I spent last weekend at an anime convention, Desucon Frostbite! Sarg didn't want to come this time (she prefers the summertime cons), so I traveled and stayed the night at the hotel with Tiinyan & The Dudes (also known as her brother and one of her brother's friends) :3
Unfortunately, this time I didn't take many photos... Partly because I wanted to focus on just enjoying the convention myself and partly because I don't have any good lens for photographing at indoor events with bad lighting, it's been really bugging me lately x_x I should do some research to see if there's an affordable lens that'd suit my needs...
Tiinyan took more photos than me, she has written about Saturday on her blog so check that out as well!
We arrived at the convention at around 10am on Saturday, just after the doors had been opened!
Naturally the first thing we wanted to do was to check out the sales hall! We had planned to go to listen to a choir performing anime songs right after that, but ended up being too slow at the sales hall and the performance had already started when we had seen only half of the sales stuff... So we decided to skip the performance and take our time going through the sales stuff. The hall was quite crowded every time we went there during the weekend!
There was also the "artist alley" where people had their own table for selling self-made art, like stickers, key chains, magnets, etc.
Took a photo of the salad that I ate on Saturday :D
The Finnish anime conventions usually have a Guest of Honor from Japan, someone from the anime/manga industry. This time it was Toshihiro Kawamoto, who is an animator and also the co-founder/director of the anime studio Bones. He has done character designs for series like Cowboy Bebop, Wolf's Rain and also Noragami (which is my latest anime/manga obsession ♥). I really enjoyed listening to him talk about how the process of character designing goes and he even showed us some character design sketches from Cowboy Bebop and Wolf's Rain! On Sunday he also showed photos of Bones' studio.
On Saturday evening, there were cosplay contests - European Cosplay Gathering preliminaries for solos and groups (which included a performance), and a "smaller" solo contest where only the costumes were judged. We sat quite far away, so I didn't even try to take photos with my camera... But luckily I found some videos from Youtube afterwards :D (None of these were taken by me)
This was one of the funniest cosplay performances that I've yet seen XD I grew up watching Disney movies and this brought back so many memories from my childhood ♥ They placed 2nd in the group category.
I also really liked this performance, even though I'm not familiar with the characters or even the series that they're from.
I'm not even a fan of the Hobbit or LOTR stuff, but thought that this was a good performance (and their costumes looked awesome as well). Sadly they didn't get placed :(
None of the solos for the ECG preliminaries really caught my attention, but my guess for the winner did go right!
The halftime show (titled "Anime on low budget") was the best thing ever, so many laughs XDD Most of it is in Finnish, sadly.
Couldn't find separate clips of the costume contest, but here's the whole thing in one video. Ultimate Madoka was my absolute favorite, the details on that dress were so gorgeous! *o* ♥ She placed 2nd in the contest.
There was only a short break before the AMV contest started :D So many hours of sitting, our poor asses were screaming, hahah... But still, didn't want to pass on seeing the AMVs! I really like them, not only as a form of art, but also because they can be a great way to find out about some new anime series or movies that you haven't watched before.
The judges chose this one as the Best Video!
This won the title of "Most Impressive Video" and actually got me interested about the anime it was about!
This was voted as the Audience's Favorite Video. Yuri on Ice, of course :'D But it's also a great and humorous video! (Song is in Finnish)
We also attended some panels during the weekend, this one was called "Anime, adulthood and mortgage and for me it was one of the highlights in this convention :D Basically, the person keeping the lecture talked about how the anime hobby changes when you become an adult. There were many humorous moments, but everything was also so true!
Me and Tiinyan both had a Pureneemo girl with us, here's a photo of them together ♥ Tiinyan's Fuuka on left, my Emi on right ^^ I also had little Miu with me. If you follow me on Instagram, you might've seen me post some photos from the convention featuring her, but I didn't take any proper photos of her with my camera.
The convention ended on Sunday evening with the ending ceremony, where the Guest of Honor for summer Desucon 2017 was announced.... And it's Yuuki Kaji! He's a voice actor, probably best known for voicing Eren from Attack on Titan. Following the announcement there were around 20 seconds of excited screaming and clapping (and some "NO WAY" yells as well hahah), so I guess many people were happy about this announcement XD It's awesome that Desucon managed to get such a big name as the Guest of Honor!
As for my con loot... I got such a cute plushie, some stickers, keychains and a notebook as a souvenir for Sarg ^3^ There were surprisingly few tempting plushies this time, but that was only a good thing for my wallet, hahah...
Overall, the convention was great and I enjoyed being in the company of Tiinyan & The Dudes :3 And actually, our next convention (where Sarg will be coming to as well) will be after just two weeks! ♥
I thought that I'd make a post about the new pretty eyes that me and Sarg got in the mail last week! We ordered from Oscardoll, a company that makes such beautiful sparkly urethane eyes~ When we ordered, there was also an event where you get a pair of eyes as a gift with an order over $130. You could choose the eye size from 6mm to 28mm, but the style would be random (we chose 12mm).
Sky Blue Space in 12mm for Undine (Iplehouse nYID Vera elf)
This style in 10mm for Sarg's Mytty (Nympheas Dolls Fanny)
Spring Pink 02 in 8mm for Sarg's Maisa (Cerisedolls Chibi Lana)
This style in 10mm for Sarg's Toffle (SIO2 Bleater)
This is the free pair of eyes that we received, very pretty! ♥ Still, my initial reaction was that we don't have anyone who could use them, so we should just sell them. But then...
...I got the idea to try them on my snail girl Kikia and I was sold *3* She usually wears 14mm eyes, but these 12mm ones don't look too bad on her either. She may even get to keep these! (Oh god, I really need to re-do her faceup at some point too... Those lower lashes look horrible ;___; I can't stand looking at my older faceups, since I know I could do things so much better now - or get some help from Sarg for the perfect result :D)
I must say that I much prefer these eyes to the previous pair that Undine had! I do love Makoeyes, but the pair that I got for Undi was definitely too dark for her and the color wasn't so nice either. These Oscardoll eyes however are just the right color, match with her hair nicely and the sparkling also adds more fantasy elements to her look.
As for Spectra, I did love her previous Makoeyes and they were pretty much the same color as these, but I just wanted some extra bling bling :D Really loving this change~ ♥
Mytty with her eyes~ Her resin is somewhat transparent, so you can see the white eyeballs through her resin now that she hasn't been painted yet XD
Unfortunately we didn't try the other two pairs that Sarg ordered on dolls yet (Maisa hasn't even arrived and Toffle is waiting for a faceup), but all these five pairs that we ordered are really beautiful ♥ We're already thinking of making another order to get a few more, oh noes... ^^; I love that Oscardoll makes eyes in such tiny sizes as 6-8mm, so I could get some for my Soom fairies too ♥
Last weekend was quite an adventure, since we visited yet another anime convention! This time we journeyed to Animecon in Jyväskylä :3 At first we thought that we would not be able to attend this con, since all the hotels seemed so expensive and a one-day trip would've not been nice (8 hours in a bus in total for one day = hell no), but a friend came to the rescue and promised we could stay over at her place! ♥ This made it possible for us to travel to Jyväskylä on Friday evening, attend the con on both days (Saturday and Sunday) and then leave on Sunday evening. So much easier without all the hassle of checking in and out of the hotel, etc.
Saturday
We woke up at 8am to get ready and then got to the con venue at around 10am. It would've been possible to exchange our tickets to the wristbands already on Friday at 4-6pm, but sadly our bus arrived at 6:50pm so a little bit too late. It's okay though, the line wasn't that long on Saturday and we got in pretty fast.
While we were waiting in the line, a few reporters from a local magazine came to talk with us and took some pictures for an online article ^^;; It was quite awkward... I have no idea why they decided to come to us, there were so many awesome cosplayers everywhere and all XD I guess they really liked my lolita outfit, lol... In the article they had mixed up the things we said; Sarg said that this is her 3rd Animecon, but in the article they wrote that I was the one who said that :D
The thing that really infuriated me was that they had written that I came to the con with my "friend" Sarg >.< Such a heterosexist assumption, two females = must be friends. If one of us was a male, I bet they would've at least asked if we're a couple or just friends... But they definitely didn't ask us, nor did we say that we are friends. They could've left the whole "friend" word out of the article and just said that "this person came to the con with this person". We also could've been relatives, like cousins or something, lol. But yeah, if you're writing something for a magazine, don't write things based on your own assumptions, thank you =_=
This is what I looked like on Saturday. I recently bought the skirt (Angelic Pretty Milky-chan) second-hand and wanted to create a deer themed coord around it~ I don't wear lolita that often nowadays, but I couldn't resist buying this skirt since it's one of my all-time favorite prints and I found it for a good price! Everything else in my outfit is off-brand, Sarg made the hairband and decorated my shoes *3*
The first thing we did after getting in was going through the sales hall and artist alley! We took quite many photos...
Pokémon goodies~ You could really see that Pokémon is quite popular in Finland, there was a lot of merchandise everywhere and on Sunday most of it had been bought :D
Cute plushies ;3;
This pink squirrel was adorable! ♥ But I've been trying to avoid buying more big plushies and didn't see a smaller version of this one :c
I've seen these Pokémon Kuttari plush at some online shops, but only now after seeing them in person I fell in love with them! ♥ Would love to get Sylveon, Espeon and Vaporeon! And maybe Eevee too! XD
I nearly screamed when I spotted this bag, it was so cute! ♥ I've been looking for a small brown bag, so this one was an instant purchase :3 There was also a darker brown version (you can see a little bit of it in the top right corner), but I liked this lighter one more.
Besides anime related merchandise, there was also stuff from some games and movies!
These little Marvel plushies were adorable XD
Moving on to some cosplay photos. We didn't go to see the cosplay competitions this time, so unfortunately we don't have any photo material from those. And overall, we only took photos of a few cosplays :/
A lovely Tiana (The Princess and the Frog) cosplayer~ When I spotted her I was like "omg she's so pretty, I want a photo!", but then she came to me and was like "omg, you're so cute!" XD
Fairy Maki *w* Love those wings~ Seeing a full fairy cosplay group of the Love Live girls would be awesome! ♥
Ciri from Witcher 3!
Belle from Beauty and the Beast ♥ This dress was so gorgeous and detailed~
After taking the first look at the sales stuff, we met with Petunia and went to Teeleidi, a cute little tea shop :) It wasn't far away from the Paviljonki building, where the con was held.
The building is beautiful both from outside...
...and inside!
They also had a bunch of cute tea pots for sale~ ♥ Me and Sarg were tempted to buy one, but in the end decided not to take the risk of it getting broken :c
They had cute candy, chocolate and honey for sale as well :3
Their tea selection was INSANE, there were so many different tea flavors to choose from!
In the end we (or I...) chose mango sencha tea :) I also ordered a piece of blueberry pie, with some vanilla sauce ♥
If you look veeery closely you can see a glimpse of little Miu on Miku's lap XD (Miku belongs to Petunia)
After getting back to the con, we walked around the sales hall again and after a while decided to go to get something to eat before the next programs start.
There was a restaurant at the con venue, we ate ramen soup there :) I usually hate mushrooms, but I was so hungry that I didn't really care hahah... I guess mushrooms are not so bad ^^;
The first actual program for the day that we wanted to see was a Moomin metal performance by Tolkutonta! Here's one playlist with his covers :) Combining Moomin OST and metal music is such an awesome idea. Sarg has been listening to it more than me (I tend to prefer lighter stuff nowadays), but the performance was still fun to see and hear. My only complaints about the program are that the time and place were suddenly changed, and even then the program started like 15 minutes late >.< People waiting in the line grew quite impatient.
Next, I went to see the Pokémon musical, which is a fan-made project. We missed it once when we didn't attend Popcult in April, so I made sure to see it this time! Sarg had wanted to see it too, but she had a terrible headache and decided to go grab something to eat instead. Petunia was sitting next to me, so I didn't have to be completely alone! \o/ Unfortunately I don't have any material to show from the musical. It was forbidden to film it (it'll apparently be available on Youtube at some point) and I couldn't take any photos in the first place, since the camera was with Sarg
The musical was absolutely amazing, much better than I had expected! All the costumes looked gorgeous (especially Lapras' dress and the Gyarados!! ♥) and the actors were great. My favorite was Persian, such great acting and being true to the character~
After the musical, we left the con to rest and watch Zootopia :D Which was a great movie! If you haven't seen it yet, I do recommend watching it asap >:3 Me and Sarg had to buy it on DVD afterwards, hahah.
Sunday
On Sunday we slept until 10am and weren't in a hurry, since there wasn't really any interesting program in the morning. We got to the con venue at 12pm and went to get our seat tickets to the piano concert, thank god there were still plenty of tickets available!
Miu with Petunia's girl~
The main event of the day was the piano concert performed by the guest of honor, Animenz. His channel is full of amazing piano covers, so do check it out! I was really looking forward to his performance. There are those people who can play the piano well and then there are those people who can play well AND put emotion into their performances. Animenz is definitely one of the latter.
He played a special Madoka medley~ I loooove this series and the OST so much, hearing a piano medley in a live concert felt amazing! ♥
I also managed to record some of it as a video! There's a bit of the beginning missing, since Sarg didn't know which camera button was used for taking videos and I was still trying to get back to Earth from my cloud nine, hahah XD
I have no idea why the video quality looks so shitty in Youtube, there weren't even any settings for choosing higher/lower quality when I uploaded the video D: I've been thinking of uploading some doll/figure related content (like box openings) on Youtube, so I definitely need to do some research on what causes these quality issues.
Here's a comparison of the original vs. Youtube quality :'D
Anyway, then at some point he started playing a song that "everyone would surely recognize" - it was Dango Daikazoku, the ending theme from Clannad ;w; It's such a cute song! ♥ I admit that I was silently singing along in my head, hahah. Although I generally have a bad memory, song lyrics tend to get stuck on my head very easily so I remember the full lyrics to like hundreds of songs ^^;;
He played many other great songs too, like Colors from Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion, Sword Art Online medley, Main Theme from Howl's Moving Castle, Unravel from Tokyo Ghoul, Secret Base from Ano Hana, and Butter-Fly from Digimon Adventure!
Although the concert was awesome, I was slightly disappointed that he didn't play Brave Shine from Fate/Stay Night: UBW, which was listed in the flyer as one of the songs he would play in his concert :( I had really been looking forward to it. Some other songs in the list had been changed as well, I wonder why... Well, at least I can listen to it through his Youtube channel!
We had planned to go to see the cosplay competitions after the concert, but since it was a bit late from the schedule we were afraid that we might not make it in time to our bus (especially since we would still need to pick our stuff from the cloakroom, etc.) and decided to leave the con already. We went to buy some candy and ate at Hesburger :D Then at 6pm we left back towards Helsinki in the bus~
Animecon loot~ Sheep plushie and cat bag for me, sloth plushie for Sarg. Aaand a few Overwatch art prints and a sticker from Kiwii :3 I try to avoid buying too much stuff at conventions, as I know that I can find most of the stuff for a cheaper price online.
Miu also found something from the con - her first own Miku figure! She's really proud of it x3
I'm Senja (safir or sherimi online), a 26-year old girl from Finland :3 This blog is mainly dedicated to my love for BJDs (Ball Jointed Dolls), Dollfie Dreams, Azone dolls and anime figures, but you'll also see posts about any other things that interest me~ Hope you enjoy your stay! ♥
