Showing posts with label Chibicon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chibicon. Show all posts

October 11, 2018

Chibicon 2018 – In the name of work I attend programs!

Hello dudes and dudettes!

Omg it's not a lens review!? xD Yep, I went to a con this past weekend and this summary is a tiny bit late but I've been running back and forth into hospital these past days and it's been really hectic. Fucking glorious to wake up into a pool of your own blood so yeah, haven't had time to even think about blogging tbh. And before anyone asks, yes I'm alive and it's nothing dangerous (hopefully).

So yeah, back on track. Chibicon it was, alright. It was held on 6th October in Oulu, which was a Saturday. Pohjankartano once again served as the con building and, as far as I know, it's one of the best places in Oulu to host a con!

Chibicon poster.
It just dawned on me that it was quite a while since I last attended a con, namely Närcon on summer. There was a lot of ifs and hows when it came to my Chibicon journey as the original plan was that I'd hitch a ride with Sacchan, but as luck would have it her car broke down mere days before the con – of course things can't go smoothly for us. :)) So yeah, there I was with no ride and I had applied to be a con worker like a week before the con and got accepted, so now I didn't want to be that one person who bails out last minute as it's kinda douchy once the schedules are set and the others are counting on you to show up. Literal panic. 
I tried to look for busses but for some reason they were expensive as ass and weirdly enough the train was cheaper. I was staring at the adult prices and ripping my hair out before I realized that hey, I am actually studying in Finland right now. So on Thursday before the con I walked into my school's office thingy and got a temporary paper proof that I'm studying (I don't have the student card thingy yet) and boom, cheaper train ticket granted!

My last minute plan was to leave for Oulu on Friday night and sleep over at Karri's place but turned out mom couldn't give me a ride to Kemi so late and so I had to take an early Saturday train instead, which meant no need for sleeping accommodation. I feel a bit sorry for Karri as he was really looking forward to having me there (he even cleaned!) but yeah, I'll take the times that works for mom as my poor ass is so broke that I have to save on everything that I can. ^^"

Chibicon entrance once the doors opened.
There was a massive line.
So I took the morning train to Oulu and I was there around 8 something, which turned out to be really early as once I got to Chibicon I quite literally only saw Urumi putting up their table and the security guys. I headed up to the third floor which was reserved for the staff only. I think I sat there for about an hour before I started hearing noises of other workers arriving and went back down to the first floor. I met up with some other con workers, got my badge and then they put me to work – cutting tickets for the main programs (cosplay competition, AMV competition, cosplay date etc) with a cutter. So I was sitting there cutting a lot of colorful papers until the con's doors officially opened and then I was free to roam around for a short moment before my first working shift started.

Con worker badge.
I was working as an "ohjelmavänkäri" or "salivänkäri" for the ceremony hall ("juhlasali") and the little stage in the main hall, which is a bit hard to translate but basically I was the person who watched so that the main programs (which were held in the ceremony hall) ran smoothly. My work tasks were to pay attention to the stage (if someone trips, needs help etc), make sure that the attendants sit in the right color-marked seats according to their seat tickets, watch so that no one is obnoxiously loud or rude and so on. Pretty basic stuff.

My first work task was to watch over the start of the K-POP Random Dance Game on the little scene. They didn't need any help when I introduced myself before the start and so I just sat in the audience and watched for about 15 minutes until it was clear that everything was running smoothly and then I left to the green room to go get something to eat.

Green room when the con had just opened.
I've been a con worker on most of the cons that I've attended lately and I think I'm getting to the point when it would feel weird to not be able to have access to the green room. xD Like it's so convenient to be able to just drop your stuff there, charge your devices and go grab something to eat whenever you feel like it. 

My next job was to watch over the AMV competition in the ceremony hall, which started at 12:00. I made my way there 15 minutes before start and then I was walking around the seats making sure that all the colored papers were stuck to the seat edges of each row, as they would drop down quite often as the tape didn't stick well to the surface of the seats. I was always sitting near the scene and just... watching. I'll admit I've never attended any AMV competition before as I just didn't have the interest (and I'm a lazy fuck, lmao) and so this was something new to me. I'm not sure if I've ever even watched an AMV before. xD I agree with most of the ones that won but there were some that I was not a fan of. *shrugs* I did notice a growing inspiration to make an AMV myself but I have no damn clue how so yeah, probably not gonna happen lol.

Next up was the cosplay date. Same thing again, make sure that the colored papers have not fallen off and go ask if the program holders need help. They told me that they do not need me at all and so I pissed off and went to check the con and eat as my free time was otherwise really limited. I had more work hours than the 4 that I had been told, why is it always me?

Einesburgeri hell yess! :DD
All con workers were promised one warm dish (either hamburger or vegan/vegetarian options) and while I half expected something cheapo I was not expecting like the cheapest plastic-packaged burger from the store. xD Literally bread and beef only and not even actual beef but chicken-pork mix beef. There was cheese, ketchup and dressing to put on before microing it and I think that's about it? Felt a bit... dry. At least by the time I got to eat, I'll admit I was not among the first ones as I had so many work shifts with no breaks between. It was still okay but even the McDonald's euron juusto would have been better, lmao. And I don't even like McDonald's.

Chibicon main hall.
Chibicon cafeteria area.
Chibicon was a bit lacking in terms of activities. There was no video game room, no karaoke room, no rhythm game room, no drawing room... barely anything else than the programs, some panels and meetups, an anime room, Artist's Alley and some merchandise sellers and other con's booths. As a visitor I would have been bored really fast and probably thought that the 10€ entrance fee (at the door, advance tickets were cheaper) was a bit steep.

Merchandise sellers were pretty much only Urumi (not that I expected much more from a small con in northern Finland). Urumi is always a welcome sight as they sell legit stuff but my ass is so broke right now that I can rarely afford to buy anything and most times I know I can get the same thing for cheaper if I buy it online myself. I do like looking at all the cute and pretty stuff though! Window shopping is always fun, heheh.

No con without the obligatory sweets.
Happy to see Digimon and Monster Hunter getting some love!
There was a lot of Pokémon this time..
... and I mean it.
MonHun figurines!
I think these Kyogre, Groudon and Rayquaza straps were new?
Did I say there was a lot of Pokémon? xD
Don't forget the Ginga doggos!
Omg, Ōkami merch!
Shame it was too expensive for me.. for noodle stoppers at least.
I did not bother to go check out the anime room because honestly, I don't understand why you'd pay to get inside a con just to watch anime that you can do at home for free (and you can watch any show you like)? It never made sense to me, I'd rather use that limited time to explore and hang with friends and basically anything else except watch anime. xD 

I did not cosplay, I was considering it briefly but I've been so exhausted from all the hospital visits that I didn't feel like I had the energy to bother. And most cosplays that I would have wanted to wear needs some altering anyway. I noticed though that it seemed that a majority of the congoers went casual – I didn't see all that many cosplayers from what I can remember and now I'm not counting the "peruukkicossaajat". I did not feel like I missed out on something because I went casual, I'm actually happy I did, lmao.

Lip sync battle. Yes, that cosplayer performed the original
Pokémon opening in Finnish and was the funniest performance
because of a joke that ran through the whole program.
14:00 it was time for the lip sync battle in the ceremony hall. I had no idea what it was before this but as it was my job I had to stay for the duration of the program. It dawned on me quickly that it's like a light-hearted song contest... except that you don't sing. The premise is basically that you have two contestants (often cosplayers) who pick a song, that fits the character somehow, and then perform it and the winner is the one who gets more noise and cheers from the audience. This is the kind of shit on which you need to have excellent stage charisma, creativity and dance/choreography skills to pull off well, otherwise it turns really stale and cringy fast. I'll admit it was entertaining overall but I think it suffered a bit from a lack of participants and cancellations.

After the lip sync ended it was time for the main program of pretty much any anime convention – the cosplay competition. It started at 15:00 and this time I noticed two guys sitting on "wrong seats" as I saw that they had green tickets but were sitting on blue seats. I went up and they said that they were photographers and that's why they had sat on seats so far in the front, despite having middle row seat tickets. I didn't feel a need to ask them to move to their right places as, by the time the competition started, there were still many seats empty as the hall was big.

Cosplay competition.
But yeah, the cosplay competition. I haven't attended it in years and a wave of nostalgy hit me. I should probably participate again but I have such crippling stage fear that I always come up with reasons not to. Most bigger cons also require a performance nowadays so I guess I'm stuck to the small cons that still run the "lavajuoksu" style, lol. Basically make a pose on scene and walk away style. Maybe someday...

All cosplay competitors.
The ones who placed.
It was pretty easy to guess who would get a prize while the competition was running and my picks were mostly right in the end, haha. Congratulations to all the winners!

The last program that I worked on was the FFFight in the main hall stage. It was hosted by Team Yli Ysitonnia (Team Over Ninethousand) and they were really funny! This was were laughs were had. Before start I finally got to feel helpful, namely fetch them a computer from somewhere so that they could get the music to the show. It was a bit last-minute as I had to wait for a person to show up but it all worked out after a slight delay. 
I've watched Final Fantasy Fights before and know the deal, it's this kind of silly fighting show in FF style between any congoer who wants to (playfully) beat someone else into a pulp. The main point is to entertain the audience and the winner is once again determined by who gets the most noise from the audience. My favorite fighter was the dabbing "jonne" (suomalaiset tietävät) with the cap, dunno what his name was but he looked like such a typical memelord jonne and I think he knew it. xD

Between my short breaks I had time to explore the con. It's your typical Pohjankartano convention except that Chibicon didn't have a lot to do, as mentioned earlier. There was the Matsucon kirppis, a second-hand booth ran by Matsucon were congoers could leave their stuff for sale. It was mainly manga. 

Second-hand booth.
My favorite thing at the convention was the Artist's Alley. For some reason it was held in a classroom on the second floor and it was a bit... crammed at times. I don't really get it why it had to be on the second floor as there was nothing else there except for the anime room and the lecture/panel/meetup rooms and most people spent time on the first floor. There was a fair amount of empty space on the first floor so I don't see why AA wasn't placed there together with Urumi, the second-hand shop and the con booths? More visitors, more visibility, more space. *shrugs* The classroom worked okay but in my opinion it felt a bit like a wasted opportunity to not have the artists downstairs. :/

View of Artist's Alley.
MCrafts table. A lot of nice stuff!
I bought some Pokémon stuff from the table above for both myself, Frozen Angel and Firith. The seller was really nice and we talked a bit too. All my Chibicon purchases were from AA, I like to support fellow artists. I've considered selling stuff on AA too but I don't know if I'll ever actually do it as I'm so lazy, lmao. Would be cool though!

When the con was on its final minutes I was up in the green room packing my stuff. Karri shows up suddenly and oh boy I haven't seen him in ages! I took my stuff, left my badge and said goodbyes and headed out to town with him. We had a lot of fun, went to a bar to have a drink as we had some time to kill before my train would arrive. We talked about all kinds of things: movies, martial arts etc. Time went by really fast and it was sad to leave him so early, I hope we can go to Skecon together!

~~~~~

Chibicon was okay overall. Nothing special but I had my share of fun and despite traveling alone I actually surprise-bumped into Sacchan once! Seemingly she took the bus. Except for Karri and her I didn't run into any familiar faces – not like I would have had much time to socialize during the con anyway. Chibicon would have been a lot better if it had more activity rooms as I know that some people I spoke to afterwards (who didn't/couldn't attend the con despite being interested) said things like "glad I didn't pay 10€ if there wasn't even a [insert activity] room there" so yeah, says a lot. I can't deny that the price tag seemed hefty for the lack of content. I'm glad I went as a worker as that kept me busy at all times and I got to participate in programs that I would otherwise not have attended, which gave me a lot of renewed interest in participating in stuff in the future!

All in all I'm glad that the north gets these kind of geeky events and Chibicon did well with what they had. It's definitely a "hang with friends" type of con and beginner-friendly. As a one-day con it works with the content it had and I'd continue attending Chibicon in the future as well.

Thanks for reading!

October 16, 2017

Chibicon 2017 – My boss is a closet Ginga fan?!

Hello geeks!

It's been a while since my last convention, which was Närcon, but this past Saturday I went on a really spontaneous one-day trip to Oulu with a completely different con company than usual!
It all started a few weeks ago when I learned that my awesome cinema boss, Carina, has a daughter who's into anime and manga. Said daughter wants to start cosplaying, and had never been to an anime convention before, and so my boss asked me if I could accompany her to Skecon next month because she was too scared to go alone. But Sabine, the daughter, seemingly started doubting because Skellefteå is still quite a distance away and it's a 3-day con to boot – that's when I suddenly remembered that hey, Chibicon was coming to Oulu soon! This was literally like a couple days before the con, no joke. So I told my boss about this mini con, that could serve as a good first step for Sabine, and after some thinking we decided to go there by car, all three of us. :D

Chibicon was held on 14th October at Pohjankartano in Oulu. This year's theme was horror and it was visible when you looked at what people were wearing – I saw someone dressed in an It inspired clown costume, to name one. I've also been an It clown, but that was at work.

Chibicon info booklet.
Because of how sudden the decision to go to Chibicon was I went there as a filthy casual, meaning I had no cosplay on. :'D I don't regret it though, the weather was not the best and I'm still not 100% snotfree from the flu I ran into a while ago...

The Chibicon morning was pretty chaotic, not gonna lie. I had been told that we would leave for Oulu 9 in the morning, Swedish time. I was at my mom's place and made sure to be ready by then but it soon turned out that Carina was late and it turned out that the reason was that Sabine was impossible to get out of bed – in fact she was still sleeping way past the decided time, lol. So le boss came to pick me up first and then we drove back to her apartment and I went to wake Sabine up; she wasn't too happy because she had a great dream or something. x) Oh well, we got into the car and started driving to Oulu.
We accidentally drove past Oulu first but we got to Chibicon in one piece, albeit late. I must mention that during the car trip I played Pokémon Go and when we got to Oulu city I screamed in the car because I found my second shiny Magikarp as my first ever Pokémon in Oulu, what's the fucking odds?! Fun fact: I've caught 96 Magikarps in the game and got two shinies, insaaaaaaaaaaaaane. ::DD

Golden paper ticket. Se ei oo kullattu vaan kullitettu.
My boss was the sweetest and paid for my con ticket (she paid for her daughter as well), which cost 10 € at the door. ;A; I must admit that I was disappointed to see that it was paper tickets since I collect con tickets and the paper ones die fast and don't have the same collecting value, lol. Oh well, at least it was a fancy shining gold color.

Generic con photo of the building.
I felt dumb when I realized in the car that I had forgotten my powerbank in my other bag and thus I couldn't explore the nearby area in Pokémon Go. In the end it was no big deal because I was busy looking after Sabine and helping her with her purchases etc – she was way too shy/afraid/awkward to pay for her own stuff herself in the sense of handing out the money to the seller, so I did that for her. I didn't mind helping her though, I totally understand why she felt that way and I've been similar for many years ago too. She also can't speak Finnish so the language barrier probably had a role as well. ^^" I had to act as a translator because I was the only one of us three who could speak Finnish, hehe.
It was amazing to see her loosen up and become braver and more self-confident as the day went on. I think visiting Chibicon was that first push that she needed to open up – she even started to plan cosplays for Skecon and that's amazing considering how she said in the car, mere hours before, how she could never wear a costume outside her home because people would see her. I'm really happy I could help her gain confidence and find a community that she feels included in. ♥ Now she's excited for Skecon and that was the point because there she'll be able to communicate with other Swedes and hopefully make friends and memories for life – all thanks to Chibicon serving as the first step towards a new world.
I know this sounds cheesy as fuck but it makes me genuinely happy to help out a fellow person who's had a tough life. I see parts of my former self in her and it's kind of a realization of how far I've come on my own journey ever since I started with this hobby – how much I've grown as a person thanks to it, in other words.

Main area seen from above. Urumi's shop visible.
Main area seen from above.
The first thing we did after getting our tickets was to check out the merchandise. This time it was only Urumi (as far as I could see, excluding the tables from other cons) and for me, as a con veteran by now, it was a bit disappointing that there weren't more sellers in such a big open area. Sabine of course was super excited and bought a lot of stuff – oh how I remember my first cons when I was like that. xD Nowadays I hardly buy anything unless I really want/need it.

Urumi's shop seen from the entrance.
It was nice to see Digimon merch!
Pokémon plushes you'll always find.
Not sure what all of these were but way too expensive imo. xD
Of course the Ginga Densetsu Weed plushes were there!
I was STOKED to find Monster Hunter merch that was not figurines!!
The Artist's Alley was located in the main hall as well, close to the windows. I was surprised when we were at this one table with a lot of canine art etc and my boss started asking me "is that silver?" and at first I was like "silver what?" and after a while I realized she must have meant Silver Fang, aka the name that Ginga Nagareboshi Gin went under in Sweden. She said that she had seen it for many many years ago and had the series on old VHS tapes – I was more than surprised! So yeah, it totally turned out that my boss is secretly a Ginga fan. xD I wouldn't have guessed and it was funny because she told me how she used to cry a lot when watching the series and it had somehow stuck to her – she didn't remember the names but remembered what Gin and Riki looked like, so when we found keychains at the Artist's table she had to have "the son and the father". Awww!

I sadly don't know the artist but it was from this table.
I saw a really nice Thranduil bookmark from another artist but I didn't buy it, mainly because I'm so lazy reading books nowadays, although I want to change that. 

I forgot to take photos but there was a rhythm game room and a video game room of course, along with panels and a cosplay competition. The rhythm game room was in high use and seemed nice but I must admit that I was not impressed by the video game room, sadly – the tables in the room were more than half empty and I think I only saw like 4-5 consoles of which all seemed to be from the newer generations. I personally only stay in the gaming rooms when there's retro consoles available (Nintendo 64 and older) because that's what I want to play the most because I lack the really old stuff at home. Of course it's nice that there's the newer generation consoles too but yeah, I'm an old-school kid at heart. x)

I don't have so much to say about Chibicon itself. There wasn't really much to do nor see for the old stager who's already seen a lot of conventions but it's still, of course, a nice quick trip away from your everyday life. ^^ Chibicon is your usual small con in the north so yeah, slope all expectations and just go in with the intention to have a relaxing geeky day and you'll be happy. It's slow-paced and fun and there's no pressure. Definitely go there with friends!

Oh and yeah, it was a bit weird to realize that the last time I was at Chibicon was back in 2013. Time sure flies by fast... 

No idea if this was even related to the con but
it gave me a good laugh. xD
I guess that's about all that I had to say. It was a fun and different con trip for me and I'm really grateful to my boss for driving us there and for the company, it wouldn't have been possible otherwise! I'm looking forward to go with Sabine to more conventions in the future ~

November 12, 2013

Chibicon 2013 - The circle closes with a dog

So came and went Chibicon (9th November) and thus my cosplay year has closed its circle. *crycorner* No conventions for a while bros, next one should be Kitacon in Kemi sometime on February. Oh well, but before I go live under a rock for a few months I still have the Chibicon summary to share. Take your seats because here it comes, freshly served!

Okay, where to start? Well, on Friday before the con I suppose. See, me, Hasakitsuki and Jäätynyt Enkeli ended up sleeping over at Sairu-chan's place. This meant that we packed our luggages on Friday and started walking to Tornio bus station. We had figured it would be some sort of hell because it wasn't close but luck was on our side and when we walked by Haparanda bus station I spotted a Veljekset Salmela bus turning towards the station. I waited and checked for if it stopped at the station and low and behold it did! It's sort of rare that Finnish buses stop there from what I've seen. With the bus standing there with an Oulu sign I ended up being the one running to it and almost dying and asking if it would pass by Kemi bus station. It was green light and so I went to get the two others and we ran back to the bus, took a seat and lagged until we arrived in Kemi. At Kemi we jumped off the bus and I called Sairu-chan and asked where she was because she had told me earlier she'd be in Kemi. Ended up realizing she was only a few steps away from us. xD
Oh well, we then waited for her mom to come pick us up and soon enough we were at Sairu-chan's place and well, there was a caravan (English why? Se on vittu asuntoauto. Tai husvagn ruotsiksi perkele! ;_;) and our mission was totally to live in it. Yeah, we slept in a caravan, a house on wheels. It was rather cool if I do say so myself.

Well well, after a not so well-slept night in the caravan we woke up shitearly to put on our cosplays. Everyone else except Jäätynyt Enkeli moved from the caravan to the house to put on their costumes because yeah, space and the fact that there's no bathroom in the caravan. When I was done putting on my cosplay I went to have breakfast and yeah, Ibuki was being a dog's friend because he's quite the dog himself because Piki (Sairu-chan's black cute sausage doggy) came and stared at my minisize pizza pastry thing while I was eating and well, I just can't say no to those puppy eyes so I gave him the last bit of it. ;^; I want a dog..
It took us forever but when we all were ready Sairu-chan's grandma drove us to Oulu. When we reached the con building all geeks exited the car and started walking towards Chibicon. I and Hasakitsuki already had con tickets because I had bought them from a guy who was selling his and his friends tickets because they couldn't go. I figured why not buy the tickets from him because I got them slightly cheaper and he didn't have to waste his money - it's a win-win if you ask me!

Chibicon light gray paper ticket in all its glory..
Pretty much the first thing we did at the con place was checking out the merchandise sellers and then head out for a sort of quick photoshoot before it got too dark. Approaching kaamos (aka polar night) we all in the north love you so... not. We ended up mostly taking solo pictures of me and of Sairu-chan and that's a bit sad because it means we don't have any pictures of our little Hakuouki cosplay group together. :< Then again it wasn't the warmest and we ended up going back inside rather quickly to warm up.

Cosplayer: Valkoinen Samurai (Ryunosuke Ibuki)
Photographer: Sairu-chan





"It better not be Serizawa that I'm hearing.."
At some point Jäätynyt Enkeli returned and the camera switched hands. In other words these photos are taken by him.

Sairu-chan as Kosuzu



Hasakitsuki as Chizuru
We had a huge lack of duo photos but I guess we can fix that with a later photoshoot at home.
Well well, with the photoshoot behind us we just went inside and lagged and talked with familiar faces and had fun. I met Darkside of your dreams and Cissydella to name a few.

Chilling. Jäätynyt Enkeli is cosplaying Ishida from Bleach.
Actually everyone had gotten hungry after the photoshoot so we headed for the cafeteria that was at the con. As normally I would assume everything would be shit expensive in there but there was this one megasize pink pastry with jam that only cost 2 €. That's cheap if you consider its size aaw yeah! So yeah, we all totally bought one of these each and a random drink to go with it - in my case, a muthafnuckin' coke because coke is the best. <3

Ibuki feat. coke
(flash photo)
We actually didn't do all that much more that would be interesting to write about. It's a one-day con so before you know it it's over anyway haha. Mostly we just chilled and walked around oh the joys of walking with waraji, my feet were screaming Halleluja of pain at the end of the day. At some point towards the end of the con me and Hasakitsuki struck up a monster hunting corner and gamed a little - Monster Hunter, of course.

PSP gaming happens
When the con ended Sairu-chan's grandma appeared again and we got a ride back to her place again. We ended up sleeping in the caravan another night because my mom couldn't come pick us up on Saturday. Actually it was easier to sleep the second night in the caravan.. except that Sairu-chan had a nightmare that night and because she was in the middle -and I was to her right side- she kicked me in the back while sleeping and at some point tried to roll over me. It was beautiful. It didn't hurt but it turned into a really entertaining conversation on the morning while we had our breakfast. xD

But before I let you all go I'll just leave these here. Eeyup, bonus pictures!

Ibukin selitystuokio :'D (Ibuki explaining)
WHATCHYADUUINWITMAHAIR
Over and out!