Sakura-Con 2013

Angelic Pretty's Neko no Ochakai at Sakura-Con 2013.

On Sunday, I attended Sakura-Con for the first time in over a decade! 

Sakura-Con was my first-ever convention back in 2001. Let's all thank my Mom for being a great sport and safely shepherding her daughters safely through the otaku-packed halls of a Holiday Inn and probably hating every minute of it. What an angel! 

I have vivid memories of combing through the dealer's room for Sailor Moon comics, watching the Cat Returns, and hearing the original Red Ranger tell stories girlfriend troubles and filming the series. I still have my convention badge, autographed by Lia Sargent in a shoebox somewhere!

Sakura-Con 2001 saw my first adventures in Cosplay too! I was Sakura (ha!), from Ninja Cadets -- my favorite (and one of a handful of) anime VHS at our local Hollywood Video. (Yikes, that makes me feel old! Someday, remind me to lecture you youngsters on the dark days before torrents when you had to go to Suncoast Video to spend all your allowance on one 4-episode tape of Slayers!)

 

On the convention floor (Thanks, Molly!) & photoshoot time outside!

Fast forward to this weekend...!

Evan and I decided to go at the very last minute. I think we got our badges and made it to the convention center by noon -- just a few hours before it closed! But it was plenty of time to shop, which was really the only reason I wanted to go. Although, I was a little disappointed by the lack of collectibles. There was a lot of new merchandise but very few booths had older stuff, which I think is much more fun to comb through. I'm really starting to miss California and places like Frank and Son's Collectibles Show.

Anyway! I wore my lolita dream dress, Angelic Pretty's Neko no Ochakai (Cat's Tea Party) for the first time ever! I paired it with my favorite pink wig and a blouse with sleeves that are just a tiny bit too short. But to be honest, I like the look of a rolled sleeve on me anyway. My boyfriend wore his popular Hipster Robin ensemble, minus the latex domino mask. So adorable!

I'm bummed that I missed all the lolita fashion shows and tea parties, but I did meet some really sweet lolitas and cosplayers while we roamed the exhibition halls. And later on, we met up with my sister and her pal, Molly. They were dressed as arpakasso! If you follow my instagram (or either of their instagrams) you've probably seen a lot of the pictures we took of each other in freeway park. 

I look really tired/allergic in all the ones I didn't share (and the ones I did share!) So, this post will remain pretty text heavy, unfortunately! Someday, when my allergies have calmed down and I can get a full night's sleep I'll take my dress back out and take some nice pictures that really do justice to the crazy cat lady print.

 

Evan looks really excited to be at an anime convention in all these pictures!

That's all for now, internet!

Thanks for a fun time, Sakura-Con! See you next year! ❤ ❤ ❤

Atomic batteries to power! Turbines to speed...!

Action!

I'm back, internet!

There's too much cool stuff going on to blog about for me to use my fugly layout as an excuse to procrastinate any longer. Thanks for sticking with my blog through this hiatus! And if you're just tuning in, welcome!

SDCC 2012

Alright, it's been over a month since Comic-Con and this trip report is overdue! (Again!)

To be honest, we were a lot more disorganized with our convention plans this year. For example, the night before we left, I was up all night putting finishing touches on multiple costumes -- one of which, I finished and didn't even end up wearing! I didn't start packing until about 6 in the morning, and when we arrived I discovered that I'd full on forgotten to pack PAJAMAS AND REGULAR CLOTHES. I had 4 full costumes, wigs, a billion shoes/boots/heels, 2 different dresses for fancy dates just in case.. but only 2 t-shirts and 2 pairs jeans. And some of that was originally for cosplay too.

Lucy & Ricky status w/ separate beds.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn on the Bay, which was a little over a mile away from the convention center. It was on the free shuttle route, but we opted to walk to and from the convention each day instead. It wasn't a bad walk but we underestimated how it would take to get gussied up in our costumes and get to the convention center -- and we ended up missing a panel or two. Boo hoo! But at least it was cheaper and wi-fi was FREE and there were more than 3 channels of television unlike last year's stay at the Westin. It was also across the street from some of the most delicious sushi I've ever had.

Give me a beat!

The other bonus to staying down on the waterfront was that we were near the USS Midway -- which is not something I would have been excited about except for the fact that Adult Swim opted to host their SDCC part on that particular battleship rather than a club in the Gaslamp this year. AND we happened to get in! Granted, we missed Metalocolypse flying in on a helicopter and the chance to see Brendan Small live -- but for some reason all the hardcore cartoon metal band fans didn't want to stay and see the secret headliner (GIRL TALK!) and when they flooded out, Adult Swim let all us poor saps in the stand-by line in!