Naturally we don't go there for the limited-edition toys or salacious sculpts. No, the ever-morphing market and unpredictable nature of the crowd alone is well worth the price of admission.
This year’s pamphlet followed the 3/11 zeitgeist and featured its mascots sewing sequins and hot-gluing ceremonial rocks onto a catfish. You see, folklore holds catfish as the harbingers of quakes whose appetite for destruction can only be pacified with the stone of their patron god, Kaname, because... well, it beats me, but the folks at Pink Tentacle are elbow-deep in this stuff if you’ve got a hankerin’ for knowledge.
The rhinestones were presumably added to get more gyaru into noodling this season.
General Observations
-It goes without saying that the Madoka crew made the biggest showing of the day, with the scale tipped inordinately in favor of Mami over Miki. It also provided a loophole for a bumper crop of guys aching to dress up like girls without being transvestites. The crossplay scene is always split between guys letting it all shamelessly hang out and the more conservative full-bodysuit zentai, though they both seem to have been driven out of the woodwork in droves this year. Perhaps the recent otoko no ko trend is blossoming into a full blown boom?
-On the indy side of things, Vocaloid and Toho (or at, least things I can identify as Toho) were pushed out of the pit to make room for the girls of Black Rock Shooter, not surprising considering that the eponymous character is essentially a Player 2 palette swap of Hatsune Miku, complete with an exposed midriff, jet black hair, and firearms instead of leeks.
-The heat and recent double catastrophe didn’t do much to dispel attendees, though there was an obvious disparity in independent booths with a massive gap in the middle of the indy hall.
Enough talk, have at the photos!
Madoka Cosplay
Hey kid, you wanna I give you my grief seed?
QB is the new Pedo Bear it would seem.
Best Homura of the day, hands down.
It's totally not cross dressing if it's cosplay. Too bad the sweat was making their makeup run.
Tiger & Bunny Cosplay
Tiger adopts Ika Musume, who looks to be someone's actual kid. It's times like this where we ask ourselves as a nation, "Where were the parents!?"
Crossplayers like this will make you into a fujoshi whether you like it or not.
Both women and men had to paint on Tiger's facial hair.
Blue Rose goes semi-Ganguro.
Lethally Awesome Cosplay
Acguy with functioning grabby hands and scanball cyclops eye. Notice the little dude riding in the chest!
Tomino and Anno take their shitty garage band from their mom's basement to the streets.
PINCHER HOLD! Pretty tame finishing move as far as perverts go.
Third string Chojin hamming it up.
This respectable lady is like a Masamune Shirow character come to life but I'm drawing a blank. Any ideas?
Captain Harlock doing his own damn thang.
How the mighty have fallen! Long-term and clinically obsessive readers will recognize this gent as the champion of the Famicon underground series from 2010's Famimode.
Creamy Mami is the one magical girl who never sells out, snitches, or goes out of style. Pre-transformation even!
Cosplayers Just Hanging Out
"How many cosplayers does it take to fasten a Kamen Rider helmet...?"
For the first time in his life, Wild Tiger is asked for his autograph.
Pictures of Guys Taking Pictures
And this was the size of the crowd before she started masturbating on the concrete.
Broken ankles are a small price to pay for the money shot.
Wearing a schoolgirl uniform to a convention is like cutting your wrists in shark-infested waters.
This print coming soon to a museum of modern art near you.
Guy taking a picture of us taking a picture of him taking a picture of us taking a picture of him taking a picture of us taking a picture of him taking a picture of us taking a picture of him..
Toys
Totally nutso Rat Finks.
Japanese Gaga fans work fast. This meme only hit the interwebs earlier this month when she visited the talk show host Testuko.
Obama in his natural element, surrounded by whores and the pigs who buy them.
Which is stupider: Black Rock curry or the fact it sold out?
Moshzilla.
Z-movie magazine Trash-Up!! recently staged a Frankenstein Monster- Sanda VS Gaira (AKA War of the Gargantuans) revival at their Bakuon Movie Fest. Here's hoping that Frankenstein VS Baragon is next.
Zombie head sculpts are the only thing keeping a moe-crazed nation sane.
"Ghost of Godzilla" could be retro-fitted to an anti-anti nuclear parable, as in THE SKIN WILL MELT FROM YOUR BONES WITHOUT AIR CONDITIONING THIS SUMMER you goddamn hippies.
Bush goes Over the Top and takes us home.
That's all of the productivity-sapping gruel we have to serve up until the Comiket season, which is coming up on us sooner than I like to think about.
Full Wonder Festival 2011 album here
Our far more ambitions coverage of Wonder Festival 2010 (Summer) can be found here:
Figures
Cosplay
I still can't get over how weird japan is sometimes. You get used to one thing then something pops out the next.
ReplyDeleteOnokisama
P.s.
What did you think of Dinosaur Attacks cards and have you ever heard or seen any of the monster cards I mentioned in the previous posts?
I love the little caption on the card next to Obama that reads "What would happen if everyone cared."
ReplyDeletethe "modern art" photo was genius
ReplyDelete