It’s been a week since Sakura-Con ended and I am just now getting to the website. The hard shock of reality taking you back to grocery shopping, paying bills and going to work causes what my friend Heidi refers to as PCRDD – Post-Con Reality Distortion Disorder. In the nine years I have been attending convention, I actually do suffer when my main con, Sakura-Con, is over. I look at people on the street and they’re not cosplayers. Bawls suddenly isn’t an integral part of my diet and I have some withdrawal problems. Instead of trying to find my next panel, I’m trying to find my serving apron and I’m running late for work.
But in the beauty of it all, I get to look back on a truly magnificent convention this last year. Sakura-Con blew my mind for a ninth year in a row. Here are some of the big highlights of my year at Sakura-Con:
– I hosted a panel for the first time ever. Need Input: A Panel for Cosplay Research is my first step in a quest of anthropological field research to find out why people cosplay and how they feel belonging to a community at a convention. I was able to record all of the dialogue from the panel, including all of the feedback from the audience. I plan to make a transcript of the entire panel so people can read over all of the dialogue that took place. It is in progress as we speak, but transcription is a slow process. Stay tuned for the PDF file.
– In addition to my panel, I also conducted a 125 person survey to gain statistical information from the cosplay community, for cosplayers and non-cosplayers alike. I asked all sorts of questions, from basic info like age, gender identity and interest and scaled questions about feeling from cosplay, motivation to cosplay and level of intimidation from being judged when cosplaying at a convention. Now I just have to figure out how to make statistics out of this massive poll that I took…
– The AMV Contest is a very integral part of the competitive nature at Sakura-Con. It is one of the biggest contest with the most amazing handmade trophies I have ever seen. In a room with thousands of other Con-goers, we watched 35 awesome anime music videos battled it out in various categories. The AMV that won not only Best Technical also won Best of Show for the Audience AND Best of Show for the Judges. Here’s a link to Ileya’s awesome Evangelion AMV that stole the show and rocked out to my favorite Imagine Dragons song – http://youtu.be/7rMcBwbZbKM
– I debuted my newest cosplay, Megumi from Burst Angel. I will admit, I have been seriously been lacking with updating my cosplay profiles, and I plan to try and change that today after I make breakfast and before I have to go to work, but there will be photos of this cosplay in time to come. I decided that I needed to get back to being sexy with cosplay, so I chose one with tons of T & A. My fiance took some amazing photos in a photo shoot after the convention. Since I’ve told you all about it now, it would be rude not to give you some visual to go off of…
– So on Friday night at the convention, I snuck into my old tromping grounds that is the Anime Swimsuit Contest. I have had something to do with this panel since the first year it happened. I competed for three years in a row, taking first place the second year by Fan’s Vote and third place the two other years. Last year I sat on the judges panel. I walked into the panel seeing the regular crowd that runs the contest, including my friend Frank the Bearded Man. The host of the panel was missing, and it was set to start in 10 minutes. I decided to just walk in a join the judges. I got to assert seniority with someone asked “who the hell I thought I was sitting on the judge’s panel” and recited my history with the contest. That somebody quickly silenced themselves. I could hear the contestants talking about the contest in previous years, especially two years ago when the Horo lady crushed a beer can with her thighs. They all said they wanted to meet her. I cleared my throat and waved at them like some retired legend from an ancient battle. The legend lives on….
– I participated in Cosplay Chess again this year as Little Sister, a huge success I must say. I definitely think I scared some competitors on the chess board and all of my battles went well ^_^ Good job everyone! Mark and I will be doing an outdoor photoshoot with Little Sister since I have a new set of contact lenses to make the cosplay ultra creepy!
– I also managed to survive my entire convention is a horrible cold that I think I acquired on top of the fact that I also had bronchitis. So yeah, I was pretty damn sick at Con too.
This concludes my epic Sakura-Con update! Next post will probably consist on my future plans for my next conventions! I also plan to post my prospective cosplay plans for the future!
-KLR
Red Leaf Cosplay 