(Many long and heartfelt thank you’s - drafted by our very own Frongi/Suzaku Kururugi - to follow.)
Wow.
Anime Boston 2015. How to condense all that I want to say?
AB has been my favorite con since I first attended in 2006.Until just this year, though, I’d gone as a casual attendee. I’m not sure what made me determined to be a more-involved participant this time – but I think it boils down to gratitude.
For years, I have sloughed off stress and made memories at Anime Boston. I’ve been grateful for the cosplayers brave enough to put themselves on stage to entertain us, and grateful for the staff of steel that’s been able to make almost anything possible. This year, I started wondering what I could do to express that gratitude… or if I might be able to help ensure somehow – through enthusiasm, effort, and/or spiral power – that the incoming generation of fans would continue to have the fantastic con experiences I’ve had, seeing cosplayers do cool things in character. Like the characters in Gundam SEED, I found myself thinking, “If I have the power to make a difference, I should put it to good use.”
Therefore, I started contacting friends, staff, and strangers shortly after AB 2014, to toss out questions and form ideas. I thought I should manage to go up on stage at least once, and put myself out there to make others smile. I also wanted to surprise and please my girlfriend. I wanted to do something great to move our lives forward. Combining that with my favorite event of the year seemed only natural. I mean, timing was excellent! Kaiju vs. Mecha, when I’m a mecha fan? Girlfriend and I hitting our five-year anniversary? A much-needed career change from administrative work into voice acting? My life was screaming, “SHOOT FOR SOMETHING EPIC; THE FORCE IS WITH YOU; AIM EVEN HIGHER BECAUSE STUFF’S ALREADY AWESOME.”
I knew that if I kicked reason to the curb, focused on having fun over anything else, and stayed true to myself even while taking risks… only great things could happen. So I dove in, hoping there would be epic shenanigans.
Holy crap, Anime Boston.
In so many ways, you soared beyond my expectations.
It wasn’t easy to prepare for AB this year. I started buckling down last June and July. What started as an idea for a brief on-stage proposal dressed as my favorite Code Geass slash pairing snowballed into plans I wasn’t sure that I could handle.
Here is where I’ll gush about Mario Bueno’s involvement. If it hadn’t been for that man’s incredibly genuine personality, his enthusiasm level, and his willingness to point me in the right direction OUT OF THE SHEER GOODNESS OF HIS HEART… that marriage proposal would probably not have been possible at all. I remember my reaction to his reaction. Mario flipping Bueno wanted to support my idea?? He was at AX when I contacted him (AX! As in BUSY, at a huge, impressive con, working and being himself), yet he found a moment RIGHT THAT WEEKEND to message me back expressing his excitement. Thanks to him, I gained the extra confidence I found I’d need… as I was introduced to Lyndsey Zusi – AB’s phenomenal Masquerade Coordinator.
I immediately learned that Holy Shit, putting on AB’s Masquerade involves more planning than anybody realizes.
I cannot tell anyone how many emails of mine that Lyndsey answered with enthusiasm and patience. She responded to my utter n00b-ness and panicking with kind words and/or the information I needed every single time. The Masquerade Coordinator handles more responsibility than I’d ever imagined; that Lyndsey took the time to work with me so closely despite her other responsibilities still totally blows my mind. MANY, MANY THANKS. SO MANY. With Lyndsey’s guidance, our Masquerade involvement was shaped into the wonderful moments everyone experienced alongside my Lelouch and I on stage.
Story time, I guess? It went like this.
I wanted to enter Suzaku and Lelouch in the walk-on part of the costume contest, pause on stage, and propose to Lelouch there, as a surprise. It quickly became obvious that the plan would work better if I did a full skit, not a walk-on. So, whoa, hold up there – a full skit? Hrrmn.
I said, “Well, okay. Why not.” I was thinking it wouldn’t be that different.
…Here is where I recognize that I bit off way more than I could chew, and on top of it, I have a penchant for prioritizing creativity over things sane people never leave on their backburners.
The skit started out as a concept that involved just Suzaku and Lelouch alone on stage. I soon decided that wasn’t enough, that we could do better… and that I needed help. After all, I was part of CAPS LOCK Cosplay! Why not drag a few of them in, too? Not just so the skit could involve more Geass characters, but because I needed emotional support, and help sharing responsibilities.
Oh my god, did they ever deliver.
I put my skit-mates through the fire. I asked them to keep the engagement a secret from literally everyone, not just Lelouch. We originally planned to make our skit as non-competitive as possible. Then I tossed that in the air and said, “Why not? Let’s compete in both craftsmanship AND performance, for the learning experience!” They took it extremely well. When I said, “So hey, I want to build a closet for this,” despite the fact that none of us had ever built a set piece in our lives (or anything large-prop-related), they put their brains to building the right-sized structure, full throttle. When I said, “I want us to record our audio with my fancy voiceover equipment,” they followed my instructions at the mic, repeated and repeated and repeated (“REPEAT STUFF, REPEAT STUFF~”), and delivered performances that made me crack up. When I said, “Oh, hey, we should use the screen, too,” my girlfriend stepped up to the plate, despite having little photo-editing experience. No matter how tired or busy they were, they concentrated on their skit tasks fully, and always came together with ideas that made the blocking smoother, the jokes funnier, the costumes fancier.
What am I really trying to say? In so many ways were out of our league, but we still went to bat. We were not ready for any of this, but every time I threw a curve ball, the responding attitude I got was, “Don’t worry. We’ll make it happen.” If I asked, “But HOW,” it didn’t matter. They made it happen.
When our finished audio/visual pushed the time limit for our skit’s division too closely, we hit another road bump. The proposal needed to be included in the time limit. We didn’t want to rush it, nor did we want to rush or compromise the skit. We only had a few weeks until the con, and all of us were freaked out and worn thin. I ran to Lyndsey. “What are our options?!” She suggested bumping ourselves up to Master division (which had a longer time allowance).
I had a slightly insane moment, in which I agreed to this bump-up decision for the whole team, without discussing it with them. Pierce the heavens, right? If I had nothing else, I still had confidence we’d figure it out.
A couple of days of chaos ensued.
Nothing has ever shaken our foundations quite like my announcement that SURPRISE, we’d be in Master class. Our cosplay group is all about the fun; the competitive/show-offy side of cosplay is new to us. CAPS LOCK Cosplay has only ever competed ONCE before. We entered as Novice, for craftsmanship only at AAC 2014; there were no performances. We won stuff and got bumped up to Journeyman/Intermediate, which was overwhelming already. It meant we had to enter AB events as Intermediate too, and we already felt AB’s bar was higher. Could we reach it? Now we’re Master class?! You’re kidding, right? We’re dead. We’re done. We cannot rise to that audience expectation level, never mind impress the judges.
So forget the judges. Screw it. We aren’t winning.
We got frustrated with each other. The stress affected us. For a while, we maybe lost sight of the point of our skit, as we evaluated other aspects of our performance and wondered what the hell the audience would think of us.
But ultimately, we were a team on a mission, and we came back where we belonged. We knew why we were really doing this. Lyndsey knew it. Everyone but my poor girlfriend knew it. Winning? Pfffftt – we had already won. We had been chosen to participate in AB’s Masquerade, and two great friends were getting ENGAGED. Whether we won anything or not, just the chance to go on stage and have fun in our costumes was enough.
Phoenix (C.C.) and Mime (Tianzi) – THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING YOU BOTH DID. You know to what lengths you went. You are both amazing. To the rest of CLC, thank you also – for not getting upset when we kept big secrets.
Anyway. Excited yet resigned, we got on stage.
And you all just—
Holy shit, Anime Boston. Holy shit.
I’m so glad you laughed at our weird jokes! I’m so glad that people still care about Code Geass! It’s the greatest series ever! It was hard to stay in character and not crack up when people started yelling, “The closet! Put Lelouch back in the closet!”
Then Mario, in that critical moment of the blackout, maneuvering through our unplanned, on-stage chaos to bring me that live mic. Just seeing him come out reminded me that there was no need to be nervous. (I think I asked if the mic was on yet, and he might have said something like, “They’re all yours,” but honestly, sheezus. I remember nothing. Overwhelmed.) I thought I would be terrified of botching the proposal speech itself, too, outside of being nervous that I was proposing in general. A last-minute change of direction in my girlfriend’s career plan three days before AB scrapped my original speech completely. The one you guys heard was totally winged. I formed it in my head while the Masquerade was happening… and while Mime was helping hide the fact that I’d concealed the ring underneath Suzaku’s gloves. (My original plans for hiding and revealing the ring had fallen through also, haha.) But in the end… I dunno, I felt pretty okay up there. I guess… hand me a microphone, and I feel right where I belong. Plus by then I knew I had an understanding audience.
Seriously. You. THE AUDIENCE. That was more than I—
Yeah. Holy shit.
Thanks for listening so closely and letting me do my thing. To be honest, the only part I recall clearly is people suddenly screaming, as soon as I hit one knee. Then it’s all a blur of big emotions. Thank you, thank you, thank you – to every single person who cheered and screamed for us like it was the Iwatobi Swim Club up on stage. That you were happy for us, entertained, amused, surprised, whatever you were… alksfjlkajsf!…. just that you were SUPPORTIVE and positive helped make the event extra special.
But what made it the most special was that MY BEAUTIFUL EMPEROR SAID YES.
Hey, Lelouch.
Thank you for putting up with that. You let me propose to you on stage, in crossplay. How on earth are we going to top that? I’m glad you were happy. We’re going to have an awesome life together… even if I just realized that what we did up there in character was kind of like writing a bad Geass fanfic. (Lelouch actually lives! He goes off and marries Suzaku – and he wears a dress! ROFL.) I love you.
So. What a happy ending, right? I had everything I had wanted.
Then we walked backstage, and the other Masquerade contestants started cheering and congratulating us.
Thank you so much, everyone. It means a lot that you would do that, especially knowing that some contestants take competition seriously and might not want to cheer for someone going up against them. The staff, too, caught us with congratulations as we came backstage. My god, you staff members! So caring and attentive to the needs and comfort of every contestant! Thank you for the pudding. Seriously.
That reminds me that we all got Easter eggs too, from He Who Picks Things Up And Puts Them Down. Thank you!
And Haruhi! You jumped through last-minute hoops with us, helping us organize, maneuver, assemble and disassemble that dang closet! (Also, my Dad. He came over two days before the con, just to help review that closet with us, after the four of us had gone at it and it still wasn’t 100% sturdy.)
Everyone backstage was awesome. Way to make me teary-eyed.
But wait, there’s more. The judges! I just.
To actually win something after all, after the four of us had already won all we could have wanted…. I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT HAPPENED AT THOSE AWARDS. So overwhelmed. Thank you so much. It was super cute how everyone wanted to see Lelouch’s ring. You guys were freaking adorable, and even if I was too dizzy with emotion at the time to return everyone’s smiles/eye contact/congratulations/nods… just… thank you. I want you to know that all four of us appreciate your recognition.
AND EVERY-FLIPPING-BODY KEPT THE SECRET. I don’t know how many of the judges, staff members, and technical crew knew the plan. But every single person that knew kept their lips completely sealed. That is amazing. That is just amazing.
THANK YOU.
Lastly, I’d like to mention that the 18+ Dating Game was incredible also. Yes, Mime and I applied for and participated in the Dating Game as Bowser and Haruko.
WHY did we, on top of everything? Possibly only Kamina would understand the logic behind that one.
Thank you, Snow and Dating Game staff, for choosing us as two participants. That was a totally new experience for us. Mime and I were overcome by how attentive and enthusiastic the staff and emcees were, and how generous.
Not only that, but Haruko heard the audience scream its head off the loudest for her. Even if she didn’t actually win her round, the support made her feel like she’d accomplished her mission (total entertainment, laughs, etc.). And Bowser WON his round. Can’t deny that sense of humor. Thanks for supporting him too!
So, yeah.
Cannot thank Anime Boston staff and attendees enough this year. You’re all freaking awesome.
