Animecon 2015 was held in Kuopio last weekend from 11th to 12th of July. In this blog post I'll be talking about the peculiarities of Animecon and Finnish conventions in general, Disney Fairies cosplays and our brief stage cameo. So, keep reading!
Brief introduction to Kuopio. It's a Finnish city with a population of about 111 000 (can't really believe it - it seems smaller than that) where people eat weird foods like fish baked inside a bread. It takes a staggering 5 hours+ in a coach to get there from the capital Helsinki, which I decided to take since the train fares where off the roof.
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| Cosplay competition group photo by Kyuu Eturautti. |
Like in most Finnish conventions there were a lot of anime cosplayers and people dressed in Japanese street fashion. Western comics, movies and sci-fi are the minority here. That's right- no Star Troopers, no Batman and no Captain America. (Whaaat?) Just a lot of teenagers and a lot of anime characters. Well, luckily not just teenagers but it's true that most con-goers in Finland are below 20 years of age. There are a lot of panels discussing popular anime series, different genres of anime and everything related to cosplay. I only really went to see the improvised performance show, which was interesting but went on for too long. Karaoke would have been for me but the line was infinite.
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| Beautiful Magic Knight Rayearth cosplayers |
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| Space Wolf and his impressive armor |
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| One of the few Disney cosplays I could find was this beautiful Tiana who had made her costume herself! |
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| I'm a big fan of this cool vacuum cleaner. How on earth did they make it! |
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| Fluffy dogs! *__* |
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| Mew Ichigo from Tokyo Mew Mew, one of the series I watched as a teenager. Look at the tail, just too cute! |
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| Truly impressive details |
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| I also found a beautiful Winter Belle and had my photo taken with her! |
A traditional highlight of Animecon is the Anime Concert, presented by the Kuopio Symphony Orchestra. It is seriously unlike anything I've seen anywhere. This year's program included music from Spirited Away, Magic Knight Rayearth and Inu Yasha. It gave me the chills.
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| Kuopio Symphony Orchestra performing a song from Spirited Away |
We'd been intensively preparing our costumes with my friend Feeniks over the last couple of months. The costume I made is Tinkerbell and I mistook it for a quick and easy one. (To some extent it is, but... maybe I was too ambitious). I will be making a tutorial of the costume making process, so if you are interested in seeing how I made it or in making your own, stay tuned!
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| My Tinkerbell cosplay. Photo by Santtu Pajukanta. Costume tutorial coming soon! |
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| Tinkerbell and Queen Clarion cosplay costumes by us. Photo by Santtu Pajukanta. |
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| Queen Clarion cosplay costume from Disney Fairies, by Feeniks. Photo & editing by me. |
Feeniks cosplayed Queen Clarion and made every bit of the stunning costume herself. Even the crown and the wings! The wings ensured we got a lot of attention and the unexpected mention of "The Convention's Wings" in the "Convention Gems" category. We had not registered for anything, but were scouted from outside soon after we arrived. It was quite an honor and we even received framed certificates and gift cards, and were featured on the televised news! I seriously wasn't expecting any of this. I didn't make my wings, but I made the costume and my friend made hers so I think it's OK and I can be proud of us. ^^; Thank you to the organisers for selecting us in the Convention Gems!
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| Tinkerbell and Queen Clarion cosplays by us, on stage in Animecon. Photo by Kyuu Eturaitti. |
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| Tinkerbell and Queen Clarion. Photo by Kyuu Eturaitti. |
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| My "Cosplay gems - Convention's Wings" certificate! I couldn't show the entire certificate because it has our real names. They are written by an actual calligrapher - I was really impressed! |
That concludes my adventures in Animecon. I missed my other friends who could not make it, but in any case big thanks to Feeniks for coming and for kindly obliging to cosplay the fairies with me :) It was an absolute blast and I hope to do it again soon!
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