STGCC 2015

Hello again!
I know I haven't blogged in a really long time. In fact, I even lapsed and missed on my weekly Action Plan for last week. Basically, I have been spending the whole of last week to sort through the heaps of photos I took at all the recent events. Turns out, the past 2 weeks has been event to event to event back to back. COMEX to Moshi Moshi to Elections Day duty to the 2 day STGCC. And unfortunately I went too trigger happy at Moshi Moshi and had 500+ photos to filter thru. My post on that will come soon enough, it's really a lot of stuff. For now, let's focus on the more recent STGCC.

STGCC was like a super ultra packed event. Like way more crowded than I had expected. I think the reason for that is because this is not a cosplay/anime focused event. It is really a broad splattering of all things games and comics. So the target crowd is much broader and general. In fact, the whole theme seem very westernized, much like an american convention.

And then they were trying to push for the whole east meets west feel by blending in elements of both. In fact, even when you see the cosplayers, there are quite a lot cosplaying as characters from western comics such as Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy and Batman. And I may be imagining it, but I see quite a few unfamiliar foreign cosplayers. They are clearly like PRC students or something. Broader target audience I guess.

Honestly though, I don't feel like the whole east meets west thing was the best idea. I mean guess the event was successful since so many people attended on both days. But from a standpoint of whether I feel the event was fun and exciting for me, I'd say not really. I felt it lacked focus and tried to do too much. I mean, there were the artist booths with artworks, there were merchant booths selling stuff, there were figurine exhibitions, there was a huge Magic cards area, and then meanwhile some talks and interviews are happening on stage and people are queuing for stuff at smaller booths. Feels quite haphazard to me, and the individual booths weren't that exciting either. Just artists' works. Meh.

What I DO like however, is the little photo booth where you can take a picture with the cosplayer guest "on duty" at that time. I think it's a western culture thing, where they like to take pictures WITH the subject rather than OF the subject. Just an observation. Which is a good thing, because I usually head out to these events alone, which means nobody can help me to take a picture. And the fact that I am terrible at selfies. Still need more practice. Besides, this japanese cosplayer Saku is really really really attractive. I totally didn't mind queueing for her pics on both days! :D

All in all, I feel like I achieved my intentions for coming to the event. I originally had no idea why I even attended these events. Just yolo go for them and see what happens. But now I have a better understanding of what I want to do. Besides just collecting pretty pictures, I am trying to slowing improve my photography skills, and also meet some of the people I know there. Also, it's good to just be there and absorb the atmosphere and environment. See what young people are up to these days. Plus it adds some motivation for me to continue my Japanese studies right? Going out alone can be inconvenient. But if anything, it's better just staying at home over the weekends.

This pic about sums it up best. An event that is truly a big gang bang of east meets west. A western comics and toys convention with some smattering of asian elements. Would I go again? Hell yeah. But next time, I do hope to bring along a much better camera so that I can get better pics.

I have made up my mind to settle on the Fuji camera system. Will wait for my credit card to arrive before heading down to purchase it next week. For now I'm just deciding whether to start small with the super affordable X-M1 with 2 free lenses, or jump straight to the well liked X-T10. Leaning more to the former as a refresh is likely expected next year.

In the meantime, events seem to have winded down a little bit. The whole of October seems relatively clear. Unless I missed any events, in which case PLEASE TELL ME! It's my first year planning to go to these events, so it's highly likely that I may miss out a few of them from my calendar. But if there's really nothing, I will need to start clearing off my IPPT requirements for this year. If I get the chance, I will also start planning to restart my driving lessons. Have put it off for way too long. October looks like the month to plan for catching up on whatever backlog stuffs I need to clear.

Until November! Where the events start again! :)

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