The Israeli Convention: September 2014

I love anime. It took a while for me to become hooked, but now I'm as solid as can be. So I was very excited when I finally got to go to Cami, which I had been waiting for two months to arrive. And I was not disappointed.

My day started out early in the morning, so I could catch an early train. My brother dared me to go to the train station in full costume. Needless to say, I took him up on it.

Yeah baby! Dig it!

I dressed as Harry Dresden, a sort of wizard PI who lives in Chicago. The character is from a book series called The Dresden Files, and I highly recommend it. Read it. Love it.

Unfortunately for me, I had painted the staff the night before, and the paint, being oil-based, wasn't fully dry. I experienced a few accidents until I found a method of grasping the staff without getting paint all over my fingers.

Once I arrived in Haifa, I found a group of people dressed in costume also, whom I assumed (correctly) were also going to Cami. It was a short walk in the sun, yet I quickly realized very that heat and black leather coats don't go together very well.

Once I got to the convention center, I realized that I had made a good choice to come early. I arrived around 9:05, when the convention was due to open at 10, and there was already a nice line waiting ahead of me.

I struck up a conversation to the person standing in line next to me, and we chatted for quite a long while. In the interim, I also took some pictures of cosplayers.

You DO matter, Stanley.

Sie sind das Essen und wir sind die Deadpool!

We waited over an hour to get to buy a ticket for the convention, where I was a joined by a friend of mine. An hour! So I was practically two hours baking in the hot sun. Ah, the sacrifices we make for cosplay.

During this time, there were people cheering for no apparent reason, my chat buddy and I sang some anime tunes as we got close to the head of the line, and a 'Whut?' moment. Someone passed me one of those things that you string together to block people from entering somewhere, and told me to pass it along. So I took it, passed it to the person behind me, and told her the same thing. It kept being passed down the line until I couldn't see it anymore.

When I finally got my ticket, I held it up high, and shouted "YES!" loudly, which got me a huge cheer. Then it was off to get me bracelet and enter the convention!

There was a lot to see! I deposited my bag at the bag counter and started exploring the booths!

Not shown: FMA 3-in-one edition, volumes 1-3

During this time, there was one person who recognized my cosplay, and someone else who recognized me from another convention (Giborim, I had cosplayed as Dresden then too). It was a rather nice feeling.

There was a singing contest that was taking place in the main auditorium, but I came in near the end, so I only got to hear the last two singers, plus two of the organizers singing some song called the Ping Pong Song or something like that. It was quite fun to listen to. There was a musical afterwards, but I was going to a lecture that was taking place during that time, so I couldn't stay for it.

Afterwards, I drew up my courage, and signed up for the walk-on, a simple showing off of your costume onstage. I was really nervous about it, but more on that later.

On a related, but only slightly out of sequence note, here are the pictures I took with others!

OBJECTION!

Then it was time for my lecture, titled 'Stitches Are Not Everything', given by Nimrod Gold of Geminion Cosplay and Yael Geller of Hot-Cocoa Cosplay. It was about different techniques one could use in the different aspects of cosplaying: stitching, painting, wigs, and more! I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I fell asleep halfway through, though only because I got 3 1/2 hours sleep the night before. Take this as a tip fellow conventioners: make sure you get a good nights sleep before the convention in order to properly enjoy it.

Afterwards, I took an extended break to eat lunch, and just hang around a bit. I spent some time in the game room, as well as wandering around. I wanted to play MTG with someone, but everyone seemed to busy looking at cards. Maybe next time.

Krillin...won?

WHAAAAAAAAAT!?

A place for fixing up your cosplay

Later, around 3:30, I went to the front of the main auditorium for the briefing on the walk-on, which was supposed to happen at 3:45. During this time, three more people recognized my cosplay, one of whom took a picture of me, and I chatted with one for a good 10 minutes or so. Unfortunately, the briefing never took place, and the next event there, a band scheduled to play called Saigen Complex, didn't end up happening until 4:20.

Still, once they did get to play (though a song or two was skipped due to limited time), we heard some awesome tunes, starting with Guren no Yumiya from Attack on Titan, some more anime tunes, a Japanese song, an original song named Amud Anan (Cloud Pillar), and ended with the Dragon Ball Z theme.

(next time I'll take whole clips of the songs)

Afterwards, everyone pushed out of the auditorium in order to set up the cosplay competition, except for those in the competition and the walk-on. When they called out the names of those in the walk-on, I was surprised to not hear my name. Apparently, there was a selection process, as many had signed up, but there wasn't enough time for all. And I didn't make the cut. Still, at least I got to keep my seat near the front.

When everyone else was let back in, it sounded like a stampede.The seats quickly filled up while we waited. Like Yume-Con, the competition took a long time to start (is that a thing?), so there were attempts at entertaining the audience. One of the judges (dressed as Zero from Code Geass) got up on stage and cracked many jokes, one his better ones being, 'just like DBZ, it takes an hour for something to happen!'

Here are the photos from the competition (my phone died halfway through, so I don't have photos of every cosplay)

(extra photos of the cosplayers can be found here)

I'll be getting a normal camera soon, so rest assured I won't be short on pictures again. Here's some of the other cosplays:

-Pit and Dark Pit from Kid Icarus: Uprising (plus a little sketch)

-Alice and the Queen of Hearts from Alice Madness

-Madoka and Homura from Puella Madoka Magicka (sketch)

-Saiyaman, Goten, and Young Trunks from Dragon Ball Z (like I needed to tell you that)

-Characters from Adventure Time

-Two characters from Pandora Hearts (who lipsynced 'If You Were Gay' from Avenue Q)

-The One Piece cast

Then there was the walk-on. There were a bunch of interesting cosplayers, the best of which was the Fairy Tail cast; they did the whole 'Fairies fighting each other' shtick. At some point there was a lull, in which I chatted with one of the cosplayers, who turned out to be a programmer in the army (as I had been once upon a time). We had a nice discussion, and then things resumed. When they had finished giving out prizes, that was my cue to leave, as I had wanted to speak with someone I had become friendly with and helped me

with starting my blog, one Chen Moyal of the Hotaru Group. He was running a booth selling figurines, necklaces, and other things like that directly across from the auditorium. We talked for a bit, about what could be improved, and the like. Speaking of which...

The cosplay competetion was great, and in fact, made the convention retroactively fun for me. Up until that point, I had felt like I had had an okay time, something nice, but not something great. Then I went to the competition, and felt like it had all been worth it. Thinking back on it and my experience at Yume-Con, I'm pretty sure it had to do with the amount of events I went to. I had only gone to one lecture, listened to the band, and watched the competition. By Yume-Con, I started warming up after the performance by Trick Israel and the Kendo demonstration, so I'm know that had something to do with it. But enough rambling.

During this period, I had started charging my phone a little bit, so I managed to get one last picture. Enjoy!

For teh bronies

Then I had to go. Like, right away, since I needed to catch the train back home and catch a bus before the last one left (10:45). But just before I left, there were these two guys who recognized my cosplay, and one even asked to take a picture with me! My first request!

Sadly, no picture here.

But I couldn't stay to get it from him, so I left. Once I arrived at the station, I ended joining a large group of people who were also leaving the convention. Once the train arrived, we exclusively took the last car, filling it to the brim with cosplayers. And once again, I struck up a conversation with the guys around me. What a great end to a great day!

So all in all, the convention was great! The only thing that really irked me was the hour long wait to get my ticket, which I hope won't take as long next time. Oh, and the long wait for the briefing on the walk-on.

See you at the next convention!

If you are aware of any convention taking place here in Israel, please notify me, and I will do my best to report on it!

The Israeli Convention

Friday, September 12, 2014

PSA: Utopia

REPORT: Icon

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

REVIEW: Cami