Okay, the idea to come in costume hit me somewhere between 12 and 2 o'clock on sunday night. This was our first trip to any anime convention, so I dont think any of us had any idea what we were doing. Of the four of us going, three of us were prepared to go all out on this idea. Or were at least available (ahem).
We decided to go as "Team Hokage" from Flame of Recca, since the series had just recently become a favorite of Yuriko and mine. The two of us shared favorite characters, and we knew without question who to be. Yuriko was thus dubbed Mikagami, and I Koganei. Kawaii~ =) hehe. Rags, who had yet to see the series, was directed to various web sites and we decided she would go as Recca. After all, what's Team Hokage without its main man?
Monday was our plan in action, so to speak. Rags and I waited nearly two hours at my house, watching Recca and trying to get decent pics of the design on his arm protector. After Yuriko finally came, we hopped on a bus to where we had hoped a large Creativity was open and waiting for us. Unfortunately, it was closed. At a loss, we retreated to the Barnes and Nobles down the street (Ahh ... home away from home!). We then came up with the idea to go to Chinatown, where hopefully a Pearl Paint store had what we needed. Hauling ourselves on the subway, we arrived there an hour later.
For the unquestionable reason that we are retarded, we could not find the stairs to the third floor. We had to ask to even know there WAS a third floor. In fact, there was something like SIX OR SEVEN floors. Genius. Anyway, I spent a good 30 bucks more or less on large peices of styrofoam, a make-it-yourself snow globe, a large container of (gaudy) gold paint, and other garbage. Rags and Yuriko had alot less to buy, but the items were just as strange. What we didn't find at Pearl, we went across the street to a Plastics and hardware store. We were beyond amazed to find these glassy dot things that were PERFECT for our project. We couldn't believe our luck! Well, after Yuri had her 10-foot plastic tube cut in half, we were on our way again.
The process of making the Elemental weapons was ...... interesting. The first and BY FAR easiest was Rags' arm protector. While she was on the phone with Kelly (AX attendee #4), I casted her arm with left over casting I got from my Art course. We only did half (needless to say), even though Recca's goes full around his arm. On the phone, Kelly had decided to go in costume as well, but since Fuko or any other character with an elemental weapon or difficult costume (I suggested Kurei LoL) seemed too late, Kelly was dubbed Yanagi. All she needed was some dressy clothes, which we happily listed for her. With that done, Yuri and I began working on our swords.
All I can remember doing for hours on end was cutting styrofoam. Man, does that make a squeaky annoying sound. It was practically snowing from all the stuff flying. Yuri meanwhile had cut her tubing into the shape of Ensui. Her aim was to get it to hold water, which looked VERY cool when it was done. Unfortunately, we couldn't get it to stop leaking. We used hot glue, tape, melting techniques .... you name it. We had to let go of that idea.
I think mine was really the hardest. I cut the styrofoam into the shapes need to create Kougan Anki, while Rags (aka Friend of Adhesives) taped them up. Because taking a five-foot styrofoam "weapon" on a plane seemed pretty .... er, inconvenient, I left it unattached and only painted the seperated parts. I stuck on the glassy orbs after painting the undersides red, and did the same with the snow globe top, except using cardboard as the underside. People kept commenting on how the bottom looked like an alien antenna. (sigh)
On Tuesday I couldn't make it to Yuriko's house as planned, but I continued the effort by searching the west village for a plain orange hat and wigs. It took me quite awhile but I found the damn orange hat. I don't think bright orange caps are popular out of anime ... or IN them for that matter. I dropped by Old Navy and found myself the PERFECT pair of blue cargo shorts, just like Koganei! Kick ass! After that I picked up two wigs, one short brown, the other long white. I also picked up an extension for the white one, cuz it didn't ponytail so well on its own. Meanwhile, Rags and Yuri go to an N'Sync concert. Damn them!!
Wednesday we finished up our weapons. Yuri had to drastically change Ensui. The blade was cut in half and was sealed all along the sides with hot glue. We consider it the "iced over" affect, and it did look that way. She also finished the handle. I thought the little blue orby with the "Mizu" kanji was just too cool! We're so lucky we found those. Yuri showed us her costume, which was a white collar shirt and black pin stripe dress pants. Kakkoi!! I was glad we picked Team Hokage, since they wear normal clothes all the time =)
Rags' finshed her arm protector, which was looking very cool!! I liked it alot. After a whole episode to get hockey tape, Recca was complete, Day-glow orange hat and all! We finished around 9:00 at night, though none of us had packed or anything. With that we rushed home and prepared for AA's biggest adventure yet!!