Photo: Zatzai

This year's Comikaze Expo was definitely one for the books. Like many other con-goers, I am especially exhausted from a fun and tiring weekend of taking pictures, meeting new friends, and geeking out with my fellow nerd-o's. Our line-up this year was:

Friday // Nick and Ellis, Left 4 Dead 2
Saturday // Manolo Sanchez and Maria Posada, The Book of Life

Not debuting a new cosplay certainly adds a noticeable amount of sleep to your con schedule, as we only added one modification to our cosplays this con. In honor of Dia de los Muertos overlapping with Comikaze, we decided a perfect addition to our Book of Life cosplays were sugar skull makeup and beautiful, marigold flower crowns (very fitting given the theme of the movie)! Showcasing our heritage while looking awesome? Perf. We chose marigolds because of their significance on the Day of the Dead, as their strong scent is thought to help guide our loved ones from the afterlife back home to their respective alters and family members.

I used the Mehron Paradise Paints palate to create a simple sugar skull look, and used a black eyeshadow to create contours throughout the face. Emphasizing depth is especially important, keeping in mind that cameras tend to flatten the plane of the face. Using a luminizing primer (to add additional depth and highlight) and baby powder as a translucent finishing powder also helped keep the makeup completely crease-free throughout the entirety of the day! The red and yellow eye-accents were chosen according to each of our character's color palettes, and then swapped to compliment each other. I really enjoyed how it made our costumes seem more like a complete pair.

In all, I think myself and scriptgiant were pleasantly surprised with the reactions we got from most of the con-goers! The Valve gathering was fun and dorky as usual, but I was especially grateful for the positive response we received for our Dia de los Muertos-inspired additions.

Photo: Ron Z Photography

Cosplays aside, the true highlight of this weekend was how our entire group of six people got trapped inside a parking garage.

I wish I was kidding, folks- but it's possible. Long story short- we come back from eating a wonderful meal at Manichi ramen and drinking Coco's milk tea and boba at around 11:30pm, find that the garage doors have been closed, and we proceeded to freak out. After the reality of the situation finally sunk in, I called a representative of Joe's Parking Garage in Little Tokyo, the rep (Lily) said that no one would be able to get out cars out, we called the police, they said they could do literally nothing (wow thanks for that). We then realized that one of the doors were open, so we ran inside, debated calling for Domino's pizza as we now had to wait until 6:30am for someone to open the garage doors, and then decided to take an Uber to the nearest Denny's.

The entire place reeked of urine, the paper-towel covered restroom had a mailbox for a trashcan, the sink was just completely broken as the faucet quite literally was not attached. We return to the table only to find out that a man one booth over proceeded to touch himself, to which I visibly saw one of my friends snap. We quickly left the restaurant, and spent the next two hours in a nearby hotel lobby until about 15 minutes before the garage was supposed to 'open',

Not only was the garage door on a timer and opened at exactly 6:30am, but we were unable to get past the gate that would only lift up with a valid ticket given by the attendant, who -of course- was not present. Just a complete lack of human sympathy here, people. We had to literally risk the lives of our new friends (all of which we had just spent a full 24 hours in half cosplay with) and get them to pile onto the censor, which lifted the gate, and allowed our cars to roar past and into sweet, sweet freedom. We had survived.

So, was Comikaze still and incredibly fun time? Of course it was! I had an awesome time and loved getting to wear some of my favorite cosplays and spending time with my beloved con friends. If we happened to run into one another, let me know in the comments section below! Stay tuned for another very belated Recap post!