It’s time to talk about another convention in Birmingham~
On Saturday 18th November 2017, I made the trip down to Birmingham for the last MCM convention of the year. Like the convention back in March, it was held in the National Exhibiton Centre (the NEC) and, just like last time, I made the trip down there with members from my univeristy’s Anime Society.
Usually for conventions, I don’t get much sleep, but this year I didn’t sleep a wink. I just wasn’t tired enough. I did try to get some sleep because I knew the day would be so busy, but each attempt of getting sleep simply failed. Regardless, I got out of bed at about 3:30 in the morning and began getting ready for the convention, this time transforming into Danganronpa V3′s Miu Iruma. (A post about the cosplay itself will be up soon, I promise!) I had my housemate help me with the harnesses that were involved, quickly styled his hair and we were out the house for 6:15, hair, make-up and, for the most part, costumes done. Upon meeting up with everyone else, I could see others in cosplay – Yang Xiao Long (RWBY) made a return, but there was also Boku no Hero Acadaemia and, of course, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure cosplays with a sprinkle of Disney here and there. We were on our way to Brimingham before we knew it and, with a service stop on the way, everyone was fed and watered for the day ahead.
Once we navigated our ways to the right halls at the NEC and got our hands stamped, the first stop we had was the Cosplay Desk. Nothing too major – I just needed some more safety pins to hold the harnesses together (this is a mess that I’ll explain in my future cosplay post) but it felt really weird to do this. I usually asosciate the Cosplay Desk at MCM for the really big cosplays and, if I’m honest, I felt a little anxious at this point of the convention. I don’t entirely know why, but that’s a hurdle I soon got over by just walking around the convention itself.
Personally, I found the layout of the convention to be (once again) a little awkward. It was spread over three halls, which was great, sure, but it was a little bit all over the place with some stalls hidden behind the signings that we didn’t actually find until the last half an hour of the convention. It beats the Tetris block shape that we had last time, but it still wasn’t ideal.
Again, like last time, we walked around and did some shopping, just generally killing time before the Danganronpa fan meet. And, oh boy. What a fan meet it was. There were easily 40-50 of us there, if not more, and it was a pleasure to actually help run it – even if me and my friends did feel bad for taking over slightly (the original organisers were late and didn’t stay too long, unfortunately). Everyone was super nice and we all had a good time as usual and we managed to get a loads of photos!
It was during the photo session that we were approached by a lovely woman and a man with a camera. These were to be from The 86th Floor who call themselves “the home of soundtracks for the passionate fan”. They asked if we wanted to be involved in a cosplay music video (CMV) to which everyone agreed to take part in and they did an amazing job. Whilst directing they were super nice, funny and friendly and we all felt really relaxed whilst filming, something I feel is quite unusual for it being mine (amongst many others’) first time being involved in something like this! The song they chose for the CMV was Running by Shibuya Sunrise and the video itself features cosplayers from Pirates of the Carribean, Final Fantasy, Rick & Morty, Batman and Overwatch so there’s definitely a wide variety involved! You can watch it below and see how many you can recognise! (The song is pretty catchy, though!)
After the fan meet, we went back and did some more shopping around (sadly this time none of the guests really interested me too much to warrant spending ~£20 on an autograph!). I managed to spend within my very small budget of £50 this time – a lot better than the last convention I went to! I bought a cute My Neighbour Totoro plushie, some panda stickers (because- stationery) and some badges from Tofu Cute, a tiny Hetalia figure and, of course, a Danganronpa V3 keychain!
Making our way to a meeting point after the convention, I was barely able to walk and yet still had to ensure every member of the Society was back on the coach – we didn’t want to leave anyone in Birmingham when we were going to be over 100 miles away! Thankfully, this went incredibly smoothly and everyone managed to get home in one piece. Their bank accounts, however…
This post was written as the second installment in my #12DaysOfAnime posts! #12DaysOfAnime is a challenge taken on by loads of anime bloggers, vloggers, podcasters and other people on many different platforms. We just have to post twelve consecutive posts about anything anime-related for the twelve days leading up to Christmas!
Keep an eye out for my other posts that will be a part of the #12DaysOfAnime Challenge! These will cover a variety of topics such as anime reviews, conventions and much more, so there’s going to be something a little different every day!
Hope to see you around!
