I am super excited! I managed to finish another one of my cosplays! That means I only have one more to finish up before next weekend's convention!
The cosplay I finished was Asahi Azumane, the ace of Karasuno High's volleyball team in the anime, Haikyuu!! Ya know, this cutie pie?
I'm really excited at how the cosplay is looking. His uniform, which I got for Christmas, is perfect.
I got all the necessary accessories including a headband, a knee pad, and a volleyball that looks exactly like the ones they have in the anime!
I decided that I didn't want to pay like $80 for a new pair of black and white sneakers so I'm using my normal sneakers. I figured that they're just shoes and no one's going to care anyway.
I put most of my time into the wig on this cosplay. Asahi has long hair and usually wears it up in a messy bun. Wigs and up-dos are probably the worst combination. Ponytails and tight bun are easy as you can just buy clip-on attachments. But it's a little harder to style a messy bun since no one thought it'd be a good idea to make those into clip-on. So I ended up buying a long wig and cutting it. Cutting wigs usually makes them itchier than they already are but I decided that I would just have to put up with it. I'm really happy with the results!
Ah, I'm so excited for next weekend! All I have to do is get some touch-ups done on my other cosplays and finish Shima's cosplay. It's gonna be so great and I cannot wait!
-René
My convention cravings have been sated... for now at least. Queen City KamiKaze is a super small convention at Manchester Memorial High School in Manchester, NH. I have been going to QCK for three years now. It's been fun every year but this year was definitely the best yet!
I know that cons grow bigger every year but I was amazed to see how big QCK had gotten this year. In past years, the convention had taken place in a few of the main halls of the school, the cafeteria, the auditorium, and the gymnasium. They're were several artist and merchandise booths set up throughout the halls and the cafeteria. There was limited and mostly greasy food for sale in the cafeteria. A dance was held in the gym with a pretty cool DJ playing various anime and Disney songs. It was always a fun and low-stress kind of con.
This year, QCK was still very low stress but holy crap did it grow! At first when my friends and I walked in, it looked the same. There were a few booths selling art prints scattered around the hall which we scanned as we made our way to the cafeteria. At first, the cafeteria looked pretty barren. There were a couple booths selling art and merchandise and a few game consoles set up. There was a whole bunch of food though! There was even one booth that was selling fresh lemonade. It looked pretty good although the booths looked kind of sparse. Then we made our way to the gym to check out the dance. Well, weren't we surprised. There were at least 30 different booths packed into the gym selling everything from manga to plushies to handcrafted jewelry! It was amazing and I probably spent like $80 which is waaayyy more than I ever expected to pay at such a small convention. The auditorium events were pretty fun, my favorite had to be the Anime Dating Game which my best friend actually participated in.
As QCK is such a small convention, the cosplay isn't always breathtaking. The cosplay is toned down but it just makes it more fun. You no longer feel unworthy to ask some flawless cosplayer if you can take their picture. I got to meet a bunch of new people and catch up with a lot of my old cosplay friends.
Overall it was a great con! I had so much! My only regret is not taking more pictures! I can't wait until Anime Boston. It's only a few weeks away now!!
-René
*SPOILER ALERT, duh.*
10. Euphemia li Britannia from Code Geass
Ow. I haven't watched Code Geass in a while but when I remembered Euphemia's death, all the feels hit me. Euphemia died after she was ordered to be killed in a resistance movement. She had been under the mind control of the main character of Code Geass and had started massacring people after she was given the order as a sarcastic joke. The main character tried to stop her but ultimately could not. It was so hard watching him give the command to kill her!
9. Shiro Fujimoto from Blue Exorcist
Mr. Fujimoto was quite possibly the coolest dad ever. Along with being a cool priest, he raised both of the Satan's sons (who grew up quite well, fyi) and was considered to be the most powerful exorcist in the world. He had managed to keep Satan from possessing his body by sheer willpower but was ultimately taken over. I remember almost bawling as I watched one of his sons try to pull him back from sinking into the hell-realm of Gehenna.
8. Seiko Shinohara and Yui Shishido from Corpse Party
Okay, so I get that the game is called Corpse Party but these two had me hurting real bad. First of all, Seiko did not deserve to die and neither did Ms. Yui! Seiko's death was horrible as her possessed best friend hung her in the girl's bathrooms. And Ms. Yui's death was even worse. Ms. Yui just wanted to make sure all her students were okay. She genuinely cared for them yet she had to die too. I loved both of these characters so I had them share a slot as both their deaths were equally horrible.
7. Light Yagami from Death Note
I knew it was going to happen eventually but I still cried. Light honestly had it coming as he had been on a massive killing spree (albeit it was of mostly criminals who were on death row anyway). His death had been foreshadowed since like episode 5 and it was kind of obvious that he was going to be found out eventually. But through all of his screaming and his superiority complex, you can really hear how troubled he was in his last moments. Light must have been under immense stress. He just wanted to do what he thought was right. It was so sad watching him die.
6. Sousuke Yamazaki('s dreams) from Free! Eternal Summer
Okay, so it probably sounds stupid but I cried way too much to not have this guy on the list even though he didn't actually die. Sousuke was training to be an Olympic swimmer. It was his dream to be able take on his best friend in the Olympics but in his training process, he overworked his shoulder. At first he tried to ignore the pain but it just got worse. He had had to stop swimming for awhile and underwent physical therapy. When Sousuke started swimming again in his last year of high school hoping to get scouted, he overworked it again. Everything he had worked for had gone to waste and his dreams were shattered. I was absolutely heartbroken when he broke down right before his last race. I'm tearing up right now.
5. Madoka Kaname from Madoka Magica: Puella Magi
Madoka Magica may seem like a cute anime but it is absolutely heartbreaking to watch. Which makes it one of my favorite animes, haha. Madoka is another weird one as she technically didn't die either. Rather, she gave up herself to save girls just like her from the evil forces of a higher advanced planet that wanted to suck the energy from teenage girls. So she kinda became a god and, as she said to her best friend in her final moments, would be all around us. So Madoka = Jesus???? Who knows? But watching Madoka in her final battle was one of the saddest and most epic things I've ever seen. I had to actually pause Netflix so I could just cry for a moment.
4. Ryouko Fueguchi from Tokyo Ghoul
She may look pretty scary but she's probably one of the most tragic anime mom deaths I've seen in awhile (a lot of anime moms die ok). A ghoul is basically a different species that can only survive off of human flesh. The ghouls are hunted down by an agency that is trying to protect human lives at all costs. Not all ghouls are bad but most of them are pretty horrible. Ryouko's husband was forced to make and sell equipment and weapons to a group of bad ghouls. To protect their daughter, Ryouko fled with her to a safer part of the city. She was killed with her husbands own weapon within earshot of her daughter. I was bawling. It was so painful to watch.
3. Kaworu Nagisa from Evangelion
'90s anime, am I right? I am currently in the process of watching Evangelion and I haven't quite come across Kaworu yet. But, as this anime debuted in 1995, Kaworu's unfortunate end has been spoiled countless times for me. I have seen too many gifs of this poor boy exploding next to his best friend (who am I kidding those two were totally dating). I remember going to a convention and seeing a Kaworu with angel wings and a halo. My friend had to pull me away from them before I started bawling my eyes out. Kaworu definitely earned his spot on this list when I start crying even though I haven't even seen him in the anime yet. (Beware of white/silver haired anime boys! They always break you heart.)
2. Marco Bodt from Attack on Titan
If you've never heard of Attack on Titan, just think of giant people eating all of your favorite characters and that's basically it. The humans in Attack on Titan are fighting a war against the giant titans and are pretty much losing. Marco died shortly after he graduated from the training corps. After helping a couple of his fellow soldiers during a titan attack, Marco disappeared from the episode until his best friend (also probably his boyfriend), Jean, later found his half-eaten body. Marco's death was not only shocking but it also really kept with the viewer as every time Jean would go into battle, he would think about Marco and sometimes scream Marco's name. It was not only painful to watch Jean find Marco's dead body but also to see how Marco's death affected Jean. It was like double the pain and double the tears to watch Jean cry over Marco's death.
(Here's an extra gif of Jean slapping Marco awake because Jean basically sums up the whole fandom's thoughts on Marco's death)
1. Major Maes Hughes from Full Metal Alchemist
Oh boy. Here come the waterworks. Maes Hughes's death stayed with me for months after I had watched the episode. He's definitely one of my favorite anime characters. Maes was a great comic relief character which made seeing him in such pain and struggle much, much worse. Maes was trying to make an important phone call when he was confronted by the human embodiment of Envy, who is able to shapshift. Envy held a gun to Maes's back as Envy forced him to hang up the phone. Maes quickly turned around to shoot Envy with his own gun but stopped when he saw his wife's face. He knew that it wasn't really her but he just couldn't bring himself to pull the trigger. His death was hard to watch but what was even harder was watching his funeral. His daughter, who did not quite understand what was going on, kept saying things like "why are they burying daddy?", "Daddy has work to finish!", and "Don't bury him, he needs to finish his work!" My heart actually hurts just typing those sentences. I remember crying for at least 20 minutes after the episode and couldn't bring myself to watch the next one for like two weeks afterwards.
Alright, I'm gonna go cry now.
-René
