Ahhhh, Sac Anime's Masquerade- one of the main and biggest events at the convention. Above are the judges and this year's host, Yaya Han. Masquerades are popular at most western anime conventions, and they usually involve a big list of rules that govern how the event is ran- in which, usually, the focus is on anime/manga/Japanese characters. Many folks have mixed feelings about the Masquerade. Mostly because it seems the Directors are too open to accept most skits- whether they are actually from an anime or not. :( And some skits tend to have nothing to do with the anime they are from, nor do the cosplayers act as their characters would in certain situations in some skits. I'm not trying to put this particular masquerade down- but sometimes you feel like you're at a Halloween party. Great example of non-anime, non-japanese cosplay above, which, actually went on to win a cosplay award. To be exact, I only noticed a couple skits out of 25 that actually stuck with the feel/theme of the anime they were from. But I guess if they used my book to judge the masquerade- just a few of the best would win. Keep scrolling. The event kicked off with Karen Dyer and her dancers. Was a great performance, and her music and singing got the crowd fired up for the show. There was a moment where Karen had a group of cosplayers get on stage for some line dancing. Yaya Han did a great job as the MC. I absolutely adored her Pirate Sheryl Nome cosplay. -Yaya made a great comment during the event, mentioning that she wasn't used to seeing so many musical/dancing skits. To be honest, there was A LOT. Almost every single skit in fact. It's not abnormal for Sac Anime's masquerade- the directors are always approving to let our respected and much loved characters dance to cheap music like The Backstreet Boys or some kind of urban remix from the local rap or R&B station. My honest oppinion- I hope this changes soon before too many people get the wrong impression of not only the anime and characters themselves, but also what it means to cosplay. Anywho- lets check out some of the skits eh? Death Note skit with lots of Dancing. Vampire Knight skit- had plenty of dancing to some song about Vampires. This skit was pretty funny. These two said they wanted to show Sac Anime what it really meant to be an otaku- they then proceeded to dance several opening dance routines. Hare Hare Yukai and Motteke sailor fuku and several others were their dances of choice. Leek for IEVEN POLKA. <iframe allowfullscreen="" class="youtube-player" frameborder="0" height="400" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/eWjwzpyLhCw" title="YouTube video player" type="text/html" width="593"></iframe> Dancing Hitsugaya from Bleach. I liked this Vocaloid one. The steamroller thing was great! This Taokaka cosplayer from BlazBlue was epic! She sewed her entire cosplay and it looked amazing in person. She was well respected by the audience and among fellow cosplayers. She truly deserved her craftsmanship award. No idea... Alice in wonderland is perfect for the anime-themed masquerade yes? Dancing Cirno...'nuff said. More Yaya announcing that upon exiting the masquerade you will receive a free basket of puppies. Someone said something about these two being female power rangers or something of the sort- I didn't quite catch it. And yes, they danced and also won an award. Hmmm... Living Ichigo was up there testing out his incredibly difficult costume, which is Ichigo Kurosaki's Vasto Lorde form from Bleach. The skit had a few malfunctions, but stunned the crowd as their skit had the biggest reception I heard throughout the entire event. From screaming fangirls to folks that were shocked when he appeared and destroyed Grimmjow (on the right) with matching epic music and sound effects. Sadly, after working on his costume for months on end and delivering a skit of quality usually somewhat rare to Sac Anime, he didn't leave with a single award. His 2,000+ and growing fans on facebook were very sad to hear the news, and he plans on taking his talents to a bigger stage. -Maybe he should have just forgot the skit and danced to Justin Beiber? Great Hetalia group that deserved the award they won. Very funny skit about everyone being mad at Finland. A good old classic Yu Yu Hakusho group. Aerith cosplayer who is actually William Fox's Fiancée- just before he proposed to her on stage! I actually filmed the whole thing which was 10x sweeter than my grandmother's homemade candy. Will upload that video soon! Now ladies and gentlement, I introduce you to the winners of Sacramento California's Winter cosplay masquerade. We have: Dancing Death Note guys The so-called "moe power rangers" The Amazing Hetalia group Cool blue haired maid on the far left who's name escaped me Dancing Vampire Knight students Dancing Otaku (unseen in the back) Parasol girl who's name also escaped me Jack Sparrow Dancing Hitsugaya who forgot his sword but brought his scabbard Did I miss anyone? Any other dancers I forgot from the dance contest...I mean masquerade!? Kazu's Final Score: 1.5 SacAnime Winter 2011 Masquerade gets a 1.5 out of 5 Positives: +Organization of show Negatives: -too many non-anime, non-Japanese-themed cosplay in Masquerade -several key skits went completely un-noticed by the judges, mostly the ones that were in the second half of the show. Final thoughts: Sac Anime's Masquerade this winter didn't hit me as hard on the awesome-sauce meter as usual. But I do want to say that the staff and security was amazingly kind and helped me get to my press spot before the event. They were totally awesome. However, the show featured a variety of dancing cosplayers who's music and skits barely/didn't have anything to do with the anime/game/manga they originated from. Also during the award ceremony, some of the judges made statements like "I met you out in the halls earlier and liked ya, have an award!" and "I liked the anime this guy is from have an award!". .....Shouldn't it not be about their personal likes and more about reasons why the cosplay fits that particular award? Some folks who don't cosplay and some who do don't know that some people actually compete competitively and have been hurt because of how unprofessional cosplay events treat them. I truly hope that future masquerades will judge cosplayers more fairly. What are your thoughts?
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