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Question two...

I have a wig I'm planning on using for Belarus, here's a picture: http://jewishlolita.deviantart.com/gallery/24747096?offset=48#/d3223ba
It's the perfect texture and color, but it's a lil to big, and it falls off my head. I don't have a wig cap, which I plan on getting but because it's so big, it groups together in the back and the hair separates, so you see the stuff under. Which is why I wore a hood over the back, but I don't wanna do that at the convention. I don't have the money for another wig, any suggestions?


Thank you!!

You tried it on with a wig cap and it still didn't work out? That seems odd. The wig cap usually is what makes everything fit snugly. Tie your hair into a ponytail and put on the wig cap, then distribute your hair underneath so it isn't lumpy in one place (never had a problem with it being lumpy, but I don't know how much hair you have). If your hair won't stay in place, bobby pin it, then put the wig cap on. After that, put your wig on. If for whatever reason your wig still keeps slipping off, bobby pin the wig to the wig cap, then it won't be going anywhere. If your wig cap shows through your wig (it shouldn't, but if), I would recommend getting one to match the color of your wig so that it is less noticeable. Or am I completely reading this problem wrong? I might need a picture of the problem in that case.

EDIT: If I AM reading it wrong and you never used a wig cap with your wig, I would highly suggest you buy one (they are ridiculously cheap). It will most likely look pretty bad without one holding your hair in place. Maybe I'm picky, but I kinda cringe when I see people going without them and you can see their hair coming out from under the wig. It kills the cosplay for me.

Hello fellow con-goers! I'm planning to be Azu-nyan from K-ON! this year, but am having trouble finding an affordable wig. The cheapest I've seen yet is 40. Anyone else know a good sight?

Ebay is your friend for cheap, good wigs. Costume store wigs are usually, in my experience, of horrible quality, but the ones I've purchased from ebay have been great. Speaking from experience as someone who did a character with pigtails like yours, you will have much more luck going the short-wig-with-clip-on-tails. It won't look perfect from the back, but you can trim it to make it look better. You will not have ANY luck turning a regular long wig into pigtails unless it has a lot of hair and a skincap (difficult to find). If you go this route like I tried to do, you will have big gaps showing your real hair underneath, since it's typically only a net inside. Remember that you can always cut the hair of a wig, so even though it looks too long as it is, you can always fix it. You might end up saving money going that way rather than looking at wigs specifically styled for your character. Here are a few under $40 that I found on ebay for you:
$20.99 (free shipping)
$35.00 (free shipping)
$31.99 (free shipping)

Hope that helps!

[Gosick]

I must have way more tolerance than some people here...heh.

For what I've watched, here's my 2-episode critique:
;D - Gosick - Great (reminds me of Umineko). I'll be continuing it.
;D - Madoka Magica - I'm a SHAFT/Shinbo fangirl, and despite not being into "magic girl" animes, this one has more appealing dark undertones to it. I'm looking forward to seeing how it develops.
;D - Kimi ni Todoke 2 - Watching it because I loved the first season. It has its faults, but it's adorable overall. Besides the flashback episode 0, it seems to be recapturing its magic.
:D - Mitsudomoe 2 - Watching it because I loved the first season, again. I hated the first episode of this, though.
:) - Yumekui Merry - I wasn't initially interested, but after 2 episodes, I might stick with it. It's got a pretty decent plot.
:( - Beelzebub - Boring, though my friends find it funny for some reason. It'll take convincing to get me to keep watching.
:( - Freezing - Fanservice central. Very little appeals to me, so I won't be watching the rest.
:( - Onii-chan no Koto - WTF, seriously. No.

The rest don't particularly appeal to me unless I hear some impressive praises of it from others.

I, for one, would be interested in a foursquare-type application where people can "check in" to events and become mayors of places they frequent and see the other people who visit.

I also think a geocaching app would be fun (like a giant Easter egg hunt), though I don't know what the "treasure" would be once people have found the appropriate spots.

I have Android, so I'm crossing my fingers for something compatible with it.

When I saw 5 hours my jaw almost dropped. Obviously, you don't have to stick around for the whole thing, but I would hate to be the last group going at the 5th hour because there'd probably be no one left to watch.

In my 7 years of attendance, I've yet to actually go to this event (I know, bad me) so I don't know exactly how it is run other than what I see from clips online. I figure it is like most stage performances, though, where you must reserve time to introduce and set up skits, which could take several minutes. That alone could divide your 60 performances down to 30, even with 5 hours. So for the most people to gain stage time, their skit times would have to be reduced.

Honestly, from the ones I've watched online from various cons, some of the best skits are the short ones, and some of the worst ones are long and painful.

Again, I do not know what the process they use to select acts is, but if it were run by me, I'd make people submit videos of their act and then weed the bad ones out and have a spectacular 2/3 hour show. Of course, this is probably a little too cold-hearted of an option for the fine staff at Fanime.  :D

Official flags shall be respected, and cannot be worn as part of a costume. They must be on a flagpole. Home-made or unofficial flags are exempt from this rule.

This stipulation caught my eye. I have a feeling it pertains to the Hetalia cosplays, and I seem to remember witnessing a couple Hetalia cosplayers with flags arguing with rovers last year. But I wonder what the exact reason for the rule is... is this a matter of respecting the flag of the country? I assume that's probably the case, but it could use more clarity.

It's red because I just added it. Yes, it's there because of cosplayers (not at our con) wearing them as capes. It's disrespectful,  and we do intend to demand better of our cosplayers than that. I'm going to put emphasis on "WORN" as in "not as a cape, shirt, skirt, sarong, or other article of clothing" as I don't actually mean cannot be CARRIED. It was a sort of on-the-fly edit at yesterday's staff meeting as a few people brought this behavior to my attention. (If you can think of a clearer way to phrase it while still staying true to my intent, I am all ears.)

I see, thanks for the quick response to my question. I think it's an appropriate rule, even though people are probably unintentionally being disrespectful. I have a feeling it'll be a big hassle for you guys when people who do not read this show up without a pole for their flag, so hopefully this message spreads because I know Hetalia is extremely popular. I give you props for answering all these questions here, too. Thanks for the hard work!

EDIT: Yes, I think that "worn as part of a costume" was the ambiguous part. Perhaps saying something like "(ex: worn as clothing or capes)" would be more specific, because I tend to think that carrying a prop equates to "wearing" it, which wasn't the intent of your statement. What a headache to come up with clear wording for everything!

Official flags shall be respected, and cannot be worn as part of a costume. They must be on a flagpole. Home-made or unofficial flags are exempt from this rule.

This stipulation caught my eye. I have a feeling it pertains to the Hetalia cosplays, and I seem to remember witnessing a couple Hetalia cosplayers with flags arguing with rovers last year. But I wonder what the exact reason for the rule is... is this a matter of respecting the flag of the country? I assume that's probably the case, but it could use more clarity.

EDIT: Rereading your statement, it's pretty clear that it is a matter of respect. I was mostly curious as to what thought was behind the flagpole requirement rule, since you could be respectful to a flag without putting it on a flagpole. Not that I disagree or anything, it's just curiosity.  :)

This reminded me that some of my friends and I were considering dressing up like the tengu amazon guys who hang out with Amazoness. XD

That would be funny. It could take some searching to find masks that aren't fancy handmade decorations, but I'm sure there's something out there in the wild internets. If not, there's always paper clay/paper mache. I made a fantastic Naruto ANBU mask with it.  :)

I think it would be wise to redo the thread and alert BSaphire of the change, since the organizer is MIA. That way we can start fresh. Anyway, looks like if all goes as planned, I will be doing Celty and having a couple friends as Izaya and Anri.

[the pillows]

Versailles, definitely. It be nice to see Kamijo come visit us again, but with the whole band this time.

Since the VK is overpowering, I will continue to suggest RADWIMPS. Or for more anime related, Sambomaster?

Yes...Visual Kei seems to usually be mentioned/invited. I want bands that are popular with the anime crowd, that have had their work featured in anime. LOVED seeing FLOW last year and actually knowing the songs even though I didn't know the band as much. I think it would appeal to much more people at the con than one specific genre would.

That said, here's my list (all of which have songs in anime):

• the pillows (FLCL soundtrack/Moonlight Mile)
• Utada Hikaru (Rebuild of Evangelion/Kingdom Hearts promotions)
• Tommy Heavenly6 (Soul Eater/Gintama/Paradise Kiss/Gundam 00)
• YUI (Bleach/FMA)
• Jyukai (Fate/Stay Night/Ah! My Goddess/Busou Renkin)
• Kalafina (Kuroshitsuji/Time of Eve movie/So-Ra-No-Wo-To/Kara no Kyoukai/...and recently in Madoka Magica)
• School Food Punishment (Eden of the East)
• Oreskaband (Bleach/Naruto)
• GO!GO!7188 (Itazura na Kiss)
• Orange Range (Bleach/Naruto/Code Geass)
• Supercell (Bakemonogatari/Cencoroll/Naruto)
• The Brilliant Green (Gundam 00)
• Maaya Sakamoto (Too many animes to name, but she'd double as a guest seiyuu, too)

Anyway, looking forward to what's bound to be a great event regardless of who is chosen.  :)

Well, that's a bummer about the sofa. Although, you know, the sofa's bed was uncomfortable enough that my friend decided to turn it back into a sofa a sleep on it while my other friend slept in the arm chair.

@foester: there is a half wall between the king sized bed and the sofa. I'm basically 5ft tall and it came up to my chest. So, I'd say it's 4ft tall.

Heh, well I guess we both didn't have any luck with that couch.

3.5 - 4ft sounds about right to me. I'm 5'9", and that rests a bit higher than my stomach, which is around what I remember.

Meowdesu, or anyone else who had a junior suite, was there a half wall or partition between the sofa and couch like on the floorplan? And aside from that, if you get a regular sofa and not what you were promised, you're definitely within your rights to fuss. Its not what you paid for, after all.. they might give you a discount.

Yes, it's a short wall that came up to about my stomach if I remember right. Nothing really functional. And yeah, that whole couch thing messed up our sleeping arrangement, but I think we were just happy to get the room we did, so we didn't fuss too much over it. It is definitely a good question to ask the hotel about should you reserve the suite, though, if you plan to use the couch.

I had the Jr. Suite in Marriott last year for the first time. It was on the 6th floor (which, according to hotel staff was the lowest suite we could get because Fanime staff reserved the lower ones). It was definitely roomier and a lot less dark (tons of windows). The closet space was larger, and actually had a window, too. I used it to change a couple times. Bathrooms looked slightly bigger. The only downside is that our couch was NOT a bed, like they said it would be. We asked about it, but they just kind of shrugged their shoulders. We had 5 people and fit everyone in there just fine, with one person sleeping on the couch as it was. Would I recommend it? If you have a lot of stuff/people (within reason, of course) to store, and have the budget for it, sure.

We did a bit of research on the floor plans last year, so if there are people interested, I have the pdf files of them saved. It looks pretty much identical to the floor plan. The only thing that might be confusing is that the small room at the entrance is shared between you and another suite.

Jr. Suite floor plan:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1386339/SJMarriott_JrSuite.pdf

Regular floor plan:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1386339/SJMarriott_GuestSuites.pdf

Hope that helps you make your decision!

EDIT: I'm looking at the floor plan more closely, and noticed that there is a difference. That little tail end of the bathroom was actually the closet, and it was not connected to the bathroom like that. It had sliding mirror doors that faced the room. Weird how they attached it to the bathroom. I also really can't remember if there were two TVs or not, since we really never used them.  ???

Yay, I'm glad someone is putting a gathering for this together. If I had the budget, I'd put together a Jacqueline or something, but I'll be too broke. Looking forward to coming to see everyone and cheer you on! I'm crossing my fingers for a good Hoshi, Sonchou, or Amazoness cosplayer.  :)

[I'll]

Yeah, now I think the shoe is kind of borderline casual/dress. Darn ambiguous shoes.

I just wanted to thank you all for the positive responses to my suggestion. My friend will be happy to hear about it, and she'll probably try again next year. Maybe even I'll be there for the first time in my 7 years of con attendance. (I apologize in advance for all the feet that will be stepped on  :P)

For anyone else who is curious about the shoes, I found out that they were Clarks brand. While it's not the exact same shoe, since his is a couple years old, it's similar to this style: http://clarks.zappos.com/n/multi_view.cgi?product_id=7414588&color_id=72&view=multi. It is listed on the site as a "casual" shoe, but people commented that they use them for weddings and other occasions . So I don't know, they might be considered to some as too casual for this dance, perhaps?

I don't know how my advice will be received since I have personally never attended this event, but here it is anyway.

My friend and her boyfriend had been extremely excited about this dance. They don't personally read the forums here, but they followed the basic guidelines in reference to what is acceptable to wear that were posted on the main website. After attending the dance lessons and being really invested in attending, they were turned away at the door because of her boyfriend's shoes. I'm still not exactly sure why, because they did follow the rules. They were not shiny black dance shoes or anything, but they were black leather shoes - not sneakers. My friend was devastated, and in tears over it, but none of us had any other shoes for him to wear, since we're all from out of town and packed lightly.

So what I hope can be improved on is better communication on the main website and maybe in the pocket guide on what exactly is appropriate to wear. I'm aware that there was a thread where people could ask about clothing choices, but I think it's safe to say that many people did not know that, so perhaps mentioning it on the website would be a good idea. And even having read the rules myself before hand, I was unaware that they would turn him away for those shoes. It's kind of more disheartening to hear that some girls were allowed to break dress code, too. Hopefully there will be a resolution to this for next year that leaves everyone happy.

I am sorry that your friends and you were not able to attend the BWBall.  The dress code will be addressed for next year and your concerns have been noted.  The dress code for the BWBall was posted on the FanimeCon website under BWBall and there was a poster of the dresscode outside the J Ballroom where lessons were held.  I will see what we can do next year to increase the visibility of the dress code. 

- Jim
BWBall Head 2010

Yes, they actually read the one that was posted on the website under BWBall, and his shoes seemed to be okay based on what was written. I think it would have helped to link to the thread (where he could ask about his outfit) directly on that page on the website. Like a section that says "If you have any questions about whether your outfit is acceptable, please address them to this thread in the forums here:" Because many people don't know that that thread exists. The poster outside the lessons room would probably only be beneficial to people who live in San Jose. Those who are from out of town already have their things packed and have to be prepared beforehand. I'm glad that my suggestions are being heard. I know how difficult it must be to run a huge event like this...many things can easily slip through the cracks.  :)

@MeowDesu - Out of curiosity, is it possible to see the type of shoes your friend was wearing?  Picture on a website somewhere is fine.

Yes, I'll PM you a link to a photo. I'd post it here, but I don't know if that would be embarrassing to them or not.

Yeah, our hair dryer was also in the closet. I noticed it quickly though because I usually like to inspect the place beforehand. Didn't matter much to me either way, though, since I always pack my own. The ones in hotels seem to take forever to dry my hair for some reason.

I don't know how my advice will be received since I have personally never attended this event, but here it is anyway.

My friend and her boyfriend had been extremely excited about this dance. They don't personally read the forums here, but they followed the basic guidelines in reference to what is acceptable to wear that were posted on the main website. After attending the dance lessons and being really invested in attending, they were turned away at the door because of her boyfriend's shoes. I'm still not exactly sure why, because they did follow the rules. They were not shiny black dance shoes or anything, but they were black leather shoes - not sneakers. My friend was devastated, and in tears over it, but none of us had any other shoes for him to wear, since we're all from out of town and packed lightly.

So what I hope can be improved on is better communication on the main website and maybe in the pocket guide on what exactly is appropriate to wear. I'm aware that there was a thread where people could ask about clothing choices, but I think it's safe to say that many people did not know that, so perhaps mentioning it on the website would be a good idea. And even having read the rules myself before hand, I was unaware that they would turn him away for those shoes. It's kind of more disheartening to hear that some girls were allowed to break dress code, too. Hopefully there will be a resolution to this for next year that leaves everyone happy.