"This is depressing," said Carolyn dressed as a summer festival version of Rei Ayanami. For the cast of Evangelion, the glass was half empty. Hardly any trees matured into bloom. However, there were very few trees that had the pink petals that we all know and love. Stan drove us through Lake Balboa. No other cosplayers bothered to show up. Was this a waste of time? No cherry blossom trees in sight. Deb (as Shinji) begun to turn into an emo state of mind despite Carolyn's protest. "You can't be emo. I haven't slapped you yet."

Stan and I decided to label the February 28th date as "Week Zero" due to the fact that we looked at the time spent at Lake Balboa as a re-con assignment. In other words, we now know what are some scenic locations for cosplay photos for the new few weeks.

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Julia and Caitlin pulled into the parking lot. Julia was dressed up as Asuka on the summer festival variant. Caitlin was showing her sakura spirit by wearing a simple kimono. Despite no trees in bloom, we were all here together. Good friends in costume armed with cameras. Maybe the glass is half full?

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We ran into other cosplay community members - Kenji and Matt. We were in costume, let's take pictures. Our Evangelion cast consisted of Carolyn (Rei Ayanami), Julia (Asuka), Deb (Shinji Ikari), and your's truly (Misato Katsuragi).

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Of course, Stan decided to be the rebel and cosplay as the Lard Lad (aka Train from Black Cat). All he really needs is the girl.

There were other trees in bloom. Might as well take advantage of the location while we're in costume!

Does this Misato variant look unfamiliar to you? Misato only wears it in one episode, A Human Work, otherwise, known as the Jet Alone episode.

We decided to take a break from photo shoots and just sat around in a circle catching up on life. Caitlin decided to take a cat nap on the grassy knoll. Shinji (Deb) wanted to take a nap on Rei (Carolyn).

And then it was back to work. Caitlin wanted a few cutesy photos of her Japanese kimono. I also took the opportunity to get a few Shinji and Misato photos. You never know with strange pairings...

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Kenji, Matt, Julia, and Caitlin parted ways with us. Yet, Jared arrived fashionably late in his Kaji. Though Asuka left and Rei changed into a busty and blonde high schooler, we still had the Shinji to push around. Because Deb and I watched Evangelion: reDeath the night before, Deb and Jared reenacted the melons sequence.

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And yes, there is video of the melons sequence.

 

And what's Misato without a Kaji?

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However, all of us agreed that the real star of the pseudo-cosplay-gathering was the ground hog that kept popping up during the Misato and Kaji shots. So much, that we started to give the groundhog a photoshoot of his own. Stan joked around that Jared should cosplay as Bill Murray from Groundhog Day, though Jared was feeling more Caddyshack. We've all heard of The Hedgehog's Dilemma, but The Groundhog's Dilemma's is just ridiculous! Well, at least he did not mind that we were having a photo shoot on his property.

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After a nice day at the park, we went to the local In and Out Burger wondering about what our Bay Area friends were up to at Wonder Con. Of course, if Carolyn were there, she'd kidnap Mark Hamill. Though Sakura Watch Week Zero was not technically a con, Carolyn decided to make her place the video room where we watched the Firefly pilot and Kujibiki Unbalance (aka Dropkick Us for We are Footballs: The Anime!).

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Be sure to check out Stan's Week Zero photos at his Photobucket!

 

Pictures are copyright by Traveling Valentine and Valenti East. If I took your picture, feel free to use it on your site or cosplay gallery. While you're here, do sign the guestbook. This site was brought to you by the font Ham Lake. Many thanks to Chaz Boston Baden for the image resizing and watermarking program.