Nekocon Line-Up 2015

So I'm still not one of those hardcore cosplayers that wears two (or more) different cosplays in one day and I still can't bring myself to wear one on the Sunday of a con.  Especially not a convention like Nekocon that's in November.  I'm usually so cold while cosplaying that it's a treat to wear warm comfy clothes on that Sunday, lol.

Anyway, to get to the point, I am again only wearing two new cosplays for this convention.  My DH and a couple of our friends want to do a group cosplay and they chose The Last Airbender/ The Legend of Korra as our theme.  I'm, of course, going to be Korra, one friend will be Zuko, the other friend has decided he'll be Tenzin and my DH has decided to be a genderbent Toph. Actually, in the Ember Island Players episode of The Last Airbender, the team goes to see a play by the Ember Island Players about them, and Toph is portrayed as a man, lol.  So that's who my DH is going to cosplay.  (References pics from left to right: Korra, Zuko, Tenzin, Toph (as portrayed by a man).

So that'll be one of the days.  For the other day, I'm going to try to be Shinoa Hiragi from Owari no Seraph (Seraph of the End). I just loved these uniforms and I think she's a great character. Plus now I have a reason to have another giant weapon. I say try because it's usually difficult to find time to work on cosplay once school starts, but I definitely will work my hardest.

I'm so excited for these cosplays! I better get started, lol.

Happy cosplaying!

Otakon Review (2015)

This year for Otakon my DH finally agreed to just let fate lead us instead of trying to plan every minute and get to every panel.  I have to say, this was the best year yet.

Friday, I wore my Princess of the Crystal cosplay.  That one was so much fun and I got a ton of compliments because not many people have seen cosplayers do this character. Plus, it's just fun to wear a big flowing skirt.

This was my first time wearing circle lenses and I have to say that I'm hooked.  They were just as comfortable as my regular contacts and definitely put the final touch on the cosplay. These are the Vassen Cloud Nine Pink from PinkyParadise.com. You can't really see it in the picture, but in real life my eyes were obviously pink.

There is a garden terrace at the Baltimore Convention Center that is great for taking pictures and a lot of cosplayers hang out there, because photographers like to go there and just shoot.  While we were there the author of Cosplay in America, Ejen Chuang, took my picture!  Although I don't think he's posted it anywhere, it's still an honor to even be asked, since he's seen and worked with so many great cosplayers.

I also finally got a picture with Yaya Han on Friday.  Usually the line for her booth is hours long, but we walked up and were only the 3rd people in line.  It was glorious.  She's such an inspiration.

Saturday, I was Esdeath from Akame Ga Kill. Two awesome things happened on Saturday.  The first was that we were interviewed by a journalist from Vice Magazine for an article about cosplay and anime in the black community.  That was just a case of being in the right place at the right time.  We were early for my first professional photoshoot and were just waiting around, when we were approached by the journalist and her photographer.  How serendipitous was that!!  If you want to read the article I've linked it here.





For Esdeath I'm wearing the Vassen Cloud Nine Blue circle lenses also from PinkyParadise and they were just as comfortable and vivid as the pink ones.












The second awesome thing was my first professional photoshoot. I have to shoutout Ash B Images for the amazing photos that I've posted here..   If you like her work, you can check out her Facebook page, by clicking her name.

Registration was low this year for Otakon, which is of course bad for the convention, but it was great for us because it was much easier to get around and I just feel like I was able to pay more attention to cosplay since my line of sight wasn't being overloaded.  I do hope, however, that they are able to get the numbers that they want next year.  I love to see my favorite conventions succeed.

I also made two new friends at this convention, which is always a great thing and a few of us are planning a group cosplay.  There will be more about that in the next post though.

To see more pictures of my cosplays check out my DH's photography Facebook page at Tarou Studios. If you like s work, message him and maybe he'll take some pics for you at our next convention.

Happy cosplay!

Hey! That's me in that article!!

A journalist from VICE Magazine was writing a story about cosplay and anime in the black community and they interviewed me, my husband and our two friends.  It was absolutely exciting to just be interviewed, but they even used all of our interviews and published the article with pictures of us!  Out of the 30 people that she interviewed, she actually used all of us.  It's so exciting!  I wish it was in print so that I could buy a bunch of copies, but printing it out from online will have to do.

The article titled "What Black Anime Fans Can Teach Us About Race in America" was a really good read, and I'm so happy to have been able to contribute.  If you want to read it yourself, just click the link above.

Happy cosplay!