Chronicles of Chean: Comic Fiesta 2011

My first ever anime event. I'm serious. Up until now I don't think I've ever attended any exhibition or event that is to my interest.

I heard about the Comic Fiesta 2011 a few months ago and promptly made a date with the BF to go together. Just yesterday one of my friends went (Day 1) and said that she had lined until 4pm but she still couldn't get in, so had to buy tickets for Day 2, which she did for us as well. THANKS, XIN YI!!!

Waking up was the hard part. The BF and I had a late night - he was over at my house Mapling (guys) and we shared a bottle of Corona Extra (more like I gulped down more than half the bottle). After he was done with his Ice Knight quest it was quite late by the time he was ready for bed it was pass 2am.

We both woke up around 7am, and were practically dead on our feet. No more late nights before dates from now on. I did my morning routine, did my make-up (black eyes a la visual kei), and headed out to the LRT station, thinking I was 20 minutes late. Upon arrival did we realize that Xinyi had made a typo in her earlier text saying to meet at 8.30am - she meant 9.30am.

We arrived there, got in a bit of a ruckus (I've not been to the KLCC area for ages), and had breakfast at Subway. I prefer the management in Taylor's - at least the solo-at-the-entire-station staff at Taylor's listened to your order. This lady practically thought we wanted everything in pairs when I obviously stated I wanted Milo because she gave us two white coffees, which was what the BF ordered.

Moving on. Xinyi arrived in house-clothes (with her brother), disappeared for a while and looked like a Japanese schoolgirl who kinda jumped out of K-On. After lunch we walked toward the Convention Centre and the first sight of a cosplayer got me really excited - I've seen them around, but not around so many at a time.

Our tickets were basically the adhesive wrist bands that acted as passes, and supposedly the crowd on Day 2 was smaller - I personally found that Day 2's crowd was intimidating enough, and this was around 1/3 of the previous day's crowd. Holy bejesus, are there really so many Japanese fans around Malaysia?!

We entered, and we walked through the booths first. Lots of local artists doing their thing, displaying their works and whatnot. It was until then I realized that Malaysians are not all just about talk - there are actually some that have immense skill, and it seemed that all those skillful people were there today, and they're still looking for more of them!

The only thing was that I was looking for some hint of visual kei stuff among all the wonderful artworks, and we only found these hand-drawn cards of visual kei artists posters (hyde being the one excluded from the visual kei label). I got Miyavi and hyde, while the BF got Ruki and Reita from the GazettE (Y U NO URUHA, KAI AND AOI?!).

This Miku cosplayer has my bias. =P

We then wandered around the back of the exhibition hall where the cafe was and had a lot of cosplayers around there. At that point I hadn't found a cosplayer that I've liked enough to want to take a picture with them yet (no offense, really, I'm actually more self-conscious than anything). Then right then and there I saw the perfect Hatsune Miku cosplayer, and just as I was about to ask her permission to get a picture with her, the BF went AWOL. How cool is that. I had to take a solo picture of her, and I felt so embarrassed I wanted to just walk out of the hall and hide. A few moments after I walked away from the Miku cosplayer, he appeared behind me, grinning from ear to ear like a kid who successfully evaded from the seeker while playing hide-and-seek.

That more or less just ruined my day. Yes, I just missed that girl once I could find her again and request, but my self-consciousness came back by the time I next saw her. He, on the other hand, was taking pictures with a lot of the cosplayers. I seriously wanted to just stalk out of the place and go home without him knowing.

Anyway, enough of my drama. Once you enter the exhibition hall, the artists' booths are on the left, the stage right in front, and on the right are the sponsors and merchandise dealers. We had visited the artists' booths, the center area was jam-packed due to the solo cosplay contest (the was a Honne Onna from Jigoku Shoujo), so we took a visit to the right side of the hall.

T-shirts. Keychains. Bags. Posters. Rings. Necklaces. Phone accessories. Cosplay katanas. Masks. Kigurumi hats. YOU NAME IT, IT'S THERE! There's also the boob mousepad. It's basically a mousepad with two dome-shaped sponges at one edge, with a Japanese girl's bosom printed strategically there. For those more testosterone-driven otakus, or just some who'd like something funky!

Left: S size Miku - mine; right: M size Ichigo - BF's.

We got *drumroll~* T-shirts *the crowd boos*. One Bleach Ichigo for him, one Hatsune Miku for me. For RM45. At a stall where I met my classmate, Blue. I was like "OMFG is this really him? I thought he'd cosplay or something. Why does he look like he's in college?"

That was basically all we got. We walked around the entire hall another couple of times and finally exited ... at 1pm. Only around 3 hours had passed. Anyway, there was a Cloud Strife cosplayer right outside, and after taking a photo of the BF with him, I kinda walked away while he still stood there taking pictures. I think I could have just walked really far away and he wouldn't even notice.

There were still some cosplayers outside the convention center doing photoshoots, while some others, I think, couldn't get in yet. I saw Paine from Final Fantasy X-2, and a few guys I think from One Piece or Bleach. Apologies for my ignorance - much of a Japanese fan I am, I don't really watch them, but from posters and catalogs I can roughly identify them. Sorry again!

We first went through Candylicious a bit, reviewed some stuff in Sephora, then went up to Kinokuniya to look for visual kei magazines, but we only found Shoxx Profiles for Plastic Tree, D'espairsray and Miyavi. Then took the LRT to Hang Tuah, having in mind to repair my now (again) handicapped C6-00.

My C6-00 now has a variety of symptoms.

The sliding screen has to be pushed to a certain extent in order for the user to see the screen at all, but even if the screen is not visible, the touch screen is active.
It takes at least five seconds before the screen locks after activating the lock button.
The device would suddenly vibrate for no reason with the screen off continuously, and this cannot be deactivated by pressing the "off" button - only removing and replacing the battery can this problem be solved.

Cool, right? This is even cooler - the repair center was closed when we got there. #$%^&!!!!! The BF failed to recall this Sunday-closed thing even when I told him a few days ahead that I wanted to drop it there. Anyway, with painful feet and spine, we walked to Snowflake - for lunch.

I thought the branch at SS15 was packed - this was even worse. We had to wait around for tables, and when we did we shared with two supposed Singaporean girls who were discussing about Chatime, Gong Cha, Snowflake and the works. We each had a Japan Combo II (again).

By the time I got back home it was 5pm. The soles of my feet felt flat, I had large, dull blisters at the soles, and my thighs and calves were hurting like mad. My shower consisted of sitting on the toilet bowl for around 10 minutes removing the ton of black eyeliner and eye shadow I had piled up, plus the foundation, with my feet in a basin of cold water. My bath then *ahem* proceeded as usual.

That's when I really started to think about stuff. Malaysian cosplayers need to acknowledge the fact that cosplaying also includes make-up and hair-styling. I know this doesn't apply to all cosplayers, but for some, they get the necessary pieces of the costume, smack on some eyeliner and call it a day. Seriously? Also, shiny polyester cloth doesn't look well with bulging flesh. I saw this girl who was in cosplay with her belly exposed, but there were two tires there. I know I'm not any better, but I don't think I'd dare do that.

But there were some, though I'm not sure what they were cosplaying as, were cool as shit. There was this random girl in local secondary school uniform, with fake blood and liquid latex over her face and leg, feigning grotesque scars, complete with local school bag and typical low ponytail. Simple, but outstanding.

Oh, yeah. To Domo-kun fans out there, especially Jasmine, here's a treat for you guys. There was a slightly-larger-than-life sized Domo-kun walking around the place. It was the second or third round of walking and *BOOM* Giant. Brown. Cube. With arms and legs. With sharp teeth. He had to walk around horizontally to get anywhere. Poor dude. But cool costume, dude.

More piccies from the event: