/cgl/ - Cosplay & EGL

Is anyone INTERESTING going to kita or is it all just weebs?

>>8053100
all weebs

>>8053100
I'm sure there are interesting attendees. Guest-wise, it's not so bright.

Theres a con nearby called AnimangaPOP! and the website features a load of greasy weebs doing the caramell dansen paired with some fatty-chans
Im tempted to go and document the experience. Local cons are a riot but like the bad kind of riot

>>8053718
Do it. If it's terrible then you come back armed with stories. If it's good then you've got a new event to go to.

I just saw this posted on my wall. I don't know what to make of it right now, but as Kita and AA share hotels it's worth knowing about.
http://www.autoassembly.org.uk/important-warning-against-hoax-callers-claiming-to-be-from-auto-assembly/

>>8053100
Kita has sort of became this weird thing now imho.

In that a lot of the a ton of the weebs have grown to legal and and heard it's the shit and OMG I HAVE TO GO IT SOUNDS SO FUN.

Add that to the fact the organisation has kinda gone through some huge changes and is now half ran by a group of people who managed to make the single worst UK convention (Nemacon) reboot it under another name (onecon) and somehow fuck it up worse and well

This years event does not inspire confidence.

>>8053031
What about MCM Manchester?

>>8053031
Looks like two giant, loose turds floating in a toilet bowl.

OP forgetting LSCC...

>am one of the weebs who heard it was the shit
Is Kitacon actually good? Or just by comparison to the alternatives since UK cons are generally a bit shit? Everyone I know is jizzing over the £50 tickets they managed to land.

>>8053964
Not really. Last kitacon felt like it was aimed at 13 year olds who were alowed to drink. UK cons represent everything I hate about the anime stereotype. Wish I would have realised it sooner but oh well, I've moved on now. It's not just the cons, it's the people who attend them that make them shit.

Remember not to visit MCM May/October now

>>8054200
This is why, strangely and unlikely as it is, Sunnycon was my favourite event that I attended last year.

Yeah it has all your typical weebs and dumb kids, but man do northerners have a certain way about themselves that makes them fun as fuck to be around.

>>8053796
>>8053948

Sorry! I pulled most of the info from that UK anime con website. There are so many MCMs and expoesque cons now which doesn't help. When the thread dies, can the reposter update this info?

Loserconning Kita cause fuck paying for that shitfest.

Also, another convention running this year is Collidacon. All I know is that the former(?) Kita chairman is in charge and Scowny is involved. It's a general nerd con, not just anime.

>>8055108
Is it worth loserconning Kita though? I might not bother at all. Depends who is going and if they are all the cool kids. Not that I'm that up on who all the cool kids are these days.

>>8055110
I could have easily have loserconned it every single year I've gone since I've spent the weekend walking around the lounge, drinking, going into town for food and taking pictures of cosplayers.
Only thing I ever use my badge for is selling stuff at the B&B, this year I'm trying to ask someone else to sell it for me in exchange for a small amount of money or favor.

But yeah, it definitely depends on the people going. Most of my friends are dropping it this year so I'm currently trying to convince one of my best bros to losercon it with me. It always helps when you're not the only one doing it.

>>8054200
>>8054902
>>8055110
>>8055114
All the chill people have dropped out and moved onto better things. All that's left is socially awkward horny guys and socially awkward attention whores.

>>8055322
Exactly why I end up going to random events that get put down a lot for being a bit rubbish.

They don't draw in as much of the crazy ego freaks and tend to be better experiences, even if the event itself isn't the most well organised or varied.

>>8053031
>Literally the Pullman Lodge

What the actual fuck

I don't go on this board really but I looked out of curiosity. I live right next to there and it is a shitty, dead little place, in a boring area (I live literally down the road from it). I'm also 95% sure it shut down.

Is that a joke or is it really a thing?

>>8055110
It's the best party con in the country. If you have friends then it's completely worth going. It's not like you're going to miss the rave or anything.

>>8055809
>It's the best party con in the country.
It's the only party con in the country.

>>8055825
Nah, there is Alcon too!

It's just choosing between a rock and a hard place.

>>8055858
Alcon isn't a party con... whats wrong with you!?

>>8055872
What is it good for then?

>>8055911
er, nothing? Kita isn't the best con but it's the best of what we've got.

>>8053031

Friend wants me to go to MCM London with him. Not really sure if I want to or not. It's expensive to get to London and stay a weekend and from what I've seen of this shit on their website, it looks tacky as fuck.

>>8055715
Its not shut down, it changed hands recently.

The inside is actually quite decent after they remodelled it. They also had some huge tent/marquee outside to was basically the dealers area, a few people complained it was too hot but like, it was the height of summer and it wasn't THAT bad.

Worst part of the marquee (which was kind of a novel move IMHO, since they didn't real have any other venue options from what i know of the area) was the flooring but they addressed that at the time that the company they got screwed them on it and they're going with someone else next year.

I dunno, sunnycon get's a bad wrap but I really enjoyed it. You northerners have a good sense of humour and the con usually brings pretty great guests instead of settling for third rate personalties.

I really don't get this whole "party con" mentality. Like, yes, booze is great, getting drunk is cool, con parties can be awesome places where we can have a social night time experience with the fair assumption most people there are people on some level we can find some shared points on.

But to kind of focus your entire desires of an event around that seems....kinda dumb. Because like, even a shit con party is usually fairly enjoyable, even when they're not a super organised thing. As long as the booze is reasonably priced everything is fine.

When people go on about PARTY CONS WOOOOOOOOO they seem like a bunch of children who have only just discovered alcohol and then that's the kind of people they attract and it becomes this awful cycle of depressing, drunken shitness where nothing else gets focussed on. Which is why Kita has went to shit, they know they can sell out on the promise of LE EPIC PARTY XDDDD and not really care about anything else.

>>8056106
when the party guy became the new chairman, i think that was it for kita having anything to do with anime

>>8056990
And as people have pointed out time and time again, what like 3-4 of the comittee are people who were comittee members/involved with on some level with both nemacon and then the completely failed reboot Onecon.

Hammer, meet nail. Nail, meet coffin.

>>8057051
Sad really. And Ayacon committee are coming out of retirement when?

ready for AA, anyone cosplaying?

Can we talk a bit more about how Mike Towers and AL is no longer with Showmasters and how he's starting up a few new conventions down south?

Showmasters kicked him out for funding more conventions in "their" areas. Guess that means no more Kelly, Chiquita, Stacey and the like at Showmaster events then!

>>8057239
Never. Organizing cons really isn't worth the stress now that every attendee has ADHD and the mental age of 10.

>>8057365
Who are they using now then?

Anyone know what Majikkon is like?

>>8057365
Yeah, can you elaborate on this? I haven't read anything about AL not being involved in Showmasters stuff anymore.

>>8057379
Committee member of a UK con here.

Literally only do my job for a hotel room, free access to the event, a few free pints and better access to the guests (chilling with some of the guests the day before or on their off time is really cool)

How does one become a committee member?

>>8057469
Know the right people

>>8057469
Honest answer?
Dumb luck, depending on the convention.
Volunteer as a gopher, suck up to management. Go above and beyond what you're asked to and make good friends with some of the comittee.

That's usually a good in if they're not very selective. At worst you might be lucky to get free entry for life for your work and after the first year they probably won't check to make sure you're doing that much.

But yeah, be incredibly lucky. Get on the volunteer crew the first year an events runs, it's what I did, i was one of a very small number of people, when they wanted to expand, i was the first person they turned to obviously.

Have any of you seen who the convo on the awesome photoshop thread is about?

So who'd actually good at editing pictures around here?

>>8057469
Depends on the committee. For a good ones make yourself useful and reliable. Show you can do the job and let them know you want to be on a committee at some point. For crap ones come in all high and mighty, be a dick, and somehow they'll think you are hot shit.

>>8057885
Spend all the con in the dealer room, get to know all the dealers. Get invited to be on committee of a new con since they know you and you gopher. Do good job, get invited onto another committee and do same roll. Repeat role for ten years.

It's different now. the scene is different, but there is a lot of who you know and gophering. Even ame/aya started from university anime clubs.

Don't expect Aya will run again, like someone said. Lots of hassle for the event and I don't feel any connection to younger fans so generally cba. It's all Internet memes and drinking partying now.

Nuts to that, I'm going to read the news.

>>8057918
Actually don't overdo it either. Some gophers pretty much go over the top in a "I neeeeed to be soooombody" mindset even if they are useful.

Like the kinda people who talk louder than necessary so everyone can see how funny they are. It's like "k cool, calm down. Thanks for moving those boxes pls chill out"

>>8057926
I'd say there's a difference between being an attention grabbing whore and doing more than is expected of you and giving a good impression.

It's the same as doing any other job, if you are able to notice things others miss and do them when no one asks you will be appreciated for it.

>>8057918
Hi Aya committee. Pls run again. K thx.

>>8057918
if only that worked for lord ashram

>>8059864
Best thing about Kita this year is that he said he won't bother gophering.

>>8060018
won't bother or was asked not to like all the other conventions?

Lets make a CGL dream committee. Who would you pick? For serious or for lols.

>>8060070
Me obviously.
I am the only person on my committee who genuinely has any fucking clue what they're doing any more.

But i'm slowly being pushed out for calling the two main people out on their shit as they've been driving what could be a great event into the ground by being stubborn and out of touch.

But I don't leave because the things being affiliated with the event I help run has brought me has genuinely turned most of my life around and brought me out of some pretty dark places and I genuinely am emotionally shackled to the shitshow event.

Dumb thing is, 3 or 4 really simple changes and it could be absolutely be a fantastic event. Last years event legitimately almost made me quit out of embarrassment.

>>8060070

Idk about much if the committee, just make the event programmer Jessie from auchinawa and we're golden

Never been to an LA&GC. What's the crowd there like?

>>8060070
On the feedback forum last year someone complained about him and he responded by saying that they can find someone else because he obviously can't take criticism. I think it's archived somewhere I'll see if I can find it

>>8060070
>>8060242
Searched Lord Ashram on the archive and found this surprisingly quickly. I hope he sticks to his word.

This is amusing trying to figure out who is who. There are some obvious committee people here, some less so.

I'm just trying to piece together stuff from the comments to see if I can go "oh hai XXXX, i work with you @ con X" or whatever.

>>8060410
You should start guessing, I'd find that highly amusing.

>>8060258
I swear he's said that before though

>8060235
Only been to it once, last year in the summer, but I'll be going again in feb. Overall I'd say it's a pretty chill lot just down for a good time, I made a lot of cool friends last time

>>8060235
Only been to it once, last year in the summer, but I'll be going again in feb. Overall I'd say it's a pretty chill lot just down for a good time, I made a lot of cool friends last time

>>8053791
Oh god I'm literally terrified about Kita. I booked because my friends were all going. I thought there'd be some information about the events and these infamous parties everyone talks about on the site after the booking rush finished, but it's been a week and there's still no information on even the most basic things about the con. There aren't even forums so I can ask the regulars if this is normal.

I'm bringing my bf, it's his first convention and he's more into gaming than anime. Please say there'll be actual events and guests to keep us occupied when my friends aren't around. At least a games room. I'm so worried he'll see it as a waste of money and not bother coming with me again. I'm just getting him to enjoy this hobby, I don't want it ruined by a shit con.

>>8060956
Isn't it a newish committee? All bets are off. It could be shite, or one of those "make the parties seem epic by them literally being the only thing to do in that time slot"

>>8055858
>Alcon

50-50 about Alcon this year.

Went for the last 2 years after Aya ended, to see what it was like. For all the criticism (and it wasn't all just hearsay, it's not perfect by any stretch) had a really good time both times (helped by it being quite cheap).

Not sure about 2015. Decided against Kita as I'm going to try a bunch of events I've never been to before, like London MCM.

>>8060956
Depends how similar it was to the 2014 event.

That had a pretty good gaming room, good-sized trad gaming room and huge dealer's room.

The events were a mixed bag. Some of them were very good (the "intro to the Magical girl genre" and "Sentai & Power Rangers" were particularly good - like to the point where I don't like Magical Girl stuff or Sentai stuff, but still found both very fun & informative).

I said a mixed bag because some major events didn't run on time, and some overran. Many were only tangentially related to anime (but were at least fun to attend, so it could be worse).

Big thing at Kita seemed to be the parties, which seems to be the general consensus. This is great if you have a lot of friends in that community (a lot of people in Aya's old community seemed to go too). Of course, if you don't, your experience is going to vary significantly.

Of course, that's 2014. No idea what this year is going to be like.

When Kitacon was still in northmapton at the Park Inn it was great. It's since it's doubled in size, moved to the birmingham hilton and scowny left that it's gone to shit. I don't even particularly like Scowny but i'll admit last year's kita was appauling.

Old kita
> good and varied panels that people had obviously put work into
> J pop/ rock/ anime related parties
> enough stuff on in the video rooms that there was always something to do in any downtime.
> a manga reading room/ bring and buy/ dealers/ gamesroom/ masquerade/ build a mech/ charity auction etc.
> pretty decent crowd, still a 'party con' but only around the parties.
> actual guests

It was a small con and apart from rude staff and michael towers in the first year it was a pretty fun convention which is where it got its reputation from

Kita 2014
> YOLO PARTYCON
> drunk weebs everywhere
> poorly organised panels which majority were just one person fumbling their way through a powerpoint. The Hentai and Yaoi being by far the worst.
>everything ran so late that things had to be cancelled.
> half the video room schedule wasn't showing
>proffessor elemental
> music at the parties was just normalfag club music. The rock party on the saturday, the sound was so distorted i couldn't even go in. Last night party was pushed back so late it was cut short.
> poor organisation.

Its weird despite the 'full schedule' it felt like there was nothing on. Dealers was alright, bring and buy was too packed to bother with but that's the case at pretty much every kita. My friend who went to the maid cafe said it was alright though a bit of a rip off for what they paid.
Games room was great, and ended up spending a lot of time there as the rest was so sub par. Also decent guests apart from prof elemental.

>>8061292

>Its weird despite the 'full schedule' it felt like there was nothing on.

With the exception of a few very good panels, we had a similar experience.

I didn't mind the Prof Elemental appearance and set; thought it was fun - but it's totally valid to say that he doesn't have much to do with anime.

>>8061292
What was scowny's role on the committee? I don't think him leaving is what made it shit. If any thing, it was one of the few improvements.

>>8061334
I guess it's just not my humour? I like the concept but i didn't find his set particularly great and left half way through.

I suppse you could say that he is geek culture related but still a bit of a stretch. I see they have someone else doing pretty much the exact same act this year.

>>8061342
I'm not saying its him leaving that caused it but in comparison to the previous years it's gone downhill a lot. Even the previous years at the hilton were better.

Not defending the guy as i found him irritating as hell and am somewhat glad he's gone but it just seems like the new committee don't know what they are doing

>>8061350

Bigger problem IMO is the expense. The rooms and con are in the higher cost tier for UK cons (though don't really break the bank) but the food & drink at the Hilton is very expensive, particularly in the evenings.

It IS a good venue though, so at least you don't feel like you're paying a lot for a crap location.

>>8061224
I have heard that this is literally their policy. If you ask to hold a late night event they will veto it because they don't want anything to run against the parties. Which means they know they're shit because if their parties were good people would go to then regardless of other events.

That's why there's no alt events, no karaoke and no pub quiz events.

>>8061355
I was under the impression that they were meant to be holding it at Warwick university this year. guess it fell through?

>>8061364

I would love it if someone picked up Aya's old venue and format.

>>8061368
Gemucon 2 tried.

>>8061375

Nah. It was a con at the same venue and might have been fun, but it had a very different aim and topic.

It seemed to me to be all about YouTube Lets-Play people in terms of guests.

>>8061375
>>8061378

Gemucon the short film.
http://youtu.be/I1CLWnt4a0k

>>8061384
know that's an exaggeration, but I was honestly worried it would feel like that.

Off topic, but are there any good cons in Manchester?

Ok guys, not really con-related, so slightly off-topic. But how does everyone else feel about The Super Maians starting to roll out their kids more and more for attention? It's starting to make me feel really uncomfortable.

>>8061512
There aren't any good cons anywhere.

Manchester hosts the Manchester MCM Expo and some god awful UK Bronycon. I hear there's a Waterstones in Manchester that still runs 'Manga Bazaar' nights.

Can we find someone with more money than sense, some decent venues across the country and relatively reliable group of people with an organisation fetish and establish some decent cons please?

What is it that Aya had that was so much better? Was it just the variety of content and good/funny/interesting guests?

>>8061575
I think what started off as a wholesome family fun and relatively nice people have gotten bit by the efame bug.

Speaking of that poll they won....I'd be really interested to see how many people actually voted.

>>8061575
It surprises me that nobody has called them out yet for blatantly using their kids. The majority of their recent FB posts have been about their children "modelling" or being featured. It's all fair if the kids are enjoying it, but there's a limit before it bypasses into exploitation.

>>8061512
Manchester MCM is pretty good if you can bear the fucking lines. It got super popular since it started and like any event you'll be lining up for it. Not to mention it's a glorified dealers hall like London with additional robot fighting.
Inside is pretty good though, especially for the masq because they actually have a tiered theatre for it unlike other places. Manchester is a damn good place for a con though, even in the middle of the city it's easy to get cheap, quality food without walking a mile. And transport is fucking everywhere (free bus service!)

>>8061709
That's the one thing I love about the Manchester MCM over any of the other MCM's I've been to. Everything is so accessible.

>>8061292

The problem people seem to cite a lot with Kitacon is it's lack of panels, but the problem with that is that the majority of the panels are fan run, so if someone puts forward a panel and they have time for it it gets scheduled. If that individual is bad at presenting said panel then it reflects badly on the event but it requires the person in charge of the events to make a note of the person and give them either constructive feed back to improve or let another person do it.

From my experience I know that Aya used to ask people to run panels and events and from I see of the current conventions is that that isn't happening.

>>8061582
They've made an event page for people to meet up and sing happy birthday to the offspring. So however may strangers coming over to sing at your kid? Nah, not weird.

>>8061292
So when can people start submitting their own events and panels and things?

There's no information anywhere, I feel like even the committee don't know what the hell is going on.

>>8061575
I think to be honest this was covered in the last thread. They were cute, now they're efame chasing annoyances. End of story, pretty much.

>>8061926
People have applied to running panels but if they clash with the main Kitacon events, such as karaoke clashing with the parties, then the committee won't have any of it and will decline the event.

It has made the main good event runners not want to bother any more because why should they if they're just going to get turned down?

Such a shame as well, I'm just your average punter but I'd have enjoyed both a karaoke and the main party and would have liked the option to switch between the two. But sadly the committee don't have enough faith in their own events.

>continues to swear she's only streaming for the love of games and her community
>continues to claim she doesn't pad or has had implants
>continues to claim she doesn't know why people keep talking about her tits
>continues to claim she's not violating Twitch's rules about provocative clothing
>continues to claim this is how everybody dresses 24/7

>>8061989
Holy shit is that ai honey?

She sure as hell didn't have dem titties when she was going out with mark or in any of her "what do you look like" threads on the aya forum back in 2010 ish

>>8061989
I just find it really sad that she has to rely [and is fully aware of this fact] on her fake tits to get views on her gaming stream...

>>8061989
reported for not being remotely related to cosplay. if you don't want brit threads to keep disappearing maybe stop trying to make them 100% drama THIS ISN'T EVEN COSPLAY DRAMA

seriously what happened to the uk cosplay community

>>8061904
Basically.
London requires a 30-40 min tube ride, Telford is around a 30 min walk from a remote as fuck station, but Manchester is just a 5 min walk from one of the biggest of three stations

>>8062030
The community of new cosplayers brought up thinking Expos are the only cons that exist and have nothing but a hugbox mentality have all but drowned out what good cosplay scene we had.

>>8062030
the most mainstream famous UK cosplayer isn't related to cosplay? kek

>>8062025
Well her personality sure ain't gonna draw them in.

>>8061989
I'd rather she just streams in her cosplays. At least the crazy pushed up boobs makes more sense when she does. I don't think she's got implants but she definitely pushes and pads them like crazy.

>>8062042
She's not the famous or popular any more. She does nothing really, so no one who's new has any clue who she is. It's just people who keep dragging her up like this who keep people talking about her.

>>8061989
This girl is boring me to tears. All these pictures of her look the same, she's not even in cosplay. Big whoop, a girl's got some tits. Either you like 'em or you don't.

I really don't see the point in UK or britfag threads anymore.

We don't have any decent cons to look forward to or talk about. Our dramawhores don't cosplay anymore and have been replaced by a generation of shitty efame hungry 'we're totally not sluts' 'cosplayers'.

Our notable/talented cosplayers number in the single digits.

See you all same time next year when nothing will have changed.

>>8062047
You obviously aren't actually part of the regular scene because she is a huge deal. Lex and Sands may win all the contests but your average con-goer doesn't know who the fuck they are. Kelly Jean has been invited as a guest to conventions across America and other countries and the last couple of times she's been at MCM she's had by far the biggest booth and drawn more attention than most of the actual celebs. In October she was with Jessica Nigri and it dominated the event. She's the first UK cosplayer who has made a living from being popular. You might not know who she is but you're totally wrong when you say nobody else does.

>>8062042
just because she was a cosplayer doesn't make it relevant, just how we don't want to know when she takes a shit or eats a mcdonalds.

>>8062044
Who's the guy she's with? Some ASUS rep she's fucking for her pc?