Anime Detour: 2005


MOCHI > The Scrapbook > Convention Memories > Anime Detour > 2005

This convention's costume roster was fairly light. Daifuku had been busy recovering from multiple wisdom teeth operations, so there were no really new costumes from her. [Don't ask. -Daifuku] Thankfully, Toasted and Grandis had a few new pieces to show off.

The early part of Saturday morning was taken up with masquerade preparation: masquerade rehearsals and a mandatory information session. The rehearsal slots, which were relatively short, ended up running into each other. While we waited, Toasted Mochi got to show off his latest acquisition from Japan ....

Toasted: [digging into his backpack] Look at what I got! [shows off a shiny new PSP]
Spiky: [eyes get very big and wide]
Daifuku: Hey! I thought those weren't out yet!
Toasted: [looks smug] They aren't out in this country.
Spiky: [pure lust is written across his face]
Toasted: [waggles the PSP in front of Spiky] Do you want to play a game?
Spiky: [drools] Yesssssss ....

Aside from other forays in costume and some goofing off with games, the rest of the day was taken up with preparations for the masquerade.

Members of MOCHI were involved in two entries for the evening's masquerade. Grandis was on loan to Terry, in a set of Utena armour. Daifuku would be fielding an entry from Tsukihime, with two of the other members acting as "stage ninjas". Toasted Mochi, who could not resist the urge to be helpful, ran messages for the costume construction judges, fetched water, and generally lent a hand wherever he could.

The masquerade held about fifty entries. Most were walk-ons of one sort or another, interspersed with skits. Due to the layout of the hotel rooms, the green room ended up across the hall from the main stage, but the tech folks did a good job in keeping pathways clear for the cosplayers.

Unsurprisingly, with a young convention, there were definitely some rough spots. Entries that wanted to be competitive needed to be judged by the costume construction folk. Those judging sessions started at 5:00 PM. Thankfully, Grandis and Terry were able to shuck themselves of their armour. Unfortunately, due to the fabric in her costume and her makeup job, Daifuku was unable to sit for nearly the entire evening. There seemed to be a few miscues as the cosplayers were told that we'd be starting early, then were held waiting for ten to fifteen minutes. (After pestering a few folk with questions, we learned that there had been some difficulties in rounding up judges.)

After the masquerade was over, Contingent B (along with Terry) left to go find some food and veg out. The rest of MOCHI, happy with the cold pizza left over from lunch, settled down to watch the end of The Mummy on the television before getting to sleep.

[Day Two]