Sorry about the wait, folks…I’ve finally completed my account of the EOY event. ^_^
Immense amounts of effort and preparation went into this year’sevent…I probably am not going to do such a complicated costume + team effort for a long time again, if ever. But it was worth it. 🙂 And I thought it would be nice to organize a team as I usually cosplay with my sister. Definitely an event to remember, in any case.
Anyway, the day itself started bright and early, with Mei An and I eating a quick breakfast and heading off to Elie’s house, where we had left our costumes the night before. This may also be a good time to note that I only had 8 hours of sleep in 2 days due to being overexcited. Still, I still had more than enough energy to spare.
Everyone got to the house early, but what with the amount of preparation needed, we didn’t set off till the event until about 2pm…and I couldn’t reach my handphone easily so I had to ignore a lot of calls. Apologies to Skye and Kie for making them wait. The makeup in particular took FAR longer than we expected to get ready, and in the end I didn’t even get to wax my hair into shape. 🙁 (and I later forgot to bring the hairwax to Malaysia as well…sigh…)
In actuality I was getting a little heated myself as I had to supervise my team and ensure everyone had their costumes all in order…to make things even more complicated, I couldn’t figure out how to put my contacts on. When people were refusing to eat lunch things got a little hairy…in the end we all set out, but I ended up scolding some team members.
Which I was actually glad I did. I think one of my chief failings is that I tend to keep things in a little too much, and that’s not good. I was happy that even though I did scold them, my team didn’t react badly and understood where I was coming from. That’s a rare occurence in my life – when I get angry and people don’t run away or shy from the anger. Thanks guys. I really appreciate it.
Anyway, we all FINALLY arrived at the event, late but none the worse for wear. I spent about the first half and hour meeting up with old friends (some of which came back from the USA!!!!) and posing. There were a lot of problems with our performance slot, which I think Sean tried to handle quite well (props to him, it’s not easy organizing the music for an entire event) but at the end we discovered that somehow, our song wasn’t even sent to the music department. Ergo, no song = no performance slot.
However, Itsuki/Mizuki wanted to go up to do her piece and wanted us to go up to support her. So in a grand miracle of 5 minutes, I reworked the entire moveset and dance from one song into another. Am I genius or what. Ok, jokes aside, I felt the performance wasn’t that bad considering we had NO TIME TO PRACTICE…at least we managed to do the fight scenes and a whole lot of poses.
Here is where I have to step up and really say something about the MC. As one of my team members said, she did a disservice to our team by cutting off our introductions and poses, and making snarky comments aside. I’ll go one step further and say that she did a disservice to ALL the teams. Why?
It’s about humor and presentation style. You don’t want to have a boring and unfunny MC – it makes the event look bad and the audience go to sleep. So you make jokes, of course. But you have to choose your style of humor carefully…the EOY event is NOT the place to make “witty comments” about ANY of the attendees’ costumes. Keep your humor in good taste and don’t say anything deragatory – I’m aware of and even support forums like cosplayfucks, but those are private discussions in private forums.
Besides which, she also did things like scold the audience for not clapping enough, (this is EOY not some school assembly for goodness sake) and fail to give other teams enough time for THEIR performances. Not so cool. We could do better.
After that was time for Nouhime/Alex and Ranmaru/Mei An’s performance. I felt that came off very well…better than our initial effort. ^_^ Their voices do blend quite well. Then was the cosplay competition (which is somehow always only won by Final Fantasy…) in which I must have shouted “TENKAKYOURAN” like 20 times.
(BTW, it means, roughly, “rumbling chaos under heaven.” In case you were wondering and all.)
Ok, I’ve wasted enough of your time with all the rambling around…I know you are all here just for the pictures. ^_^
Pretty nice shot. I originally wanted to rotate our group shots so that each team member had a chance in the spotlight, but that proved to be difficult to coordinate given the huge crush of people.
Elie/Matsu taking point. Ranmaru looks kinda zombified in this one unfortunately…
Doesn’t Mizu look cute in this pic? ^_^
The six swords of Masamune in all their glory.
Not many great stages shots I’m afraid. 🙁 I actually have a lot more, but decided not to put them up because they are really blurry/dark.
Our 2 singers!
Me posing with Cammy. Great costume. People took a whole bunch of photos of us but I only managed to get this one. 🙁
Nouhime with my good friend Bo Quan, who came back from the US!
Another good shot. My hair actually looks good in this picture. ^_^
Us with Chang Fang, another dear friend of ours who came down to support us.
Ranmaru/Yukimura twin pose. I think the poses came out well in this shot…I was trying to vary my poses but I think I ended up using some of the same ones more than once. Still, this was a good shot.
Nice, would be nicer if Ranmaru had time to draw an arrow…don’t you think Mei An looks so cute as Ranmaru? (There is only one right answer to this question.)
“Well done.”
“Off with your head! You didn’t get me anything from Coffee Bean!”
Group pose with Angie, a friend of Mei An’s who came down to support us.
A fierce battle between Matsu and Yukimura.
Nouhime posing. Looks very elegant.
Basara team faceoff!
Mizuki/Itsuki in the spotlight. Matsu/Elie looks kind of sleepy in this one…
No time to draw all 6 swords, 4 will have to do. ^_^ But this is a nice shot IMHO.
Definitely one of the better shots of the day. The composition and spacing is good – you get a real sense of impact.
Itsuki and Ranmaru fight it out!
My turn to get beheaded…:)
Another nice shot.
Nouhime/Ranmaru side by side. This is actually an actual pose from the game. (so are many of our other poses actually…)
My dad! He’s incredibly cool even while not in costume. ^_^
Mizu’s parents with her.
Ranmaru/Masamune twin pose. This doesn’t happen in the game but it looks really cool anyway.
Chang Fang with arrow! She’s not cosplaying but I think she looks good in this picture…^_^
Unfortunately we didn’t manage to get a whole lot of arrow shots – the quivers proved harder to reach on the spur of the moment than we had envisioned.
“My liege, forgive me! I can’t lift the hammer!” “Hahahahahahah!”
Another great shot. Feels quieter than the rest, somehow.
Masamune, sword at the ready. Pity about the darkness ’cause this is a nice one.
Probably the best shot of Masamune I have. Pity about the perspective (should be wider) but it comes through really nicely.
Matsu, weapon aloft. Another nice picture…has a natural feeling about it.
And I’ve saved the best for last…
I think this speaks for itself.
Other pics :
OMG DOMO KUN
Cute shot of Cammy and Chun-Li. Capcom cosplayers unite!
Extra Special Bonus Omake Section :
Mei An and Alex a week before the event. Costumes are done! (the girls got theirs done a whole lot earlier than mine…armor/weapons are tough…)
Sharing a happy moment.
Practicing poses!
Close up of the One-Eyed Dragon. He looks tired from lack of sleep but I think it actually adds to the picture.
Because I was so busy running around and meeting people/getting things done, I don’t have many pictures of anyone else. Sorry. 🙁 But I think the notables were probably :
1) The SD Gundam. Cosplaying Gundams is generally cool, and this is the first person who did an SD version. Props to him.
2) The Fei Yen. I’ve heard he comes as a different one each year, and if that’s true, it just makes him all the more cooler. The costume really is well done – shiny enough to give the image of metal but not tacky. It’s not easy to put together either.
Honorable mentions :
1) I felt the Domo-kun was impressive, but the copious use of spray paint was probably a bad decision. It gives a somewhat fake effect and it also causes Poison status to anyone in the vicinity…
2) I don’t normally feel FF teams are that good (cosplayed to death, purgatory and beyond) but I thought the Dirge of Cerberus team was quite alright. They had sound effects during their skit, which was a nice touch. They should really make their weapons sturdier though…I was doing a weapon clash with the Cloud and his sword was disintegrating with each second it was locked.
And what with one thing after another, the day finally came to a close, and we all headed back…or headed to Malaysia. But that’s a story for another time.
Thoughts in closing :
Great event. I was sorry Salad couldn’t make it, but these things happen. But so many people came down (especially my dad) that I’m happy. ^_^
One thing I regret was not enjoying myself so much and being overly worried at the construction of the costumes, especially as the deadline approached. I think I could have taken things a little easier, all told. But it’s no joke supervising so many people, and I feel I did a pretty good job. It also helped that my team was responsive and communicative, which helped a great deal.
I actually wanted to sing Heats at EOY, but there’s always next KHK and next year.
Many thanks to all who helped me for the event, including :
My team members! Thanks for making it such a fun EOY. I really appreciate all the effort you all put in. Let’s all do it again sometime. ^_^
My dad, whose help with the armor was invaluable. Not to mention he gave really good advice.
My mom for not raising a hue and cry when the house was invaded by cosplayers.
Osaka, who helped a LOT with the costume in general, as well as doing my spears and spraypainting. I hope you enjoyed your dumplings treat. 🙂
The DIY shops uncles at my place and Osaka’s place for being so helpful and knowledgeable.