Jared and I decided to perform in masquerade as Vocaloids, Hiyama Kiyoteru and Miku Zatsune. It was originally a walk on as Miku Zatsune, but Jared wanted to try out masuquerade just for fun, so we worked with having him dressed up as a Vocaloid that Deb suggested he should cosplay as. The routine is based on DJ Earworm’s United States of Pop: “Don't Stop the Pop,” highlighting the top 25 in billboard in 2010. Since most of the top 25 songs involve autotune and Vocaloids are made to sing, I thought it would be just a fun source to work with.

Masquerade call time was at 6PM. I went through the judging process for craftsmanship. The craftsmanship judges were ladies who had background in professional costuming. One of the judges works with the San Diego opera. The presentation judges were seasoned cosplayers, Wayne Kaa (ACP) and Caistarrin. The show was hosted by guest of honor, Tadao “Shake Hands Man” Tomomatasu.

Masquerade was running late. Showtime was originally at 7PM. Seating started a little bit after 7PM. However, we had good company and snacks in the green room. The green room was the costume repair station and the small hallway outside the repair room. It was pretty crowded, but manageable to socialize with other cosplayers while waiting to go on stage. However, we were instructed to stay in the green room until the end of the show. We really could not watch the show in the audience either. Since most of us were very friendly and supportive of each other, we really wanted to everyone’s live performance.

Halftime lasted for a good 45 minutes to make time for the judges to discern the awards. Halftime performances included Girls Generation and Mochi Maid Café doing dance routines. Tadao Tomomatsu told jokes to the audience to also stall for time. Suffice to say, it was a very entertaining show.

Awards were distributed at the end of the show. There were two types of awards presented; one category for presentation to recognize performance and the other for craftsmanship to recognize costuming skills. Scarlet Rhapsody took home a craftsmanship award for Best Design for Miku Zatsune.

Video of masquerade highlights can bee seen on Michael Tang Productions.

After masquerade, Jared checked out Kyle Hebert’s Dragonbald roast of the infamous “Dragonball Evolution” movie. Though we were there for the first Dragonbald roast, Kyle added more jokes and material for the MST3K treatment of this abomination.

We also checked out the rum party at the Pavilion room. We made it in time to check out the auction. While we are not quite sure where the connection with pirate themed programming with anime programming is, everyone seemed to get really wild about going into bidding wars for each person being auctioned off. Deb and I had a good laugh at what was going on stage.

Anime Conji also has its share of nightlife. There was a Rocky Horror Show, Saturday night dance, rum party, and various room parties. We went to a low key room party that had guest of honor Reuben Langdon challenging people in Marvel vs. Capcom 3. In other words, prepare to get your rear end handed to you by Ken Masters himself! After a few rounds of gaming, Reuben Langdon also showed some clips of his work in motion capturing in “Devil May Cry” and “Resident Evil 5” on his iPad.

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