For Day Three, given that Visual Madness was in town, we decided to do a rerun of our "Final Fantasy" shtick. To boot, Tenshi debuted her Gackt costume – the one that served as inspiration for "Final Fantasy"’s Genesis – so we were quite a cool little trio.
I also honestly thought this would be my last appearance as Sephiroth, given that it’s a costume I debuted a year ago and worn so many times. But it seems that it is not to be – there are several conventions here in the region that I plan to visit this Fall, and the organizers have already expressed their interest in seeing me as the One-winged Angel. So yeah, I’m afraid I won’t get out of that leather coat and platform boots that easily.
At least I completely mastered the makeup.
Tenshi, Visual Madness and me - pics by Dimi Ristevski
This is also the costume in which I have the most pics with our official convention guests, so it’s about time to properly introduce them.
Matsu Sotome, dressed up as Miss Fru Fru of "Zootopia", comes from Russia. She’s sweet and smart and has a nice thing to say about everyone, and she’s one of the cuddliest people I’ve met. I was astonished to hear she made more than 150 costumes! She specializes in plus size cosplay which she fiercely promotes, and serves as an inspiration for many young cosplayers around the world – the meeting between her and some of her fans in Serbia was really touching. Her page can be found here: matsu.sotome/?fref=ts
by Dimi Ristevski
Paszuly, featured here as Wonder Woman, is Hungarian, and she’s pretty active on their local cosplay scene, whether she’s competing or judging at competitions. Her specialty is wig styling. She likes doing crossplay as much as I do, and she can make damn convincing (and good-looking) dudes. Another thing we have in common is our love for "Dragon Age", which we can talk about for hours – go to her page to see her takes on Anders and Cassandra. You can find it here: paszulycosplay/?fref=ts
by Dimi Ristevski
Last but not the least, Yuriko – in the pic with Matsu and me in her awesome costume of Elin - is one of the leading ladies of the Hungarian cosplay scene. She’s been around for quite a while, and she’s not only a cosplayer, but also panel moderator, stage hostess and event organizer (a bit like me, I daresay). She’s part of the Cosplay.hu team, and they’re a constant presence at Hungarian anime and gaming events. She also has my deepest personal gratitude for accepting our invitation in the very last moment, literally saving our asses by coming to Belgrade – Yuriko, I owe you one for that! Her Facebook page: yuriko.cosplay.hu/?fref=ts
by Dimi Ristevski
And to conclude, have a pic with Deadpool. Because everyone likes Deadpool.
by Dimi Ristevski
Finally, we get to Day Four.
Now, that day began a bit difficult for me. See, the evening before, while entertaining our guests at a dinner party at my place, I had the misfortune of hitting my pinkie toe against the chair leg with all my might. You know that there is no enmity as great as the one between your toes and your furniture. It hurt so much I saw the stars, and the next day - the day of the cosplay competition, the Grand Day for which the tickets are sold out for days in advance, the day when I was supposed to debut my major cosplay project for the year and host the events at the main stage - I woke up to find my toe crooked, swollen and dark purple, the color of eggplant. It wasn't exactly broken, but it was badly stubbed and so painful that I could barely stand or walk, let alone parade around in the fancy white pumps I was supposed to wear for my Ragyo costume.
Well, f*ck.
I was forced to give up on the white pumps (good thing the dress was long enough to cover the beach slippers I wore), investing every atom of my energy to look glamorous on stage and walk in a straight line. And I had a volunteer waiting for me in the backstage with an ice pack so that I could have at least some relief between the contestants' acts. And I almost broke into tears once, out of sheer pain. Fun times.
But show must go on, which is definitely one of my favorite sayings. Besides, I kept asking myself - would Ragyo Kiryuin ever allow one stubbed pinkie toe to prevent her from obliterating the world? Of course not! In the end, I managed to pull it off. In the audience, no one even noticed something was wrong. Which is sort of a perfect metaphor for this year's Japanizam - as I said in the first part of my report, this year's convention was a strange one. Things were running impeccably smooth on the surface, while in the background and especially during the preparations for the con, we had to struggle to keep afloat.
Yet in the end we did it, and it was awesome, and my Ragyo turned out great. So here she is, ladies and gents - Ragyo Kiryuin of "Kill la Kill", businesswoman extraordinaire, queen of the red carpet, and mother of the year.
by Marijana Miletić
by Marko Stepić
by Bojan Vasiljević, with my stage co-host JayJay
The cosplay competition was THE BEST ONE WE HAD SO FAR. Seriously, it was impossible to guess who'll win this year. I feel so happy and proud and excited to see the Serbian scene levelling up this much! Please guys, do make sure to check out the albums with more pictures from Japanizam, all these cosplayers are awesome and deserve your attention.
The winners are:
Bendershield Cosplay ( bendershield/?fref=ts) as Garrus Vakarian - Best Crafting and Grand Prix of Japanizam
by Dimi Ristevski
Wiccana Dev-Ianthe ( WiccanaDevIanthe/?fref=ts) as Padme Amidala - Best Sewing
by Dimi Ristevski
Tsukiyomi Cosplay ( TamaraTsukiyomi/?fref=ts&ref=br_tf&qsefr=1) as Esmeralda - Best Character Interpretation
by Dimi Ristevski
Maka Milojević (here with Nevena Artinović) as Dark Magician Girl - Best Performance
by Dimi Ristevski
Ana Trifunović as Erza Scarlet - Best Junior
by Dimi Ristevski
So this is all for this year's convention! The main thing is that we managed to survive it - and if you're still wondering, my toe is better now, I can walk without a limp, and its color turned from aubergine purple to the pale purple of a romantic sunset.
Now, next year, we're going to celebrate 10 years of Japanizam. Wish us good fortune to make it the best organized convention in this part of Europe!
