[Storytime] Why you should make up one's own mind

Welcome there !
Today I want to introduce you a brand new French convention : the Japan Touch Cosplay and to explain you, through that con, why you should make up one’s own mind !
To start properly, let’s talk a bit about Asiexpo, the people behind the con…

Asiexpo and Japan Touch Cosplay
Founded in 2015, Asiexpo is mostly based around Lyon. They organize 4 event during a whole year (5 if we include Japan Touch Cosplay), group in 2 events : Japan Touch and Salon de l’Asie in early December, Geek-Touch and Japan Touch Haru in late april. And finally, the Japan Touch Cosplay, in late June for its first year.
Japan Touch Cosplay takes place in La Roche-sur-Foron in the south-east of France. It’s at 20 minutes from Geneva and 20 minutes from Annecy.

How I’ve heard about the con
Simply by scrolling on facebook. Steeve Li, one of the most important French cosplay photographer shared a photo constest. The contest was organize by Japan Touch Cosplay, they will select 10 winners who will win 2 week-end passes and their photo will be exposed during the whole convention.
I’ve decided to try it with that photo :

Coser : AmyBleu - Photographer : @PurpleAlyss

I tried this contest, thinking that i haven’t any chance to win it. The day of the result (it was also my B-Day) I’ve received a mail “Congrats ! Your photo will be at Japan Touch Cosplay, you’ll receive 2 passes in your e-mail box in just a few minutes. See you there !” (it was something like that, I don’t want to search for the exact mail in my inbox x)). As I saw it I was like “Uh, what ?” But it wasn’t a joke, i found another mail from the official tickets seller in my inbox, they was sending me 2 tickets for the Japan Touch Cosplay.

Before the con
Before the convention, I ask myself a lot, this was super cool but the con was in just 2 weeks. I first ask my model if she wants to get one of the passes, to see the picture with me but she couldn’t because Japan Expowas just around the corner, everyone, including her, were in rush ! I finally invite my boyfriend to come with me. By luck, he have family near the con and he decided to offer me the trip for my b-day. I just have to pay everything I want/need inside the con. I also wasn’t sure about the con, I wasn’t sure of what I was doing 2 day before the trip because of a controversy.
JTC [Japan Touch Cosplay] was organising 3 cosplay masquerade during the whole week-end : 2 on Saturday, 1 on Sunday. On Saturday, they choose to make a solo and an international masquerade ; the group contest was on Sunday. They make a very huge mistake with the international contest : they close the registration for the contest before the final date… without any previous announcement ! They also change the rules between the beginning and the end, so one of the contestant was disqualified without knowing it. People get a bit angry about all of that, and the communication team wasn’t that nice to them (sadly…).
But i finally decided to come there to see by myself if that event was that bad…

At the con
I arrive at the con on Saturday at 10:30 (we manage to do Paris - Annecy the day before the beginning of the con). There was hardly anyone around but it was really cool, the cosplayers had a lot of place to move around the con, for people who had big dresses or a huge armor, it wasn’t difficult to get their costume not hurt by anyone. People were really nice in addition, everyone was really respectful towards the cosplayers. JTC is also one of the first con to make a public notice about how to respect the cosplayer. The movment “Cosplay is not consent” who is reality in America isn’t, for the moment, a reality in France. We have to fight a bit against “free-huggers” who jump on some cosplayers and ruin their costumes or against people who forget that we’re human inside of our costumes and allow them to touch us without asking. I tell you more about that movment in another steemit post…
The stand were various, we could find cosplay materials, plushes, jewerly or props to buy. Animation wasn’t that bad too, Saturday was the most interesting for me. I’ve seen all of the Saturday masquerade, the end of the RealCosplay conference, make a huge group photo (see just behind), and a very interesting conference about “Cosplay and professionalization” with all of the professional and semi-professional cosplayers who were invited.

The guest were also very cool. We had 2 french cosplayers, well known in France, Nikita Cosplay and David-chan and a French photographer as mention before, Steeve Li. For international cosplayers, we had Tine Marie Riis (Norway), LadyLemon (Argentine), Sweet Angel (Italy) and last but not least Reika (Japan). I hadn’t any trouble to see and speak with the guest on Saturday, it was a bit harder on Sunday but not that much (it was especially a bit harder to speak a bit with Reika as she was the greatest international cosplayer during this event). I also could speak with some Vocalaction member who were also guests, there were only Yoshulen (playing Len in the team) and Yoite (playing Kaito in the team). Unfortunately, their stand wasn’t very visible, they were at the top-right corner of the con and no one was passing by. Only people like me who know them before the con came to see them. I also manage to find my picture in the same alley as the Vocalaction’s stand.

To talk a bit about the cosplay contest, they had a great level, as for the solo as the international. Everyone make a great job to make every masquerade a great show and some were very mind blowing ! To show you one of the most incredible performance, here’s a video made by LadyLemon : click there to show it !

During the week-end, I met a lot of new people, in the guest, before the week-end I only know Nikita, David-chan and Reika, I’ve discover the facebook of all the guests and I manage to meet some cosplayer that I follow. It was a real pleasure to talk to everyone, cosplay isn’t just about making costume, it’s also about sharing with everyone, through internet but also IRL. I manage to talk about gradient with the Italian guest, tell LadyLemon where she could buy elf ears or simply tell them that their work is incredible. And for me, maybe the last part is the most important, it’s one of the greatest reward I could receive. Telling a cosplayer that their months of work are incredible, it’s really warmful and it help me to keep up when I want to throw a costume in the trash because I don’t manage to achieve what I want.

Finally
This convention learn me to close my eyes a bit on all of the drama who can happen online, it also learn me that even if there’s a huge society behind a project, it doesn’t mean that they couldn’t make any mistake. From now, I’ll try to not focus that much on what people say. I also could see it through Polymanga last February, I saw everyone saying “It was so cool, the con is really great !” but at the end, I was a bit deceived.

I hope you enjoy my article, see you later !