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| My photos suck, so don't bother clicking. Follow links in the captions for better photos. |
So, I decided to branch out a bit. Lately, I've noticed I've been getting increasingly bitter while writing my episodic posts, so I decided to maybe try covering something new and seeing how that goes. This is my first time going to one of these; heck, it's my first time at anything close. I'll start off by saying that my phone lied to me; supposedly, I took photos with 12Megapixels, and yet my photos still turned out like shit despite sitting in the front row. Forgive me for my shitty photos! I'll see if I can find the more "professional" photos that people were taking and replace them later. Since this event happened just today, they probably won't surface right away. Those looked like low-tech people. D:
So, a bit of background first. This was hosted in Toronto, in a very densely populated Chinese area, so everyone was Asian with the announcements in Chinese. (Aaro Note~ : Pearz means "Cantonese" and "Hong Kong-er" whenever she refers to "Chinese".) There was also another convention (Fan Expo) that was hosted downtown. It was more comic-based rather than anime-, so I decided to go to this one as it related to the blog more. This was more of my introduction to this style; I'll probably go to the real anime convention in Toronto (Anime North) coming in May of next year.
There was a total of 7 contestants that showed up today, so I guess I'll talk about each one. If you want, you can vote for them here:
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First up was Crystal Maiden from Dota! I was surprised that she used the Dota name and not whatever weird name was in Warcraft 3. She performed a "magic" trick to have her vial pour more water out; it wasn't that impressive. I swear, that girl she picked as the volunteer from the audience was a friend; she picked her too fast. This was the one contestant that kinda hit the exact middle ground amongst the 7 of them; she was not bad or good, but a solid mediocre.
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Second up was Gwendolyn from Odin Sphere. This was one of the games that I wanted to play on my PS2 emulator, but then I realized that I didn't care much for side-scrollers and dropped it. She assumed people knew WTF she was doing, which I'm sure no one did. She re-enacted a typical battle scene, with horrible choreography. No one that hasn't played the game would know WTF was happening onstage, because of how badly done it was. Her costume was well-designed at least.
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Third up was a Gundam, something that everyone immediately recognized. She was cosplaying a fictional Gundam (since there are no female ones). She probably would have placed better if she finished her YMCA dance routine. How can you not like a dancing Gundam to a classic like that? This was the most elaborate looking costume, by far.
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Next up was KOS-MOS from Xenosaga. This was one that put that Gwendolyn to shame. She had prepared a similar battle skit, except it was much better done in every way. I didn't even need to know anything to understand that she was just owning her "friend". Funny story: the MC asked, "Why doesn't your boyfriend come up too?" (The "boyfriend" being the guy doing the skit with her.) Her response: "He's not my boyfriend. Just a friend." Way to friend-zone him so hard on stage; you could see him die a bit on the inside. XD This was a decently-done costume, with the main focus of her gun being the most detailed.
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Next was Idamaria from Defense Devil, a manga that actually ended recently. My spoiler: the ending is horrible. This one stood out like a sore thumb - not because she was the only white girl in the competition, but also because she had nothing prepared. Everyone had a little skit or performance; she just stood up and introduced her character. The MC even kind of rubbed it in when he said, "Wow, that was short!" It's a tough world, entering an Asian competition like this.
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The sixth one was Dark Magician Girl from Yu-Gi-Oh. This was probably a very familiar one that everyone recognized, too. She even had a pretty good dance routine, until she blew it with the small Q&A onstage. Before the competition, it was stated that part of your ranking would be based on handmaking the costume. She proceeded to answer, "I got my costume from a girl in Oshawa. I found her on Kijiji." (Oshawa is a nearby city.) I couldn't help but facepalm hard after hearing that. She just pretty much threw the competition for herself; good job.
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The final contestant was Sakura from Tsubasa Chronicles. I didn't care much for this show/manga after they started making everyone clones of everyone else (yes, I just spoiled it); it was just like they were pulling it out of their ass by the end. She was by far the best, with the best dance routine done on top of being the second most-detailed costume. The thing that separated her was that she actually looked good in her costume, as the others all seemed a bit out of place in theirs. It's always good to have it blend in better with your figure/structure.
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| Sun was setting. God, I am a fail photographer. |
So, it wasn't too surprising to see that Sakura took the top votes from the fans and the prize from the judges. Second place was KOS-MOS, probably because she said that her family all worked together on it. Those judges probably just ate that shit up, and gave her extra points. Third place was Gwendolyn, which made me question how she beat the awesome Gundam, but owelz. That's what you get with biased judges that know nothing of what is happening.
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This definitely was fun to sit through, even if I was horridly out-of-place within the crowd. I mean, I looked so out of place that I was the only one singled out to say who I would vote for (Sakura, of course). It's too bad that the MC failed at reading the amount of fingers I put up. I'll maybe even talk about other conventions I go to, as I branch out in this direction. Again, I apologize with the shitty picture quality; I'll have a new phone by September to take awesome pictures with.
~Pearz
