NYCC 2016: Thursday

Ta-da! Here you go, full body shot of the airbender nomad costume I made awhile back. I intended to cosplay Jinora, sure the hair is not perfect, but it's close enough! Though everyone kept calling me Aang - how frustrating...

Before I get into details on my experiences this year during NYCC - I will have to point out that I was only able to obtain the Thursday ticket. Though I followed the provided instructions, I fan-registered and followed my specific link at the sale time - I still was not able to buy the weekend pass. I was disappointed. But they offered a second ticket/pass sale again, in which I was able to purchase the Thursday pass.

NYCC 2016 was over months ago - apologies, life happened and I wasn't able to blog much. Before the convention, my friends and I, knowing that we only had one day to raid through the convention - we wanted to get the most out of it, so we decided we should cosplay this year. I was ready - as I have already finished a costume (see prior post). 

My friends, luckily, managed to put something together nicely! One of my friends decided to do an awesome teenage punk version of Kiki (from Studio Ghibli;s 'Kiki's Deliver Service' movie), and I offered to make her bow - I always wanted to cosplay Kiki myself, but this time I needed to debut my airbeder cosplay. It was a chance for me to dust out my sewing machine and review on how to make an awesomely huge and cute bow. It turned out better than I expected and I was so happy she liked it~ I made it with velcro, so that it can attach and detach from a headband ^_~  My other friend decided to comfortably be a Pikachu for the day. 

Courtesy of Ryan Chong at (http://www.rchong3d.com/nycc-2016)
 - Please excuse my unruly caplet... -

We were very happy with how the costume turned out and convention goers recognized the characters we were cosplaying... Well, except, I was mainly confused with my character's grandfather, Avatar Aang. Like, ugh, where do you see arrow tattoos? my head was full of HAIR! *in despair* ;^; Ever heard of other air nomads from the show?!.... Ahem! Anyway, my friend who cosplayed Kiki was very popular :3 she was so aduuuraburuuu as Kiki!! 

While on our rounds in the showfloor, we found a Sokka cosplayer and Aang cosplayer - you can check those photos at IG - same handlename as here.

I wanted to be a princess too, so I put on my tiara and stood next to Sailormoon

We tried to do the most we could, though we mainly went to areas of our interests, which is the show floor (for anime related stuff like Bandai, Viz media, Konami, etc.) and the visited the autographing floor (basement) for a bit. We all agreed not to attend any panels because those mostly require time to line up early to secure a spot - so we did without - and we still had an awesome time during the convention. It was great, even for only one day. I didn't expect to have enjoyed much more than I originally thought because I am so used to attending the entire weekend.

Cosplaying played a huge role in us enjoying the convention this year. So guys, if you are planning to go to any comic-con or anime convention, consider cosplaying something! It will enhance your con-going experience! It definitely did for me. It reminded me the good old days when I used to be more into the hobby.

See you next year NYCC.

That is it, hasta la vista! 

NYCC 2015 Report: Sunday October 11, 2015 Report

Day 4: Sunday October 11, 2015

Its shopping day for all!! Except I. My friend and I did plan Sunday as a shopping day - but we ended up spending the day at the Viz Media booth to play on the roulette event most of the day.

Viz Media Roulette Event - Each participant spins the roulette once during their turn. The higher the number the more gifts you can get. They have the numbers raging from 1-4. I keep getting 3. Both times I participated in this, I keep getting the same number, lol its not a bad number, but I guess I was just greedy. I wasn't planning to keep any of these items that I won anyway. I planned to give them away to the people I knew who didn't get the chance to go to NYCC.

Later that day, I took my friends to complete their Naruto Ninja Missions. lol Funny that we are a three-man cell, we did pretty well - less than 10 min! Got our Naruto coins (I participated again) before they ran out; staff started giving out Naruto posters when the coins ran out.


Something else happened, there was another autographing line up for the newly announced Legend of Korra comic book's artist, Brittney Williams! I, of course, lined up to meet her! We talked a bit, she said my name is nice~! *happy* She's a very nice lady, I love her Korra sketches, I wish you all the best Brittney!

Then we went to the KONAMI booth - Basically, they take a picture of you [awkwardly posing] and photoshop on to a YU-GI-OH card template and print it out and glue it onto a cardboard backing. The turn out was similar to a YU-GI-OH card quality, but with your picture instead of a monster in it. You get to choose which kind of card/ background they can print your picture on.  Mine turned out weird, so I am not going to post a picture of it...

In the end, I was able to grab a few souvenirs for some friends. Mini shopping mission - success!

My NYCC 2015 loot. Mostly Naruto merchandise.

FYI: I only kept the shirt, signed posters, Naruto manga, and Naruto coins. Other posters and freebies (not pictured) from NYCC were given away to friends and coworkers. I do biweekly purges, so who knows how long I will keep the stuff - but definitely keeping the signed posters and shirt - will normally use - may be used for Summer wardrobe.

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NYCC 2015 Rating: 8/10 (would have been a 10 if I got Kishimoto's autograph OTL)

Comments: I can't deny this year was the better NYCC year ever I had. Still can't top my NYAF years though, nor my ANext experiences. But still good enough. More so now I have had the opportunities to meet people and experience things that I have not done before.

As a cosplayer, in the past I have had only concerned myself with the cosplay community, more so closely with the friends that I had made during that time. Never actually made time to participate in any panels nor autographing sessions. My cosplay friends would always focus on walking around the convention center to showcase their cosplays - I was not too comfortable with that, however. My introvert self was surfacing more and more as demands from cosplay friends made the hobby feel like a baggage and ultimately a bigger expense. Well, I was a student back then, and living alone. Then I decided to take a break from it all.

During two years after I stopped cosplaying, I still attended conventions. I wanted to experience it from a noncosplayer point of view - I was a noob when it comes to convention going, I was till making mistakes - still missing out on things like meeting people, panels, autographing session, etc.

This year, I was able to experience the convention going culture with old friends and college friends. I am glad that I was able to feel happy going to a convention, not stressed about cosplay, make-up, pictures, drama, etc. And that happiness is what every person should feel when attending a convention, grab a friend and experience what the event offers!

Thanks for reading! ( ´͈ ◡ `͈ )

NYCC 2015 Report: Saturday October 10, 2015 Report

Day 3: Saturday, October 11, 2015

You (probably) have no idea how down I was feeling that morning. Reality crashed - I will never get Kishimoto's autograph... It was so hard to accept, my morning was just not great. Plus, my friend/roomie was especially helpful by leaving her cellphone at home. Yep, made my morning!

Anyways, enough with the sad vibes. My resourceful friend came to the rescue, she told me about Takeuchi Junko's autographing session! I was able to meet her and get her autograph. That made my weekend a bit better.

Takeuchi Junko autographing a Naruto poster @ NYCC 2015

Saturday ended well.

NYCC 2015 Report: Friday October 9, 2015 Report

Day 2: Friday, October 9, 2015

I had this plan that day: I would check out the show floor again, and then go home, take a nap, and come back before 9pm to start lining up for Masashi Kishimoto's autograph.

The day started very energetically, I mean, just look at this group of cosplayers!!!

Anyways, my friend and I had to make our NYCC morning short because we were on a ninja mission - to get Kishimoto's autograph! We left around 2:30pm.

At that point I was constantly reviewing the information on the website - they said that their staff won't allow anyone to start queuing up before 9PM (Friday 10/9/15) for the 10:30AM Saturday, October 10, 2015 - Kishimoto's Autographing session. I wanted to reassure myself that things will go alright and as planned.

Sad news was... the staff stopped caring. According to one very resourceful fried of mine, hardcore fanatics lined up at the Hammerstein Ballroom ever since 4:00 PM. Apparently, staff members did try to shoo these fans away, but due to the fans' hardcore nature, they eventually gave up. I can't blame them... Nor I can blame the fans. I would have stayed too. But I was too naive...I left the convention to take a nap so I can camp out the whole night (if needed be) - but OH MY GLOB, that was stupid. At that time I was still at home and didn't know a thing about what was going - URGHHHH!

(ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻ 

At 7:30 PM, I set foot out of my place, my friends (queuing at that moment) hurried me constantly to come. Another set back was that I lived about 1.5 to 2 hours away from the convention center - fudge me.

I am done.

Good night - hope you have a sweet dream... I will just be under my blankets and recall how my stupid plan failed.... (ಥ⌣ಥ)

The Downtown Battle: NYCC 2015 Ticket Sale Line Up

Update: Didn't have data to post this while I was queuing up at Midtown Comics. But we got the tickets! It was much faster than last year's. That's a good thing in my opinion, even though they only gave <24 hours notice. In the end, we didn't go with any plans we made, got the 4-day ticket instead - so I can get more chances to see Masashi Kishimoto!

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Getting NYCC 2015 tickets at Midtown Comics' downtown location:

Plan A: 3-days ticket
Plan B: Thursday ticket

Let the games begin!!