ColossalCon 2010 Live Blog – Cosplay Masquerade

7:59PM

descent and pandamajik here. After a good hour of waiting we just got to our seats inside the main auditorium. pandamajik will be working on bringing everyone some high quality photos of the Masquerade while I try my best to keep some running commentary going. As expected it looks to be a rather packed house tonight which is what you can always expect from a convention’s premiere event.

8:02PM

Sitting two seats over from a Suigintou cosplayer right now. She always was my favorite Rozen Maiden character, being teased by that warm heart hidden inside her deep dark soul was always so tempting. Oh my little “Angel of Death” so cruel yet cute. I should thank the staff for having a very orderly seating procedure. It might be running a little behind schedule but for the most part groups are easily able to stick together and my handicapped fellow con-goers are being well accommodated. Look for things to get going in another 10 minutes or so.

8:06PM

Hurray someone has a chibi Stormtrooper doll, now there is something you don’t see everyday.

8:09PM

Just heard a cosplaying Marisa describe Touhou with the following quote: “Its a loli game where a bunch of lolis kill each other!” A very apt description I might add, and probably the big secret behind its appeal to the rabid fanbase. I mean how can you even mentally comprehend this much moe in one sitting?

8:16PM

Almost starting time I assume. The shenanigans with the stormtrooper and other associated dolls is still going on, displayed on the projector for all to see. Sitting next to two very friendly con-goers who are both doing some nice thematic cosplay. One is dressed in the Steampunk style and the other is wearing a tasteful China doll style outfit. Haha chibi-Deadpool now makes an appearance on the cameras.

8:19PM

And now we’re getting started! The hosts are greeting the audience and just announced that they will be giving away a trip to Japan tonight!

8:21PM

The judges have just introduced themselves. There will be 5 craftsmanship judges for cosplay and 3 presentation/skit judges. Fabulous cosplays by them all. Chris and Sonya will be the two judges for the Japan trip, not yet sure what they will be doing but I am excited to see.

pandamajik: Chris is also known as 4ng31 and is also working on Zero from Megaman X. He’s an amazing cosplayer.

8:24PM

Skits

Skit #1: Real Dance Battle

Seems like a rather random dance themed skit that hasn’t been fabulously choreographed. Props for the Haruhi and Lucky Star inserts though. And the fans got some pokeballs thrown at them.

No! They killed Carmeldansen girl :(, and for Christina Aguliera, really? Oh no Poker Face now too, I used to like that when I was less cool.

The Dragon Ball Spirit Bomb made of flexible plastic was beyond lame, as is most of the dancing unfortunately. The song selection is hit or miss but it works, its more fun than not.

A decent way to start off the show but it only gets a 5/10 from me.

8:29PM

Skit #2: Bittersweet Myu (A Sailor Moon Themed performance)

A solo dance performance to a Sailor Moon theme song I am not familiar with. A strong effort but not particularly impressive. Compliments to anyone who is willing to perform however. Props on the splits attempt at the end even if it didn’t end flawlessly.

Gets a 2/10 from me.

8:31PM

Skit #3 Hetalia’s A Little Bit Racist

A great play on some of the more controversial “stereotyping” aspects of the Hetalia series. Leading into a interpretation of the”Everyone’s a little bit racist” song. Japan and USA are the two featured performers early on.

Haha and now Canada makes a appearance, eh?

And here are Russia and China, some of the singing isn’t the very best but this is still pretty enjoyable.

Very nice costumes all around. I really enjoyed that, definitely a 8/10 for me (haha, to give myself some leeway for the rest of the night)

8:37PM

Skit #4 Nurse Joy Skit

Pallet Town’s Nurse Joy is apparently paying us a visit here at Colossalcon.

Oh wait she is secretly from Team Rocket!?!?! Transformation time! This is getting awful, oh man I don’t really want to watch anymore. Please get to the point. I mean its supposed to be an excuse for some standup but really this doesn’t float my boat at all. The performer doesn’t seem to feel any shame though, so props on the confidence. There, I said something nice.

Straight to the 1/10 Dustbin.

pandamajik: I hate to be mean but it’s at least a step better than last year’s. And shorter so the pain is less.

8:44PM

Looks like that is it for the skits, too bad there weren’t a few more waaaay to short. Was a fan of the Hetalia one however, they definitely stole the show.

8:45PM

Walk-ons

Junior Category

Juniors first, we have an adorable 3-year old doing a Bleach Character.

Followed by a fairly decent Soul Eater Cosplay, self-made too so big props.

Novice Category

-Mechazolla from Cromartie High School, thats was big robot lol, must have took some work.

-Zeon Soldier from Mobile Suit Gundam, fairly impressive.

-Now a Riku from FFX2, decent effort.

-A Shinku from Rozen Maiden, I love me that show and her outfit.

-A Kelsey Steele from Duarara.

-A FFXIII cosplay.

-Buggy from One Piece, very well made

-A great Suigintou costume, saw it early today, was impressed even more up close.

-Legend of Zelda and Ookami team cosplay, 2 furries, pretty cool looking.

-Barry the Chopper from FMA, a very good effort.

-Pepe from Shugo Chara, very well done.

-Domo-kun! A big one too.

-A double Pretty Solider Sailor Moon Costume pair.

-Lightning from FFXIII, very well done.

-Hitsugaya and Byakuya from Bleach, good effort on the hair.

-Ash ,Dawn, Brock, and ummmm someone else from Pokemon, pretty well done though.

-Now a nice looking Tales of Symphonia cosplay, great work on the story.

-Space Captain Harlock, looking good.

-Gundam Exia from the show by the same name. He’s huge! And it looks good.

-Naruto Uzumaki cosplay, its been done obviously but its ok.

-Oh wow a C.C. from Code Geass, pretty cool.

-That got a cheer, a rather different but well done Elric Brother Team cosplay.

-Kraehe from Princess Tutu, thats a little different…

-Seras Victoria from Hellsing, thats one biiiig gun.

-Chobits cosplay, good work on the dress.

-And there is an Ichigo cosplay, run of the mill but props.

-A Zoid cosplay, very puffy but somehow it works and appeals.

-Temari from Naruto, nice fan for sure haha.

-“The Original Vizard”?, weird but sure.

-Haha a Gaiden Kakashi cosplay, there is getting creative with standard fare, I likes.

-Lol another Kakashi, not as good but its fine.

-A not that good Sonic cosplay, try harder please!

-Claire from Claymore, nice to see something different but could be alot better.

-LOL just got a Clorox Bleach bottle cosplayer, totally made my night, she wins my award haha!

-Roxas cosplay, needs more detail.

-Ino and Sauske from Naruto, the Sauske was well done.

-The sumo guy from Street Fighter, not that bad.

-Yay something different from Naruto! A Sasori cosplay, lots of work went into that. They had a huge cart for his larger form

Journeyman Category

-A good looking Blair costume from Soul Eater

-BlazBlue team cosplay, looks pretty good.

-WOW an amazing Tousen, not a lot of detail but the guy fits it so well. Love it.

-Another Sauske. The detail was just difficult to see from where we sat.

-.hack//SIGN team cosplay.

-Older Gaara from Naruto Shippuden, a pretty good cosplay.

-FF9 cosplay.

-Blademaster from Monster Hunter Tribe, don’t know anything about it but its very detailed.

-Wow now a Silent Hill Pyramid Head, very good and scary.

-Athena from Saint Saiya, LOTS of work going into that, she looks golden and fabulous. The wings can actually expand and move.

-EVA Unit 1 from Eva, VERY BIG, hahaha, looks very top heavy, props on the effort there, looks good.

-Another C.C. from C.G., like this one is a little better.

-Soifon from Bleach, meh.

-Grell from Black Butler, wow.

-Testament and A.B.A, some very good looking props, VERY Impressive. From Guilty Gear, this is gonna win something.

-A very good Hetalia cosplay. Representing England, even stuck the Captain Morgan pose for the fans, lol.

-Chun-Li cosplay, looked pretty good.

9:02PM

Props to Christina Vee, the well known America VA apparently had to miss the con due to some industry work. She had the decency to tape an apology and message for all the fans, I know many were excited to see her and while it doesn’t completely make up for it I am sure it improves the situation.

9:08PM

Time for some games with audience participation. The first game will be “Questions Only”, contestant are only allowed to interact and converse with questions only. The conversation topic will apparently be “Ramen”. Lets see how this goes…

Lol everyone is failed, but sometimes that just makes it pretty funny, I like this game, I wanna play it sometime. The last girl who got picked just dominated, props to the underdog.

9:12PM

A video is now being shown, not sure what its about yet.

-The first part looks a like a fairly well made Kanagi AMV. A very nice touch, using K-On in the background for some of the shots.

-A pretty funny Yu-Gi-Oh gag interlude.

-Now a compilation AMV set to some awesome hardrock (“Life is Beautiful” by Sixx: AM), the theme: Life is Dark, but Beautiful. Some animes I can recognize: Higurashi, FMA, Code Geass, Naruto, and many more I can’t even begin to name. Ah there is some Haruhi, and Tokyo Magnitue 8, Soul Eater, FLCL, and many more. Not sure about the song but the catch line seems to be “No one will cry, at my funeral”. Any ideas people? Kinda want to save that one.

-Now those are some high quality AMVs.

9:21PM

Looks like I will get a chance to see the con video I missed on Friday now, lets see how this goes.

-A man eating a burrito, ok…

-Now a lampooning of the “Wheel of Morality” (kindly provided by Fox Kids Network).

-Haha now some crazy Japanese games how time, say the tongue twister or get kicked in the nads. LOLZ. Now funny faces brought to you courtesy of a rubber band around the nose. Oh those Japanese!

-Whoa now some Sumo random and lol-inducing.

-Now an AMV with the song “Watch Them Fall Down” by DJ Spoke. This looks promising but I can’t tell what it is yet.  Looks like a very cool techno medley. Some Shakugan no Shana thrown in there. Catch line from the track seems to be “Watch them fall down…” definitely a techno beat, pretty solid. Ah now some AIR and Clannad, despite what is sounds like this is pretty dramatic. We’ll get the AMVs linked up on here soon when I can find them, this is very impressive. Just spotted C.C so there is another person I know. Wow this has such high production value, I promise I will feature this on the blog soon.

AMV made by Nostromo

Anime: Ah! My Goddess (Movie), Air, Akaiito (game), Appleseed: Ex Machina (movie), ARIA The ANIMATION (TV), Ashita no Kimi to Au Tame ni (~Till I Reach Your Tomorrow~) (Game), Carnelian, Chaos Wars (game), Chrono Crusade (TV), Clannad (TV), Code Geass – Lelouch of the Rebellion (TV), Daisuke Nakayama’s Global Astroliner, ef – a tale of memories (TV), Ef – The Latter Tale (Game), Ergo Proxy (TV), GANTZ, Gatekeepers, Ghost in the Shell: GIG2, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Godannar, Gun X Sword, Gunbuster 2 (Aim for the Top! 2), Haru no Ashioto (game), Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (TV), Kiddy Grade (2nd Season promo), Macross Frontier (TV), Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, Melody of Oblivion, Night Wizard (TV), Place Promised in Our Early Days, The (Beyond the Clouds), Pokemon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea (Movie), Ray, Real Drive (TV), REC (TV), Shakugan no Shana (TV), Shakugan no Shana Second (TV), Shining Force EXA (game), Sky Girls (TV), So long, Mr. Despair (TV), Starship Operators, Third, The (TV), Tide-Line Blue, To Heart 2 (PS2), Tokyo Underground, W-Wish (Double Wish), Wild Arms 4 (Game), Xross Scramble (game), Ys I & II: Eternal Story (PS2), Zegapain (TV)

Music: DJ Spoke – Watch Them Fall Down (Montano Dub), DJ Spoke – Watch Them Fall Down (Original Mix)

9:34PM

That was really fun. Now it is award time, the judges are lining up to present the awards.

Honorable Mentions, the “fun” awards:

-Most “colorsafe”: Tia Molcon for the Bleach Chlorox Bottle, I loved it!

-“Props for props” award: Samantha Hagyle, Riku from FFX2 for her attributes and props.

-“Light speed Award”: Jordan Esselman for Sonic the Hedgehog, really though? It looked like it took 2 minutes to make but at least he is in character or rather he is a character.

-“Guts and Glory Award”: Tate Shuley, for his bravery by entering in the journeyman division at his first con.

-“Rising Star” Award: Christine Pangel for her amazing first time costume of Oreba Dia Vanille from FFXIII.

-Judge Award One: Chloe Kale, for Celty from Durarara. A very nice helmet design.

-Judge Award Two: Stephanie another first timer cosplaying Shinku from Rozen Maiden, I loved the effort she put into this, it looks perfectly authentic.

-Judge Award Three: Stephen Lodge, Chaos from Xenosaga III, the judge was very impressed with the use of stretch fabric in the cosplay.

-Judge Award Four: Karl Clover and Nirvana from BlazBlue, I really liked this one personally.

-Presentation Judge’s Award (for sass and audience love): Arianna Coffman as Lightning from FFXIII. (we’ll fix this later)

9:43PM

Presentation Awards

-Best Presentation: Space Channel 5, Skit #5, was kinda bleh imo, but they did try.

Craftsmanship Awards

(all winners get free registration for next year’s con)

-Best Group Craftsmanship: The Ash, Dawn, Brock, and Paul cosplay group, They did a decent job and everyone looks fairly authentic, congrats.

-Kawaii Junior Award: Piper, Sena from Bleach, she looked absolutely adorable, another of my favorite characters.

-Junior Craftsmanship: Megan doing Maka from Soul Eater. A great self made costume for a 13 year old.

-Runner-up Novice Craftsmanship Award: For Domo-kun, but then again everyone loves him so it doesn’t matter.

9:48PM

-Novice Craftmanship: Miyaka from Fushigi Yuugi, sparkly.

-Runner-up Journeyman Craftsmanship: Witch Blair from Soul Eater, she really did have an awesome hat, I loved the authenticity of her entire outfit.

-Best Journeyman Craftsmanship: Becky, as Sauske from Naruto. Impressive work in adding on her scars and singing her costume for authenticity, up-close it really is amazing.

-Runners-up Masters Craftsmanship:  Grell from Black Butler, a very awesome cosplay chainsaw and all. She just won in the master class after entering in journeyman, very impressive.

-Masters Craftsmanship: Testament and A.B.A from Guilty Gear, Great costumes and amazing props. Even designed in AutoCAD, from the moment he saw them pandamajik was sure they would win and win they did.

-Best in Show Award: Axis Powers Hetalia Skit, very deserving it was well planned and the characters fit very well. Congratulations!

-Cosplay Head Award: Linsey Lash for her Liger Zero cosplay from Zoids. The judge love her mobility and improvisation with a very hefty and complex costume.

9:54PM

And now on to the last award and the Japan trip! This will be a week long trip for two to Akibahara. They will also get preregistration pass

Japan Trip Award Winner: Christina Karl Williams for her Pirate England cosplay from Axis Powers Hetalia. A great costume and show put on by here. Very awesome indeed and many many congratulations, I am sure she will have the time of her life.

9:56PM

And thats a wrap folks, thanks for hanging with us. Congratulations to all the winners it was a great show and a great time.

EDIT: 6/8/2010 6:48 PM

Awards list from Aquas Rhapsody

The first set of awards are major awards that count towards your awards total for moving up in division. The second set are judge’s and special awards for cosplayers that did an amazing job as well. The last set were extra “just for fun” awards.

Craftsmanship Awards

Overall Best Craftsmanship/Japan Prize- Crystina Williams as Pirate England from Axis Powers Hetalia
Best Master Craftsmanship- Alexandria and Nick as Testament and A, B, A from Guilty Gear
Runner-Up Master Craftsmanship- Courtney Segota as Grell Sutcliffe from Black Butler
Best Journeyman Craftsmanship- Becki Yoakam as Sasuke from Naruto
Runner-Up Journeyman Craftsmanship- Morgan Fitzgerald as Blair from Soul Eater
Best Novice Craftsmanship- Angela Johnson as Miaka from Fushugi Yugi
Runner-Up Novice Craftsmanship- Kyle Ehnsberger as Domo-Kun from NHK
Junior Craftsmanship- Megan Muniak as Maka Alburn from Soul Eater
Kawaii Junior Award- Piper as Sena from Bleach
Best Group Cosplay- Christa Boocher, Paul Boocher, Dawn McLaughlin, and Marie Ballard as Dawn, Ash, Paul, and Brock from Pokemon

Aqua’s Rhapsody’s Award- Stephen Lodge as Chaos from Xenosaga III
Oshi’s Award- Chloe Keil as Celty Sturlson from Durarara!
Jenny-chan’s Award- Stephanie Vanzandt as Shinku from Rozen Maiden
Sugar’s Award- Lauren Correntot and Carrie K. as Nirvana and Carl Clover from Blaz Blue
Bobbi’s Award- Lindsey Lash as Liger Zero from Zoids
Props for Props- Samantha Hagle as Rikku from FF X-2
Rising Star- Christine Pongle as Oreba Dia Vanille from FFXIII

Lightspeed Award- Jordan Eshelmon as Sonic from Sonic
Colorfast Award- Tia Molchan as Colorox Bleach
Guts and Glory- Tait Clewley as Naruto from Naruto

Skit Awards

Best in Show – Hetalia Everyone’s A Bit Racist
Best Presentation – Space Channel Five