ShoujoCon 2003
by
Ran
Created 8/27/2003
updated 8/27/2003
I was so looking forward to going to Shoujocon that I counted the days till Friday. And I am so glad I got to go again.
Friday morning ...
My friends and I pile into a car with our luggage, food supplies and cosplay
props. We were determined to get there at a reasonable time to enjoy
the events. The drive wasn’t
so bad, just the usual pockets of congestion at Hartford and the junction
of 84 and 91. But an alarm rang
in my head when I saw the exit number for Rye was 21.
The directions said 2.
Agitated, I wake up my co-driver and he concluded that Rye wasn’t
big enough to use up 20 exits, so we called the hotel while we sat in traffic.
The hotel
told us to exit at 21. We did
so, and found the hotel. Yay!
\(^_^)/
While walking to the parking lot, we could readily identify the otaku by their cars and their luggage. Having a license plate with “Otaku” or “Oohtori”, makes it easy to spot. We checked in and picked up our badges. We ran into the rest of the MIT Anime Club who just got there as well. Then we went upstairs to change. I was Tsukikage Ran , from Kazemakase Tsukikage Ran. Tac was Wolfwood from Trigun and Tammy was Misty from Pokemon then Yomiko Readman from Read or Die. Now dressed to kill, “ahem”, we make our way to the sake tasting workshop.
I would highly recommend the sake workshop. It definitely opened my taste buds. Up to now, I had no idea that the sake that I had been drinking was crap. Our sensei taught us well, and our cups were slurped dry. (Note Ran’s sword and sake flask near the cups.)
Then we lined up for a chance to whack Ebisu , the hamster from “modern love’s silliness.” CC Sakura went first, but before she even swung, Ebisu fell. She was warned to use her magic powers, but she took off an ear anyway. Finally, I got a chance to whack, and took off an ear as well. Wolfwood took off a leg. Then a real tall guy burst the body open and the crowd crept forward to grab the candy. The referee said that we can probably whack some more, but the crowd really wanted candy, so he let them have our way. Clutching handfuls of candy, I stuffed my gi as much as I can politely take. Must… not… be… greeedy…
We looked at the Video programming, and concluded that we were too tired to sit there, so we went to our room and watched DVDs on the laptop while snuggled in bed.
Saturday:
I woke bright and early at 8 am and went to the consuite cuz I was hungry.
Unfortunately, the staff hadn’t opened it yet, so I
took a picture of the Utena group
who were waiting as well.
It finally opened, and we attacked whatever food was laid on the table.
The fruit went first.
Then I saw a cute cat hat
. Its owner kindly let me take
a picture. I took some croissants
and headed for the Video Room where they were showing Hello Kitty.
It was more entertaining since there were scenes from the
Mortal Kombat/Hello Kitty music video from Anime Boston.
After breakfast, I went upstairs to get into costume.
We all left the room in costume and met
Mihoshi
. She liked
Wolfie so much that she would hug him whenever they met.
(^.^);
My first stop was the voice actors panel while Wolfie and Yomiko went their way. I liked how the moderator structured the question and answer portion and left enough time for questions from the audience. A Director for ADV was their and I happily got my DVD of Princess Nine signed. Then I gave JAMIE MCGONNIGAL, who plays Omi in Weiss Kreuz, my humble efforts in sketching I told him that I was ashamed of my rude comment from last Shoujocon. He looked over the sketch and was pleased enough to declare, “Wow, look at my arms!” and “This is going on my wall.” He signed my program book even though I didn’t ask him to. ‘sigh’
TIFFANY GRANT also signed my P9 DVD, since she was the voice of Yoko.
My next stop was the TOMOKO TANIGUCHI panel. She is so funny and charming. I was real excited to meet a female mangaka. Unfortunately, Yomiko was still reading my Princess Prince, so I sketched an anime Tomoko-sensei at the back of my program book. When it was my turn for an autograph, I greeted her ‘Konnichiwa’ and explained that Yomiko had my manga. Then I presented my sketch for her autograph. She said, “Oh, how cute! Who is this?” She stared some more, and leaned back laughing. The interpreter looked over and whispered, “sugoi”, and then Tomoko-sensei asked me to sketch in her guestbook while she sketched in mine. I replied, “but it will take me 15 mins or so…” I didn’t want to be hogging her guestbook. She replied, “that’s ok, take your time.” I did another sketch in her guestbook, then I took a picture of her. BTW, Tomoko-sensei doesn’t want her pictures on the ‘net, so if you have one of her, please don’t post it.
Then I went
upstairs and found that Wolfie had brought food.
I gobbled some up and went to the dealer’s room to buy a bokken
and some souvenirs for my friends.
I spent so much that I almost didn’t have enough money to pay for my last
purchase. (~_~);
I stashed my goods and went to watch some Clamp.
Those weren’t the usual cute episodes, and
had more of a danger feel to it.
Looks like I’ll have to start collecting it.
I felt
real tired after
that and took a nap.
When I woke up, me and Wolfie went down to see the Cosplay contest – or
what was left of it. Sadly,
only a few people entered, especially in the Individual category.
She won by default.
Pictures of the winners are in the cosplay section.
We took more pictures of costumes and went to the consuite
for the pocky party. Oh my Goddess,
I didn’t realize there were so many flavors!
The staffers tried to do a pocky tasting contest, but
the crowd kept asking “where’s the pocky?”
so they ended the contest early and let the pocky loose.
Here are the
14 flavors I tasted:
Chocolate
Pizza
Milk
Dark Chocolate (Men’s?)
Blueberry
Green Tea
Chocolate Mousse
Almond
Strawberry
Almond Crunch
Strawberry Mouse
Coconut
Then I went upstairs to retire for some dinner and sleep.
Sunday:
I woke up early to get breakfast.
While munching on crackers,
someone was putting together the 200+ Oh My Goddess! puzzle.
I tried to help
out until the dealer room opened.
Since there was some pocky left, I took some to Wolfie and Yomiko.
We started packing
to get ready for check out.
Then we made one more pass in the dealer’s room.
I bought more stuff.
Then we called a cart for our luggage and I tried to check out on the
TV, but the system was offline.
(>.<)
When we got on the highway, the mystery of the exit numbers was cleared up – it was exit 21 in one direction and exit 2 in the other! (~_~);;
Overall, it wasn’t as fun as last year, due to my being tired, but I would
still go again!
Cosplay Hall Contest
I tried to add a link to a matching photo. If it is incorrect, please let me know. If you, the reader notice that any of the information is incorrect, or would like to add more winners, please let me know.
Ummm…. still waiting for the results….
Cosplay Stage Competition
Sorry, I have to develop my film….
Cosplay Pictures
I put the pics I took in a directory. It's just a list of jpg files. If you get a message saying that the page is unavailable, it is just geocities trying to limit my bandwidth usage. So please try again later.
Also, I lowered the image quality since I don’t have much disk space. If you want one of these photos to print nicely on a 4x6, let me know, and I can send you the original.
Here are other galleries of cosplay:
Music Videos
Some of the videos from the con can be found here.
http://www.animemusicvideos.org/
Souvenirs
Ummm… I need to scan it…
Comments
Where was the crowd? This year’s is only a third of last year. I heard a comment that the New Jersey folks didn’t come. Or was it because this weekend was close to Labor day? I wish more people would have come, there was room enough for a crowd like last year’s.
The dealer room was half the size as last year’s and some dealers sold similar items – ie, manga, DVDs, scrolls… Only the weapons dealer and the doujinshi folk seem to have unique stuff. I was hoping to find some collectables, but couldn’t find any.
The con rooms were spread out, and it took a while to get from one place to another.
On a nice note, the guest rooms were closer to the con rooms, so there was little chance of people waiting for elevators or getting stuck in one. (~_~);
Recommendations
It always pays to plan ahead. We should have checked
traffic before we left to minimize our time on the road.
If you can, try to register as early as possible. It's cheaper, and
you have a better chance of getting into the workshops that you like.
As far as I can tell, cash is only accepted for registration. But
the hotel has an ATM machine.
The Con suite may be open
late into the early morning, as long as a staffer is present.
This is a great place to relax and pass out from too much anime.
The hotel has a whirlpool, which I highly recommend for easing aching feet
and stiff muscles.
Some dealers only take cash and those that take credit cards may charge
a slightly higher price for a credit card purchase.
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.