing my Alvida costume, sans cloak, which basically meant I was wearing a bikini top and Capri pants. After helping bringing the bags in, our bellhop turned to the thermostat, saying, "You ladies must be hot in here, let me turn the AC on."

.... he probably meant this in an innocent way, but of course this led to many jokes about the bellhop and these hot, hot ladies in room 525. Of course, it was made worse when Jai asked for bandaids from him. He called back a half hour later (where did he find these bandaids?), saying, "This is Randy, the bellhop, I'm bringing your bandaids up." Of course, now that we knew his name, the jokes only multiplied. By the end of the weekend, Randy was truly legendary. Hence, Jai and I would like to salute Randy, at Baltimore's Radisson, for his fine, fine service for the fine, fine ladies of room 525.



.... and that's all she wrote. Really. Honestly.