Oct 20, 2016 | Events, On Stage, Travel |
I am so happy to announce, that I will be at the MCM London from the 28th to 30th October this year!
It will be my first time in the UK and I am already so excited to meet everyone!
You can find me at the Pop Asia Stage!
~> Friday at 16hr<~ Panel about Cosplay in Japan
~> Sunday at 13hr<~ Concert and Signing session
If you have time, please have a look. *o* Iam happy to see you there!
Shiroku
Oct 19, 2016 | Cosplay, Events, International Cosplay Contests, Japan, Travel |
I could luckily finish all my costumes a month before departing. So everything I did was just planning and packing until we could finally depart.
With our 3 big suitcases, 1 roll, 2 hand carries we went to the airport, checked our stuff in and got rebooked into a flight going 1 hour earlier than expected. …
I am very happy that I am used to flying and know the airport. So we could rush there without problems.
Chiko also had troubles checking in into her flight from Tokyo to Nagoya.
This is also why we couldn’t sit next to each other at both short flights.
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| Our baggage |
In Frankfurt we got a snack, played Pokemon Go and tried to get a boarding ticket for Chiko. We still don’t know what happened but it seemed that it was quite difficult to check Chiko in… (She also had problems at the flight back to Germany).
Finally we could board the airplane to Tokyo.
Normally the German Team flies with their organizer. But due to some booking issues our organizer booked a flight for an earlier date.
After some movies, ice cream and a lot of really bad sleep I had to fight for my immigration card as always(The stewardess always thinks I am Japanese… I am a German potato…).
If you have a domestic connecting flight in Japan you first need to immigrate, get your baggage, go through customs and check in again.
We were 30 minutes to late and had 1 hour until departure.
Again we were rushing. Because our roll was special size baggage, we waited a long time to pick up our stuff…
I was very happy that I could explain the customs quickly, why we have this odd size baggage….
After checking in our stuff again we boarded the bus to the domestic terminal.
And voila Team Canada where standing directly in front of us. That was a very funny coincidence.
After going to the gate and boarding we said bye till Nagoya.
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| With our Canadian candies *o* |
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| After some make up XD |
But they where sitting directly next or behind us. Out of 200 passengers Team Canada and Germany had seats next to each other. 🙂 It was a fun flight with both of them.
We knew that a camera team will be waiting at the airport that’s why we changed our cloths and put on some make up, so we won’t look like zombies after a 16 hour trip. This is why we were the last one picking und our baggage and the stewardess where running around with our stuff, panicking and searching for us. ToT I am still sorry for her…
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| With our organizer Patrick |
At the arrival our organizer team Patrick, Iris, Laura and Mo were already waiting for us. The team took some pictures, filmed us and made a small interview.
Afterwards our Omotenashi student Eriko chan greeted us and showed us the meeting room (I would more call it a baggage storage room XD). We left our stuff there and went to dinner with Team Canada and Brazil at the airport.
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| Interview at the airport in Nagoya |
Afterwards we boarded the bus and checked in into our Hotel, where we got a loooooot of stuff. Next to the Omotenashi pack (with a wigstand, a small pampflet with all students, a bag and tea) we got our passes, food cupons, T-Shirts and our savior, the 2 GB internet Simcard!
Our room was just amazing and very spacy. We were kind of lucky. Normally the teams stores their baggage in an special room, because the rooms are normally very small.
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| Our Omotenashi bags |
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| Our presents in our room from the International Hotel Nagoya |
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| Our Simcards, passes and more |
So we just throw everything into the corner, checked our championship costumes and prepeared everything for the next day (we put everything into the hand carry so it was just taking everything out).
Luckily our costumes survived the trip and we could go shopping for the next day.
Japanese summer is very hot and humid.
This year we had luck and it was quite nice. Someone told us, that the weather 2015 was about 10°C and 10-20% humidity more.
But I still wanted to buy icespray, icesheets, wiping sheets, icepacks and blotting paper. It was the best decision ever and really saved us. Blotting paper is a bless and these ice sheets are the best invention ever!!
The bought more and more during the whole trip. It really helps to endure this summer heat of 30°C-40°C.
After this long arriving day we went to bed and were sleeping like a dead stone.
We finally arrived and the adventure finally begun.
Oct 17, 2016 | Cosplay, Events, Travel |
Comic World is one of the biggest Anime/ Manga related events in South Korea. The event is held monthly for 2 days in Busan and Seoul at different locations. The concept is based on the Comiket in Tokyo. During the 2 days you can buy Doujinshis and merchandise from Korean circles or companys, watch Cosplay-/ singingcompetitions or just stroll around in your Cosplay and meet friends.
Since I was in Japan and wanted to visit a country I have never been before, I decided to make a side trip to Seoul during the week where the Comic World would be held.
The Comic World Seoul is always held at 2 different locations (Setec and AT center). I visited the one held at the Yangjae Citizen´s Forest Station ATCenter. The location with 2 floors is split into a big entrance hall, a hall with a stage and huge artist alley and a big park.
Of course I also took the chance to Cosplay there. Like in Japan it is not allowed to come to the venue in Cosplay. The event provides changing rooms and a make up room for getting ready.
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| Outside of the venue |
Get in the venue:
But before entering the location you need to buy a ticket at the outside of the venue.
The entrance fee is about 4.000 Won per day, there are no weekend tickets. After getting the ticket you just go the entrance and exchange your ticket to a stamp.
After going through the entrance hall you arrive at the hall with the huge artist alley.
As I mentioned before it is not allowed to come in Cosplay to the venue. You have to change and register yourself as a Cosplayer.
The Cosplay registration system might be quite complicated and unusual for foreigners but I really like how efficient and thoughtful the event handles the process.
1. Fill out the form:
At first you go to the table and fill out the registration form for your Cosplay. You need to write drown your personal dates and also note, which Cosplay you are going to wear.
The registration is completely in Korean. Luckily a good Korean friend accompanied me and helped me in this matter.If you cannot speak or read Korean here a translated version of the form:
2. Register yourself:
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| Registration desk |
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| Wristband and entrance stamp |
After filling out the form you go to the registration table. You give them your form, pay the 1.000 won fee and get a wristband with a number on it. The wristband shows your registration number. If anything might happen they can find your personal dates with this number.
3. Get changed:
After getting the number you go to the changing or the make up room. Because I already did my make up I went directly to the changing room. The make up room is just a huge room where you can sit on the floor and finish your make up. There are no tables, chairs, amenities or mirrors provided. I really got the Comiket feel there. XD
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| Blue: changing room, pink: Make up room |
But instead of a big room the changing room system is different than in Japan.
At the entrance of the changing room you show them your wristband and get a number.
This number is your changing room number.
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| Number and changing cabin |
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| Cabins |
You go to your own changing room cabin and change. At the entrance of the changing rooms is a big mirror where you can check if everything is in the right place.
Instead of changing in a big room with everyone together you get your own small changing space. After the Comiket I really started to appreciate this! The cabin wasn’t that big but much more space than you normally get in other events in Japan.
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| Number for the baggage |
4. Get ride of your baggage:
After changing you can use their baggage drop service. I really loved that service!
You go to the next counter, grab a big black bag and just put your stuff inside of this bag and close it tightly.
Afterwards you go to the next counter and give them this bag.
In exchange you get a small number, which you need to keep. If you want to get your stuff back, you just show them your number and get your stuff.
If I am right you can get your bag and store your bag as often as you want during the day.
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| Baggage storage |
5. Enjoy it:
After changing and getting ride of your baggage you can stroll around at the venue, go shopping or go outside and enjoy the other Cosplayers.
After enjoying yourself at the event, you take your baggage with your number and change back in the changing room.
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| Entrance hall |
The Venue:
As I mentioned before the venue is split into 3 different sections.
The entrance hall, the main hall (2 floors) and the park.
At the entrance hall you can find the escalators to the 2nd floor, a caterer where you can get some food and drinks, toilets and a lot of Cosplayers sitting and strolling around.
In the summer season Korea seems to be very hot. Inside it is very nice and comfortable due to aircondition.
The main hall at the first floor contains a very huge artist alley where circles are selling their self-made Doujinshis, artbooks or other merchandise at nearly 1.000 booths.
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| Artist alley |
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| Booth |
The prices are rather cheap. You can get nice items already starting with about 1.000 won.
In this hall you also can find the main stage. At Sunday the karaoke and Cosplay contests are held there.
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| Stage |
There are no chairs but a carpet where you can just sit down on the floor.
The Cosplay contests are quite different than in other countries. At the group performance contests, the people participate with bought costumes, because the performance is more important than the Cosplay itself.
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| Cosplay Contest |
A performance can be about 10-20 minutes long because there seems to be no time limit.
I really enjoyed the show.
Next to the stage is the baggage storage and the changing room for the Cosplayers.
At the 2nd floor is another big artist alley. You also could find some commercial booths of bigger companies.
Behind the building is a huge park where you can find a lot of Cosplayer taking pictures, strolling around or just picnicking.
I got the feeling that buying is rather usual than making your costumes by yourself.
But I found some very very cute Love Live Cosplayers!!
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| Outside of the venue |
Taking pictures:
It is not allowed to take pictures without asking beforehand.
Normally Cosplayers are happy to pose for you especially when they notice that you are a foreigner.
For the artist alley taking pictures are generally prohibit. But if you still want a picture you can just ask them if it´s ok. But some might be not happy about this request.
Personal opinion:
I really liked the experience to Cosplay in Seoul and really like the service for the Cosplayers. They not only provide changing rooms with separated cabins and make up rooms but also a baggage drop. The feeling was very different compared to other events I visited before but I really liked it.
What you need to keep in mind is that it is forbidden to take pictures of Cosplayers without asking them before hand and that it is permitted to go or leave the venue in Cosplay.
You need to register yourself and change at the venue.
You also need to know, that nearly no one can speak English. Some of them can speak Japanese but most of them only speak Korean.
The registration process can be a bit difficult without being fluent in Korean, so I would recommend going with a friend who is fluent.
Foreigners are rather unique there so everyone was staring at me when I talked in English, German or Japanese to my friends. They are just surprised and don’t want to be impolite.
Mostly they are very excited and open to meet foreign Cosplayer and fans. I also had a small chat with some of them in Japanese and got the feeling that it is a very open and warm community.
If you have the chance and like Cosplay or Doujinshis, I definitely would recommend to visit this event once.
Operation hours: Saturday – 11 am to 5 pm/ Sunday 10:30 am to 5 pm
Entrance fee: 4.000 Won per day
Cosplay fee: 1.000 Won per day
Table at the artist alley: about 35.000 won per table and day
(Registration for a table at website directly after the event or at the event at the Artist Alley registration booth)
Homepage: http://Comicw.co.kr/
Location: AT Center or Setec in Seoul, Bexco in Busan
Oct 13, 2016 | Cosplay, International Cosplay Contests |
Next to the costumes, preparations and skit, we needed to fill out some forms.
We had about 4 different sheets we needed to fill out.
1. Construction report
2./3. Performance Sheet
4. Costumes
5. Participation agreement
All sheets needed to be sent in 1 month prior of the championship with the finished video file, audio file and original pictures of the characters you are going to Cosplay.
You have about 2 weeks to fill out the most forms (we got the construction report earlier) and you need a lot of information’s regarding your props (size, Kg, pictures) and costumes. This is why we finished all our championship costumes and props, made all pictures, measurements, scripts etc. beforehand so we just needed to copy and paste everything inside.
1. The construction report
The construction report is a power point presentation which you use during the craftsmanship judging in order to present your costume. You are supposed to talk 5 minutes per person about your costume and to use the presentation as support. You can show your finished work in comparison to the original artwork, the materials and the technique you used. It had 3 main sections; Costume, wig and prop. We kept it in the order we wanted to present our costumes and decided to change after each section. The rehearsed a lot, because we were afraid not to finish everything in the time frame. Our report was about 24 pages.
2. The performance sheet->The prop setting
In this sheet you write everything about your props inside; Height, length, wide and weight and a picture. This is necessary, because there are limitations. The staff will check the measurements and weight (incl. the weight of your costume) at the craftsmanship judging day. In this sheet you also fill out where the props should be set at the stage and how your stage setting is at the start of the ski and what will be left after the skit.
3. The performance sheet->The rider
In the rider you write down a short description of your skit and a detail one for the camera setting. You also need to mark where you will stand and where your props will be at which point of your audio. Additionally to that you write down the light setting and the special effects you want to have at a certain moment at your skit.You also write down your phrases in English and Japanese and describe what happens on stage at the certain moment and time code.
4. Costumes
This was the easiest sheet. In this sheet we just wrote down which costumes we are going to wear at which event.
They told us that no changes are possible, because the Cosplayers are going to be announced with their costumes at most of the events.
Actually someone changed his costume without notice before a courtesy visit and it caused a lot of trouble. It happened in front of the Major where a lot of cameras recorded this mistake. Furthermore the press people all wrote down the wrong character name. I guess it was kind of embarrassing for the Cosplayer.
Afterwards they told us, if we need to change a costume, we have to tell the staff beforehand. I guess they accept changes if you notify them in order to prevent embarrassing moments like this.
5. Participation agreement
In this sheet you just sign and agree with the rules of the World Cosplay Summit and the usage of your pictures for promotion purposes.
A lot of teams had troubles to finish these sheets in time, because they weren’t finished with their championship costumes or skit or weren’t prepared for that. A lot of pictures and information’s in detail were required. If you missed to take pictures and gather the information’s, 2 weeks are a very short timeframe. Some of them couldn’t take pictures or write everything down because without finished costumes gathering all these material is nearly impossible.
The most crucial part was the costume construction report.
If you don’t have pictures of a certain technique, because you are not done, you cannot show it to the judges.
Difficult also seemed to the light rider. I am quite used to it because I write light riders every 2 weeks. But I guess for people who have no idea about light setting and effects it can cause trouble.
I prepared everything beforehand and could finish it in 2-3 evenings. I made it in Japanese and English so it was easier for the staff to read our sheets and light rider.
I guess if you are prepared it is quite easy to fill out all these sheets. The preparation itself took hours and hours… I think it was quite tough to finish everything in 2 weeks.
Oct 11, 2016 | Cosplay, International Cosplay Contests, Uncategorized |
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| Picture by Japanaily |
I am back from one of my biggest journeys of my life and my head is full of great memories, experiences and new friendships. It was an honor to participate at the World Cosplay Summit and Iam really grateful for this experience.
I never though that the World CosplaySummit would be such a rewarding event.
This is why I decided to blog about it. So I can share my experience and write down my memories and thoughts.
If you have any questions or wishes about which topic I should write. Please don’t hesitate to ask.
Today I want to start with the Preliminary 1 year ago and the way to the championship.
The Preliminary in Germany:
One year ago I participated with my partner Chiko at the Preliminary at the Connichi, one of the biggest Anime/ Manga events in Germany.
I did I because I really love to perform and could try out new things on stage next to singing and dancing.
I never though we really would be become the next WCS Team Germany, because I know that other awesome Cosplayer are trying since years and years and I was just a rookie who started to participate at competitions recently.
I was happy but really felt unsure if I would be really able to represent Germany accordingly.
Buying the materials:
Because we never expected to become the next team we already planned and booked a Asia trip in November.
This was also the reason why we decided a week after the preliminary which costume we are going to bring to Japan. We knew that we would visit Taipei and Dubai, where you can get fabrics and crafting supplies for small money.
I calculated the time schedule for the WCS and realized directly after the preliminary that we don’t have a lot of time and need to start practicing an sewing as soon as possible.
These are the costumes we decided to bring to Japan:
Because I knew that we are short on time I finished the interview Cosplay 2 weeks after the Preliminary. It was a good feeling to know, that at least one Cosplay is finished before enjoying the holiday in Asia. In Taipei and Japan we went shopping and got most of our material for our WCS costumes. Chinese silk is awesomely cheap over there… We bought wonderful Chinese embroidered silk for about 3-4 Euro per 90 cm. And 50 Meter braids for about 3-5 Euro.
We mostly bought our braids in Dubai. Because they were cheaper than in Taipei.
The skit:
Because I knew we need to practice a lot I finished the audio file in February.
We decided to go for Adekan and to use our preliminary skit, because we got a lot of good advices. I wanted to make a better skit than at the preliminary. So I we though, that pimping up and improving our skit would be a good choice.
The audio consists out of 12 Songs, 25 cuts, 160 pieces and a lot of corrections.
It took me about a month to complete it. I worked at it every day about 4 hours.
We adjusted the audio file till June in order to get the perfect timing and speed for all the effects.
It took me 3 months to write the skit and to rewrite the choreography.
The skit and the choreography has been changed and adjusted till June. We worked a lot on it to make it “better”.
At first it was very difficult for us to learn the choreography and to get used to the new movements, because we are very unsporty and don’t know anything about dancing or material arts. You can imagine that my bruises already got some names… But after 3-4 months it went better and we could start working on smaller movements of the hand and the way of walking.
A lot of people asked me how long we practiced.
We practiced from February till departing every week one between 4-10 hours. Sometimes 2 or 3 times a week. Our last practice was 2 days before departing to Nagoya.
The costumes:
Next were the championship costumes.
I started sewing directly after coming back from my Asia trip in December and it took me about 7 months to complete my championship Cosplay as well as my props and quick change costumes.
Ill write about the construction of them in an other blog.
Ive never put so much time, money and effort into a costume as for the championship.
The costumes are really not perfect but I am
very very happy about them.
I haven’t studied or learned how to sew so I needed to watch a lot of tutorials or ask friends for certain new techniques. But it was worth it.
I worked at them about 4-10 hours a day and I admit it was very exhausting.
The props:
For me it was the first time to build stage props which need to fit into a luggage. My friend owns a very big car, that’s why it was quite a challenge.
For the gate and the box we decided to use a clip box board system.
It is very simple to build up and to transport it.
The cage is made out of plastic pipes.
We shaped the rings with heat in order to get a ring.
I need to admit that I am noob regarding to light stuff. That’s why my friend helped me to construct it. And I just watched and helped him to get the stuff done….
I only know that it took quite a time to finish it and I am really thankfull, that he helped me this much.
Next to the skit and the costume I realized that planning and preparing yourself is also very time consuming and important. The earlier you think about your baggage the earlier you might avoid problems. We had problems to transport our swords, because they are too long for a normal luggage. Cause we though about it beforehand we solved this problem in a very simple and cheap way.
Also informing yourself about the events and what is expected of you is very important.
The most important thing was to inform myself about the hotel, the surroundings of the Hotel regarding craft supplies and batteries etc, as well as about the weather.
Japanese weather is very different to ours in Europe. So I checked what gadgets might be useful in order to survive an outdoor event in the Japanese summer heat.
I also got spares for all of my props, batteries and everything that might be damaged during the transport in the airplane.
Actually planning, making research and preparing myself took about 2-3 months of my sewing and practicing time. I never though that it would be that time consuming.
But it was worth it, because we were prepared for every case and could avoid stressful situations.
