Lavender-Star

That's right, y'all! Time for Lavender-Star to write her way-too-detailed report on how her first anime convention went! I'll get back to answering my messages and commenting soon guys. Really, I'll try.

In a nutshell, it was amazing! So if you're not interested in the details, you can stop reading now. If you'd like to hear about how it went day-by-day and, if you were at the con, see if I hung out with you or got your picture, read on! (I'm going to write the names of the cosplayers I remember the best in bold, so if you're just scanning over this to look for yourself that should make it easier.) I was the Tamaki Suoh with a crown on Friday and one of about four Lucy Heartfilia cosplayers on Saturday and Sunday.

Friday: Arrived at the Sheraton at about 11:00 in the morning. Our parents dropped my sister, Lolly-pop-girl732, and I off at the door so we could go get our badges. At that time there was no line at all, so it only took us a couple of minutes. After we got to our hotel and changed into our Host Club cosplays, we walked back to the convention center. The moment we reached the top of the escalator I met the first person to make an impression on me that weekend. Her friendly attitude more or less put me at ease for the rest of the con. As I stepped off the escalator I heard someone calling "TAMA-CHAAAN!" and I looked up to see an Edward Elric cosplayer coming straight at me for a hug! We talked for a bit, got a picture of her and she took ours and then she told us how she was one of the only Ed cosplayers there so far. Also, even though she was the tallest Edward, people were still teasing her about being short. So, many thanks to you Tall Ed! If you're reading this, you really helped me get over my nervousness about the con!

The rest of Friday was simply amazing! We got SO much recognition as Tamaki and Haruhi! I never imagined how many people who want pictures, it was mind blowing! We could hardly walk up and down the halls without getting stopped at least once! (Please note that I am NOT trying to brag, I was just so surprised!) Also, another shout-out to my wonderful double, the other Tamaki cosplayer that I met! It was so nice to meet someone as fabulous as myself. I know they got a picture of us together, but I didn't get one. They also said they had a Haruhi of their own coming, but we never ran into them again that day to get pictures of the double Haruhi cosplayers. Also, Any of the other Host Club cosplayers who got pictures with us! Especially that group in the dealer's room! The one that even had a Nekozawa and Middle School Haruhi! They were super friendly and great!

Best part of Friday was probably the Kingdom Heart panel! Super crazy fun! Where else are you going to get 100+ people in a room together all singing the games' theme songs? Lolly and I even got extra raffle tickets for dancing along to the music too! It was all one big goofy blast! I even won something in the raffle! An Oblivion Keyblade charm! I love it, partly because Oblivion is my second favorite Keyblade and partly because it's a great token from an awesome memory! More shout outs to the Ichigo, Rukia and Aqua cosplayers that we sat with at that panel! Very friendly and funny people with great cosplays! Also the Aqua, Ventus, Zexion and school uniform Kairi who ran the panel. Got to chat with the Ven and Aqua for a few after the panel and they were both super cool! (Also found the Aqua and Zexion on tumblr! Seriously, awesome people.)
So Friday was so exciting that I was too hyped for Saturday to hardly sleep.

Saturday: We arrived at the convention at about 10:00 AM that morning. Took us a bit longer to get up and moving than we thought it might.

Saturday was so amazing that I don't even know where to begin when describing it! Lolly and I didn't get recognized as often cosplaying as Lucy and Levy as we did when we were the Hosts. Still, so many of the people who did recognize us were super excited to see Fairy Tail characters! Many were especially excited to see a Levy, because despite her popularity among fans, she doesn't get too much screen time in the anime. She's also not cosplayed too terribly often, I only saw one other Levy all weekend, on Sunday. (Lolly had the camera at the time and for once we were doing different things, so I couldn't get a picture.)

We spent most of the morning walking around the dealer's room and planning on what we wanted to buy. It was there that we met two of the coolest people we met all weekend. A girl ran up and asked for our picture, then proceeded to tell us that she and her friend had cosplayed Happy and Pantherlily on Friday! Lolly and I had actually seen them and wanted a picture, but had been stopped by someone wanting one of us. By the time we were done the Happy and Lily were out the door! So anyway, the Lily cosplayer was still in her cosplay, so we got some pictures and talked to them for a while. Then we continued to wave at each other and chat occasionally whenever we ran into them for the rest of the con. Seriously, if anyone knows those two and that they have dA accounts or tumblrs or something, tell me! For some reason I never thought to ask!

After that we walked around for a bit before starting in the direction of the Fairy Tail photoshoot that was to be held that afternoon. On the way there who should we run into but the girl organizing the shoot and her friend, cosplaying as Samurai Erza and Heaven's Wheel Erza. These two were great! Super happy to see other Fairy Tail cosplayers too! We hung out for a while before the photoshoot and even attracted a small crowd of people wanting pictures of the four of us! Then we met up with Robes of Yūen Erza, Gray and another Lucy! After that our group was getting even more attention and we moved to the Photoshoot area, but not before hunting down a Natsu cosplayer! Then there was also Heart Kreuz Erza and yet another Lucy! The awesome thing about cosplaying Erza is her huge wardrobe, all of our cosplayers at the shoot were a different version! We all had a BLAST! Every single one of you guys at the Fairy Tail shoot! You were so much fun to hang out with and striking our battle poses and doing the classic "I'm always with you" hand signal for pictures was really fun! Even just walking across the room to the photographers was fun with you all! We ran into several of the cosplayers again throughout the day and on Sunday and it we always waved and made sure to say "hey" again! If any of you see this, know that you were a part of one of my highlights of the weekend! (Hey, and if anyone wants to see some of the pictures from the shoot, go here: ronbergstudio.smugmug.com/ Then click on Naka-Kon Day 2. Password to see them is nakakon, and the pictures from our shoot start on page 60. )

Seriously, you all know that there are those fanbases that you love, but the fans are kind of embarrassing? While I've seen a few like that on the internet, every FT fan I met last weekend was super freaking cool! I love this fanbase! So yeah, shout-outs to all of the other awesome "fairies" I met that didn't make the photoshoot! The other Samurai Erza, the one who we first saw on Friday and then talked to again on Saturday when we were fairies and she was in One Piece cosplay. She was such a sweetheart and we managed to meet up again on Sunday for pictures of Lucy, Levy and Erza! Then there was the other Heaven's Wheel Erza and Jellal, I think we only saw them once, but they had GREAT cosplays and were really nice! Told Lolly and I that our cosplays were great and we should have entered the contest. (Actually, the first Samurai and Heaven's Wheel Erza had convinced us to do so earlier in the day, but we missed the sign-ups! ) Then there was Erza Knightwalker and the other Natsu! These two were the only coplayer that I shouted at to get their attention all weekend! But I was so happy to see someone cosplaying something as unusual and cool as an Edolas version of a character! Lolly and I had JUST sat down to take a break, when those two walked by across the room. I was up in a flash and shouting "NATSU AND KNIGHTWALKER!" before they could reach the escalator. That Natsu was also one of the only people all day who told me "Yeah! Found a Lucy!" Most people seemed more excited to see Levy. Once again, didn't talk long, but really nice people and were always friendly when we saw them again. Also Another Lucy cosplayer with a Natsu plush, a third Natsu, the Happy with the awesome full-body costume and the Cana and casual Erza cosplayer we met in the dealer's room.

Then there was the Roxy Lalonde cosplayer we met in the dealer's room too! She wasn't really a Homestuck fan, but had dressed like to to match her friends' group. She told us she has actually wanted to come as Lucy, because she was a bug Fairy Tail fan. Anyway, Roxy told us she didn't have a dA, but she was too cool to not mention in this! The three of us walked around the dealer's room and talked for probably half an hour.

Lolly and I ended up skipping the masquerade ball, despite having taken the time to go to the dance lessons the night before. (Oh, and also that guy who wasn't in cosplay that I danced with at the lessons. Yeeeah, if you're by some chance reading this, I apologize again for subconsciously trying to lead and almost pulling you over when I tripped that once. ) Instead we went back to the hotel to chill for a while, then we went back for Cosplay Combat (which was awesome!) and the dance party! I had a great time at the dance party, just a bunch of loud music, blinking lights and people jumping around to the music. Although, never again will I go in cosplay. I almost lost my wig multiple times and left after about a half hour, partly because of that. Dancing in cosplay was a fun experience to do once, but not again if I have to be wearing a wig.

Sunday: The shortest day of the con for Lolly and I. We didn't get there until about 9:30 AM and had to leave just after 1:00. ;_; (Long drive home and having already checked out of the hotel, my parents wanted to get on the road.) We talked to less people that day, but a very memorable bunch would have to be The Blue Exorcist cosplayers and their friend with the awesome mouse plush! Though I've never watched Blue Exorcist, they came up to us because they were also mega FT fans! So we talked for about twenty minutes or so about favorite characters, episodes, ect. Also talked about all of the stuff we all wanted to buy from the dealer's room before leaving. Yeah, they were a pretty cool bunch!

Also ran into the Happy and Lily cosplayers again before the day was over, as well as most of the other coplayers from the Fairy Tail photoshoot at one time or another. It was very nice to get to see them all again before leaving. Then there was a guy in the dealer's room who was making a Naka-Kon video and asked me to stand next to a Fairy Tail tote bag and imitate Lucy's pose on it for his video! That was really cool! I'll probably post a link to the video when it's done, he gave me all the info on how to find it and said it would probably be done in about a week.

There you have it, my trip to Naka-Kon 2013! I really hope I didn't forget to mention anyone! Still trying to see if I can't find some of the cool people I met at the con. If anyone is/knows any of the people I mentioned for Pete's sake, speak up!!!

Already super hyped for Naka-kon '14 too! Because with planing this far in advance, KittyCowLexa will hopefully be able to make it! After meeting the epic members of the Fairy Tail fanbase too, Lolly and I are considering trying putting together a FT fan panel next year, with games, prizes and the like! We'll just see what happens there!

Of course, cosplay plans for next year are already spinning too, so we'll have lots of time to work on them. I know that I super badly want to do another FT cosplay, but I'm torn between another version of Lucy (most likely X791, Celestial Spirit World or Grand Magic Games) and Juvia! (Because I LOVED cosplaying Lucy last weekend, she's my favorite female in the series! Yet I also love Juvia too!) Also considering the X791 or Edolas version of my favorite character, Natsu. (Because, you know, that open-front vest he wears makes it nearly impossible for me to cosplay his regular version. >_<) Then Lolly and I also really want to cosplay Black Star and Tsubaki from Soul Eater! So wish me luck with my decisions! I'm hoping to have the time and funds to make two new cosplays for next year. We already know for sure that we're bringing the Host cosplays back, because Lexa should be there to be our Kyoya this time!

If any of you read this entire crazy thing, you get a cookie! Most of the pictures from our trip will probably be posted on my sister's account, since she took them with her camera, but I'll probably post a few that feature myself sometime! Some of them are already up on her tumblr: lolly-pop-girl732.tumblr.com/t… If anyone has got pictures that feature Lolly or I, please let us know!