First, introduce yourself with your name and/or your convention/cosplay alias. Tell us your location (whether it be city and/or state or whatever applies), what you classify yourself (i.e. con goer, cosplayer, crossplayer, lolita, or whatever), and how long you've been going to cons and/or cosplaying.
Then you answer either some or all of the questions below that apply to you:
- What got you interested in conventions/cosplaying?
- How many cons have you attended?
- What was you first con like?
- What's your most and least favorite con? Why?
- What con are looking forward to going to in the near future?
- Do you think cons/cosplay is addicting?
- What's your favorite and least favorite thing about cons/cosplay?
- If you could change something about congoers/cosplayers, what would it be?
- What's your most memorable moment at a con?
- What was your first and latest cosplay?
- If you've never cosplayed before, are you interested in it and what would you be?
- If you could go to any con (or country) to attend a con event or simply cosplay, where would it be?
- What's your favorite and least favorite costume you've done? Why?
- Should there be an age limit for cosplay?
- What's your biggest accomplishment at a con/cosplay?
- Do you have any cosplay goals?
- What's your dream costume you want to pursue?
- What's your easiest and hardest costume? And what makes it easy/hard?
- What advice do you have for con goers, future con goers, cosplayers, and future cosplayers?
- What do people outside the fandom don't know about cons and/or cosplay?
- What kind of characters do you cosplay?
- What does your family think of cons/cosplay?
- What do you look forward to the most and least about cons?
- Do you have any cosplay plans for the near future?
If you are a cosplayer, please show us your costumes in detail. You can tell us the process as well if you want. While answering these questions, try to sound as natural as possible.
To contribute to the documentary, simply follow the rough outline above in any order that feels most comfortable on video. After you record, you can either attach the file to an email or upload it on a server and send it to: zetsu_nightmare2.0.9[at]hotmail[dot]com. Make the subject as "Cosplay Documentary Submission".
Here are some video uploading servers you can use to submit your video:
+ MegaUpload
+ MediaFire
+ SendSpace
+ PhotoBucket
Once I get enough submissions, I will burn it onto a DVD and possibly create a teaser on my YouTube account. And don't worry, I'll be putting myself on it as well. Thanks in advance for your hard work!
While watching a new video presented by the always truthful 
I kinda want to believe that Yoshiki just wants people to inflate his ego because of his musical history and that his biggest musical success is slowly fading into the background due to the new jrock fan generation. Honestly, I think he should stick to producing bands and focus more on making his projects come to life instead of building all this hype for nothing like he's done with nearly every X Japan revival world tour and his "super visual kei" band S.K.I.N. Let hide's legacy rest, let Toshi move on with his new life since the divorce, and stop pretending X will be the big thing because you have Sugizo as your new guitarist. It'll never be the same~
A local Houston band that apparently won some radio award last year. Despite them being local, it didn't seem like a lot of people knew of them, but that didn't stop them from enjoying the music. Their appearance was pretty simple and black. They had high energy and it took me some time to get used to Nava's voice. It kinda reminded me of Aaron Lewis of Staind and I'll note that I'm not a fan of Staind whatsoever. Not being familiar with their music, I know for a fact they played "Don't Make It So Easy" which has a music video to it. It had the most energy to close out their set. What got my attention was the passion Nava gave when delivering his lyrics to the audience and then there was Kevin who did some back-up vocals on some of the songs. He distracted me during the whole set being so close to the stage. He had a lot of energy and passion as well and enjoyed giving the audience attention. I ended up buying their new album, SEE THE LIGHT INSIDE YOU, after the show for my friend and myself. I wouldn't mind seeing them again for sure. I like hearing their songs live moreso than a recording. They definitely have promise and I recommend you guys check them out.
A Florida rock band with an individual appearance. Matt B. appeared to be an intimidating pug ready to kick your ass if you look at him the wrong, but once he started performing his appearance lightened up some. He seemed like a friendly guy with a surprising non-screamo sound. Andy C., I believe, was wailing away at the drums with hair flying into his face with every swing he took on his instrument. Main focus was on Andy W. shredding the guitar as much as he could. he made me want to listen to Avenged Sevenfold he was so mind blowing. He was probably the biggest attention whore of the whole show, making seductive eye contact with each and every audience member. Their music wasn't as heavy as I thought it would be. At times, I felt that the extra guitar that Matt B. was a bit unnecessary since Andy W. completely outshines him. I wasn't too crazy about their overall sound. Maybe as an instrumental piece but not worthy of spending tons of money on. Although, I will give them major props on doing a couple Led Zepplin covers. It was the most enjoyable songs of their set and a great way to close it. The audience thoroughly enjoyed it, especially the Zepplin fans like my friend.
Don't bite my head off, but basing off appearance they looked like a bunch of men going through a mid-life crisis, threw on some eyeliner, and created a metal band. But the guys were not metal at all, at least not to my ears. I guess they fall on the lines of 10 years's genre.
The main event everyone was looking forward to. Suspense built up while equipment was being moved and set up for at least 20-25 minutes, but it was worth every minute of waiting. They opened with a powerful song from their latest album, Division, called "Actions & Motives". Perfect song to get the crowd hype and the band was very energetic throughout their whole set. The guitarist and bassist interacted with each other and the crowd a lot as well as Jesse. He kinda picked on the audience for waiting around toward the end, laughed it off, and played a few more songs. They played a lot of good tracks and made it diverse from old and new and upbeat to mellow. They did a powerful performance of "So Long, Goodbye" with Jesse and Ryan on acoustic guitar. They ended the night with a new song, "Shoot It Out" I believe, and Jesse told us the words he wanted us to say. We even did a couple practice runs before they started the song. Here's the possible setlist in no particular order:
This year, the band wanted to perform in more intimate venues and their schedule was shorter than usual. Normally, they reach out to several cities across the country and Canada, but this time they only covered a couple cities in Texas, Chicago, two cities in California, and New York City, which was a bit disappointing for a few of my friends outside of Texas.
Last year was an amazing performance. I felt like the band kept getting better and better on stage and there was this true, passionate connection between them and the fans. Everyone helped each other, aside from a couple rude people who wanted to bring people in the mosh that didn’t want to participate, and they followed directions well by singing when Kyo pointed the microphone out to the audience or chanting in the right areas in a song like “Hydra -666-“ and “Lied Buried with a Vengeance”. They were already my favorite jrock band and their performance then and previous years put them on a higher pedal stool in my mind. This year…was nothing like that at all. Before I comment any further, here’s an unofficial set list I’ve put together after the show in no particular order:
Despite the lack of room on stage, the band still had strong energy and Toshiya played up the crowd most of the time. Die usually displays the same movements, but I didn’t notice him being extremely wild like he normally is. Kaoru felt a little more closed off than usual and I felt disconnected to him. Even though Kyo had his usual little stand to deliver his lyrics, I also felt a disconnection from him as well. All the songs slowly meshed together in my head after the show, which made it difficult to put together the set list. I normally don’t have those sorts of problems so soon, but the crowd and setting didn’t help me remember such an important thing. Normally, I remember special moments that happen like the band performing an older song or interacting with the audience in a rare way, but there was none of that. The only moment close to that was when Kyo decided to sing the bridge of “Conceived Sorrow” without the music or his microphone, letting his voice echo in the small venue.
Along with the show being an hour late, which is very unusual for them, the set list seemed shorter than their previous shows. It wasn’t as diverse either. On their later shows in New York and California, they played some of their older songs from Kisou and even a song from their first full-length album GAUZE. I was so upset about the show that I couldn’t listen to Dir en grey for a few weeks. I felt completely unsatisfied and ripped off. I felt no emotional connection, no overwhelming energy taking over the crowd, and no common sense from the Dallas fans.
A few good things about the concert was being able to see them for the fourth, the crowd being excited to see them, Toshiya’s interaction and natural energy surrounding him throughout the show, and the fact they played “Vinushka”, “Toguro”, “Glass Skin,” and “Gaika, Chinmoku ga Nemura Koro”. They did make an effort to mix up heavy and somewhat light songs and we spotted Die outside of a bar, which really isn’t part of their performance. The negatives are the fans, the short set list, and the location. The live wasn’t too traumatizing that I never want to see Dir en grey live again like the German pop/rock band Tokio Hotel, but I never want to see them again in Dallas. I hope that I never feel that disappointing feeling from them again when they return.
I wasn't expecting a fourth group to be joining the other three musical guests and I kind of wish they kept it like that. I'd never heard of this Buranden kid, but apparently he's an American Japanese pop (and they added rock to his description too) singer that transferred to Japan for school and got into songwriting. I’ll try not to be overly critical, but I didn't particularly care for his music and my friends can back me up on that. The guitar was slightly inaudible and sounded like Derek and Z were just on this repetitive rhythm pattern. I could barely understand Brandon when he was singing and I preferred it that way. I couldn't tell whether he was singing badly in Japanese or singing badly in English. Either way he seemed a little out of tune. One of their songs sounded like the Mortal Kombat theme, but their music is enjoyable if it were an instrumental. Reading over the description they have on the official Oni-Con site, I found myself in disbelief that this Edward Cullen look alike has "taken Japan by storm" with his music, but maybe we're not hearing what other people are hearing.
Originally the vocalist of Rentrer en Soi, a Japanese rock band that performed at Oni-Con in 2007, Satsuki decided to go solo after the band’s break-up. I must admit I am not a fan of Rentrer en Soi, but I really like Satsuki’s solo work. It’s soothing and memorable. He tries to keep a soft angelic image through his vocals and pure costume appearance, but still maintain some sort of rock edge to keep himself and keep his fans pleased.
Before seeing them live, the only song I knew was a Radiohead cover of “Creep” that a friend sent me and even with that I didn’t remember what it sounded like. All I could really remember from it was that it was a soft song and I thought it was okay; nothing to make me go look up more music immediately or anything. After seeing them live and hearing more material as well as “Creep”, it left an impression on me and two of my friends that I saw the performance with. They have a calming, haunting energy about them that lingers in your mind and resides deep in your soul. It could almost be considered sensual to some. The cover song that I was introduced to sounded ten times better than the studio recording on the album.
The final band of the evening and the band I was most looking forward to were born. The crowd got excited; I know a few of them were new fans, and soon one by one: Ray, Tomo, K, Kifumi, and then Ryouga. The live started off with tons of energy as Ryouga leaned backwards and wailed out, “GOD STAR!”. The band members had a lot of chemistry and played off of each other at times, especially Ryouga. He led the chaos for night and added some perversion as well by being a little affectionate with Kifumi and using the microphone to his advantage. They also included the audience into the fun of their performance, which made things all the better.