Pictures from Shoujocon 2001

Hi all. I'm back from the Shoujocon 2001 convention, and had an absolute blast. Let's see, where to start... well, Omar, Liz, and I got to E. Brunswick around 8:15, which gave us just enough time to get settled in before going to Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Omar and I met up with Namiko Mercury (who organized the excursion on the COSP list) and eight of us departed for the nearby Loews theater meeting three other SJCon attendees there. Overall, the movie was very good, and though it fell flat in one or two respects it was still a giant leap forward in the state-of-the-art. On Saturday, I worked in registration and that afternoon I unveiled my first completed costume. It also marked the first time I entered a costuming contest since I was a kid at Hallowe'en. I didn't win anything myself, but I knew some people who won awards in the two contests, so that was cool. The Trigun group was a joy to be around, and the dance was lots of fun. Sunday we checked out, hit piñatas of unpopular anime characters, made our last Dealer's Room circuit, played some soccer with a Shiori head, and eventually left for DC returning home at 10PM.

So how was the con itself? Well, I've said it before and will say it again, I prefer the informal smaller conventions. This was my first Shoujocon; Danielle and Reene tried to talk me into going last year, but the distance and my work schedule kept me away. The amount of growth this year surprised a lot of people. There was at least 1200 people present, not bad at all for a second-year convention. SJCon also had a lot of original ideas for events. I can't think of any other convention (that I've been to anyway) that schedules the likes of plushie-making, sake-tasting, "Pin the Head on the X Character, " and the "Whack-a-Thons, " where con-goers could attack piñatas the likes of Shiori, Chibi-Usa, and Relena Peacecraft. Another highlight of the convention was the Con Suite. It was a favorite spot to hang out, unwind, and put food back into our systems. There was almost never a shortage of stuff to do that weekend, and I'll be looking forward to seeing all of "Otakudom" in a few weeks.

There were a few not-so-good parts to the convention, though. The biggest one was due to the sheer numbers of people, several con activities were overwhelmed. The Dealer's Room had a long wait for most of Saturday, the hotel had only four elevators (which didn't work properly), and was an all-around nuisance to logistics. The Fashion Show was especially hit hard, at least it was the most noticeable to me since I was there for most of Saturday. There was a turnout of around 100 entries, which was more than anyone had been expecting, especially the staff. Also, Terry later mentioned that a lot of responsibilities were dumped in his lap at the last moment, which also led to some confusion. In spite of these setbacks, the Fashion Show format of the contest made things flow very quickly once it did start. I ended up being the fourth entrant to take to the runway, costumed as Asaba/Asabin (from Kare Kano). The majority of comments about my costume that weekend were "Why are you wearing all those sheep?" (hehe..), while the other 30% or so were very positive and made it all worthwhile. The only other hitch that I can think of was due to time delays. (and what con doesn't have these?) When a few events were running late, some other events were postponed as well, so people could still attend both. Doing this had its pros and cons; it didn't really effect me so I'm not sure which side of the fence I am on.

And now the part, you've been waiting for... PICTURES! My photos are posted below along with notes and random thoughts. Just a quick note that each image on these pages is a link to display the JPEG at full size; the border is a little hard to see on some. If you would like any pictures in higher resolution than these, email me at zeiram@zort.net Or email me if you have any comments, suggestions, would like to use one of my photos, want a picture of yourself taken down, etc.