Yama-Con 2018: The Year of "Re"

Yama-Con 2018: The Year of “Re”

This year was unlike anything before from start to finish. Let me explain.

I did not plan on going to Yama-Con this year, I am in the middle of getting my bachelors degree and not only is it expensive but also time consuming (I am actually ignoring a final I have to do by Sunday night… whoops). I only went on Sunday this year because my mother had her own weekend vacation planned with her friends and was very sad when it fell through because of the weather. To cheer her up I decided to take her to Pigeon Forge for the day and she also made sure I had fun by letting me go to Yama-con for a while. That being said, I had done no research about Yama-con 2018 and it’s themes or changes so everything was a surprise.

Let us talk about this years “Re’s”.

Reconnect:

Within 10 minutes of entering the con (after purchasing my day pass!) I saw some familiar faces. By familiar faces I mean I ran into one of my best friends from the con, shout out to the only fan of Black Clover I have ever met! This person is someone I have known since Yama-con 2016, if you are interested in how you make friends at cons check out that years review post.
I saw familiar vendors – who were just as friendly, or unfriendly depending on the vendor.

However, that being said, I saw someone incredibly important and new that sparked my interest. New owners. That’s right, supposedly Yama-Con changed to new owners who were more prepared to handle the size to which the con has grown. I saw a lot of improvements this year that I believe could be accredited to the new owners.

Reorganize:

As I mentioned, the new owners changes some things around. The first change I noticed before I was even inside the con was the new security policy. Over the speakers you could hear an announcement reminding con-goers how bags were all subject to search, no weapons were allowed on the property, and other security measures. This is drastically different from previous years where the con had security but it was very passive. Being in the Criminal Justice field and working in private security I always question buildings for their safety measures and safety design. Yama-con’s building design is great for conventions, but only decent for safety. That isn’t to say it isn’t safe; however, the structure of rooms such as the main event hall becomes a fishbowl in the event of an attack. It is still stunningly better than places such as where Hickory-Con is hosted, and none of that should be held against the conventions themselves, it is merely an observation.

Another change that was noticed would be the vendors room. Last year I really cracked down about the mix of mature content in with the general population content. By that I am referring to hentai on skyscraper boards, children’s crop tops hanging up highly saying “Yes Daddy”,  body pillows of moaning characters and… well I will let you imagine the rest. I understand that anime conventions are a special place for all types of fans, and I respect that they should have access to merchandise that appeals to them; however, it should not be displayed so vividly at a family friendly convention. I suggested more closed in booths, or a private area for such merchandise. This year the booth that contained those items as well as the squishy/kawaii boobs and male genitals (this blog is fairly family friendly as well) and stuffed ones had dividers to keep the merchandise out of public eye but still available to the merchants. I saw no hentai on display boards or standing out amongst other art. I was very pleased with these changes.

Reinforce:

Along with the new vendor room design and announcements came a few new rules. On the backside of the con badges they revised the standard rules, and added new ones. The con staff were also clearly identified and placed at more stationed locations throughout the convention hall. I also saw them walking throughout the vendors room, hopefully monitoring prices to make sure they weren’t changing throughout the days. I am not referring to the lowering of prices on the last day, I am referring to price gouging which I covered extensively last year.

Reinvigorate:

This short visit to the redesigned Yama-con reinvigorated me to start doing the things I love again. Start dancing, start binging, start reading, but most importantly start going to conventions again. I have already secured my plans for attending Yama-con 2019, as well as my Significant Other, their twin, and one for our longtime friends. So in total I have a group of potentially 8 people to attend with me. This is my new goal for 2019 and I can’t wait to see you all there next year.

I’ve missed you all,

-Aki Ame Okami

Marion-Con2 Fall 2016

                     Marion-Con Fall 2016

Alright everyone, this isn't going to as happy as the first review.
The reasons for this one being a little sad have very little to do with the actual convention so no worries.
What will make this post sad is.........................

No pictures!

As many of you know if you have been following the blog/FB pages (I am also on Tumblr now) I had some technical difficulties on the day of the con. The camera I was using decided to go and get all gritty and wouldn't zoom.. all kinds of things were messed up. Thankfully I had a few friends at the con with me, that's right you hear me. I have friends.. Okay you caught me, it was Baka and my cousin.
So Baka took pictures and some really cute videos but she hasn't even sent them to me yet and I couldn't postpone the blog post any more. Its already been 2 and 1/2 weeks and those vendors and the hosts deserve better so here we go!

I am going to explain a little more of my reviewing process in this review so my reasoning may be a little more in depth than usual.

                      {Prepare yourself for a wall-o-words}

People attending: 5 (only 3 went in)
Time of attendance: 1 hour after opening so about 11 AM
Costumes featured: Little Red (Baka), (Wolf: Me), Child Naruto( My cousin), Anko from Naruto (Heiwa)

        The first thing I look for in a convention is an excited community. If you find a group on facebook that is buzzing with people discussing costumes, meet up times, vendors, etc. then you just know that this will be a lively event.

Did Marion-Con have that? Yes-ish.

They had a group and it was fairly active. A lot of the activity came from vendors but there is anything particularly wrong with that. This group helped me out, turns out a friend from filming was going to the convention and I had no idea. Thankfully him and I got to meet up. That is exactly the type of thing those groups are good for.
Note to self: Next time take a selfie so I can prove that I have friends.

        Signage! Oh my gosh this is just such a big one for me. Is there clear and direct signage? It's hard to have fun when you don't know where the fun's at. There is also an underlying importance in signage, a lot of conventions are family friendly and in the event that a child get separated from their parent it is nice for them to be able to send a text that says "I am by Panel 1-A" or something of that sort.

Did Marion-Con 2 have Signage? Yeah... not really.

When we first got there we weren't quite sure which parking lot to park in, then we weren't sure which door to go in. Once we were in it was pretty clear where the dealers room was; however, I was never able to find out where the panels were. It didn't matter all that much though because Heiwa had to be at work soon and I was dead tired because of school so we wouldn't have been able to see them anyways.

         Interactive features. I like my conventions to be interactive, be it panels, dancing, game room, DeadPool conga lines (I'm talking about you Yama-Con) or whatever form of fan to host interactions you have.

So did Marion-Con 2 have Interactive Features? Yes-ish again.

They had panels.  I cannot say if they were good or bad or anything like that because I didn't get the chance to attend one, much less find one. I am going to give them full credit for this though because they still had them. Interactive features are the difference between a convention and an oversized dealers room.

       Costumes!! You knew this was coming. Every convention should have costumers galore! Why? Because a convention is the 1 day out of the week that we get to strut our stuff and show off our favorite characters or costumes in a way that has been deemed socially unacceptable.

Did Marion-Con 2 Have Costumes Galore?! There were costumes.

There was definitely costumes there. We wont talk about quality of costumes because as always it ranged  from "Woo!!!" To "Who??" and that's a really touchy subject. I try not to talk about peoples costumes unless they ask me to or give me consent to write about them. Consent matters!

        Vendors: A good vendors room has at least 5 of the top sellers from the last convention and at least 5 new ones. That's my own little criteria. Overall when I judge vendors I judge them on quality, organization, relevant merchandise, people skills and prices.

Did Marion-Con2 have good vendors? Sure.

I picked 3 favorites that I had never met before and saw one of my reoccurring favorites so it was satisfactory.

The quality of merch at the convention was mostly good, I did see some things that I felt a little iffy about but nothing to the point of being a whistle blower.

The organizations of the vendors was good but some of the vendors organizational skills were questionable. I like to look at tables and be able to identify things I want to look at and things I don't. Example: Belt buckles on the left, bracelets on the right. I don't wear belts that often so no point in look to the left where as I am rather fond of character bracelets so I will be all in the right.
Some vendors had belt buckles in their bracelets and T-shirts in the necklaces and it.. was an OCD nightmare. 

Relevant merchandise.. It's no secret that I am there for the anime and SuperNatural stuff. Despite the fact that this is a comic convention it still appealed to my nerdy needs with a few vendors having that type of thing. (I almost came home with a Misha lightswitch cover x3)

People skills- Very few vendors can control a crowd.
There is one guy that is a really good crown controller and artist but I can't remember his official name at the moment.

Prices: I haven't really called people out before but I am not afraid to do that now. Thankfully there isn't anyone to call out from this con. I have seen vendors change prices of hot items as the day goes on or as the stock dwindles. I rarely buy things from people if there isn't a set price listed in ink on the table or display. There were listed prices on almost all the tables except one which I have been watching at a few cons and we will talk about that later.

        Location!! A beautiful location certainly helps any convention. I have seen industrial locations (sort of like Shelby-con) outdoorsy/vacation-y feeling locations (Like Yama-con) that have both provided unique photo-ops, pleasurable sitting room, and some eye fetching scenery. A bonus is when there are friendly eating and shopping establishments in the surrounding areas. As an example, one of the best parts about Hickory-con is the costumed Mall Crawl that almost always happens.

How was Marion-con2's location? ...Not favorable.

I will give them the fact that they had a hard time with locations this time around. They had to keep moving due to unforeseen circumstances and it just wasn't easy to work with. They ended up being in a highschool, which reminds a lot of people of their acne-filled days of homework and flip-phones. So no, it wasn't a heart warming location and it wasn't very pretty. There was plenty of seating though so that was nice.

     Top 3 vendors!
First, "Itty Bitty Beasts" Her "artwork and offbeat toys" were simply adorable and fairly unique. What really sold me on her vending abilities was her willingness to stop and chat with us.

Second, "DeZoo Arts" Now, I would link this but after checking out his websites I noticed that nothing has been updated this year and I didn't feel comfortable using deadlinks. He was very dedicated while working on his art at the show and had some fairly decent pieces on his table. You know it has to be alright when I take time to notice an artist.

Finally, "Max Dowdle; Artagem" He won the "most aesthetically pleasing business card" award. I love the unique design that feels like it crawled out of a story book. After viewing his website I am even more intrigued.

Please check out these vendors!

      Quick overview of my experience at the con:

Overslept due to exhaustion, managed to wake up and get in costume, picked up cousin and got to the con about an hour late. Much to my surprise we still got one of the grab bags which suggests that we were one of the first 100 people through the door.  Walked around the vendors table to get a good look at availability and prices then introduced ourselves to some of the vendors, picked my favorites and went to film some videos. After the con we went to McDonalds where the people were less than pleased to see costumed maniacs enjoying their food. Ah, the smell of judgment in the morning -_-

      Highlight of this convention? It was my little cousins first and he had a blast. He has been asking me ever since about when we can go back. In the end, all that really matters is that people had a good time and he clearly did.

Marion-con 2 was a successful con for the most part. That being said, they have released the fact that they will be sticking to a 1 con a year schedule and I can't blame them. I respect and support their choice and cannot wait for the next Marion-con.

Idea's for improvement: You guys got this, the only thing I could suggest is maybe add some music. It was awfully quiet in the high school.

~Aki Ame Okami

AARC (Asheville Anime Regional Convention) Review by Heiwa!

Hey guys! :D I don't ever write on here, but I DEFINITELY found a need to express my thoughts today!

First: I want to apologize for my absence on the blog. I've discovered that a lot of my posts resemble Aki's almost exactly, so it is kind of pointless for me to post them. I'm sure you don't want to read the same thing twice :)

Alright, now for my review of AARC. My letter grade for this event? D-! My reasoning?

Confession.

Before I explain what put me off so bad about AARC, it is very important for me to confess to the followers on Ani-Maze-Me that Heiwa (me) is a Type 1 Diabetic. I have been dealing with this disease for most of my life, as I was diagnosed when I was only 10 months old. I never felt the need to bring this up before, because it was never made an issue. (If you want to follow a separate blog that deals with diabetes, please check out diabetically speaking,) 

First Impressions.

There were a lot of cosplayers! The convention opened at 10am, but we were there at 9:30 to get our tickets. There was a ton of people in cosplay, and cosplayers got a big discount on the tickets. 

With that being said, at every other convention I have been to the cosplays were mostly hand-made and the cosplayers were very proud of the amount of time spent on their outfits. At AARC, a lot of the "cosplays" that I saw were fandom merch. The cosplays were not hand-made, and the cosplayers were mostly showing off their stuff. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, it just isn't what I am used to. I would rather hand make my cosplay, personally, because I have more pride in it when it is mine. 

In most of the cons I've attended, the fandom was very social especially while waiting in line. At AARC, everyone kept to themselves and it was awkwardly quiet and solitary while we waited. 

Offended Heiwa.

I get that their had to be bag checks. It's Asheville. I understand and appreciate security, especially high security! However, I was extremely put off by the "security" at AARC. 

Before entering the building, you have to have a bag check. Once again, that's fine. It's not like I've never encountered those before. What I haven't encountered before was the attitude regarding my medical needs. She checked my snack bag (in the event of a low blood sugar, I have to have something to eat to bring it up so I won't die) and told me that I was not allowed to keep ANY of the stuff that was in that bag. I remembered right then to inform her that I was a diabetic. To my surprise, the woman still insisted that I could not take the food in with me. 

I said "I have to have that with me. I'm a diabetic. It's in case my sugar goes low." 

She responded: "I don't know what to tell you, you're not taking it in." 

So I got mad. My response? Before I could stop myself: "I don't know what to tell you, yes I am." 

About that time, two other cosplayers jumped to my aid and informed her about my hippa rights. 

Let me tell you how much that offended me...

It is extremely embarrassing being called out on my disease in front of a huge crowd. It is almost worse when someone else has to come to my aid. I wasn't breaking any rules. I wasn't saying I was above the rules. I do not want to have to explain my disease to prove that I am obeying the rules. That is discrimination, and it is humiliating. 

She went to ask someone if I could keep the bag of food, and they told her not to argue with me. That was when it got worse. Because she then had to search my usual diabetes bag/purse before I could enter the building. She found my glucagon emergency kit (a large needle that injects glucose in case I go too low and pass out), and had to ask me what it was. I told her, and she responded with "well I guess I'll let you take that in. Since you're a diabetic." She repeated that comment when she found my apple juice, the quickest carb I had. That was very rude. 

I've been bag checked before. Even if you question me, do not question me like that. I have never felt so disrespected at ANY convention before! I've been to Yama Con, a much bigger 3-day convention in Tennessee, and the security was amazing! They made you feel like they were on your side, and that was much different from the feeling I got at AARC. 

Outcome of my Offendedness

Because of the way they made me feel at the entrance, my blood sugar bottomed out shortly after we left the dealers room. We were leaving the convention hall before 11 am to get something to sustain me. From what I remember, the feel of the entire con was very different. It felt very cliqued and isolated. Every other con I have ever been to has felt like a gathering of friends or family, but AARC was nothing like that. 

I wouldn't recommend AARC to anyone in the fandom unless it isn't out of their way to get there. It was fun, but it wasn't worth the travel to get there. I would recommend that the people producing AARC learn the difference between "guilty until proven innocent" and "innocent until proven guilty." They need to know how to treat their guests like we are all on the same side, and then it wont feel so cliquey or isolated. 

I love the fact that they gave cosplayers a discount, though. That was a great idea! I also love how they had a gaming section of the vender/dealers room.  That was something I hadn't seen anywhere except for Yama-Con. I like that. That was about it, though. 

Sorry for such a bad review, but I had to share my thoughts! 

Thanks for your patience in dealing with me :) 

~ Heiwa Kibo Hane

Glamour Shots From Marion-Con Spring 2016

 

                 Marion-Con Spring 2016!

 

 

I promised to upload the pictures so here you go!

I hope you enjoy them!
Kiba Inuzuka: Aki Ame Okami 

Hinata Hyuuga: Heiwa Kibo Hane

Itachi Uchiha: Mrs. Zexania Sutcliff

(I love Mrs. Zexania's Grell Sutcliff cosplay. I seriously want to do a Black Butler team cosplay with her one day soon! )

Most of the outdoor pictures were taking facing the flipping sun so I admit that I am squinting for most of them. Sowwy :(

 

Stopped to freshen up and Heiwa FOLLOWED ME into the bathroom, She was staying in character and doing the Hinata Stalker thing. It was all fun and games until she started taken stall shots........ She still has them.

Those dreadful nails were glued on during the car ride to Marion-con. I had to rip them off with pliers later because I had an anniversary dinner to go to -_-




Hope you enjoyed!
~Aki Ame Okami

A Chapter a Day: Day 2 "The Red Deaths" by Seth Ervin Casey Eanes

                  A Chapter A Day: Day 2
                    "The Red Deaths" by Seth Ervin and Casey Eanes

The first chapter has been stuck in my head all day so I am thrilled to read the second one. Lets get going!

~~~~20 minutes later~~~~~~

I think he did it. I think Seam killed his father, the king. I found the bad guy I have been dying to love!
Ok, so in Chapter 2 we learn about the new king. (This is also not a spoiler because it says it on the back of the book so Ha!)
The previous king is dead, hence the war. This chapter was from Seam's, his son, point of view. Again, I love the name. It is weird but has a beautiful meaning. Right off the bat I got "bad guy" vibes from Seam. The way he responded to the funeral and all of the funky Alephian (The religion/culture in the book) rituals. Apparently Seam thought that he wouldn't feel all that bad when the king died because he was looking forward to being the king. He is captivated by the idea of him being king.
Which, I mean that is totally understandable. I think.. I don't know. I have never felt like taking care of a nation or "Realm" because I just don't like people that much, but I guess there are obviously people like that out there. Pretty early in the chapter we get to meet Seams mother, Aleigha, and it is clearly understood that his mother and him have a better relationship than his father and him had.
That was another learning point for me. It was like, "Oh, Okay! He didn't have a strong relationship with his dad.... He totally killed him.". I might just be a morbid thinker but that was my honest first impression. I couldn't help but feel like Aleigha was trying to make up for the gap that was in their relationship but once someone is gone there is only so much you can do.
I don't know about this guy, I am definitely suspicious of him. He


I feel like this is the type of clothing Seam would wear

sounds like a "pretty boy" so even if he is my long awaited "bad guy" I don't know if I can fall in love with him the way I want to. I might be rooting for the good guys at this point :/
Heartbreak here I come! I noticed that the next chapter is from a girls point of view so I am a little excited to see what she is like. Seeing how both the authors are male I am extremely interested in how they wrote from a female point of view. I know that when I am writing I have a hard time with an opposite gender point of view because I write these long paragraphs or chapters and then its just like, "Nope. Nope. Nope. That is not what they should say." and I rewrite half of the chapter because it just isn't working.
I am going to make a list of questions to email the authors about. So far I have,
1. How do you pronounce Kull's name? 2. How do you write from an opposite gender POV and what troubles have you experienced by doing so. I am really looking forward to tomorrows chapter! Thanks for the read and I hope you come back and read along with me!

~Aki Ame Okami

Hickory-Con Spring 2016: A Review and Surprise by Aki Ame Okami

                  Hickory-Con: Spring 2016


What exactly is a Hickory-con?
A Hickory-Con is a comic-con held in Hickory, North Carolina.
Some of you might remember that my first blog post ever was about a previous Hickory-con so I am pretty thrilled to write this post. Let's begin!

My day started after basically, a 3 hour nap. I had been up for 28 hours straight the previous day/night preparing my key prop for Hickory-Con. Can you tell I was a bit enthusiastic?
The blogging team received bad news though. Our dearest Heiwa had to go into work until 1 P.M. Yep... That was terrible news...
I went back to sleep until about noon. Don't judge me, it was an accident.

After Heiwa got home and we got our cosplays in order we left for the con. That put us there around 2:45 PM. It takes us about an hour to get to Hickory but it is totally worth it.

The parking garage and outdoor area was very promising seeing how cars and people were everywhere. Alright enough of that, lets get to what you guys care about. THE CON!

 Our first stop as always was the wonderful Mrs. Zexania Sutcliff! 
Today she debuted her Papyrus cosplay.
I have mad respect for her because I know that she had to be hot in that.

 It got even better though, she had a group of UnderTale cosplayers! I can't even get 1 cosplay friend let alone 3!
They gave us this amazing group shot :)

 
There was a ton of cosplayers there but unfortunately this is my last picture of a cosplay. I do regret that but today was Heiwa's turn to take pictures and I didn't realize she was slacking off...... My fault. I should have paid attention.

Anyways, this lovely cosplayer and artist to the left is Blue Jay Cosplay  and I just now realized that she is also one of my favorite FairyTail cosplayers. Excuse me while I fangirl.She was there as an artist and dressed as the blind Toph from Avatar: The Last Airbender. A blind artist. I must be a terrible person because I was thoroughly pleased with this situation.

 

 

 

 We walked around a few times and ultimately had to come back to this vendor for some.. unexplainable reasons.
This is, and I quote, "Pretty Weird Art."
They are accurately named because they had some weird stuff but it was all pleasing to the eyes and fairly humorous which I thought was fantastic. Art these days (especially at cons) tends to focus more on... physical attraction(?) so I was very happy to see some genuinely funny and possibly creepypasta-esque comics. ^_^ 

More vendors! Just no more pictures...

Authors Seth Ervin and Casey Eanes were at the con today and we stopped and chatted with them for a bit. They wrote The Keys of Candor Series. After talking to them I made my first ever con purchase and bought the first book in the series, The Red Deaths, and I don't want to reveal anything about the plot but it looks reaaaallllllyyyyyy good. I actually think that I will do a book review once I have finished it. I will quote the blurb to you though.
(If either author finds this unsatisfying or untrue, even though its word for word, please email or message me and I will take this out)
"King Camden
                        Is Dead.
After forty years of peace, war rages through Candor.
The rulers of the Realms are dying.
Their precious secret of the Keys has been revealed.

Enemies unforeseen move in the shadows and the Nightmares behind the glass will be soon be unleashed.

                                  The DOMINION has awakened.

                             Three Red Deaths. Three Linked Lives. 
                       One Keeper of The Keys. "End quote. This is the blurb on the back of the book and it instantly had me hooked. If it hooked you in the same way feel free to check out the book on Amazon. Check out the books official website at http://www.keysofcandor.com/ (I love the choice of font on the website. Editors should definitely go look at it <3 )   



                                                    Altered Vision Contacts
This guys are pretty rad. They had a wide variety of everything nerdy/geeky (which, if you are in the fandom then that isn't an insult but a pet name) You know those really cute resin buttons? They had some with Slenderman and Jeff on them which was really tempting for me but I had a hard time parting with my money.
They had everything from Pokémon to Five Nights At Freddy's so that is definitely a booth that I am going back to! (With more money.) Oirnari* and Kotari* bought stuff from them.

                         Artful Sunshine by Donna & Will Petrey 

These artists and crafters had everything from earrings and necklaces to flat out exquisite sketches. I walked over to look at their FairyTail earrings but I don't have pierced ears so I was pretty bummed but the lady running the booth (My guess is that she was Donna, so Ms. Donna.) told me they had necklaces and other non-piercing goodies on the inside of the display. Well I got to looking and it turns out that they had Howl's Moving Castle merchandise.
Howl's Moving Castle. If you have been following me for any period of time then you should know that I am in love with that movie and it is possibly what started my Otaku tendancies.  If I had pierce ears I would have a pair of Calcifer earrings right now. I almost got them anyways. Definitely go check them out!
 
Alright, last thing to mention in the way of "vendors".
I got DeadPool's number.
No, just kidding (though that would have been great.) I only got his business card. The design on the card looks kinda like the Splatter Grunge Art from Marion-Con.... Collaboration maybe?! Anyways I really need to stop stalking all the really cool cosplayers in my  area.

CARS!
They had two new members in the car club this time around and I freaked out when I saw them. Jeeps are my spirit animal.

This beautiful beast to the left belongs to Don Teems who is a regular on AMC's The Walking Dead. This is his zombie response jeep.
I had to take a traditional grill shot.

Glamour shot!
It so pretty.......

That is just about it for my post. Below I have my proof(s) of purchases, A summary and a special surprise. ;)

Heiwa made me. She said,
"Look at me in your Bassy voice."
Yeah..
Anyways, This is the most alluring book ever.

And this is my precious littler Harbinger of Nightmares, Darkrai!
He is a Pokémon.
He is my fictional soulmate, or lack-of-soulmate.

Keep scrolling.



Overall Hickory-Con: Spring 2016 was a mega success and somehow waaay better than its previous version. They are properly continuing to expand their horizons and I look forward to what they accomplish in the future. They are definitely on par with Marion-Con, slightly better mostly because of size, so I am excited to see which one of them takes first place in my heart for best 1-day con.
Something that I think would be cool in the future for Hickory-Con would be a "Mall Crawl" after the cosplay contest. Nothing is more fun then seeing normal peoples faces when they see a bunch of people walking around in costume. That happened to me at lunch.
I accidentally scared some seniors...

I will post some "glamour shots" in a separate post but I have to warn you that they weren't very good. It poured rain today so my hair got really frizzy and I called the photo-shoot quits.


Now look below for one of the most amazing things ever!!






I am very excited to announce that we have added not one but two new members to the Ani-Maze-Me team! They will be called Oinari and Kotori! I look forward to working with them in the future and possibly cosplaying with them! (Unlike the other members that I mention, I don't live with these guys so they are possibly my favorites!)

~Aki Ame Okami

Cosplay in 20 Days Or Less! Day 3

                         Cosplay in 20 Days Or Less! Day 3

Today I finalized the play-doh mold. The process I took to accomplish this was long and tedious. First I experimented to get the right shape in the play-doh, then I would fill it with hot glue, cool it, clean it, trim it, sand it and tweak it a little bit at a time until I got the desired result. If it were up to me and I didn't have a deadline, I would give it a few more days and buy proper crafting tools so that I could create a perfect (and symmetrical) pendant.

Sorry, I couldn't resist. It was actually the debute of this blog the introduced me to Soul Eater. This pic has a ton of pixels so it looks so tiny on here xd
Anyways, onto the crafting process!



As you can see below, I have a flat headed metal tool (This was $1 at rite-aid and has a huge head)

After you put the hot glue into your playdoh mold, you place this (or a similar) metal tool behind it to hold it in place. It also helps to give whatever you're casting a flat back. A lot of the tutorials I read said that you pry the

 Play-Doh off of the metal tool but I always took the metal off first.
To the left you can see a slightly blurry picture of me casting. I had just finished the hot glue and took the picture as fast as I could. Now, if I had done this part correctly the metal pieces (The crown and the spear, which is actually to halves I glued into a whole) would stay in the hot glue and have a strong bond.
Except I am a grade A screw-up. I had to use the tip of my hot glue gun to re-melt the hot glue and adjust the pieces into it. Which as you can see was a little bit of a pain the *Cough* neck.

The spear was obviously a little bottom heavy so I ended up giving it a little skirt of glue to keep it steady. It wasn't necessary but just a precaution. The crown was much easier to reposition. I gave it a bit extra glue as well.



The metal pieces obviously got really hot one I was messing with them and the glue so don't ever try this with bare fingers. I didn't burn myself but I am half made of hot glue already sooo.........



Alright, the next step for me is to clean it, tape over the metal parts, cover it in Gesso, sand it, paint it, cry because I did something wrong and start over again! I don't know if I will have a progress report for tomorrow because I have prom tomorrow evening and the prep for that is gonna be an all day affair. Gotta go get flowers and all the crap... -_-

Thanks for reading! Hope to see you guys again soon ;)

~Aki Ame Okami








Marion-Con 2016: Debute!

Hello again! Heiwa and I were at it again as we hit the con front bright and early this morning! Today a neighboring town debuted their first comic-con. To be honest the last small town con I went to (Morganton-Con) had a weird industrial feel to it. What does that mean you ask? Well I felt like if you weren't in line to buy something then they didn't really want you there. I also noticed that some vendors I had previously admired had considerably raised their prices for some unknown reason...
I was a little nervous as we started the hour long drive (one way) to Marion.
What if I had lost my passion for conventions? Surely that wasn't possible after just one bad experience..... Right?
That's what I was thinking on the way over.
Marion-Con instantly revived my passion. 

We weren't even out of the car and could tell that we weren't going to get a swag bag. ( Marion-Con gave out EPIC swag bags to the first 100 people in the door, we got there before the con even got started and we still missed them.)

 

The line was actually really fun. I know that sounds weird. Seriously though, every one was laid back and just having a nice chat. At one point the ROTC class ran by and someone shouted "There goes the G. I. Joe cosplayers!" It was great. The only that would have made it better is if there was music to rock out to while waiting in line.

 I took this picture while Heiwa was paying for us to get in. The first room was packed in pretty tight. (Did I mention Marion-Con rented BOTH floors?!)

 

...............Over priced plushies that can steal your heart because they are adorable or...

Sorry that its blurry, I actually stepped on some ones foot while trying to take this picture. Sorry random person!

Over priced plushies that can steal your soul :p

 

Now keep in mind that when I say "over priced" its not actually an unfair price. Anime/manga merchandise is hard to come by in person (not online) so its actually a decent price. Anime/Manga is just an expensive addiction hobby :)

 

Not just one DeadPool but two. Think about this. TWO DEADPOOL! They didn't ask us to conga-line but they did direct us to an Itachi Uchiha. That makes them saints. Who doesn't need more Itachi in their life? Well, I mean Sasukes parents probably...

 

 

The second room (actually kinda a separate building) seemed a lot bigger than the first but now that I think about it, it probably wasn't that much bigger.

                                   It was still super packed.

On to the Artists!

**Ok, first off I would like to say that there is a reason why I took photos with a visible glare, multiple pictures in the shot or slightly blurry. Artists protection! This way no one feels the need to download the image and sell it as their own creation. The only people with rights to these pictures are the creators. I got permission to take the pictures and write about them. If any vendors are displeased with the pictures or article written about them they can/will be removed at their request.**


First up is,
                                   Dungeon Wears

I don't have any pictures of their booth because the man in charge of it really knew how to work a crowd. There was constantly patrons at the booth. Trust me, check them out ;)
The quote on the back of their card is:

        "Fine Wearable Art For The Average Adventurer"

........................................................

 Wow, Fantastic Baby.

          I was referencing the song: Fantastic Baby

Can we all take a moment to appreciate how gorgeous this is? 

This was done by The Painting Mama's 

They had some pretty fantastic art. It came in a wide variety of sizes and they had something for every fandom.

Heiwa actually had to talk me out of buying a copy of the beautiful beast that is Ghost Rider. I had to save money to take my parents to dinner for their anniversary. They are worth it :)

 

All City Studios

 

This booth was pretty cool. The artist actually made a painting while he was at the con so that was really fun to watch.

We didn't get to watch him finish it though....

Their business cards actually have some really awesome pictures on the back. Being an editor I really admire their business card layout.

 

                                                        
                The Walking Dead fandom has the right  to fangirl.

               They had everything from TWD to Star Wars.
                           Zombies and Jedi's am I right?

 

 

"Why do you look like someone died?"

"Wait."

~The Addams Family

Correct me if I'm wrong but is that a set of grumpy CareBears?

Would that make them Don't-CareBears?

 

 

Next we have something that I have been fangirling about for a while. (Not in a creepy way)

 

Spider Spot Shop

 

The first time I saw them I guessed at what the are style was called.

Splatter Art is what I guessed. He is actually "The original Splatter Grunge Artist" so I was pretty close :P

They have incredibly fair prices when it comes to the posters.

This was another booth that I had to be talked out of purchasing something at....

 

 

This is the blurry photo I mentioned earlier. These characters are incredibly popular and I didn't want to risk someone trying to steal the art. That Sebastian X Ciel picture would make the shippers swoon. 

 

 

 

This is one of the best Link pictures that I have ever seen and I have seen A LOT of Link pictures......

 

 

I will add the glamour shots of Heiwa and I later.

Marion-Con was a blast and their debute was fantastic. I certainly hope that they continue to grow and maybe add an event like maybe a gaming contest or cosplay chess or something semi-social.

Thanks for the read! Sorry that this post was so long.

 

 

~Aki Ame Okami