Sakura Con 2010: goth loli cat girls, families who cosplay, the dark kings, game villains, crossplay, yaoi and panty shots

Okay, back at home and how to describe the days which were so packed with events? By the time I came home, I feel asleep and stopped breathing. Saliva dripping into my lungs started a convulsive reaction and I was choking, then sleeping for just under five hours. But was it worth it? YEAH!

Families:

Not just did we saw a lot of couples but there were various families who came and come to Sakura-con. This tiny Robin would let you hug her,

but you had to hug her plushie FIRST.

Here we are on the way to the Dazzle concert and there was a family that had dressed up as characters from Princess Tututhe anime is a ballet over the top with sugar shojo anime (you know, the ones where your dance of joy draws the evil out of the bad people so that they can change can become your friends!). The little Ballet Princess sure is a cutie though.

While this family danced at the Forever Waltz Masque Ball, the mom in cat ears and the kids in animal costumes with tails, and they were having fun, whiskers drawn on their face leaping around, literally.
Here in the exhibitors hall, I met a mother and her daughter, as you can see, a difference in style for costume, but something done together. Sakura-con requires an parent/guardian present at ALL times up to teenage when a parent/guardian must be in the building. Leaving the second concert (High and Mighty Colour), we came past a room of haggered looking parents whose teenage girls were screaming over the singer in the main concert stage. Until the teens left, the parents were drinking coffee and bemoaning kids who like Japan culture. As one girl said, “Once I turned 18, my mom said, ‘That’s it, I’m free, you can go on your own now!’”

Villains and game play:

There was a whole section of the convention center for full time game play including guitar hero (accompanied by a band) and Dance Dance revolution, where the better playing would be projected onto the big screen on the wall overhead for the couple hundred viewers. MTV was there doing casting for a reality show for teens who wanted ‘live a dream’ with a one month intensive coach, plus Microsoft was beta testing a new game platform. That really wasn’t our thing, but there were plenty of cosplaying villains, heroes, game characters and troopers. Indeed there were SO many characters in police, trooper, and other badge on shoulder costumes it became unclear if police were there, I asked one person who said, “Oh, the REAL police will let us know they are police…..I think.”

Of course Darth Vader is a popular Villain and is here getting defeated by a group of warriors from a role playing game. Previously he had been killed by a group of Sailor Scouts. I am wondering what it is like to cosplay only to be attacked and die many times a day?

The question is, after a day of creating mutated monsters and cleaning up secret operations, how DOES an Umbrella Corporation operative catch a cab home? The Umbrella Corporation is the ‘Bad’ organization from the games and now movies of Resident Evil. The Umbrella Cop makes Zombies, no matter what they try to make…ends up as Zombies. Shame that.

Here we have The Dark Knight, Batman facing off against Superman ala the graphic novel, the Dark Knight. During the scripted Cosplay Chess as told to us by Jen, who shared the disabled parking stall next to us (pic of her later), the King of one side was The Dark Knight and the other King was our favorite disreputable character, Jack Sparrow! She said when one chess piece took another they would battle it out in scripted moves, like movie fighting before one conquered the other. Sounds interesting, I should try to see it, next year?

Now even our game characters need down time, but things to remember when doing a dance with Master Chief from Halo: get him to leave the frag grenades at home, also remind him that while he has an enhanced ecto-skeleton, you do not so please don’t step on/crush your foot.

Of course, once you ARE a character from a various game quest, and have to walk back to your hotel, do you stay in character or not? There were so many people in costume that the local population was having difficulty figuring out what was up. A request was forwarded to my computer from Sakura-con about how many people could not tell which were real weapons or not and how the Seattle Police Department had asked Con visitors to put away weapons when away from the Con area. So, please remember to put away your RPG, lightsaber, or other weapons while going back to the hotel for donuts.

Cheryl, Linda and I:

Well, by day two I was looking rather tired, I had not slept for more than 7 hours a day in over a week and skipped a few naps by keeping my heart going with coke (the soft drink, I tell ya, I was missing my medicinal M. down in the states!). So here I look on the morning of day 2 after bathroom duty.

I was off to get my kimono fitted at the workshop and so got a nice Hello Kitty tattoo on my neck for when I put my hair up.
At the Kimono Workshop there were professional kimono assistants to help people try on Kimono’s, of which there were many, from the ‘child’s Kimono’ with a soft obi and bow, to the harder obi but long sleeves of a young woman (march 5th is Girl’s Day in Japan – a big day for dressing up in Kimono’s). This Kimono is used for all festivals and occasions up to ‘coming of age’ day, which is the day when you get your name moved out of your family registry at 21 and the government starts your OWN name registry, meaning you are now an adult, you can adopt (have another added to your name registry), marry and do the other acts which change the history of your registry. Also there were marriage and ceremonial kimonos. The workers were very surprised that I had my own kimono from Japan and were very happy to fit me, with the obi and ties. In Japan, due to the need for the bow on the back of the obi, there are stores you can go to or stalls at festivals for having kimono’s tied for you. A recent manga has been translated about a girl who works in one of these stores (also a yaoi manga about a department store that sells kimono’s for those who like men in the men’s kimono’s). I got my Kimono tied and then Indy and I were off, to go to the sales expo (I had missed the Kendo) and another signing, then on to the two concerts of Dazzle Vision and High and Mighty Colour before the AMV contest winners show (you know, more than I do in two weeks normally).

Linda that morning had dressed up as a Cat Girl in her corset and leather pants from Torrid, they were a BIG HIT for me. She also had cat ears and Cheryl and I both complained that she just didn’t seem the same without her cat ears when she took them off that night. The previous day you will remember she was wearing her knee high boots, her pirate queen outfit and looking seductively from the elevator. The white rabbit plushie was the official plushie of Sakura-Con that year and had sold out by the end of the second day. I don’t know the total number but the count was huge, over the 16,000 of last year, and probably far over 20,000 people as most vendors were sold out, the concerts held thousands, the AMV showings held hundreds.

Cheryl had arrived as Porco Rosso from the Ghibli Film of the same name and was recognized immediately and had many, many people ask to take her picture. She chose not just a character she liked but one which suited her. For example, a lot of her body movements and gestures like the hands on the hips, are also ones of Porco Rosso from the film.

And here is the proof, that Cheryl did a Waltz out on the dance floor. Here I am, coming out of a spin with an arm high extension before we continue our dancing. It would be a waste of a good tuxedo not to dance.

Dazzle Vision is not only the number 1 pre-sale in the HMV charts but also number 2 on the Tower Records and a BIG hit band. The main singer is listed as singing lolita style melodies combined with Death Metal. That just doesn’t seem to be possible as she starts out with her very nice, “Thank you very, very much to be here, I would like to know all of you and thank you.” And then starts, in her pink lolita dress to sing, only to suddenly switch over to a screaming death voice which rips the vocal cords apart, and then switches back again. Here is an 8 second video which you can hear her doing it, and changing stances too.
It is like watching a split personality as in her Lolita singing she literally ‘skips’ in large skipping around the stage in ultra-femme, the goes into thrasher style death metal screaming, with hair flinging as shown here. I called her ‘The screaming girl’ the rest of the time and everyone knew who I meant, but it was like watching someone catch on fire and then have it go out again: mesmerizing and I don’t know HOW she goes from death metal to high melodic singing and back again dozens and dozens of times.

After the concert, we bailed on High and Mighty Colour, met up with someone from the internet who had come to meet us and went to see the ‘best of’ for the last 10 years of AMV’s for Sakura-con. Here they are, with me still in Indy (thankfully since the bass during Dazzle about knocked me out) watching AMV’s.

We started out with a Dark Knight trailer which had been remixed from Death Note, there is only a beta version on youtube, but watching it was amazing,particularly as the rating was ‘Otaku rated’ and then ‘What one man can do with unlimited hours in his basement’. Good stuff.

It started at the year 2000 and I was hoping for more…well, shojo or girls manga, but it was clear that the judges were all 40 year old guys when a Transformers AMV won EVERY other year! Plus lots of Samurai X and other older classics. There was an early one on Porco Rosso which had been done with two VCR’s in 1999.

Every couple there would be a really good one and it is quite different being in an audience of hundreds, watching on the big screen anime music videos which make fun of classic shows. There was an ‘Audition’ which had the evil God from Death Note singing Mahnama-na from the Muppet show, (“Cut! What’s Next!”) Next was Sailor Moon doing an Aria from Carmen. Like the Gong Show, she lasted only a few seconds before the next act was hustled in. AHHH, another Transformers! Only I burst out laughing when they started sing Y.M.C.A. with transformers combined to make the characters.

Here is another AMV, which is a favorite of Linda, Cheryl and I, it has not only the longest song title ever in AMV history,my favorite part (laugh out loud is ‘Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha.’ – you will have to watch to figure out what I mean).

The trailers were the best parts for me, including The Chronicles of Ghibli (ala Narnia) and this one, which is a retake of Gladiators I NEVER would have thought of, ever,and a tribute for all those parents out there with 6-10 year old boys.

On the first day, Linda took this picture of me, while I was shopping, which seems to have been a deliberate attempt to go for a panty shot. Who would have known Linda was one of THOSE, let’s make sure she doesn’t have any cell phones on her while going up the escalators! Actually we did go later to Victoria Secret and get night shirts and scanty panties (woo hoo more confusion to the care workers!).

Yaoi, Yuri, Girls in Uniform and Cross-Play:

There were dozens to hundreds of cross dressed guys, many doing it very well, as well as cross dressed girls, or better yet, girls in uniforms! Also Yaoi couples (sometimes played by two girls) of two guys, and Yuri couples. For example here we have a Yuri/girl-girl couple only the girl in the pink dress is cosplaying Sebastian, a boy who is cross dressed in a yaoi/boy love themed series. Ah yes, welcome to Cosplay!

Day one, I hit the Media Blaster table looking for Maka Maka (sold out!) a lesbian manga, and talked to the translator who recognized me from last year and gave me a really good deal on some of the new books! Good things I went the first day as on day three, the manga was down to a few books and large sections of the table were empty.

The Yummy of the Ball was the Yaoi two male couple where one was dressed as a gothic lolita girl with skirt and underskirt, high socks with lace and long pony tail. Not only that, they were great dancers, and somehow, we kept seeming to be near them while dancing. Odd that.

On the other side of the dance was another two guy yaoi couple where one was in suit and the other was wearing a kimono, the long sleeves indicate a girl before the coming of age day. The only disappointment was that the kimono wearer had a mask with a very long nose, which is one way to keep your distance in dancing, to be sure, but where are the intimate cuddles!

The big hit from last year in shojo was K-On!, loosely based on the hit movie, Linda Linda Linda (which I blogged about before). It is about 4 girls who practice after school for a band, which plays songs written by a band member. Oddly, the member is obsessed with stationary so the songs are ‘You are the stapler in my A4 binder’ and other love songs. The best cosplayed K-On! Member was this guy. K-On! was so popular it created a whole comiket section of artists creating art from the show, much like the Tohou project (also, the best dressed cosplay members from Tohou were a group of Japanese males).

There were several buses of Japanese Con visitors who had come from Japan, the chance to see Dazzle, Ito and Trigun: the Movie early must have been a draw. The person behind me in line had their body pillow of Ito’s art to sign (the body pillows start about $100).

In the Sellers area, this woman who I THINK is the sexy heroine from the Yuri Anime, Strawberry Panic, walked by. But then again, a woman in a riding uniform with a whip, do you NEED to know what the series is, not me, I can just enjoy!
Here are three females in uniform from the slice of life, shojo anime hit that just finished in Japan, So.Ra.No.Wo.To. In the anime five girls in uniform, hold military post as the tower maidens on the edge of no man’s land, after a long forgotten war. They live in a building which has a classroom, but for these 12 and 14 year olds, along with an 16 and 19 year old, the idea of having children sit around, or that many children to just learn is hard to imagine. It is a fun, exploring type of show and here are three great cosplayers from it.

Lolita Cat Girls, Lolita Girls and Goth girls

Well, is any day complete without a Lolita cat girl? Not for me! Thankfully I found one and got her picture in the sellers hall.

Technically I think this might be a fox girl and I am sure they are from some show, but since they spoke Japanese I didn’t find out what it was. Alas. But then, there are lots and lots of people wearing costumes from games, or shows that you may not have heard of or remembered. I ran into a group of eight or nine girls who had dressed as the Villains of Sailor Moon. Okay, nothing obscure there!

This goth baroque vampire girl makes me understand the sexual attraction of vampires FAR more than a shiny one from Twilight. And she was the one who clued me in on the caps for teeth. They were too cute, even while talking, though hard to explain if you show up on Monday/Tuesday as a manager with fangs, literally!

Upstairs we ran into Jen, who had just paid $50 to get her fangs done.They take a while as they are done with real dental tools and shaped for your teeth but should last up to five years – a good investment for those who want an immediate lisp. Jen had a clot in her heart, which by the time the hospital opened her up to operate on her heart (you can see the scar on her chest), the clots had gone into three pieces, one to each of her legs and one to her brain paralyzing her left side. She is back to walking now, with braces on her legs. We noticed that the US uses a lot of braces for legs and backs, as Nene Thomas’ sister had a back problem of fused vertebrae, and used a brace. Why Canada doesn’t use orthotics as much as the USA which seems to have a policy of getting people mobile. There was a wheelchair user who worked at the convention center and had a pelivic shift crush her nerve bundle, she also had leg braces in order to be able to use the back of her chair as a walker (which it was set up to do). We also ran into two people who had fold up, or break down scooters, including a three piece scooter, no piece over 20 pounds, that goes 16 miles on a battery charge and is from Isreal. Wow, that makes Indy seem like a huge power drain.

But it was Lily who definitely wins the ‘incorporating your disability into ‘cool’’ award for her goth presentation. Lily has a $350 corset to help support her back and the two canes, these are her ‘goth’ ones along with the white hair (it is usually pink and the canes have flames) as she had hip dislocation and EDS III or EDS VII (she is being re-tested now). Her hip sockets are too shallow for her hips to slide into so she needs to canes and braces to ambulate. But she makes it look cool, really goth cool. We talked about how corsets are so helpful for wheelchair as well as back issue uses, as they help a person to sit up as well as stop things sliding. Lily had blinged up her eyepatch with a vampire bat as well as some steampunk baroque additions. I am in awe.

Here are two visiting Goth lolita with slight punk aspects. Ahh, the lovely variations within lolita. Another goth lolita with cat ears and I talked outfits and we had a lot of the same suppliers, as this year Tripp NYC from hot topic did not just corsets, but whole dresses as well, for those who have the height and body to fit them. Plushies as an add-on to the goth look is always a plus, even with the sweet lolita yaoi boy who was a furry, wearing long furry shorts and a long tail, running around in hit white furry halter top and four plushies (literally running around, that is why I don’t have a picture).

There is also this cosplay in cape and gloves from the anime Ergo Proxy (good, cyber punk). The outfit would have worked for Carnival in Venice too (New Orleans as well, I am thinking). And, for outfits which make it REALLY hard to take a cab, here is this cosplay character with wings (???? Sorry, don’t know it).

I would like to say that was all, but since I took almost 1,000 pictures, this is actually the best of the best. I hope that gives you a taste of Sakura-con, thanks for all the help and support and for meeting all the great people at the Con. Please feel free to comment and I will add what info I have.

Sakura Con Day 2: still alive, loli girls, japanese punk and a Uke!

Okay, day two of the Con, and I am still alive…sorta. You know how I said in Japan, that as long as I see one thing a day then it was worth it. It was worth it. I so far am only spend 4 hours a day at Sakura-Con, which for example for today, I was at the start of the exhibition hall (where stuff is sold – huge, huge draw, I was at the front of thousands of people – crip card pass!). I stayed four hours and got to see about half of the hall and the sellers, considering I just once in while stop to buy things, like gifts and stuff for myself. Then I come home, have to do the recovery, oxygen, I am running a fever, and I sleep many hours, leave the convention at 2:00 pm, by 11:00 I wake up, and by midnight the fever has broken, ready for another four hours tomorrow. This. the four hours out, is ‘pushing my limits’, that is life now. I try to deal with it.

Here I am on the ferry to Seattle on Day one, getting ready to be dropped off, due to a health crises, I was coming 6 hours later than planned. But plans are made to be broken, yes? The point is I am ready to fly (please notice shaved armpits and legs – also armbands sent to me just in time).

On Friday there were far less people so I had more time to talk to the vendors. The publisher Media Blaster was there and I talked to a girl there who it turns out is the translator for the manga from Japanese to English. They are the ones who publish Doujin Works which I had on my wishlist, so I bought that from her and took off the wishlist.

I got a Doujinshi art book from a guy who talked to three people simultaneously and was either in a maniac state or had some altering substances in his system (don’t take amphetamines kids!). As one guy wandered by, he wanted a gift for a friend and the owner was:

“Oh, you want chicks with dicks having sex with each other…..” running around to about 50 boxes, and throwing doujinshi at the guy.

Guy: “Uh, no, I just want um.”

(Cut off), “Oh yeah, tentacle rape, I know what you mean, yeah, yeah, get it exactly…” (this seller is NOT doing manga/anime favors)

Meanwhile guy is holding a doujinshi with the cover having two naked girls on it one touching the other. He is an American male, he wants ‘straight girl lesbians’ (the kind of lesbians where both are femmes, both shave the body, etc – wait a minute, Linda and I are both femmes, and I just shaved my legs, under arms and Area 51 (very small panty triangle under very short skirt)…).

Other random things: being offered a job AT the convention within an hour, chatting to and flirting up a girl with tattoos who was in a roller derby and we were like THIS close to a date, Cheryl getting picked up by a GUY, me saying, "Oh, I'm not getting this book, I try not to promote heterosexuality!" several times and no one batting an eye (well, all the girls read Yaoi, the guys read lesbian stuff so...), a art book seller from San Jose had a box of H (stands for X-rated word in Japan) well he had to put all the stuff in there, so he sold me a couple books from there as one had girls kissing with one girl with a hand on the other's breast, I said, "This isn't X-rated, this is my LIFE!"

Of course, what anime convention would be complete without the many stores selling LARGE blade weapons, which you can’t even pick up unless you are over 18. And they card! The swords are for show as many are for characters are you see someone carrying a 8 foot axe. Most people have dressed up someone, and you never know when you meet someone who you don’t recognize the character (Laura Croft?) but you have to have the picture.

There was a SIX hour workshop on kimono’s but I did not see one person wearing the obi correctly, except the Japanese shop owners, as to many of the shops I went to, the owners didn’t speak English. While others were ‘Con sellers” and were off from here to San Fran or somewhere else in the 40+ anime conventions they do a year. There was this very fine Fukura Kimono (see the long sleeves for a young unmarried girl before her coming of age ceremony at 21 when she gets entered in the rolls in Japan with her OWN last name) – this is silk and probably cost between $5K and $25K. It is not of the colors of an imperial city, neither from Kyoto or Kanazawa but it VERY nice. Linda wanted me to wear my Yakata with Obi but my wheelchair would crush the obi, alas!

There were stores selling ready to wear cheaper Yukata and Chinese slip dresses with fans and paper umbrellas. Lower quality but affordable price for people who just want to dress up and have fun. Also there was steam punk vendors and every time I pulled out my Feather Bag to pay the Japanese they would go, “Oh, h.naoto!” and then we would talk about how I got the bag or what they collect or the h.naoto limited edition Hello Kitty stuff, like the anarchy stationary or goth loli stuff, which is the most collectable. The translator had a H.naoto Hello Kitty on her key chain and we were all about they were so subversive.

It wouldn’t be fair to talk about h.naoto without mentioning another phenomenon which is the “Sweet Loli” where they dress like Alice (the Japanese are OBSESSED with Alice in Wonderland) or other ‘sweet girl’ in a frilly style. The originals are sold by Sweet Baby and are just as limited. Here we have a picture of two Sweet Loli’s and probably a h.naoto schoolgirl. The girl on the right has the most expensive stuff and her matching wrist cuffs are probably about $90 while a dress like that is several hundred dollars.

We saw several people doing photo shoots, sort of like Prom, with pro-photographers and whiteboards. The h.naoto associated band and designer Hangry and Angry, the Japanese Punk, were performing, so we saw some Japanese punk (You HAVE to die your hair blonde, as a rebel against Japanese black hair if a punk) – and instead of a nice mouth guard for coughing (so as not to spread colds), punks do it in black saying, “Yeah, I’m sick, deal with it!” – here is a couple, the girl looks like she is right out of Nana, a cult hit series in Japan and the US about a couple bands fighting to make it big and the girls, one a singer, another a girlfriend of a singer.

As for me, I DID manage to find an art book store at the end and bought a COUPLE of artbooks as you see here (that LITTLE pile my hand is on) (Oh, so sad, and almost all the ebay money gone in day 1 – the rest goodbye in day two!). This seller, from San Jose, was very good as he let me see inside. So the three page list of books I was looking for (for the blog, as I am not exactly action crip anymore and I want the readers to have good images, besides, I LIKE the different art books, it is one of the few things to get me excited!), the owner allowed me to look inside, so I labelled some as “so/so” and others are “Must have!” Thankfully my “must have” pile was fairly small (due to not finding ENOUGH!). Then the owner would give me a NEW copy. He was really great! I returned to be told by Akadot that two of the books I had ordered from Japan had arrived – one which was $49 anywhere I could find it was $25! (It was EST, from an artist started as a Doujinshi artist, so a real bargin for anyone wanting to try out an art book) So I paid for those but crying, “all the money gone!” Oh well, that was the point right? Akadot has been very good in checking with and getting rare or out of print books for me if they can from their Japanese major dealer.

Cheryl and I were on Uke alert! And if you remember there was that book, “Maid in Heaven” from my last Uke post about a guy who has to replace his sick grandmother for a stern young master. Master falls for male maid and fun ensues. Well, here is a guy who HAS shaved his legs and chest (and underarms?) and Cosplayed as Maid in Heaven – hooray! Uke be proud!

Today I ended up going to a few places offering Manga at 20%+ off and found some deals, like Pumpkin Scissors for $5 and so I took those off the wishlist and put on new series I found to read, including one about the most famous of French Fencers and a spy. I also ended up having to carry Cheryl’s BOX of manga as with her crushed vertebra she can’t carry them – oh yeah, use my flat unfeeling legs to just LOAD ME UP! I also went and got some presents to send out, though a lot of prices were higher than I expected so I couldn’t get as much as I wanted. But I will do what I can (give it my best!). Tomorrow is using any money I have left for gifts too.

I also talked to people about David’s Cat Network in Japan. We had, after talking to David, made up two sided coupons (which I am handing out here - carrying CHERY's MANGA - and a bit of mine...), where on one side it talks about how David, due to that there are no ‘official’ or government organizations does TNR (Trap, Neuter, Release) of Feral Cats as well as healing and treating many sick cats including many with cat’s HIV.

Since I last wrote David now has a Tokyo branch, thanks to volunteers, and he has a new housing unit for the cats. He needed to clear the area but instead of paying the near $1,000 for the clearing equipment he did it himself and then it was build and just finished. People come to see it as it has not just play and walkway areas inside but enclosed transparent areas going outside and then back inside, so it is nicer for the cats (follow the link ahead, it is the second picture down!). So there was a link to his JapanCatNetwork on one side and a Coupon on the other which is open to all reader here as well; if you go to his business selling ‘shitajiki’ or pencil boards to make money to feed and treat the cats, your first order over $10 (before shipping) you get $5 off if you mention the Sakura-con. There are ones of Masked Rider, of TV shows, of Hello Kitty (he gives extras away to disadvantaged kids) , of sports, and of Anime – I am saying it isn’t just ANIME. Also the shipping is just a few dollars for up to four boards, which come in new plastic protectors. If you want some inexpensive suggestions, I recommend this series (cat girls and kimonos!), as well as this series. But a lot is just exploring and searching what you want for yourself. Doujin are artists who do original work, which can make them more expensive, but also more amazing, like Tinkerbell (click on the pictures for a better view!).

That is it for day two, I have to go do a few postcards if I can and then get ready to pack up in the morning and to go to the last day (I want to go to the workshop on Kyudo (the Japanese Bow) and learn how to shoot it!). While it is VERY taxing, I am glad I came, it is better to DO and pay for it, then not try at all. And I get to roll and talk to people, or have people ask for my picture as they did on the first day, including the official photographer (Tomorrow is the white Bustier!). It is very family friendly activity and Linda who was out clothes shopping said most of the store workers talked about how great it was for people watching (when there are about 18-20,000 people and about 5,000+ costumes, I agree!).