I had the immense pleasure of attending ShoujoCon 2002.  This was a con for shoujo fans, and it showed.  From sweet maho shoujo to angsty, emotionally charged shoujo works, it was a con that reached out to  every fangirl's heart.  Ah, but since this is my first time in attending an anime convention, I have little to compare it to.  But nonetheless, my maiden voyage into the frontiers of Shoujo Arts was intensely enjoyable to the point that I was very depressed to have to leave Sunday morning.

And so it begins Friday afternoon ...
My friends and I pile into a car with our luggage, food supplies and cosplay props.  We had to fold down the rear seat to get the props to fit.  Then we spent  %@#!?  8 hours trying to get to NJ.   We checked in time to find out that the sake tasting workshop was over.   We ran into the rest of the MIT Anime Club who got there before us.  We told Skuld-chan our harrowing tale through the tempest that was traffic and she consoled us with a hug.
To add to our hassle, the hotel didn't give us the right kind of room, so we had to move our stuff to another room.   Tired from travel, we hit the sack with dreams of ShoujoCon.  Actually, we just slept.

Saturday:
I woke bright and early at 8 am and registered.   The hotel staff even setup these fancy line dividers that is usually used in banks around the registration booth.  I checked out the con suite, and much to my happiness, they had breakfast.  I quickly forced my friends out of bed and told them about it.  We ate breakfast at the con suite and met friendly fellow otaku.  After breakfast, we went back to the room and put on our cosplay outfits , me as Chloe from Noir, and my friends as Yomiko " The Paper " Readman from Read or Die and Nicholas D Wolfwood from Trigun.  We proceeded to the lobby by elevator.  On the elevator, an otaku recognized Yomiko as "the chick from Read or  Die".  She was so elated about being recognized!  We were not prepared for the fangirl reaction when we descended the escalator.
"Wolfwood!  WOOLFWOOOOD!"
With cameras in hand, the bishoujo screamed with glee as they cornered Wolfwood for a picture.   Enjoying this unusual display of attention, Wolfwood gave his most bishonen pose for their shots.  Well, at least he tried.  We met  other cosplayers, took pictures of them, and got pictures taken of ourselves.  We registered for the cosplay hall competition and me  in the stage competition.  Then we checked out the dealer's room.  We drooled at the staggering amount of anime merchandise before us and shopped till we got hungry.   I bought a nice lami of Hotohori (Fushigi Yuugi) and some doujinshi.  We stowed our purchases in The Paper's briefcase.
Then we headed to the room.  My friends changed to civies, but  I just took off my cloak and wig.   Here's what Chloe would have looked like without the cloak -

Then we headed out to get a bite to eat.  We found a Boston Market, and ordered.  While waiting the cashier asked why I was dressed strangely, and I told her about ShoujoCon.  She seemed rather curious about it and so I urged her to go.  She did ask us to send any hungry attendees to Boston Market and gave a bunch of menus to The Paper, who we all know would be best to deal with it.  (^_^)
Then we went back and dressed up again.  We visited the art gallery and then I went to get autographs from the voice actors.  At first, I didn't have anything to autograph on, so I grabbed my shoujocon book and had them autograph the page about themselves.
The first one was LIAM O'BRIEN, who is playing Asapin in His and Her Circumstances (Kareshi no Kanojo no Jijou).  I told him how I drooled when Asapin was boasting about his beach ready body.  He is really excited about KareKano.
Next was MANDY BONHOMME, who plays Juri in Revolutionary Girl Utena.  She was very sweet and I told her how Juri is one of my favorite characters because she has a lot of depth.
Last but not the least was JAMIE MCGONNIGAL, who plays Omi in Weiss Kreuz.  I told him that I was surprised that he plays Omi because Omi is the youngest.  He replied with mock indignation, "Oh, so I'm old then?"  Sensing a social mishap on my part,  I quickly scanned my brain for something to say that my alleviate the situation.  "Well, you impart so much youthfulness to his character."  Then quickly added, "Omi is my favorite caused he's the cutest."    Despite that, he was nice enough to sign my book and a mini poster.  I will post the autographs as soon as I have time to scan them.
While  my friends were waiting for me, a bunch of fangirls cornered Wolfwood for photos.  One of them even wanted to try the confessional.  (^_^)   They saw  the fangirls whom we met before.  The Paper told me later that they wanted to know what was under my cloak.   If I was there, it would have been my pleasure to satisfy their curiousity.
After I stowed my precious treasure away,  we tried looking  for  the game rooms.  We met  someone who  cosplayed Skuld .   She was organizing some of her cells, and she showed us some of the cells that she painted.  They were very cool.  It made me want to have signed up for the Cell Painting workshop.  Then we went to the video rooms.    We saw a bit of Live Action Sailor Moon and left because it seemed a bit corny.  Then we went to see some Clamp Campus Detectives.  That was funny and cute!  But I had to go and prepare for the competition, so I missed out on the rest of it and then got back to see some music videos.  I had to leave again to get lined up for  the competition, and didn't see my friends till after.
I was #17 for the stage competition.  The competition started late because the soundsystem didn't get there till about 8 pm, and it took about 1/2 hour to set up.  During that time, I chatted with cosplayers dressed as Sumeragi Hokuto (Tokyo Babylon) and the Magic Knights from Rayearth.  Finally, the emcee, dressed as the Rose Bride,  announced the start of the competition.  Excited, I eagerly awaited my turn.  Finally it came, and I decided not to ask them to play the soundtrack that goes along with the skit, because the sound guys looked really tired.  I went up there, did it and basked in the applause.  (^_^)
I stepped off the stage, and not knowing where to go after, backtracked to my seat by going behind the stage.   Later on, the Rose Bride saw me and asked that I follow the hand signals given by the staff who would have shown me the exit.  Hoeeee!  I was really sorry, since I didn't see the signals without my glasses.   He did like my skit, and gave me a farewell hug.  Yes, the Rose Bride was a guy.  I wasn't sure at first, but now I am.  Come to think of it, I forgot to take a picture of the outfit.  It was real nice.
I must say that the other skits were pretty good.   There was someone dressed as Sailor Starfighter who just said, "It's cold." and exited the stage.  The last skit was done by cosplayers of Serial Experiments Lain.  It was more like an Interpretive dance set in the Wired.  Very cool.
While the judges were deciding, the co-emcee, Ranma, ran a few short contests.  The first  involved naming anime shows from A-Z in turns.   It went on until the letter  Q.  The winner got a Sailor Venus doll.  The next was the best anime pickup line.  Someone blurted out, "We all know what the Rose Bride really is for."    Then they asked for couples from the audience.  He was a little vague, so there were unusual "couples" on stage.  One example is a group of 4 women wearing similar shirts.  He asked, "What do we have here?  Alternative lifestyle?"  In chorus, the girls replied, "We're CLAMP!".   Then he started interviewing each couple.   For the next contest, he asked the contestants to dance like their doing Dance Dance Revolution.  There was this guy with nunchucks, who dance and whipped his silver 'chucks like lightning.   My friend, The Paper was so impressed that she tried to find him when the competition was over so that she could get a picture with him.
After the competition, we headed back to our rooms.  Dizzy from hunger, I devoured the leftover Boston chicken.  I took a shower and then went to the ConSuite to wait for my hair to dry.   I picked out an Escaflowne puzzle and while I was doing it, met an otaku who was organizing her database of anime and manga.  Her list was rather impressive.  She also told me about Yami No Matsuie, which is one the skits involving an apple mistaken as a pokeball.  This should be released in the US soon.  A group started clearing the table  to play Clue and we noticed a beautiful Oh My Goddess!  puzzle.   We felt that it was a shame to undo it, because someone probably went blind putting it together.  I bid farewell as soon as the hair dried and my puzzle was done, which was a mere 30 pieces compared to the 200+ Oh My Goddess!.  Then I went back to the room to sleep.
 

Sunday:
I woke up early to get to the pool.  There I ran into  a staffer I met  yesterday.  We soaked in the whirlpool and went in the sauna.  Then she taught me how to flip 360 degress backwards and forwards.   Then I had to leave to check out.  My friends and I frantically packed.  On the way out, we met the Rose Bride who somehow recognized me out of costume.  We talked a bit and found out that the nunchucks guy was near the registration desk.   So finally, The Paper took a picture with him.  She found out that he had been studying martial arts since he was 6, but doesn't wear a belt because he doesn't believe in the belt system.
As we made our way to the car, we met  Skuld-chan , whom we didn't  see yesterday.  We took a picture of their outfits.  And then we left for Boston.

Overall, it was insanely fun, and I would go again!
 

Cosplay Hall Contest

Juniors
1) Magic Knights Rayearth (see anime version)
2) Sakura from Card Captor Sakura (see anime version)
3) Suppi (the baby with wings) from Card Captor Sakura.  I saw a  picture of the baby in one of the cosplay galleries below.

Single
1) Magic Fairy Pretear
2) Ruby Moon   from Card Captor Sakura (see anime version)
3) ??  from Wish (cute green dress..)

Group
1) Record of Lodoss War -  Deedlit (anime ), ? and Spark
2) Final Fantasy X
3) Angel Sanctuary
 
 

Cosplay Stage Competition

Individual
Princess Emeraude

Judges choice:
Merle from Escaflowne (Toby's choice)
Yami No Matsuie
Ruby Moon from Card Captor Sakura
Lodoss War
 

Cosplay Pictures

Here are other galleries of cosplay:
www.poro-poro.com
http://www.ninjacracker.com/conpics.html
http://isachan.topcities.com/sjcon/clinks.htm
http://neonge.com/gallery/?id=14
http://homepage.mac.com/werkers/scon/shoujoconbase.html
Raine and Chibi Washu's Shoujocon 2002 Page
http://ecoicepure.tripod.com/shoujocon/

Music Videos
Some of the videos from the con can be found here.
http://www.animemusicvideos.org/
 

Souvenirs

Recommendations

If you, the reader, find something that  seems wrong, please let me know.  Email me here.
If there's something that I forgot to mention, I will post an update.

Visit my Homepage?