#connecticon 2016

[1emon-vii]

[2025-03-31] Catching Up

For my first official entry on here, I thought it would be good to just go over where I've been and what I've been doing the past 5-years.

So, starting from the year of 2020... Well, that was during the COVID-19 pandemic, we were in lock-down, I got to work fully remote from home, and even had a remote college graduation ceremony. It's funny how about two months before my graduation, I had an existential crisis on how I did not want to pursue in the career of my major. But what am I to do two months before my graduation? Of course, I still took my degree, but I went back to school for another year to study what I truly wanted to pursue my career in and I had a lot of fun learning. That allowed me really step into the career field I'm in now and I still enjoy it quite a bit.

In regards to my hobby though, I basically took a long hiatus on cosplaying ever since I started college in 2016. Being a full-time student with a part-time job, I just didn't have the time, energy, nor the mental capacity to continue with such labor-intensive hobby. Besides, we were in lock-down so there were no conventions or events happening. Instead, I tried to work more on digital art. I think I went back to making fan goods, doing commissions, and just drawing whatever I wanted to draw. It was quite nice.

After the pandemic was nearly "over" in 2022, I finally moved to Boston on my own! I was stuck living in Anchorage, Alaska for nearly 20 years of my life and I was always desperate to leave that place. It was just too depressing for me! During the first few months of trying to settle in my new place in Boston, I thought going to the local anime convention would be a great place to make new friends and connections, so I went to Anime Boston for the first time, cosplaying Tsukishiro Yukito from Card Captor Sakura! So many people mistook me as a character from Ouran High School Host Club, haha. At this time, I had not gone to a convention for about 6 years, so I wasn't sure how much the convention and cosplay scene had changed. And with how old the series Card Captor Sakura is, I didn't expect anyone to be cosplaying from it at all now. However, I managed to find a Sakura cosplayer and even a Tomoyo cosplayer! It made me so happy!

Because it was my first con in several years, I only went to Anime Boston that year one day (Saturday), but I still had a blast and it felt really nice coming back and cosplaying again. That's when I decided to resume going to cons again.

I also still continued to dabble with digital art, but I ran into a major art block and to this day, I still haven't fully recovered from it. I think the problem is that I want to establish my own style, but my style changes each time I pick up the pen, despite drawing for about 10 years. But if I had to show off one piece of art that I managed to finish in the last few years, I think it's this one:

This artwork was my piece to contribute to the Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers Countdown when the expansion was being released. On the left is Fray Myste, a key NPC in the Dark Knight job quests, and on the right is my Warrior of Light, Pyralis! I'm a DRK main and am a huge sucker for its lore, so I was beyond excited to see that DRK was going to have the spotlight in the expansion. Even to this day, I wish I could experience Shadowbringers (and Endwalker) for the first time again... I remember when Endwalker released, I took 3 days off from work ahead of time, stocked up a box of energy drinks at home, and completed the main story in the span of those 3 days with a total 8 hours of sleep. I still think it was very much worth the sacrifice(s) I made, haha!

Moving onto 2023, I continued to attend Anime Boston, but I also attended PAX East, ConnectiCon and KupoCon for the first time! I was pleased to see and experience how accessible the transportation is in the New England area/East Coast. Some may disagree with me on this, but when you come from a place like Alaska where there is little to no public transportation, it's incredibly impressive! My first year at PAX East was not all that great, though. I went only on Saturday, cosplaying Nishikiyama Akira from Yakuza 0 in hopes to meet Yoshi-P and also receive an autograph from him. I remember I had printed out a photo of my Warrior of Light, Pyralis for him to sign, too. At the time, autograph passes were being offered to the first hundred something people in line for the Final Fantasy XVI panel they were hosting. Now, as much as I love the Final Fantasy series and Yoshi-P's works... I wasn't all that blown away by the trailer for FFXVI, so I didn't have the strongest interest in the panel - I just really wanted to receive an autograph from him! But despite lining up for the panel two hours early, I think I was only 3 people away in line from the cut-off. The staff didn't even announce those people in front of the line they let in first were the people that received the autograph pass, so I continued to wait, sat through the panel I wasn't interested in, and found out after the panel was over... I will say the only good thing that happened that day at PAX East was that I met up with a Kiryu and Majima cosplayer! Everyone kept mistaking me as Akiyama or they just wouldn't remember Nishiki! How could they not remember my little glub glub?! Can you tell I'm a Nishiki apologist-

But kyoudai recognized me... Of course, he would! He even called out to me, "Nishiki!!!"

Now at ConnectiCon... This con has become extremely special and sentimental to me just after the first year I went in 2023. Not only was it the best experience I've ever gotten from any convention, but it also ended up being the convention where I first met my now boyfriend! The convention itself wasn't too big, but also not too small - it was just the right size where I was able to really feel the sense of community. Their Cosplay Death Match is also just on a whole another level! Apparently, CTCon was the one to invent the event... Also, they have Cosplay Wrestling! That's seriously unique! They were all trained wrestler/stunt performers, too!

KupoCon was also an incredibly unique convention I've ever been to. It was held at a Hilton hotel in Toronto, so it was a little small, but they had so many unique activities that made the experience incomparable to almost any other conventions out there. Not only that, but I got to meet my favorite English voice actor, Gideon Emery! You may know him as the voice actor for Biggs from Final Fantasy VII: Remake, but I've been a huge fan of him since his work as Balthier from Final Fantasy XII. When KupoCon announced that he would be attending as one of the special guests, I whipped out my Penelo cosplay from scratch in two weeks with very little sleep... Imagine trying to whip out a Final Fantasy cosplay in two weeks... Yeah.

But it was worth it and I mean that 100%! I got to thank Gideon for his work as Penelo and as a small gift, I made a replica of the letter Balthier wrote to Vaan and Penelo at the end of the game and on the replica, I wrote my little fan letter to him! I also made an extra replica for him to sign his autograph for myself. I remember crying in my hotel room that night upon reading the little message he also wrote for me with his autograph...

"My dear Lemon, Thank you for my letter. I will treasure it." - Gideon Emery "Balthier"

Fast forward to 2024... I really started to pick up on more conventions I wanted to go to, perhaps I picked up too many... I went to KatsuCon for the first time (it was the worst convention I've ever been to and I'll talk about it another time), I gave PAX East a second chance, continued to attend Anime Boston and CTCon, and I also went to Otakon for the first time! While these are just the major conventions I attended, I also attended few small local conventions in between.

Although, I'm really glad I decided to give PAX East another chance. Not only did I go for the entire weekend that year, I also finally got to meet Yoshi-P in my Rielle (FFXIV) cosplay and receive an autograph from him! He was so kind - I got to express how much I appreciate his work and he was very surprised at how 「上手すぎる」 my Japanese was.

I also had the privilege to meet Koji Fox, who was also hilarious and super sweet! My friends asked me to forward stickers of their Warriors of Light to him and he told me he collects them from fans all over the world and sticks them on his PC tower, so he can look at them whenever he's on his computer! So sweet of him...

2024 was also the year I got into fighting games and ever since then, I have the biggest brain rot for Jamie Siu from Street Fighter 6. So, when I saw not one, but two Jamie cosplayers at Otakon... Oh, man. I was the happiest...

The other highlight from Otakon was not only did I finally get to debut one of my biggest dream cosplay, Wander from Shadow of the Colossus, I also coincidentally met an Ico cosplayer! This wasn't even planned, I don't even know this person - it was insane! I think we both had the same thought and reaction, so the first we did when we found each other was hug! Ah, I should also mention my Wander cosplay is the first cosplay I've ever made almost 100% from scratch, but I'll make a separate post about it in the near future with WIP photos!

Otakon was the last major convention I went to in 2024 and nothing significant happened after that year. So, that finally brings us to the year of 2025! In January, I went to my first Super MAGFest, but since that was only couple months ago, I'll talk about it in a separate post also in the near future. I will say, though... I think I stretched myself a little too thin in 2024 going to so many conventions... While I already quite a bit planned for this year again, I do plan on cutting back on conventions for 2026 and so on. Conventions are just becoming far too expensive, and I've been wondering on and off "Is it still worth it?"

But I hope this was a fun read to whoever this reached to! Let me know if you were at any of the above conventions I mentioned!

[nootnootcosplay-blog]

some blake belladonna photos from this summer’s connecticon! 

📷 - DamiPhotography

[radioactivetrashcan]

My mom: Ah an hour of me time I'm so excited to just sit down and- Me: momomomomomom look I attached the cape to my Attack on Titan jacket isn't it neat look look look look it's so cool mom

[ksapphire8989]

Happy 25th Anniversary to one of my favorite series in the world Pokemon. I have so many memories of this series that is hard to count. From the 1st time I fell in love with pokemon back in 4th grade,  to the two the pokemon themed birthdays I had, to my Halloween costume as Ash Ketchum and my Giant pikachu plush at the time, to the treasure trove pokemon Christmas box, to playing the red blue versions and getting all the pokemon including mew and missing no. , to my 1st and last visit to the pokemon center in NYC, to watching the anime series before heading off to school every morning, from traveling to various anime convention and listen to the theme song over and over again, to getting my 1st shiny vaporeon and learning to breed all of my eevees. To discovering my 1st starting eevee plushie at ConnectiCon, to 2016's pokemon go and finally getting back into the Pokemon gaming scene through Gen 8.....now I think about it..It looks like I never really truly left the Pokemon Community. So thank you....for giving me such wonderful and great memories. I'm looking for the future. (Even I have to wait to watch the Pokemon Direct. ><) Cheers for another 25 year from MOE. 

 (Phew,...I finished it before Midnight. ^^)

(c)KSapphire8989

[corpuscaiiosum]

Last photo dump

[shadowwingtronix]

BW Panelling: Star Trek Deep Space Nine Q&A

BW Panelling: Star Trek Deep Space Nine Q&A

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was the first Star Trek series to not be created or controlled by Gene Roddenberry since he passed away. (I think he was involved with the animated series, but if not, then DS9 is the second.) It also strays from his vision, creating a more ethically questionable Starfleet and questioning some of Roddenberry’s vision of the future. And yet it is beloved by the fandom.…

[xiaorawr]

❤ ❤ ❤ 

Mako: @xiaorawr

Ryuko: @mrshatsune

Photographer: Vicious Victor

[someawesomeamvs]

Warning: Spoilers, implied drug use

Title: The One to Understand Me

Editor: DNubsPro

Song: Be Calm

Artist: fun.

Anime: Kids on the Slope

Category: Drama

Awards: Genericon 2016 - Judges’ Choice Anime Boston 2016 - Best Drama MomoCon 2016 - Finalist ConnectiCon 2016 - Best Drama

[cosplayinamerica]

I've always loved Princess Mononoke and actually already completed the original version for Connecticon 2016. My first time using any type of thermoplastic or making weapons/armor. As time went on after that I continued to practice with worbla and foam armor making! I had always imagined doing some sort of Armored Studio Ghibli Character. I wanted to both challenge myself and create something familiar yet original. I tried to base my design off of something barbaric. Almost as if San continued to live in the forest but used resources from the forest to create armor. I pulled in elements from the original version and created my own to help keep a flow through the whole design. I went through many different ideas and my original drawings actually ended up looking very similar to the final product I had to stay on the simple end because of the time I had to create the whole thing! This costume was completed in a months time while working a full-time job! Planning/drawing and patterning took a good chunk of the actual production time in the beginning. I was using a lot of new techniques so I needed to test almost everything to make sure it would turn out the way I wanted. I used a wood burner to make my wood grain design on all the foam and painted my life away. Rub n buff is a life saver! I never did an actual makeup test before so I just went with what I thought would look good. I added a strip over my nose and opted for red contacts to kind of get more of a mystical warrior type feel in person. I used to watch YouTube when I was in middle school and found some cosplayers on there and thought it was really cool though I didn't know what it was called. My mother took me to Anime Boston in 2008. As soon as I saw all the cosplayers I knew that was exactly what I wanted to do so finally when I was old enough and had enough money, 2012 I pulled together my first costume and went to Anime Boston again. Haven't stopped since ^^ Honestly, just have fun with cosplay, Learn new things, EXPERIMENT, its OK to fail, but don't forget to try again. Do the things that make YOU happy and don't worry about anyone else! Also never be afraid to say hi! Were all just nerds here :> -- Sinnika Photo : https://www.instagram.com/na.tahenakos/

======================

Support Cosplay in America by shopping on Amazon !  https://amzn.to/2qGIhkJ

[hopsjollyhigh]

I finally scanned this picture of my D&D character, Bentbeak, that I got from Badger Lord Studios back at ConnectiCon 2016! He’s a spoiled rich boy who thinks he has what it takes to bring Justice to a region he’s never even been to before. His “hired help” (the babysitter his parents hired to make sure he doesn’t die, but told him was a “personal assistant”) tries both his patience and his morals.

[redandfranticfeelings]

so i guess i should do a big cheesy story about how i fell for NC for its tenth anniversary? xP

ok so in 2015 grace linked me a swan princess review that i enjoyed a lot, though i found the effects and volume a little jarring bc i was used to like, the mysterious mr enter. i watched the next review which was the lorax (hmmm, i wonder if that had any effect on which character became my favorite?)and eventually just kept watching the videos.

i didnt rlly subscribe til winter of that year, and became a regular fan around may 2016, when old vs new cinderella solidified that this show could be funny with engaging characters and plotlines, not just a straightforward review show.

then in october 2016 i started getting the random urge to draw hyperboner bc it fit the model for my usual otps. after that i sought out more NC content through tumblr tags and tv tropes. 

i rlly like having found this show. it’s different from many of my interests, with hyper fangirl being so fun to analyze as a sympathetic villain, and being able to connect to and even befriend members of the team. i like having a sort of reputation as a shipper and character analyzer. ive learned more about writing and storytelling in an entertaining way. i made some cool friends, and even got to further analyze my mental health through my experiences with the show and fandom friends. 

idk its just a rlly fun interest and i hope i can make my love for this series clear to the team this weekend at connecticon. <3

[nootnootcosplay-blog]

i can find my revolution; i can learn to stand alone.

📷 - Dami Photography 

[meatjunior]

So at connecticon in 2016 i met a bitty. I was wondering if they were on tumblr so i could ask if they had gone to the convention this year? Or if they knew of other conventions that were worth going to or had more cp fans?

[thefanspov]

#Regram from @jmw_photography_59 featuring @captainkayceecosplay at @connecticon in Harftord, Connecticut, USA ・・・ Taking it back to Connecticon 2016 #connecticon2016 #connecticon #cosplayportrait #cosplayphotography #cosplayphotographer #womenofcosplay #dcuniverse #dccomics #dccosplay #dccosplayer #dccosplayers #supergirl #supergirlcosplay #supergirlcw #karazorel #karadanvers #ctcon #ctcon2016 (at ConnectiCon Convention)

[corpuscaiiosum]

Part 2 of the ctcon dump

[shadowwingtronix]

BW Panelling returns to complete ConnectiCon 2016 with Star Trek Beyond 50: I never had the chance to make that updated intro. Heck, it took this long to get to the first of three panels I was able to record during my brief stay at ConnectiCon 2016 and this is over a year after that.