Hey guys! I'm alive!

Well, make that barely alive - I've been organizing conventions for almost ten years now, and I don't remember the last time I had to literally take a few days off after a con in order to rest. And I still cannot get enough sleep.

Overall, it was one very strange Japanizam. A few days before and after the convention, our lives were filled with metric tons of problems we had to solve on the go - from people cancelling their appearance in the last moment which left us with holes in the program that we had to urgently fill in, to issues we had no control over, such as an airline shutting down its flight due to security reasons (may you live in interesting times), which meant we had to think of an alternative way to transport a guest back home. But hey, in spite of all the stress surrounding it, the convention itself ran surprisingly smoothly - everything was fine and dandy, no sh*t hitting the fan for the entirety of these four days. The program was highly praised by the visitors, the cosplay stars were absolutely awesome (more on them later), and we broke the record when it comes to the number of attendances - over 8000!

So, it was quite a success! And who cares if we the organizers feel as if we've been repeatedly trampled over by a herd of mammoths, if the visitors left the con with smiles on their faces.

So yeah.

I also wore four cosplays in four days - suicidal, I know, especially given that the costumes I chose were not really that suitable for July in Belgrade (spandex, leather, heavy boots and fur), but hey, I have a reputation to maintain!

The theme of this year's convention was 'music', so I did my best to adapt to that, with two costumes being closely related to the topic. As for the rest, I neatly divided my lineup in half: two old costumes and two new ones, two villains and two heroes, two men and two women. Woot!

Here we go!

On Day One, I was Ziggy Stardust. It wasn't a costume I have announced as an official project, so people were quite surprised with my take on the starman who played the guitar. It took me nearly two hours to apply the makeup - that &%$#"!! eyebrow-gluing technique is PURE HORROR I tell you - and I still cannot remove the red and gold pigment stains from the bathroom, but it was worth it.

The reactions to the costume were particularly amusing. The kids were, like, "oh wow, that's awesome, it must be from some old school anime?", while the older generations appreciated the resemblance - the biggest compliment I got was from an elderly gentleman who said he felt as if he'd seen a ghost!

It's also the costume I have the fewest pictures in, given that I spent the majority of Day One running around like crazy, making sure that everything was in order. But I'll make up for it, so no worries.

by Marijana Miletić





by Dimi Ristevski of DoubleX Photography





by Marko Stepić, with Tenshi as Gakupo, her trademark cosplay character





by Marko Stepić, with a random visitor of Japanizam - I have no idea who the girl was, but she was very sweet





by Marijana Miletić, with my good friend Okkido, who was my house guest for this Japanizam - check out her page here on Althemy






Day Two of Japanizam was utterly dedicated to our major group cosplay project - all the characters from Ai Yazawa's "Nana".

As you certainly know, a while ago Wacky Cherry and me did our first take on Nanas - she was Hachi, I was Nana O, we had a lovely photoshoot and we left it at that. But then, my lil' sis Spamushka - known to the internet as Spam Master, and you guys may remember her as Delirium of the Endless - decided we could do more and better, and what are little sisters for, if not to drag you into all sorts of craziness. It was her initiative to gather as many as nine people and form the both bands from the manga, BLAST and Trapnest. And with music as the theme of this year's Japanizam, debuting our project at the second day of the convention was a perfect opportunity.

To boot, what makes our Nana group so special is the fact that this is an international collaboration - and, funnily, we're all from former Yugoslavia. The beautiful Marina Mika who cosplayed Reira is from Croatia, while our Nobu, Visual Madness (whom you know as my Cloud), comes from Macedonia.
As for the rest of the group, Spamushka herself got to be BLAST's Shinichi (and dyed her hair turquoise weeks in advance in order to have the perfect shade at the event), while Tenshi and Hisayume were Trapnest's Takumi and Naoki, respectively. Spamushka bullied her friend Hadriel, who at least had some experience with LARP-ing, into the role of Yasu, because of his shaven head.

But the most difficult role to cast was the moody bass player Ren: for Nana O, the love of her life. We needed a guy who's not only able to pull him off physically, but who's also taller than me in my goth boots - which was not that easy to find. In the end, it's Cherry's friend Bogdan - a photographer who'd never had any cosplay ambitions prior to this - who got the part. It was hilarious, actually: while sitting with him in a coffee shop, Cherry and me were complaining how we'd never find a proper Ren. And then all of a sudden, we had a long, good look at Bogdan as if we were seeing him for the first time, and it was, like, "OMG you'll totally do!" In the end, he was a great Ren and we had excellent chemistry together (even though he's 13 years younger than me - don't tell anyone), and the best part is that we got him hooked on cosplay - he'll be joining our Game of Thrones team soon.

As Ramsay Bolton.

I'll let that sink in.

But overall, this Nana thing was an absolute blast - pun totally intended. On to pictures.


by Dimi Ristevski of DoubleX Photography - BLAST together: me as Nana O, Visual Madness as Nobu, Hadriel as Yasu and Spamushka as Shin




by Dimi Ristevski of DoubleX Photography -Trapnest poster picture: Marina Mika as Reira, Tenshi as Takumi, Bogdan as Ren and Hisayume as Naoki





by Dimi Ristevski of DoubleX Photography - two lead singers together. Pity that in reality I cannot carry a tune to save my life





by Dimi Ristevski of DoubleX Photography - with Wacky Cherry, Nana and Nana, summer edition





by Dimi Ristevski of DoubleX Photography - with Bogdan as Ren. I think the future Ramsay and I looked quite romantic together



Too Many Picture Links from external sites.

Too Many Picture Links from external sites.

Too Many Picture Links from external sites.

Too Many Picture Links from external sites.



by Dimi Ristevski of DoubleX Photography - with Okkido. I just had to share this one with me cramping her style. Oh, she's also the one who painted the amazing lotus tattoo on my shoulder!

Too Many Picture Links from external sites.




~ to be continued ~