Well it is the only fall anime convention in Houston. Still I think it is the biggest of anime coventions in Texas during the fall. I was seeing people from California and Louisiana coming to the con. Spoke to a guy who was in town for a concert who said he came from California so I guess the con has some weigh to it. So that is nice.
I did a lot of tweeting at this con. So if you were keeping up with me on Twitter then cool. Still that was only the tip of the iceberg.
So this post has a lot to it. I have pictures! Stories! Stoires! Thoughts! Well a lot of things. Not really sure where to start but I think I start with One Piece first then go on from there.
One Piece and Oni Con
Damn I wish I took this picture at a better angle.
Still I have to say that I saw a lot of One Piece cosplayers. I been going to cons for the last two and a half years and in all my days I have never seen so many cosplayers. I went to Akon 09 and there was a lot as in the Supernovas and a full StrawHat crew but I can say I didn't expect to see so many One Piece cosplayers at just this con. There were Aces, Zoros, Luffys, Sanjis and a few Namis. Though it was cool to see the Usopps and Sogekings. Still I remember past OniCons where there were little One Piece cosplays and I was like one out of three Luffy cosplayers there. Seems like things have changed in the past year. That is good.
Now to the individual days.
Day 0: Thursday
My OniCon adventure started on Thursday. Remember the Manga post that I made last week? Well right after I got done with that post, I ran to my car and drove down the freeway to the con location. I was actually kind of late but it is okay. Traffic and weather was to blame for that. Early but the thing is I had to be there for pre-registration badge pick up. I wanted to get a few hours done that day so I wouldn't have to work so many during the con. It was cool since not may people went to pick up their badge. I think the rain kind of damper that a bit.
Still it was cool. I was able to talk to a few people. The first people in line for badge pick up said that OniCon was going to be their first anime con ever. They looked a bit older then myself but cool to see some new con people. I hoped they liked it. Talked to a few One Piece fans who had read last week's manga. We discussed what happened a bit and shared what we thought about what was going on. That was cool. Nice to have some One Piece talk while working even if I kind of wasn't paying attention to when to move the line a bit. haha
Cosplay
Did no cosplay for that day. What will be the point? Nobody will take a picture of me. Though I did wear my pikachu shirt. People liked that. haha
Day 1: Friday
Interesting stories from the land of Con Registration? Well while I was in cosplay as Ikuto (Shugo Chara!), a girl who just paid for a badge asked for my picture. I wasn't sure if I could take pictures at the moment but I just got up and go with it. After a quick picture, the girl was happy and I got my ego a bit boasted. haha So that was cool. Also made good use of my Spanish and sold a badge in Spanish. I guess this girl from Mexico was in town for the weekend and loved anime so she came with her American friend to the con. Spoke Spanish with her while I took a look at her Mexican ID.
Around one I got done with my shift and was able to take a few pictures. Got pictures taken of myself but the most important thing was that I want to a VA/Industry Panel. Funimation wasn't there doing a panel but some of their VAs were there which included Carrie Savage.
Still something she said that I think I should share is what she said on illegal streaming. Carrie and the others basically repeated the same thing that you been hearing this whole time but from the voice actor point of view. Illegal streaming is hurting both the Japanese and American anime industry. The anime industry is being hurt by the economy right now and it is hard for VAs to get jobs since things are getting tougher for them. Jobs are getting harder to find since now there are younger and newer VAs hitting the job market competing the few jobs that are on the anime market. Carrie said that illegal streaming is making it harder for the American anime industry to get more titles to help cover jobs for both new and old VAs.
Though there is a silver lining in this dark cloud and that is that we are going to hear some new voices in the coming months with new VAs hitting DVDs. Carrie is impressed with what they can do and tells us that we should expect great things from these voice talents. So be prepare to hear some awesome when you get your next DVD purchase in the next year or so. They may surprise you.
Also Carrie and the others shared some things as in what their parents thought about their job. I mean these are some full grown adults so it isn't easy to explain to mom and dad that they work on providing voices for cartoons. Each person said that their parents expect free stuff from them. Carrie said that her grandmother and mom thinks that she plays every high pitch character in every anime the see. Another said that their parents think they do the animation. One of them said that their parents got them a soundboard that they place on their Amazon Wish List. haha I think the best response was that one parent asked when their son will go back to real acting. haha
After the questions there was an autograph session. I got my One Piece Season Two Voyage One DVD signed. There were no StrawHats VAs so no 4Kids DVD signing. haha I post pictures of it later. Carrie did an awesome autograph with a silver and black sharpie.
After the panel I think we had dinner or something. I do remember stopping by the concert but it was a bad (or I think) Visual K band and I hate those. Sorry but I think that the main band need to have something to do with anime as in they sing an opening or ending or something. I don't like the idea that the only reason the band is there is because they are a bunch of pretty boys that sing Japanese. My friends that are girls thought they were okay but me and my other friend walked around for a bit. I played some Jump video game that allows you to fight with Luffy, Naruto and Goku. Kind of like Super Smash Bros but with Jump characters. Luffy is so broken in that game. haha One a game...With Luffy! haha
Well there is me there! For those that care to see my beautiful mug! I decided to start off the con with my Ikuto cosplay. This is my newest cosplay (or was) and I used it for last year's OniCon. I have to say it is pretty good but it isn't finish. I get to that part later. The cosplay was a bit hard since I had to sew buckles and fabric to the pants and shirt (Thank goodness for moms!).The shirt and pants were from Wal-Mart, my cosplay source! haha Tail from Akon and cat ears from last year's OniCon. Man do those ears hurt! I have to adjust them every few hours because they would dig in a bit but they sure are nice. Then the hair. I use hair paint since really I have bad luck with wigs. I have a Sanji cosplay and the wig gives me trouble since I haven't master the skill of hiding my hair.Also I think the blue hair adds a more natural look to the cosplay. Still that hurts too since the tips of my bangs spikes a bit and dig into my forehead. Still you see my hair? Two cans of hair paint right there! Then at the end of the day, two cans of hair paint down the drain! haha
I like this cosplay though. Ikuto is one of my favorite characters from Shugo Chara!. Also the girls love a cat bishonen. Heeheehee. haha It get so many hugs from this cosplay and for the first time a girl asked if I could be her boyfriend for the night. I had to say no but man I should have said yes. Still oh well.
One thing about my cosplays is that I don't finish them. I just do enough work to where they are proper enough to wear and where people can tell who they are. I like to go back and make them better and this one is no different. One thing I need to do to improve this cosplay is make the shirt thinner. It is too baggy so I may work on that before the next con. Another thing is I need more buckles and straps on the leg. I think I need a few buckles on the top part of the legs but I need two or one on the bottom part. Overall this is a good cosplay and it is still getting the job done. haha
Day Two: Saturday
Boy was registration that morning was crazy! There was no stopping it as one person as another came to me asking for passes. I sold a lot of One Day Passes since I guess not many people plan to come back the next day. It didn't help that I had vampire teeth in my mouth and I took them off every so often. They didn't hurt but they were kind of annoying.
I don't really have interesting stories from registration since really I saw so many people that they were all a blur. The best that I can say is that I saw a lot of cosplayers that I wanted to take pictures of but couldn't because I was working. There was this one Princess Peach cosplayer that I was wondering was really a 'princess' but she never talked so I couldn't confrim it. Then I never saw her again for the rest of the con.
I really didn't do much on Saturday, I mean I volunteer then got too tired. I did move my stuff to the volunteer room and went to the results of the AMV contest. There was a guy that enter a piece where it had some One Piece stuff. Most of it came from the Water 7 arc like Luffy and Usopp's fight and the Enies Lobby arc.
I did a lot of pictures that day. I think. All I remember from that day is being piss, jumping into many pictures, and the cosplay contest. I think I do a paragraph each....
Well after dinner I don't remember what he did. As I said and if you follow my tweets, I got a bit pissed that night. Well me and my friends were walking around the con enjoying our time since we had a busy morning handling money, dealing with the tide wave of people and such. So the last thing we wanted to do was get called over and work. Well it seems like security needed from volunteers and they saw our badges were volunteer badge. For some reason the guy ask us if we were on break and then told us to go the cosplay contest and help out. We all look at him and said, "Okay..." and then walked off. We all looked at him strangly and had no plans to go there. We did our hours (my friend and I were actually done for the weekend) and were tired of volunteering. Eventually we decide that it is time to stand in line for the cosplay contest. I was there with my DS trying to catch a pokemon (Shaymin) and some guy from security (maybe same one from before) asked for our badges then saw we were volunteers. So he pulls us out of line, tells us that they need our help, and then tells us what to do. So I turned off my game right as I was throwing my pokeball and joined my friends in checking badges and being a pain to myself and to the people who were in line who been asked for their badges for the ten hundredth time!
We lost our place in line....Because of some guy who was on some sort of minipower trip...We tried to get back in line but that didn't work because we had to also look like we were working. So when the line was moving we tried to get closer to the door while looking like we were working. I got to mock the guy and pretend to be working! Yay! That was fun! haha Eventually we saw that they were limiting the amount of people going in and knew we were going to get screwed out of the cosplay contest. So we went to the security guy that was guarding the door and explain that we were pulled out of line, don't work for security but registration and that we wanted to see the cosplay contest. It worked out of us in the end and we got in.
Well enough of that. As you can see I was upset about it and I did my fuming on Twitter.
Still the cosplay contest was cool! Some people went all out on the idea that OniCon fell on Halloween this year and made Halloween theme costumes.
Then the skits. The first three were lame. I mean they were ok because they got the crowd going but really they sucked...Recently there has been a trend of having singing/opera skits where all the person would do is sing. That is alright and all but really I don't think these things have the right to be called skits. If there was a singing contest then go for it! Lets have a singing contest! Still let not measure them the same as skits were people actually spent hours of preparation and had to learn how to act and get sound boards involve. Also I expect to be entertained by the skits. Lastly I can only dance the Caramelldansen so many times in a row.
One thing that I was surprised to see from the skits was a One Piece and Shugo Chara! skit! I mean we got TWO One Piece skits. One really good one and one okay one. The Shugo Chara! skit was cute so I liked that one. The first One Piece skit had great props and it felt as if I was watching a One Piece episode. It had all the things needed for a good filler episode and just got me laughing though the whole thing. Comedy and fighting. The second one was funny but most of the jokes were just ones that I seen on the internet before. The Shugo Chara! one was just cute. That is all I have to say. Overall I found the skits great.
Even more awesome was that earlier in the day I met them and got a picture of them as the Kanto Gym Leaders. Took me a while to realized since I saw the Blaine from their cosplay hanging out with them.
Cosplay: Vampire Lolita Group Cosplay
Do you know how long it takes to make a dark skin fellow like myself pale? Not much time but it does involve a shade of make up that is much lighter then my usual tone.
The girls with the curls order her outfit online but made alterations to some degree. Not sure on the details since I was more focus on myself. haha
Though one thing that was constant throughout the day was how good I look. This one person that I took registration for said that they liked my hat. That was cool especially since that was the last comment I was expecting. I mean the top hat is actually from Hot Topic and I had no time to add anything to it. Well I wasn't going to mess with it but still amazing how a simple hat from Hot Topic can get so much love. Also I was told I would make a good male lolita/bishonen. Anybody think this is true?
So if you see some OniCon pictures of a Domo and there is a person behind them then most likely it is me. Also if anybody ask why I was biting under his armpit, that is because the best blood can be found there on a Domo-sapine.
Day Three: Sunday
Sunday wasn't much of anything. I played the arcade a bit, roam around the dealers room trying to get some stuff and saw some One Piece that a vendor was playing on a monitor.
I think what is kind of interesting is that I broke the con rule of mines of "Don't wait in line for the dealers room". I never understood the idea of waiting in line but apparently they wanted to keep the dealers room from crowding. I understand that kind of but I didn't need the security guy to keep telling me to keep my badge out.
Also he didn't pull us out of line so I guess he needed our help. No matter, no care. haha
So I was basically looking for a t-shirt and anything else that I was thinking to get. I already knew what shirt I wanted which was a cool Gurren Lagann shirt that had the flaming skull that was blur out a bit. Very cool but the thing is that they only had small. I was waiting till Sunday so I knew how much money I had and to see what other shirts there were at the con. In the end I got a Soul Eater shirt which is okay but not my thing.
Though this day and thoughout the whole con I was thinking about break one of my con rules, "Don't get figures" rule. I know this may sound a bit silly but to me buying figures felt kind of dirty. It is that other level of fandom that I don't think I want to touch. Lame reason but it just feels a bit strange to have one. Maybe one day I would get one but that day wasn't at OniCon 09.
Speaking of figures, here are some that I wanted but in bad quality pictures. For some reason I can't take good pictures of things up close but okay pictures of cosplayers. Still to the pictures.
If I had to buy one as if my life depended it then it would have been The Great SayanMan and Sogeking! Not sure if you can see it but that was just AWESOME! Both masked heroes within their own anime and it just would have been cool to own! It is a shame that I don't have a picture of just that figure. At the time that I was taking this picture, I was thinking I was going to buy the figure. As you can see I didn't and read though, I didn't.
In the end I got a One Piece pin and Shugo Chara! pin for my backpack, (Include pictures later) DVD Vol 1 and 2 of Gurren Lagann, Soul Eater shirt and fan art of the StrawHats drawn realistically. So I got a good grab from the vendors in the end.
Cosplay: Luffy (One Piece: Strong World (Movie 10))
I think the cosplay is okay. I mean not my best Luffy cosplay but it is decent and I think different from the other Luffy cosplayers. Though I did notice that a lot of Luffy cosplayers had the yellow straw hats. I kind of don't like those hats. They look very fake-ish and I am glad that I still can find straw hats at some places. I think mines look better compare to the others. haha Still overall there was a lot of One Piece cosplayers and it kind of made me remember from a few years back at my first con where I cosplayed as Luffy. I was the only Luffy and One Piece cosplayer there. Now there are tons of them. Maybe that was why I wanted to do this cosplay even though I knew there would be a chance that not many people would recognize it. The best idea was to wait a year when Movie 10 could be release in the US but I just wanted to do this one really soon. Though the best part is that I got my picture taken by a little girl who knew I was Luffy. Awww....That warms my heart
OniCon Cosplay and Pictures
Below are all the cosplays that I took pictures for. Just follow the magic link to awesome cosplays One Piece and all. I hope you guys like them and can appreciate them as much as I do. Props to all those people that cosplayed. You all were great.
Great cosplays. Once again props to those that had great cosplays.
It was a good con. Got some good stuff and I am happy that me and my friends were able to enjoy ourselves there. Till next week OniCon!
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