Hello kawaii followers!
I’m sorry that this review is over a
month late. I totally blame finals. Anyways, why was April 4th and 5th
so fun? It was Shuto Con 2014! It was my first time going to this particular
convention, and was I excited. School had been particularly tough and annoying
lately, so I figured that going to an awesome con would be a great escape, IT
WAS. Today I’m going to do a review/summary of my experience at the convention.
On Friday morning at approximately 11 something AM, I was
sitting in class, itching to get out, as I was so excited to get going to the
con. Luckily, my 1pm class was cancelled (I couldn’t have bared any longer at
school). I passed the time drawing random doodles.
When I finally made my way home, and put on my wonderful
Maka Albarn dress preparing to be her awesome formal black blood version, with
my boyfriend, who was Soul Evans. Annmarie was Yuko from Dusk Maiden, a great
and underappreciated anime she reviewed here.
After a car drive which consisted of rewatching Bee and
Puppycat for the 4 millionth time, a hilarious episode of Persona 4 (the class
trip one for those who know what I’m talking about), and withholding my
excitement, we were there, and boy were we surprised.
Everyone was outside, literally everyone. At the time, we
thought they were going to cancel the con, and we were all freaking out,
frantically calling the Lansing center, believing there was a bomb threat or a
fire or something drastic. Finally we got through, and discovered someone
pulled the fire alarm. Whew. That was a very close call.
Once we got inside, the feels came crawling back to me.
Those little pangs of excitement when you go somewhere fun. I wanted to scream
and cry tears of joy.
At first we didn’t know where the hell we were going, until
we found useful signs two minutes later. This certainly wasn’t like Annmarie
and I’s first Youmacon, which was a confusing, hour plus venture in which we
tried to find the freaken registration table. We were able to find registration
in minutes, which by the way, took NO time at all. We pre-registered, which
made stuff a little easier. Still, being a smaller con, the registration was
very quick.
The dealer’s room was right by us, and I saw autograph
tables. After we scurried in there, we realized that it was absolute heaven.
Rows of figures, seas of posters, glass cases showcasing keychains, wallets,
and random trinkets. It was amazing! And
the best part? There was ANIME stuff. The reason I emphasize this is because
last Youmacon, we noticed a severe lack in anime merchandise than the year
prior. Yeah, there still was some, but not like Shuto Con.
I spent half my money I brought with me in a matter of ten
minutes. No I’m not kidding. I blame Anime Stuff Store for having one of the
best selections of anime merchandise I’ve ever seen.
As a new, but crazily obsessed fan of the Persona series, it
took me no time to buy a rather expensive Mitsuru Kirijo keychain (I was
cosplaying her Saturday, and she’s basically my waifu) and….wait for it….a
large-sized Kanji Tatsumi figurine.
 |
| Waifu. |
I once made a vow that I would never spend more than $20 on
a single figurine. Let’s just say as soon as I saw how AWESOME it looked, I
needed it. Bad. Kanji is my favorite P4 character, besides Chie and Naoto.
 |
| Such high quality. <3 |
Besides that, I picked up a Stocking (from PSG) keychain to
get Monica Rial to sign it, since she was doing autographs at the time.
Let me say that Monica Rial has such a unique voice, but an
AMAZING personality. She’s a very talented woman, and it was an honor to meet
her. Here’s a pic of us.
After spending an infinity in the Dealer Room, my wallet was
crying, and so was my desire to eat and go to panels. After being shown the
food court (thanks Jane!), we were very disappointed. It was literally a
concession stand. I scarfed down two quick hot dogs.
After this, my boyfriend and I were a part of a spontaneous
Soul Eater photoshoot. This was so freaken cool, especially with a lot of
people taking pics! Soul resonance everyone!
We decided to go to an Attack on Titan panel, titled “Did
Someone Say Titans?!”, in which we were a tad disappointed, and ended up
leaving early. There’ll be more info on that in the panel review section.
We went back to the dealers room, and Brandon (my bf) and I
were asked to do “shipping pictures” by a girl who shipped SoulxMaka. I felt so
honored as a hardcore SoMa shipper. She then asked us to do poses, and if were
together and that she couldn’t hold her camera she was so excited. Hopefully I
can find her via this blog post. It made me happy that someone liked our
costumes!
The next part was really fun. The Battle Arena. My boyfriend
and I do something similar for fun called Dagorhir. For those who don’t know,
its LARP. You basically hit each other with foam swords, and if you get hit,
you lose a limb, etc. We decided to enter a tournament, and it was GREAT. I
surprisingly won my first round, and had a close second one. Brandon made it to
the semifinals, and I was so proud :D (Sorry Annmarie for making you sit there
and watch us xD)
Before we had to leave, we decided to go to the Panty and
Stocking panel, which was hilarious. Unfortunately we had to leave early :(
Oh well, there’s tomorrow, I thought after I came home and
passed out on my pillow.
When morning came, I was so ready to be Mitsuru from Persona
3.
How do I describe my girl Mitsuru? A smart, smoking hot
class president who fights shadows at night in order to help save the world.
Yeah, I love her. I’m so HAPPY I decided to cosplay her. My thrift cosplay
turned out so well (well it was all thrift minus the wig/armband/boots/bow). I
was soooo excited. My boyfriend was Akihiko Sanada, the hottie boxer boy I am
going to date when I buy P3P (Persona 3 Portable).
Cosplaying Persona characters was simply amazing. We got
asked for a lot of pictures, were complimented, and met some awesome people
from the fandom. Let me say, the Persona fandom ROCKS. They are so nice ! We
even got invited to a Midnight/Dark Hour photoshoot (which we couldn’t go to because
of driving). Plus we really wanted to go to the Velvet Room panel, which again
we had to miss because we had to leave early.
We tried to get into the Maid Café, but the tickets were ALL
sold out, which was very disappointing. Instead, we decided to eat at a
restaurant in one of the connected hotels, which was a little pricy but more
sustaining than a hot dog.
There I met a band member from I Fight Dragons (who I wanted
to see, but again, we had to leave early L
). It’s all good, at least I got his signature on my badge. That was so cool!
We spent a good deal of time walking around, pretending we
were so cool, playing the Iwatodai Dorm theme. As Mitsuru, I just felt SO cool. It’s my favorite cosplay
by far.
We wrapped up the day, by attending the women in Voice
Acting panel.
Then we had to leave, which sucked. But it’s better to be
safe than sorry. Especially when driving through nasty parts of Lansing.
In the car ride, I reflected on what an AWESOME time I had.
It was an amazing con, although smaller, it was equal or even better than
Youmacon.
Verdict:
Panel Reviews
We made it to a few panels. Here are my opinions of each.
Attack on Titan: This panel had promise, but I couldn’t get
into it at all. The panelists had cool cosplays, but didn’t seem too prepared.
They summarized the series, which I feel isn’t that necessary in panels,
because most people who attend panels already know about the show. We left
early.
Panty and Stocking (18+): Monica Rial and Jamie Marchi were
so funny! It was just so great hearing their voices in real life. They kept the
audience laughing and involved. “Every
question has to have a dirty word”. Even people who haven’t watched all of
Panty and Stocking seemed to enjoy it. They both acted like the characters, and
their answers were GREAT. Ian Sinclair was so funny calling on people as Chuck.
I wish we didn’t have to leave this panel early.
Danganronpa: This panel, again, had great potential but fell
way short. The people who ran it had an innovative idea, take the greatness of
Danganronpa and make a real life class trial. Too bad that only a small
percentage of the audience was picked (which I totally thought was biased and
the participants were selected beforehand). The people running the panel decided
to not follow the story and come up with a new trial with different roles. This
could have been okay, if the participants weren’t reading from a script. I
think the panel would have been much better if the cosplayers had to act as the
character they dressed up as and one person was randomly selected to be the
killer. Aw well. At least the panel was entertaining at first.
Women of Voice Acting: One of the funniest and most
informative panels I’ve been to ever. Four women, including Monica and Jamie,
hosted a Q+A session on being a female in the voice acting business. Not only
were they HILARIOUS, they also touched on real life issues and the reality of
voice acting.
What I learned from Shuto-con 2014:
·
Panels by voice actors and special guests are a
must see, they are organized and have knowledge of their topic (not saying fan
run panels don’t do the same, I just prefer the celebrity ones)
·
I can do the Battle Arena in a formal black
gown. heehee
·
Convention centers need more than a concession
stand disguised as a “café”
·
Be street smart, because Lansing honestly isn’t that
safe if you wander off, especially at night. (this applies to everywhere, but
we did encounter an incident)
·
If you live more than an hour away, I recommend
staying at the hotel, because we had to miss events to drive back. I plan to
stay next year.
·
A good dealer’s room combined with the
excitement of a particular fandom may cause you to purchase expensive figures
xD
·
Shuto is an amazing con that any Michigan anime
fan should experience!
I cannot wait for next year!
Stay cute,
Em
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