Another year of Manifest, and the crowds just keep getting bigger and larger. As for the queues? LONG! *_* I'm really happy to say that I got to attend both days this year! It was finally nice to see what Manifest on a Sunday was like.
Saturday
This year I decided to put on the majority of my costume before I turned up for Manifest, just because since there was no
Keiji to keep me company in the bathroom as I changed, and it just feels strange to be changing on your own while the other girls chatter on about how fanboys keep attacking them ^^; I decided to wear contacts this year for a change, and was happy I did so thanks to the rain. I also sprayed my hair brown since I couldn't find a suitable wig for the day.
Late as usual, I was suppose to leave the house at 8:30, but since I had just woken up at 8 I eventually left the house at 9, forcing
Tobias,
Nils and Muneera to wait at Tobias' house.
After picking up Tobias & co, I drove down to Melbourne Uni and was quite happy to find a parking spot so close to the convention site.
Unfortunately this year Manifest didn't seem to be so organised, and the queues were painfully long, Tobias and I were stuck in one for at least half an hour, even after we had pre-registered months in advanced. Atleast the crowd control people seemed funny, I remember seeing one of them obsessed over how the space infront of the queue had disappeared? *lol* He kept going, "The space! THE SPACE!!", such a strange, but entertaining man!
While in the queue I saw
Geoffrey, and this cute girlfriend Jess. She was such a sweetie, I love her already. I'm so happy for the two of them.
After the long wait, I rushed off down stairs only to be faced with more crowd control. However, I fortunately met a new friend of mine, Setsuna, who was part of the Manifest volunteer group. Once I was let down stairs I went off to the bathroom to put on the finishing touches to my costume.
I spent a lot of time walking around the dealer's rooms, checking out the merchandise. I got to meet one of my friends from the Japan Book Plaza, she was so sweet to take a photo with me. This year I had brought a substantial amount of money with me, with the intention to buy lots this year, but I ended up purchasing a small keychain worth $4.00 throughout the entirety of Manifest, how disappointing on my behalf.
Time passed quickly, with many people asking for my photograph, it's a great feeling to pose for photographer, but it certainly feels very strange as well since I'm the one usually on the other side of the camera. It was quite the confidence booster to be considered that desirable by so many different cameras.
Once 12:30pm rolled around, Setsuna helped me get front seats to the cosplay competition. As volunteer Setsuna was able to get me special seats for both days of the cosplay competition, and I was given the handsome title of photographer. How grand~
After the competition ended, I spent almost an hour searching the buildings for Tobias who wasn't too keen on watching cosplayers (despite the fact I love cosplaying!). During my search I was happy to re-encounter Andy, a good friend at Uni whom is also a big fan of anime. Soon after I ran into Waffles, who was so sweet to have bought me cute Mint merchandise from Japan during this last trip! Once we found Tobias, the four of us headed over to the pizza shop for a late lunch.
I was so happy to see
Mary, Gab,
Joey and Yuki~ Mary and Gab looked so adorable in their matching costume, and their unique nature to constantly be in a world of their very own added to it. Joey was dressed up in a "Lolita" kind of costume, a matching pair for Waffle's costume. Both very gothic and stunning~ As for Yuki, he was his bishie self as always, some things never change.
I also encountered Mai and her boyfriend Matt! It was so great to see her again after so many years (Mai is my old high school friend). She looked so happy, and Matt was so tall!
We found ourselves at Manifest's Idol, which is very similar to Australian Idol, only funny and at times painful to listen to. I was really blown away by a Japanese girl who sung one of the last few songs; she had such a good voice and was able to pronounce the lyrics perfectly. I adored her!
5:00pm was soon upon us and it was time to leave, thanks to a 21st birthday I was due at shortly after. After my goodbyes, I dropped Nils and Muneera off at the train station, and Tobias and I were off to the party and for some late night clubbing.
Sunday
The next morning I woke up at 11am! I simply could not help it, I had been dancing in very high heels for hours on end, with smoke and loud music blasting in my ears the night before, I simply could not face the world any earlier. Even Tobias struggled to drag me out of bed.
Once out, we were both off to Manifest again, mainly to take Setsuna out and for the cosplay competition. I soon arrived at the cosplay competition and told the lady that I needed to get inside because I was a photographer for one of the Manifest committee members, but instead I don't think she believed me and tried to push we off onto the end of the queue! I really thought that was quiet rude, she didn't even listen to what I was saying to her, lucky Setsuna spotted me and re-introduced me to the lady (I had met her yesterday, she seemed to have forgotten about me) and she apologised, so all was well.
After that, I spent an hour in the dealer's rooms searching desperately for gifts I could send over to Yoshe~ It was her birthday only a week ago. I'm happy to say I did find some really cute items for her! *^^* After that I treated both Setsuna and Tobias to lunch and ice cream at the Docklands. I love it there, after so many years I'm still not sick of it. Once lunch was often I dropped Setsuna back at Manifest since Setsuna was due to help clean up after Manifest finished, and I drove Tobias and I back home.
I was sad that I didn't get to see Joey, Waffles, Yuki, Mary or Gab again today! I think they slept in too late to make it personally, but atleast I got to see them on Saturday.
My final thought? It wasn't as great as last year, just because Yoshe wasn't there. Surprising how much one person can affect your life, ne? I also hated the weather, it was so cold and rainy on Saturday, at least Sunday was much better weather wise. The queues were evil too, I probably spent half the time waiting in queues, it would be so wondering if Manifest was re-located somewhere else next year, maybe even the Melbourne Exhibition centre? That place is huge! I'm looking forward to Manifest 2005 already~ *^^*
Photos
Saturday
