Conventions Big and Small: DeceptiKon

Hello everyone! Today I'm going to be talking about a very small convention I went to once as a vendor with one of my friends. This is more of a cautionary tale than a convention review, unfortunately.


Deceptikon
 Deceptikon was a very small, brand new convention in Sacramento that one of my Lolita friends let me know about since I was interested in going to conventions with her and one of my other friends to sell some things I made at their booth. And let me tell you, this was a REALLY small convention. The location was a decent enough size, but there were not many people in attendance outside of vendors, special guests (which my friend also was in addition to being a vendor), artists, and the folks who were running it. Here's what the main attractions were at Deceptikon (based solely off of memory and what I saw)

• Vendor's room
• Artist's alley
• Panels
• Parking lot
• Hallways
• Maybe something outside?
• Photoshoot green screen

My memory of this con's a bit hazy due to it having been four or five years ago now and also due to the fact that I spent most of my time spacing out at my friend's booth and being mistaken for a mannequin by the rare passerby, meandering the halls (with permission since there was extremely low customer traffic), and talking with some of the few people who were there. Among the people I talked to were some of the people behind the convention. As best as I can remember, it was being put on by Team LoveHate and they were pretty enthusiastic about it and were hoping the con would grow over time. Unfortunately, there were a lot of problems with this con despite the lovely people that I met putting it on. First of all, con security was terrible. A good number of people were showing up and not even buying badges for it. And the security people there were were generally unpleasant and grouchy, sitting in corners and growling at you. Not exactly a pleasant experience there. After the convention was even worse though. (Please note, all of the following information is gained second hand from my parents and friends talking and me catching small bits that flew by me.) Apparently the main guy running the con (not any of the people I talked to, fortunately) took all of the money from the convention and ran off with it. My friend who was a special guest there did not get paid for her appearance and panel like what had been agreed upon and also was charged for a second table because she suggested I move to it the second day after the original user had left (they only used the table for one day of the convention). Something else that put me off about the convention was that there was a tattoo station as one of the booths. And people were getting tattoos there. I bring this up because of the fact that tattoos and piercings should ALWAYS be done by a professional, in a sterile environment. And I'm pretty sure it's a lot more difficult keeping a convention area sterile than in a regular tattoo and piercing shop.


So all in all, despite being very small and uneventful and turning out to be generally a ripoff for everyone involved, I enjoyed DeceptiKon. Obviously I can't recommend it as A) It's not a convention anymore and B) It was literally a deceptive convention. I met some amazing people at that convention and am very happy I attended as a vendor with my friends, but I am sad that it didn't turn out well in the end. Remember folks: Research your conventions and be dubious of conventions that are new (but don't avoid them completely since they might be great).


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Anime Reviews: Furi Kuri (FLCL)

Hey everyone! So the other day I was hanging out with a friend and we decided to binge watch some anime. Since I was failing at coming up with a show I'd be interested in watching, he suggested Furi Kuri (Fooly Cooly or FLCL are some alternate names). I'd heard about it before, but had never actually seen it, so I agreed.


 Furi Kuri is a story about Naota Nandaba coming of age and his interactions with Haruko Haruhara. And I only really know this because I read the Wikipedia article the next day. Furi Kuri is an extremely confusing anime with lots and lots of randomness and general lack of consecutiveness. If you thought Kill la Kill was weird, boy do I have news for you. While there is some story there and a bit of consecutiveness, in general Furi Kuri does not make a lot of sense. There was a lot of "What's going on!?" and "I don't know. Keep watching." going on that night... To quote the director, (quote shamelessly taken from Wikipedia) "comprehension should not be an important factor in FLCL." So, getting past the confusion of the story, I actually liked Furi Kuri alright. It has a fun art style and also uses some unconventional methods such as re-using manga panels in certain scenes to tell it's extremely crazy story. There's also a lot of good humor as well as just plain random humor that had both me and my friend laughing our behinds off. I definitely wouldn't recommend showing this to a friend that's still pretty new to anime and Japanese weirdness, but I would recommend watching this if you're looking for something short and humorous to binge watch. In total, there are six episodes of Furi Kuri, so it's easy to just sit down for an evening and watch the whole thing!


As always, if you want to recommend a show for me to watch and review, leave your suggestions in the comments below!


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Conventions Big and Small: Sac Anime

Hello everyone! So I've been going to various conventions since I was 12 or 13, but only recently have I started going to a wider variety of conventions other than a biannual local anime convention that I've been going to for years and it's smaller spin-off cons (comic books based usually). So, since I've been to more type and sized conventions, I thought it would be fun to do some comparing and contrasting of the different ones I've been to. Today I'm going to be talking about one of my first cons. Let's go!


Sac Anime
 Sac Anime was my first convention and has grown a lot since I started going. Unfortunately, I've had to stop going since work has caused me to change coasts, so I haven't been in a few years. Sac Anime has become one of the larger conventions on the West coast and has changed locations multiple times as it continued to grow over the years. When I first started going it was a smaller, more family oriented convention that was beginning to outgrow it's location. I remember my mom talking to some of the staff there and they were all super nice and looking to make the con more fun for everyone. Shortly after I started going to Sac Anime, it had to change its location to a hotel due to size. After a few years of going though, the family friendly aspect started to drop and the staff stopped being as nice and "what would you like to see" about the con than when I first started going. While it's still a fun con to go to, it has definitely grown in size and popularity, causing it to become a bit less fan and family oriented.


Here's some of the features of the con:

• Vendor's room
• Artist's alley
• J-Fashion show
• J-Rock and Japanese inspired bands
• Anime viewing room
• Trading card game tournaments
• Video game room
• Popular/famous voice actor and cosplayer guests
• Various panels (voice actors, cosplayers, games, etc.)
• Cosplay masquerade
• Rave with live DJs
• Cosplay contests

I've been introduced to a lot of cool animes at Sac Anime including Fairy Tail and Black Butler thanks to the anime viewing room. The vendor's room always had a good variety of sellers with anime merch, J-fashion, corsets, and various accessories. I only got to attend the cosplay masquerade a few times since it was a big event and often had super long lines that started an hour or two before the actual event. There were also lines for the voice actors and other guests, but I usually wouldn't wait in line for autographs as I never was really that into getting autographs (though I do have several I got when I ran across people of interest outside of their signing time). There were some good bands over the years that I heard, the ones I remember the most being Akai Sky (I follow their bassist on Twitter) and Buranden (I haven't been able to find anything on them, so I'm not sure if they're still together).


 I've had a lot of fun at Sac Anime over the years and am sad I can't really make it anymore, but I'm looking forward to checking out more of the con scene here on the East coast!


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First Impressions: Yona of the Dawn

Hello everyone! Here today with another anime first impressions, today on Yona of the Dawn.




 So a while ago while I was watching random YouTube videos, I saw a video add for Yona of the Dawn, an anime I'd never heard of before. The add seemed more interesting than most online ads I see, so I decided to try watching the show on Crunchyroll. Let me just say, there was much confuzzlement to be had. The storyline jumps around to two different times in the first episode, then back to the first in the second, and was overall nonsensical in its layout. I was a little surprised because I expected it to be similar to some animes and mangas where it shows the main character being all awesome, go "I wasn't always like this," then go on to explain story up until that point in time. So needless to say having the first episode go from the "I wasn't always like this," to the beginning of the back story, then back to the awesome older self all in one episode kinda threw me off. And I'm pretty sure there were some flashbacks in there too (it's been a little while since I watched it). After the initial confusion of the first episode, the story went back to filling in more of the back story of the main character. To summarize the episodes I watched (in time order as opposed to episode order), Yona, a little princess, grew up with two guys who were like brothers to her, she has a crush on one, they get older. Once they're older, they start talking about marriage arrangements while they're all over to celebrate Yona's coming of age birthday celebration. That night, treachery takes place, Yona's father's murdered by her crush who blames him for *his* dad's death, he decides it's a good idea to kill her since she walked in on the murder, second childhood friend, now the captain of the guard, saves Yona and they run away. Yona is now depressed and doesn't know what to do. *Giant blank space where stuff presumably happens in future episodes* Yona's a boss, has a lotta boss friends, is fighting some army. Winning ensues.


So, I wasn't really pulled in by the story I've seen so far on this show, so I decided to stop watching it and move on to other animes. I have done a terrible job of explaining (mainly because I was confused as heck) and still am not sure what genera of anime it falls under (Maybe shounen?). If you like animes with confusing pilot episodes, this is the anime for you!


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Anime Reviews: Death Note

Hello everyone! So recently, due to encouragement from a friend, I decided to give Death Note another try. Several years back when I regularly read manga online, I started reading Death Note, but got bored after a certain point as there was a lot of talking going on and the story was seeming to progress slowly. However, I'm super glad I decided to try watching it this time instead of reading it. So, without further ado, here's my review of it.




 Death Note is a story about a highschooler named Light who finds a notebook belonging to a shinigami, or god of death, that allows him to cause others to die either by a heart attack or by whatever method he writes in the notebook. However, in order to use the power of the notebook, Light must know the name and face of his victim. Upon realizing just what power he has, Light decides to use it to begin punishing criminals for their misdeeds and so begins going through the news to find names and faces of criminals either on the run or already in prison. As many of the criminals died from heart attacks, people started to realize there was some power causing these deaths and before long a mysterious detective known only a L joins the Japanese police force in an investigation to find this person dubbed Kira (short for killer). However, despite L's suspicion of Light, who also happens to be the police chief's son, Light is able to later join the investigation team.


 So, while I could go into more detail about the story, I'm not gonna do that as there is a lot to the story and I don't want to give it away. My take on Death Note: It was an amazing anime. The story was a little predictable at points, but overall it was very well written and quite enjoyable. Seeing just what lengths Light would go to to protect his identity as Kira was very interesting as well as how the other characters reacted to different situations. The characters all had depth to them that allowed you to see them as actual people rather than just a plot device. The story was limited to a certain number of episodes, so the amount of "filler" material or drawn out scenes was very limited. The ending did a good job of wrapping things up and didn't leave much in the way of unclosed threads in the storyline. The ending was very sad, but well worth it. I would highly recommend Death Note to anyone interested in psychological animes as this one was very good at showing how a mind can warp and manipulate others.


If you have any suggestions for animes you'd like me to watch and review, please let me know! I have several more I've watched recently that you can expect to see some more coming up before too long!


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First Impressions: Ergo Proxy

Hello everyone! So a while ago I was browsing through Imgur (no, I don't have an account) and came across one of the many "These shows/animes/movies are AWESOME!" posts. Among the animes listed was one I'd seen gifs and images for previously, so I decided to try watching Ergo Proxy!



 As of writing this article, I'd only watched the first episode, so there's certainly a chance that the show will develop more than what I've seen. I've been watching quite a few animes set in a darker tone, so I ended up switching back to Pretty Cure (Precure) after the first episode, otherwise I probably would have watched more episodes. First off, I have to say the art style is simply gorgeous in this anime. I'd seen pictures of the main character (at least I presume she is) with her vivid blue eye makeup in a world thet's mostly black, grey, and muted colors before, but I'd never figured out the anime's name until recently. However, I was slightly disappointed with how the first episode was layed out. Too many characters were introduced at once, making it difficult to tell who exactly is the main character as well as what is going on. While I expect animes to have a full cast as well as some mystery to the story, I feel Erogo Proxy's first episode could have maybe been divided to show one character's point of view at a time, similar to how Soul Eater introduces each of the initial teams in their own episode, then procedes to introduce more characters over the course of the show. Despite this, I'd be willing to give Ergo Proxy a second chance to see if it gets more congruent in later episodes.


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First Impressions: Go! Princess Precure

Hello everyone! So the other night, after watching the first two minutes of a reaction video by one of the Lolitas I follow on YouTube, I decided to try watching a new series, Go! Princess Precure. Despite having vowed to never watch Shojo anime again (I know pretty much every storyline now...), I thought it wouldn't hurt to give it a shot as it's a magical girl anime and I tend to like that genera (Sugar Sugar Rune and Tokyo Mew Mew are my favorites n_n).

 Go! Princess Precure is a story about a girl, Haruka Haruno, who has dreampt of becoming a princess her whole life. When she was little, a young man named Kanata gave her a little trinket and told her she'd be able to become a princess one day and to not give up on her dream. Several years later, Haruka decides to go to a posh academy that she deems to be a good school to learn how to be a princess at. While being shown around the campus, Haruka runs into a couple of animal shaped faries that are refugees from a war in Hope Kingdom. Later on Haruka is forced to transform to save her friend after discovering that the trinket she was given is a key that allows her to become a Princess Precure, a magical girl in princess form! With her newly aquired powers, Haruka is able to fight monsters and free people's dreams from cages.

 Overall, I think Go! Princess Precure is an entertaining show. The animation is a mix between traditional drawn anime and anime styled 3D models as well as computer graphics, very similar to the graphics in Miku Miku Dance. While the switching between media styles bothers me somewhat, I'm pretty familiar with computer animation, so it might be more difficult for others to spot it. I'm probably not going to continue watching the series, but I would reccomend it to anyone looking for a new magical girl series to follow. The series is very new though, with only two episodes available on the site I chose to watch it on at the time I watched it.

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Anime Reviews: Another

Hello everyone! I'm here again with yet another anime review! This time: Another, a psychological horror! (Woo! Lookit all the exclaimation marks! XD)

 Another is a story about Koichi Sakakibara, a high school boy who recently moved in with his grandparents in Yomiyama, and Mei Misaki, a pale, ghostly looking girl who seems to be an outcast among her classmates and has an eyepatch covering one of her eyes. The story begins with Koichi at the hospital due to a collapsed lung, causing him to miss the first part of the school year. While at the hospital, Koichi is visited by several of his classmates, all of whom appear to be acting strangely around him. After he recovers and is heading back home, he comes across a strange, ghostly looking girl named Mei at the hospital. Mei gives Koichi a strange vibe as she has an eye covered with an eyepatch, is carrying a ball jointed doll, and is going to visit someone in the basement of the hospital, the morgue. Confused, Koichi asks his classmates about this strange girl the next day at school as she had stated that she was in his class. Much to his confusion, his classmates do not know anything about this girl, and she appears to not exist at all. That is, until Koichi spots her again on the school roof and goes to speak to her. As Koich continues to question his classmates about the ghostly Mei, who seems to be very real, he discovers that there is a curse affecting the class that causes students and their family to die. In an attempt to avoid this tradegy, his classmates had chosen to ignore one classmate as some classes in the past had. As his classmates and their family begin dying one by one, it is up to Koichi and his remaining classmates to uncover the truth behind this curse and try to stop it from continuing. Eventually they discover what they need to do in order to stop the deaths, but chaos breaks out while they are on a class trip, threatening the lives of the students and nearly destroying them all.

 I found Another to be a very intriguing story, and very dark as well. The story was written in a way that kept me guessing as to who and what might be causing the tradegy as well as who exactly Mei was. I very much liked the opening and closing music, coincidentally by the same band as Rozen Maiden 2013's opening music, and wish that there were more episodes, whether with the same class, or a different class several years later. I would highly recommend Another to anyone who is interested in anime with more mature themes, psychological, or horror themes.

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First Impressions: Kill La Kill

Recently I decided to try watching Kill La Kill to fill in the time between episodes of Parasyte -The Maxim- (Why can't you update faster! T-T) after several friends expressed their enjoyment of the show. I will warn you: this is a very odd anime. It's esentially an ecchi magical girl story with an avenging angsty teenaged girl as the lead. However, it's still an enjoyable anime with a pretty good story underneath so far.

 Kill La Kill is a story about Ryuko Matoi, a high school aged girl, living in a world where certain clothing can imbue its wearer with heightened powers and one high school is in control of the majority of the world. Ryuko transfers to this all-powerful school in order to discover the identity of her father's killer and avenge him. Along the way she discovers one of her father's inventions: a sailor seifuku (sailor style school uniform) that gives her the ability to transform and fight against the club leaders who have the performance improving uniforms. She agrees to fight any and all students who challenge her in order to obtain whatever information the student council president (or Overlord) has about Ryuko's father's killer.

I'm enjoying the show enough to continue watching it at this point and would recommend it to anyone who likes quirky, odd shows.

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First Impressions: Parasyte -The Maxim-

 So recently I discovered that one of my favorite mangas has recently been turned into an anime: Parasyte -The Maxim-. Needless to say I had a bit of a fangirl moment when I discovered this and promptly wondered why I hadn't noticed it before. Well, as I soon found out, the series had only begun airing in Japan in October, so there aren't a lot of episodes so far. However, I'm quite enjoying what there is so far. I was a little upset by the change in art style (the original manga was a more realistic, yet simple style than the typical anime style) as well as a LOT of changes to character designs, but I've managed to overlook that and am happily enjoying the show anyways. Thus far, the story has been fairly accurate to the original manga (what I remember at least) and has been quite enjoyable! I'd highly recommend the Parasyte -The Maxim- anime to anyone looking for a new supernatural anime aimed at a more mature audience.

 For those wondering about the storyline, the story is about a typical high school student named Shinichi who's life suddenly changes one night after his arm is taken over by a strange alien creature. He later finds out that there are other creatures like the one in his arm that have taken over humans by devouring their heads and now must fight them to prevent them from eating the rest of humanity.

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Anime Reviews: Rozen Maiden 2013

One time at an anime convention I used to regularly attend I was introduced to the show Rozen Maidens, and anime about dolls that must fight to become the best for their creator. I recently decided to watch it, but mistakenly stumbled upon another series with the same characters in an alternate universe. I originally thought that it was just a DVD adaption, but after completing the series I discovered that there was a separate show that was the original. I have yet to watch it at the time of writing this post.

I enjoyed the story and music of the 2013 version of Rozen Maidens. The doll characters all have very beautiful outfits and their own, distinct personalities. I very much enjoyed the music in the show as well. The opening and closing themes both have a strong presence to them. The story followed that  of Jun, the main character from the original show, in an alternate universe where the Rozen Maiden dolls did not exist. Unfortunately, the story didn't grab me until the last few episodes as it seemed somewhat confusing and I didn't really connect with any of the characters until the end. The ending was open, allowing for a continuation of the series at a later point in time.

To be honest, I contemplated not watching the whole series due to not investing my interest in it, but I decided to continue until the end as it was a short series. I enjoyed the last three or four episodes the most.

I apologize for not having a lot to say about the show, but it did not leave me with a very strong impression. I likely won't be recommending this anime to others as I felt the story was rather weak and somewhat predictable at points.

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Anime Reviews: The Girl who Leapt Through Time

Recently I have been getting back into watching anime, so I've decided to start doing reviews on the various anime and movies I've watched. Today I'll be reviewing the anime movie titled: The Girl who Leapt Through Time.

The girl who leapt through time is the story about a young Japanese highschool girl who after an extrodinarily bad day discovers she has the ability to go back in time, or "time leap" as it is called in the movie. She uses this ability to change day to day events to more suit her liking, but eventually discovers she only has a limited number of time leaps left and must use them wisely to avoid a traumatic experience. She also discovers that she's not alone in her ability to time leap.

I found the storyline of The Girl who Leapt Through Time to be very engaging to the point I ended up watching it all in one sitting instead of taking a break from it to play a game with a friend. Sorry friend, but this was an awesome movie! The characters were all very believeable, none of them were overly dramatic and there were absolutely no self generated backgrounds or breaks in character as in some animes where the characters will begin talking to the viewer instead of the characters around them. The story also flowed well, giving the viewer moments to pause and observe or think along with the characters. The art style was a more simplistic anime style as opposed to the face eating eyes and unrealistic proportions common in many Shojo and Shonen anime. Overall, I very much enjoyed The Girl who Leapt Through Time and would recommend it to others as well as rewatch it myself. Five out of five stars for this one!

If you would like to recommend an anime or anime movie for me to watch and review, please leave a comment down below, or you can send me a tweet @animlolicouture. Please do not ask me to watch Yaoi or Yuri or any anime that is pornographic in nature as I do not enjoy that sort of show. Animes targeted at more mature audiences will be accepted on a case by case basis.

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Drawing: Then and Now

Over the years, my drawing style has changed and improved. I've learned how to draw clothing on after sketching the figure instead of drawing on the legs after drawing a skirt. I've shirked drawing hands by creatively hiding them and avoided feet by having the paper cut them off. I've drawn eyes just like some of my favorite mangas. I've drawn so many drawings that I never finished that I couldn't find ones that I had finished. Now, I'm changing my style and forcing myself to draw hands and feet as well as to make my drawings more realistic. What initiated this change? Mainly the fact that I was tired of my drawings having gigantic anime eyes and wanted to have a more realistic art style. How am I making this change? Well, I'm practicing. I'm taking the time to practice drawing hands in different positions without drawing the rest of the body. I'm adding nails to my hands and drawing more realistic placements of facial features. And I'm picking up drawing books that aren't in the anime/manga style.

While I still enjoy the simplicity of the anime/manga style, I've started to yearn for a more realistic style. Fpr the longest time, I've compared my figure to that of anime characters. They have such long, thin legs and mine are so thick in comparison. Their eyes are so big and elaborate, I wish my eyes could look like that. I've gotten tired of trying to fit my body image onto an anime character with seemingly "perfect" proportions and instead decided to change my art style to fit into more realistic standards. Girls with larger hips and proportionate busts (OK, maybe a bit big) have become more common in my drawings, and it's making me feel better as an artist and a person.

While I still enjoy the look of anime/manga artwork, I just don't feel it's what I want to be my go-to style for drawing anymore. In the long run, I feel that having a more realistic drawing style will bring me more happiness than an unrealistic anime/manga style.

And, yes, here are some of my drawings. (I apologize for the low quality image resolution on some of them. My camera isn't the greatest.)

When I was still fairly new to drawing.

One of my first drawings on a drawing tablet.

One of my more recent drawings. A redrawing of the above character.

The Never Ending Anime Series

Hey guys! Today's article might be a bit of a rant, so I apologize in advance. I will, however, make sure it does not become a 20 page essay on every little thing I dislike about anime. So without further ado, here's my personal perspective on never ending anime series.

There's many different animes out there, some aimed at teen girls, some at old creaky men. Whatever the target group, there's a reoccurring theme in many of them: The series that will never die, or, if it does, will start a new series with the same characters and a different title. Some that may pop into your mind that are very mainstream are Naruto and Naruto: Shippuden and Bleach. I actually used to enjoy Bleach when I first discovered it. I started out watching the anime, but, due to various circumstances, ended up reading the manga instead. At the time it was already a fairly mainstream anime/manga series and had quite a few episodes and chapters out. So why did I stop reading it? One of the things that bugs me the most about a lot of manga series is that you tend to have to wait a month between chapters (once you're up to date), meaning you can forget what's going on and be totally lost when you pick it up again if you don't check every month. Even then, it's hard to remember with everything else in life. For this reason I tend to go for finished series that I already know I like and just buy them so I don't have to wait to see if all of the chapters are up on a site or if they stopped updating because the manga was licensed. However, forgetting the story line is only part of the problem. Many times a manga-ka will stretch out scenes in a particular section of the story just to have more chapters. I admit it can be necessary, but it gets tiring after a while. 'Chapter 283: still on the same battle as chapters 275-282, inclusive.' Drawn out battles tend to happen when the manga-ka decides to give such-and-so a character a back story so you know WHY they hate the protagonist. Other than like, they just hate their guts. It's things like this that make me opt for shorter, completed series rather than long, continuing series.

However, not all long anime series are as bad to me as some. There's several series I still enjoy reading despite the fact that they rarely update and tend to be long. Why's this? It's because of the way they're written. Many animes and mangas merge episode into episode, chapter into chapter, aking for one, long, continuous story that ends in a cliff hanger every time. This is the same sort of thing that happens in a good book. You keep meaning to put it down and go to sleep, but the chapters pull you onwards, making you keep reading until you finish the book and realize you need to get up in five minutes. I have nothing against this type of writing, but when the book never ends and has odd breaks and pauses in it that are unnecessary, it becomes tiring. For this reason I tend to choose mangas and animes that are finished series. However, the ongoing series that I tend to read and watch have a different format from most. They are more episodic in nature, having a short standalone story that can stand by itself, but adds on to the overall story that is being told. This format is used in many American shows such as Castle and the Simpsons or like a series of books. There's a story in each episode or book that is full and complete, but there's an overall story that can be put together from one episode or book to the next. There's rarely any "To Be Continued..." and when there is it's to keep the story from being shortened down to a point where it's not as meaningful. Animes and mangas that follow this format tend to be more to the point and not drag things out as much as many commonly known ones.

Please feel free to comment below about your perspective on the never ending anime series, but please don't start fights or flame or your comments will be deleted. If you have an anime or manga you'd like me to check out and review, please comment below and I'll check it out when I have the opportunity. I'm on Twitter now! @animlolicouture

Cosplay on a Budget: Using What You Have

Welcome to another cosplay on a budget article! I apologize for the long gap in between articles. I've been getting a lot of Lolita inspiration lately and not so much cosplay. Now without further ado, here's

Using What You Have

 When I first started cosplaying, I didn't have the money to buy pre-made cosplays nor to afford the fabric and other materials to make my own. And wigs? The only ones I had were cheap Halloween wigs, which don't last long and tend to look rather crummy. As such, I had to be creative and make my cosplays out of whatever I had lying around. As I mentioned in my article about my first convention experience, my costumes were both made with clothing and notions I had lying around. Granted, not everybody keeps scraps of fabric, old clothes that are too small or too worn to wear, and random pieces of lace around their house. But if you're a bit of a pack rat like me, you should have no problem. Even if you aren't you can easily find ways of turning your everyday clothes into a cosplay. So, here's part one of this article:

Make a Cosplay with Materials at Hand

You won't get the best costumes this way, but they'll be recognizable. First, pick out several characters with a hair color and style similar to yours. This will save you the grief of dying your hair temporarily or wrangling with a cheap wig. They can be characters you recognize, characters you like, or even characters you don't much care for. As long as you wouldn't be terrible against cosplaying a character, add them to your list. Now, look at the characters costumes. Would you be willing to wear that or a slightly modified, but still recognizable version of it? If no, take that character off of your list. Also keep in mind that some characters have multiple outfits, some more recognizable than others. If you wouldn't cosplay one of the character's outfits, check to see if there's others. Next step, take a look at all of the detailing and pieces of the outfit. Would you be able to simplify the details and still have the outfit be recognizable? Would you be able to make the various pieces of the outfit with what you have? Once you know the answers to these questions, choose an appropriate character and start putting together their outfit. Is the character wearing shorts? You can easily turn an old pair of jeans into shorts by cutting them slightly longer than you want them and either hemming or distressing the edges. Need a tube top or other tight fitting shirt? Cut off the legs from and old pair of stretchy pajama pants and add sleeves, collars, etc. as needed. Just make sure to cut edges longer than you need them if you plan to hem them and cut head/arm holes smaller than you want them to leave room for mistakes.

Make a Cosplay with Clothes you Already Own

 For this method you'll want to go through the same process as above for choosing a character, but you'll want to look for a character with clothing that could easily be found in your closet. If you already have school girl clothes in your closet, look for a school girl character. My Misa Amane cosplay consisted of a frilly black dress and jacket I'd bought at a previous date combined with some black tights, heels, a black ribbon worn as a choker, and my customized dog tags. This and my hair and makeup done appropriately were enough to get the character across. I'd also used the same dress and jacket for a Freya (Chobits) cosplay a few years earlier. So go look in your closet. Think of what characters you could cosplay as with what you've got in there and you'll have pieced together a cosplay before you know it.

As I mentioned earlier, I've used there methods in the past. Here's a good example of a cosplay I put together the night before a con with some help from a friend. A few cons previously, my friend had cosplayed Liz Thompson from Soul Eater and I'd decided I wanted to cosplay the same character for this con. I had the pants and shoes, but that was about it. My friend lent me the hat she'd made using a couple of blue folders, glue, an old shirt sleeve, and dental floss. Then came the problem of the shirt. It was a red, sleeveless cropped turtleneck which presented several problems to me. The first was that I didn't really have any red shirts, much less sleeveless turtlenecks. Also, I wasn't especially comfortable with the idea of bare shoulders and midriff. What was I to do? Well, my creative friend pulled out an old pair of red, stretchy pajama pants and suggested the idea of making them into a shirt for me. We cut off one of the legs, made armholes in it and hemmed the bottom, then turned the other leg into sleeves and a undershirt thing so I wouldn't have to worry about anything showing that I didn't want too. I've since gotten a better shirt for this particular cosplay, but the one my friend made worked and got the point across well enough. (My friend's outfit for the con was thrown together last minute as well, but I've cut out details on it's creation for space's sake.)

My old Liz cosplay shirt and hat

My First Convention Experience

So, even though I've been going to conventions for a few years now, I thought it'd be nice to write about my first time ever going to a convention. It was a fairly small Anime convention not especially far from where I lived (from my perspective at least). When I first started going to anime conventions, I wasn't very much into anime. Sure I'd seen some anime episodes and read some mangas, but I wasn't totally banzai fangirl over it. I'd never really dressed up in costume outside of Halloween and dance performances that I'd been doing for a major part of my life at that point. Maybe it was because of my dance career, but I felt that it was necessary to dress up for the convention, even if it wasn't cosplay. I appreciate that not everybody feels comfortable wearing costumes outside of Halloween, so I've never felt the need to force everyone to dress up for conventions. I personally just feel it makes it more fun.

Another thing that I've done since I started attending conventions is wear different outfits every day that I go to the con. In previous years I've gone so far as to wear two to three different costumes in a day. My fist time going to a convention wasn't quite that elaborate though. I went to the con two different days, so I wore two different outfits. The first one was a cute China dress I'd gotten to wear for a birthday party a few years prior along with a sash and a shirt underneath. The second day I wore a Lolita-like outfit I'd put together. It consisted of a black A-line skirt I'd hemmed to knee length, a white polo shirt, some lace and roses I had lying around, some quickly made wrist cuffs, and a cute teddy bear that I had wearing a Gothic Lolita like dress. (The bear can be seen modeling my Mini Cherry Tophat here.) Unfortunately, I don't know where any pictures of either of my outfits are at this point in time, but I'll be sure to post them when I get the chance.

As you can probably guess, I didn't really get any compliments on my outfits, no one recognized me from such and so an anime, but I didn't mind. I enjoyed seeing everyone else's cosplays and outfits and had fun despite my lack of experience cosplaying. So this is to anyone who's never been to a convention before and is unsure if they have to dress up: Do whatever you want. If you feel comfortable dressing up in a costume in public, go for it. If not, don't worry. There's plenty of people who wear a anime themed T-shirt or a colorful wig and call it good. There's nothing wrong with that. There's also plenty of low quality cosplays. You don't have to look like Yaya Han to have fun cosplaying, just go for it and have fun. Have fun at any future conventions you choose to attend, Anime, Sci-fi, fantasy, or what have you and don't feel like you have to have an amazing costume to have fun.

I'm on Twitter now!@animlolicouture

Poll for Blog Content

Hello everyone!
 I've decided to do a little poll to try to find out what my current readers and any potential readers would like to see more of. To vote, simply leave a comment below. This specific poll will close in two weeks time, April 24th 2013, so I would appreciate it if readers would avoid posting comments after that date. Without further ado, here's the poll!

What would you like to see more of on Anime & Lolita Couture?

• Cosplay tips.
• Lolita looks on a budget.
•  Recipes for cakes and other sweets.
• Tutorials such as for hair and crafts.
• My home made clothing.
• Reviews of clothing and items I have.
• My various cosplays. (I don't have many cosplays to my name as of now.)
• Other stuff. (List your ideas in your comment please!)

 Make sure to leave a comment below telling me what you'd like to see more of. Thanks for your feedback!

Gothic Lolita By Miss Carlyfornia

So, a few years back I decided to buy a dress from Miss Carlyfornia after working with her on my Senior Project. At the time I commissioned my dress from her, I also decided to buy a cute Gothic Lolita pinafore. She was able to make me a very cute Gothic Lolita dress that allows for a wide range of sizes meaning that I don't have to worry about growing out of it as long as I don't go putting on a few hundred pounds. (I like food, but not that much fortunately.) The dress only took a few weeks for Miss Carlyfornia to make before I was able to go pick it up. I'm very pleased with how it turned out. The fabric is all cotton, making it comfortable to wear and keeping it from being overly formal. I love the fact that the dress is very versatile. The style of the dress is very nice allowing for one to wear the dress four different ways, forward with or without the skirt gathered up or backwards either way. The dress looks great any way you wear it whether by itself or over a blouse, with or without a petticoat. My favorite part of the dress is the eyelet fabric used for the under skirt. It's very cute and delicate along with the eyelet lace keeping this dress from looking overly dark.

 Overall, I feel that this dress was well worth it as it has lasted me several years with semi-frequent wearing. All of the seams have held up just fine as well as the ribbon, lace and fabric used for this dress. Just about every time I wear it I get complements on how cute it looks, even in non anime crowds. If you can, I highly recommend getting a dress from Miss Carlyfornia as they are inexpensive and very cute. Last but not least, here's some pics of the dress!

Miss Carlyfornia can be found on Twitter and Facebook. All pictures are by me unless otherwise noted. Check me out on Twitter.

Loliable Hairstyles: No Bangs

 Please be warned that this post has quite a few images in it. If you have a slow internet connection I suggest you stop the page loading once you can see the text, then loading the pictures individually as you come to them.

 Recently I decided to cut my hair so that I have long bangs that frame my face, but before I did this I was still able to do cute loliable hairstyles with my long hair. Most of the time I'd wear my hair loose, but I came up with a few pretty and creative hairstyles that are easy to do. I've decided to post tutorials of a few of these for those with long, bang-less hair to follow if they choose. My hair curls naturally when I let it air dry, so if your hair doesn't then you might want to curl your hair before styling it or once you finish the look. Even if your hair does curl naturally you can always give your curls a little boost! On to the tutorials!

Simple Clipped

This first style is by far the simplest. Begin by sectioning off a small piece of hair from in front of both of your ears (See image below). 

 

Take both of these strands and pull them around to the back of your head and clip them into place (See image below). Alternatively, you can braid the two sections together and fasten them with a hair elastic.

 Liz Thompson Hairstyle

This hairstyle is based off of that  Liz Thompson's from Soul Eater. I like this style because it gives you the same look as loose hair, but it keeps it out of your face. If you are wearing this style for a Lolita look, you can curl it and add hair accessories. If you are cosplaying Liz Thompson, straighten your hair either with a straight iron or by another method then put your hat on after you finish the style. Start by sectioning off two sections at the front of your hair like in the Simple Clipped style. From here, take each section and tuck it behind your ear (see image below). To make sure it stays in place, you can also criss-cross a couple bobby pins over the strand behind the ear.

Pull the remainder of your hair forward to cover your ears (see image below).

Mini Twist
 I got this idea from one of my friends who showed it to me when I bought a pretty flower clip from her. Start by parting your hair on the side. I chose to do a part on the right side of my head (see image below).

Now, section off a small piece of hair from the side of your part with more hair on it (this would be the left side for me)(see image below).

Next, take this piece of hair and make a small loop in it that rests just above your temple (see image below).

Finally, clip or pin it in place with a decorative pin on hair clip (see image below). It can be a little difficult getting the loop to stay, but you can always criss-cross a few bobby pins over the top and base of the loop before adding your hair clip.

 Faked Bangs Ponytail
 For this hairstyle we will be using sections of our hair to imitate long parted bangs. Begin by coming a section of your hair forward, like you would if you were cutting your own bangs. I already have bangs, so I pulled more of my hair forward than someone without bangs would need to. Take the rest of your hair and pull it back into a low ponytail, but don't put a hair tie on. (See image below.)

For the next step, twist the ponytail and flip it over your head. Clip it in place. I find it works best to clip it at the point where you would position a high ponytail (see image below). I used two smaller clips for this tutorial, but you can also do this with a larger clip. Flatter clips work better than rounder ones. For more stability, you can instead use criss-crossed bobby pins (pin smaller sections of hair instead of trying to pin it all at once). I find this to be more comfortable and longer lasting than using a clip if I'm going to be wearing this hairstyle all day.

Flip the ponytail to the back of your head and position the hair so that the clips or pins are covered (see image below). Your hair will be shorter than usual pulled up this way, so you may want to adjust it slightly. If you want your hair to be longer, take out the clips and then adjust the height of the ponytail. Don't pull it up as high as a high ponytail would go though as this is where you will be clipping the hair. Instead, position the ponytail at least two finger's width (or the width of your clip) down from where you will be clipping or pinning the hair up. I recommend clipping the hair in place instead of pinning it the first time you do this style so you can make adjustments more easily. This way you won't have to take out and put in a ton of bobby pins three or four times before you are satisfied with the length of the ponytail.

For the next step, we will be teasing the undersides of your "bangs" to make them stand up a bit. Alternatively you can use a curling iron or heated curlers to give your "bangs" more volume. Pull the "bangs" up individually and gently tease the bottom four or so inches nearest to your hairline. Fix with hairspray. The finished style should look similar to the image below. If any of the steps are confusing, please leave me a comment below and I will try to clear it up.

If you have any questions or comments about the tutorials, please comment below. I will only be able to do hair tutorials for girls with long hair, but there are many very nice tutorials available on YouTube. Some of my favorites are some of Venus Angelic's more recent ones after she cut her hair. All images are taken by me and are of me. If you wish to use any of my images please receive permission from me first and do not alter them in any way. The fan in the images is one I made myself. Tutorial for it will be coming later on.

Lolita on a Budget: Bodyline Clothing

 Not too long ago, I discovered a very nice, inexpensive online store to buy Lolita from. Bodyline has many different types of dresses, most for under $100, along with blouses, shoes, and lots of different accessories. They also sell some cosplay costumes too as well as wigs, making this an excellent place for beginner cosplayers, as well as those on a budget, to buy from. Many girls into Lolita can be found wearing Bodyline clothing such as Living Doll Venus Angelic. She can be seen wearing the Bodyline polka dot dress in her Real Life Anime: Kawaii Cupcakes video that she made a few months back. I have yet to order from bodyline, but I look forward to increasing my Lolita collection with their cute affordable pieces in the future. Look forward to outfits I've assembled using Bodyline clothing that can be purchased for less than the price of a brand name dress!