Update.pt 2 - Animes

Let's talk about cons - and the experience I had during Animes.

This year, the attitude towards the participants was appalling. I started arguing with the organizers, as soon as I arrived at the hotel.

There were major problems at the rehearsal too. We were told to be there at 15:00h so we could start rehearsing. The stage was ready at 16:30 which resulted in paying for an excess parking area. So our turn arrived and the horror when we realized that our multimedia was out of date. The organizer did not include the correct video in the media list and we didn't get to rehearse at all.

Another problem - the changing room, which was rather a greenhouse, than a change room. It was a closed tent that was exposed to direct sunlight – no chairs, tables, ventilation, or hydration left for the contestants.
It was Hell on Earth, especially for people who had to wear havier costumes. There was an attempt made by a cosplayer to connect his own fan to improve the situation, but he was quickly reprimanded. In the end, the electric system gave out and we could not use it. The MVP was a guy from the hotel staff, who was feeling sorry for us, and connected the fan to an external electric system - just to make it a bit easier for us in there.

To top of the fact that the changing room was in the scorching heat, there were constantly people coming in and out of it, who were clearly not into the cosplay panel and had nothing to do with it. One girl even decided that it was a great idea to sit down and light a cigarette inside, while also throwing her cigarette on the ground. There was also a case in which a girl took one of our prop fans to use it for her own cooling system. While we understand the heat was pretty unbearable and that we would not have an issue of lending her our fan, it is always better to ask first.

We also had a taste of communism when it came to the food that was organized for all the cosplayers in the competition. As per instructions we were each delegated 1 and a half slices of Dominos pizza and a bottle of water. At first, I was even denied my bottle of water because the staff had still not received the list of cosplayers and refused to provide one to me, despite having on a big costume.

The moment came for us to get up on stage and present our scene. Almost everything went smoothly and we were able to catch all of our sound queues despite not rehearsing the scene. My biggest fear however was our ending and our punchline of the whole act which was an inside joke in the Elden Ring community. We were beyond stunned when we heard the whole crowd yelling and cheering when they saw it. Afterward, we had to wait another 2 hours for the rest of the panel to end and for the judges to submit their scores from Day 1 and Day 2. In the end, I was beyond proud because I was able to win both the Solo round and the Duo round which means that we will get to compete both in Switzerland this November and in Japan at WCS in 2023.

And I am sharing one of my favorite shots from the event of Malenia's costume. I hope you like it. I really like how the design turned out and all the materials that I was able to find for the costume fit great in the finished product. I hope that I will have the time in the near future to revisit her costume and be able to refine some of the parts, so I can make it even better.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post🐾
xoxo