Midori na Silhouette

DaiCon 2009 - The Convention

Long journey, drama, and overall averageness- that would be DaiCon. Unlike my previous convention posts, I will not be splitting it into day 1 and day 2. I will, however, be doing a separate post for my Minorin experience.

First thing I must say about this event- location, location, location.

Of course, I understand why the event must be held all the way in Cyberjaya. And I don’t mean to complain, but travelling so far off is quite the turn off (I know several people who didn’t attend because of the distance).

Moving along- when I got to the university (my first time there), there were *no* signs to show people to the grand hall from the bus stop. The vast campus grounds and the lack of people made the place look deserted. Had I not tailed a guy who knew where he was going, I might still be lost in MMU right now. 8D Guess they weren’t allowed to stick random signs around? *shrugs*

Having arrived late (at around 12:10PM), I went straight to the stage area. First thing I noticed after moving up to the foremost seats, were these VIP papers, slapped onto every chair in the first two rows.

Initially, I had thought these were the AWSM-class seats for Minorin. Later, I found out they were really for the people of Minorin Smile Seasons (Minorin Fanclub). More of that in another post.

As I was saying, I got there late, and the solo cosplay competition had already begun.

The Cosplay

Generally, cosplay quality was.. well, somewhat lacking (that, or I just did not catch the good ones).

One thing I must complain about regarding the individual cosplay competition- Haruhi (as pictured below) only went on-stage and sung the ENGLISH DUB of God Knows, but she qualified as a finalist. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, it’s just- I couldn’t feel her character.

I don’t mean to be biased, but I think Yui did a better job at protraying her character- through her vocals, body movement, actions, and costume. Yet, she did not make it to the finals. On the other hand, a bashful Mio, who was forced to join the competition (so goes the story told on-stage), automatically qualified for the finals the moment she signed up.

Anyway, time for some off-stage cosplay photos.

Sorry Mugi, but your eyebrows are just not right, nor is your hair color.

As you may have noticed, there is a lack of Ritsu. There is no love for Ritsu even amongst the cosplayers.

Later, after the 6 cosplay finalists were announced, they had to pair up with another random finalist to do a performance. But there was a catch to it: the theme was “romance”.

As things turned out, the teams were as pictured below:

Their performances later in the evening were disappointing though (save for Yaoi team). There was no yuri, in case you were wondering.

The Booths

Normally, I am very thorough on this section of my event coverage. This time, I decided on a “LOL I DO NOT CARE” approach. There are a few booths worth mentioning though. For example, Singapore-based KKnM.

And the line grew much longer afterwards.

TFM also made an appearance at DaiCon.

DaiCon also featured a Maid Cafe.. I had intended to partake of the goodness when I had first heard of it, but after taking a peek inside, goodness it did not seem like.

The Macross Fans of Malaysia also had a booth running. To sum up their booth: Macross merchandise and screening fansubs.

The Events

I really should label this section “The Controversies” instead.

Apart from Minorin’s sessions and the cosplay competition already briefly covered above, there were a few other events that went on mostly unnoticed.

Except for the Karaoke Competition.

Very frankly, most of the singers were eardrum shattering bad in their singing. It was very much like what you’d see in the Malaysian Idol qualifying rounds- off key, off beat, forgetting the lyrics. Of course, I do not claim I can do better, but eh, bad karaoke is bad.

As I have said, apart from the karaoke, most things went unnoticed- I did not even spot an empty Gundam Caravan. There was nothing to do- the said GREAT WALL OF GASHAPON can be found outside your nearest TOYS ‘R’ US outlet, the MC was not very good, and, well.. it was just boring.

There have been, however, many controversies surrounding this event that have been brought to attention by the various sources over the internet. I will not regurgitate the information here, but shall merely refer you straight to the sources.

And this, specially isolated links for you, Shin.

Waterbottlegate Scandal / Bottle Incident / Strawman / Disgusting faggot

I’ll just comment a bit on the Waterbottlegate Scandal.. I have read all the comments on relevant blogs (and on SC), and spoken a bit with people on both sides. I have read what the JAPANESE commetors have to say about the issue and have come to the following conclusion: it is an overreaction. Indeed, perhaps it was not the right thing to do- no sense making a big deal out of it. As long as it hasn’t drawn a significant, negative action from the Japanese community, I believe all is well. In fact, I’ll admit to thinking (and saying), “Damn, why I didn’t get the bottle first?” And I probably would’ve run up stage to grab it too, had I thought of it earlier. Though, I wouldn’t have taken a single sip from it.

But hey- I am not here to convince you of my views. You read your own info, you think by yourself, you form your own conclusions. That is your choice.

Seriously though, you guys should stop making noise about the incident, and start planning on how to make next big news by stealing and drinking off Danny Choo’s bottle at AFA.