Nekocon 2023 Summary!

 Hi everynyan! :3

I attended Nekocon this year for the first time ever! :D It was held in a familiar place though, this being Musiikkikeskus (+Lumit) in Kuopio (15.-16.7.2023). Last time I set my foot there was Animecon way back when. This years theme in Nekocon was nostalgia, which was very fitting in so many ways. Walking around the con area was a trip down to memory lane.

My journey to Kuopio started on Friday, traveling with my bf Dongrieg once again. We woke up pretty early and started our 5-ish hour drive.

She's safe and sound :3

On arrival we had a few hours to kill before we could get con tickets and set ourselves in mattress accommodation the convention provided for a small price. It was very nice and cool of them to arrange it this way. Traveling, getting tickets, settling sleeping arrangements and getting into cosplay all at the first day of con is very overwhelming experience, so being able to do some things a day earlier makes things easier. For those few hours we explored around the local market place Tori and and some small alternative shops. Most treasures we found from Urumi! We found some manga for a cheap price and a DBZ fan! Very cool. We also got some bubble tea from Aina Kesä. :3

Entrance on Friday

early loot!

!!!

Yum!

The con tickets

lil nest

On Saturday I woke up pretty early and took all the time I wanted to put my Chun Li cosplay from Street Fighter 6! I was chilling and talking to some fellow cosplayers in the dressing room area. It was so nice to see people helping each other out (one does not simply get into Genshin Impact cosplay alone, holy shit what an operation!). Once I was done we drove to Musiikkikeskus/Musari, got some coffee and waited for the con doors to be open. We even got to see con opening act. It featured a CMV by Värisuora. The cursed Sonic bit cracked me up!

Chun Li!

Opening

Toast and some coffee from Café Mummola :3

The con schedule, nostalgia theme is very well seen here too ^^

I can't even begin to tell you how fast Saturday went by! We explored both con buildings, found some awesome loot, checked out cosplayers (there were so many amazing cosplays out there ❤). We also played some fighting games and had a little Tekken Tag Tournament with strangers (that Don won with Dragunov, because of course he did). I also gave Taiko no Tatsujin rhythm game a go, but sucked even at easy lol. Gaming was so much fun, but probably the highlight that day was the AMV competition. I wanted to watch AMV competitions in previous cons, but those are reservation only and I haven't been so lucky with spots, but this con I didn't have to worry about that at all. There was always so many spots open and I could reserve one very easily. I can't even explain the emotional roller coaster that the competition was! The winner was also audience choice Nekovision! I may have watched it after the con a few times. It's so good and knowing that multiple people have worked on it and managed to get everything so smooth is mind boggling! Awesome work!

 

AMV-competiton winners

Don wanted to try some retro games too! :3

Dealer's Hall!

Don was also nice enough once again to snap a few photos of my cosplay! Biggest appreciations my man. :D

I'll definitely have a proper photoshoot later once I've fixed the costume. There were some parts that I rushed to get it done on time. I'll post the cosplay-making-of-process later. Thank you for those who complimented my cosplay during the con. You really made my day even better! ;w; Honestly even though my cosplay wasn't as good at could, I was still quite proud of it. Like if that little Sallukka from 2011(?) saw my cosplay now, I just know she would be very happy and proud of how far I've come.❤

I felt so comfy :3

We also ran into Firith and Shiro Samurai during the con! I'm kind of sad we didn't get to hang out more during the day. ❤ Hope you two had a fun weekend. Also, your cosplays looked amazing. :3

I was planning to watch the cosplay competition, but we missed it since we were taking photos and running around. We were supposed to go to the Cat Café Tiramisu, but that was always packed, so we ended up just getting some snacks and eat outside in the nice weather. ^^ Also before finishing the con day we went and got some polaroids taken. This was a nice thing to have! Also there were pens and stickers you could decorate your photos with!

So cute!

Once we got back to our nest I took my cosplay off and headed to the shower. As comfy as my cosplay was, after so many hours I wanted to get out. 

#hairafterwig

People were starting to get ready to party, but we getting ready to get some food. So after shower we went to Prisma and got a warm Asian meal since that was on sale this month. Very cool, very nice.

Asialainen oli asiallinen

Sunday morning came. We did our morning routines, put our stuff into the car and headed to Musari once again. Had something to eat and did some more exploring, until Firith and Shiro Samurai joined us for a little while. Guest of honor that day was the legendary voice actor Seppo Pääkkönen, which me, Don and Firith were looking forward to. Shiro Samurai wanted to see Tolkuton play Moomin Metal. I would've gone too if the time would've been different. I saw him play in Tracon last year, so it would've been interesting to see how different it was this time. 

Seppo Pääkkönen really delivered. I got so emotional going to through different roles he did. Disney ones of course being the closest to my heart. Honestly it was also very interesting to hear how things have changed over the years with voice acting and dubbing. Personally I couldn't do that at all (except maybe rp in dnd), but this made me appreciate voice actors even more. Thank you Seppo. You made my childhood more awesome!

The legend himself!

 

He voiced Tai Lung (among other villain characters for some reason :D)!

We even got his autograph!

After that joyride I still had one more thing I wanted to see. A little piano concert by Bardic Inspiration. They played anime- and game music. To me this was a nice way to finish a convention. I really got a bardic inspiration for the drive home. :D I almost started to cry during the first song "Flow" from Final Fantasy XIV, but managed... until they played "Weight of The World" from NieR Automata. It was so good!

The singer and pianist :3

After the concert it was time for us to head home. Let me share you some loot I got from Artist's Alley!

Dad and twins and micro fiber cloth all from qpeura

Best uncle Iroh by Cidate

Very cool stickers also even cooler qr code! All by Puputaika

Hot demon in your area! By ellumir

Evil Dorito-man by Onigokko

Honestly my expectations for Nekocon weren't too high, but damn I ended up having a blast! So far my favorite convention this year! Will most likely visit again next year too. :3 Byebye!