New York Anime Festival/Comic Con 2010

October 9th, I went to NYAF/NYCC! I really only planned on going for Saturday only because i'm going to school in Philly, so it would've been inconvenient going on Friday. Sunday was my catch up day for homework, and I have early classes so I didn't want to end up being out too late. So my original plan was to go on Saturday, wake up at 8:15, leave to take the bus to the Greyhound station at 9:30, take the 11 o'clock Greyhound, be there at 1. Then go back to Philly on the 8 o'clock Greyhound to arrive back at 10:20, then get back to school by/before 11. Sounds good right? Here's what ended up happening.

I woke up at 8:15, had to go to my friend's dorm because he had to take a shower and he was going with me. Started doing my make-up and freaked out because I couldn't print out my ticket the night before. I had assumed it was a computer issue because it happened on two different computers. My friend changed his ink cartridge and it just didn't feel like cooperating. So it was around 9:20, we decided to split up. I was going to go to the library to print out my ticket, and he'd go to the campus center to buy tokens for the bus. The library wasn't even open and no one was at the front desk in the campus center.

So I called my friend as a last resort, and she said she'd drive us to the Greyhound station. So we went back to my friend's dorm in an effort to print out these tickets. I ended up taking the old black ink cartridge he had replaced and shook it and said, "If it prints out, then it's meant to be." And it worked!

My friend drove us to the Greyhound station and we ended up going on the 11:30 bus because the 11:00 one was full. By the time we got to the Javits Center it was about 2:20. There were so many people! It felt great going to a convention and cosplaying again. I met one of my photographer friends, Powdy, with his group from Photography X. Met a Cloud and Aerith, had epic pictures taken with the two. Met up with TheBigTog, chatted for a bit, then I went to the Final Fantasy photoshoot which was supposed to happen.

I met up with the Cloud, and there were literally no one there! I met Haruhi and Ranmaru of the NYCCosplayers group who cosplayed as Tifa (AC version) and Vincent respectively. Then we met a Barret, then another Tifa (Original version), her friend a Squall, a Lightning, Fang, a Sazh who stayed for a little bit, a Rinoa for Squall xD, a Chocobo, Moogle.

Sooo many people wanted to take our pictures hahaa. I felt bad for the ones who had to hold weapons xD Afterwards I met up with another of my photographer friends, Baldwin and later Youkuro. We were all really bored, so Baldwin and I had a mini photoshoot. No convention experience is complete without me doing a photoshoot xD So it seems. After that we went to the Dealer's room, I tried on a corset. If it weren't 200$ I would've bought one. It helped my posture xDD

That was pretty much my NYAF/NYCC adventure! Did you go to NYAF/NYCC? Tell me your stories! ^^

Tifa Lockhart

Name: Tifa Lockhart/ティファ・ロックハート
Appearance: Final Fantasy VII
Variation: Advent Children
Age: 22
Height: 5'4"
Blood Type: B
Description: Tifa Lockhart is a female protagonist in Final Fantasy VII. She is Cloud's childhood friend from Nibelheim and a member of AVALANCHE. Her personality is much more laid back and selfless in comparison, with a motherly streak concerning all her friends and her attitude to others. Tifa is quick to hide her true feelings her being shyness a key aspect of her character, and she is caring and loving to a fault.

Bright and optimistic, Tifa always cheers up the others when they're down. But don't let her looks fool you, she can decimate almost any enemy with her fists...

Worn at: AnimeNEXT 2010

Why I chose this costume:
Ironically, she wasn't my first choice. I wanted a third costume for AnimeNEXT and I was originally going to cosplay as Yuffie Kisaragi in her Advent Children outfit. I think I was partially discouraged from being Tifa. Then I decided I didn't want to cosplay as Yuffie, and wanted to cosplay as Rikku from Final Fantasy X-2. First her thief outfit, got shot down from that, then her songstress outfit, which was likewise shot down. Somehow I wound up back to Tifa and decided to just cosplay her.

Mechanics of the outfit:
I cannot even begin to describe what a pain in the butt it was to make this costume.. It wasn't the design that was the issue. It was the fabric. I didn't buy pleather, I want to say it's vinyl pleather, but I'm not totally sure. It was basically a knit (stretchy) fabric with a film of the shiny stuff on it. I had to experience this first hand when the film on the back of the pants started to melt(?) off. I think it was because it was hot and I was sitting outside during the convention. But the cape in the back covers it so it's not too big of a deal.

The only parts I made are the pants. The rest my mom made because I ran short on time (and I don't know how to sew a vest yet..). I cut up the shirt, the shoes, gloves, and ribbon I already had.

Disclaimer: The entire outfit is not made by myself.

Personal Feelings:
I have to admit, prior to cosplaying her, I never played the game. In fact, I still have yet to finish it! But I watched "Advent Children" and just been reading online, and the more I read the more I fell in love with her character and her personality. Her personality is somewhat similar to mine, and I love that she isn't like the generic female character, she's strong, a heroine even. For more images, check out my deviantArt!

© 2010 TheBigTog. Any use of this photograph for ANY reason without the expressed written consent of the author is prohibited.

A Cosplay Change..

Changing my last cosplay again.. I was originally going to be Rikku in her songstress dressphere from FFX-2 since my mother REALLY didn't want me to do her thief dressphere because it's too revealing.

But! I was looking at the wigs since I need one for her and Kurama.. and.. I realized that.. wigs cost a lot xD And since I'm a perfectionist, I would want it to be a good quality wig. Both those wigs were about $30 each, so about $60 for wigs.. and I don't have that kind of money..

And I hate using my parent's money all the time. Certain things I will, like fabric costs, but I can't make them pay for everything right? Soo.. I've decided to sacrifice the Rikku cosplay D; I'll cosplay as her in the future when I have more money for her wig :]

So.. back to my search for another cosplay! I wanted one that I could just keep my hair color, unless I could find another one with red hair. I suck at thinking of cosplays.. Until I discovered the greatest website in the world..

Anime Character Database.com

This has got to be the greatest website in the world! It's funny because my roomie and I were talking about how amazing it would be if there was a website where you could just type in eye color, hair color, etc. and it would generate anime characters for you!

AND HERE IT IS!!! Ahh I was so excited hahahaa.

So on this website, you can search up to 3 different eye color, hair color, hair length, age, gender etc. And it'll generate it for you! You can even set character preferences like if you want the character to be from anime, video games, etc!

I came up with like.. 8-9 possible characters I'd cosplay as. It came down toooo..

So from the top row, left to right! Haku from Naruto, Chen from Touhou Project, Tohru Honda from Fruits Baskets, Xiang Hua from Soul Calibur. Now bottom row! Xiang Hua from Soul Calibur II, Lacrimosa from Lagrima, Seung Mina from Soul Calibur, and Tifa Lockhart from Advent Children!

I really want to cosplay as Tifa when I saw her as a choice. Definitely not her VII version since.. I don't have..  the "body type" if you know what I mean.. But she has such a womanly face, and my face.. let's just say sometimes I look younger than I should be xD But she's sooo pretty!

I love Lacrimosa's outfit.. I've never heard of the .. omg.. OMG.. Never mind I'm not cosplaying as her anymore.. I was confused that I couldn't google anything on it.. until I looked on the database site and it says that Lagrima is a.. dirty game.. D; Oh my goodness, that was an epic fail. Like I completely just epic failed.

But yeah.. I'll probably end up being a Soul Calibur character or Tifa. The idea of Haku tempts me because I've wanted to cosplay as him for a long time.. xD

When I work on it during the summer I will definitely upload pictures! ^^