NoBrand Con is a small convention in Eau Claire, Wisconsin put on by the
UW Eau Claire's Anime club. It is not only an Anime convention, but
a Scifi and gaming convention as well, although it was light on the scifi.
It was here that the Gung Ho Otaku made their second appearance as characters
from the fan-made video fight game, Glove-On Fight. The idea came
to us over party drinks and a session of the game at the Anime Club's Halloween
party and we ran with it.
I appeared as Dijiko from Digi Charat. This costume presented a number of challenges. First was the hair. I could find no wig the right color, so I made a circlet of strands of green yarn and cut it to the right length. That circlet was then sewn to the inside of the hat. Second was finding the bells. This was achieved by looking in craft stores around Christmas time and finding the biggest darn bells that I could. Of course, they had the ringer peas in them, so I solved the "going deaf problem" by stuffing them full of kleenex. The pinafore was achieved through the use of a pattern, as was the blue shirt. The skirt consisted of a large "tube" of blue fabric gathered at one end by elastic. Under the skirt, a slip of bridal toole was used to puff it up. The boots were nothing more than a pair of white spats to cover my shoes. The Gema-Gema in the picture is actually a purse, made from scraps of yellow fabric from my Milly Thompson costume. Eight wedges were used to make the sphere shape and a bag was sewn to the inside. The layer between was stuffed with fiberfill to hold the spherical shape. The arms were made by stitching black yarn to the sphere and to two small disks of yellow fabric. The face was then drawn onto the sphere with red and black Sharpies. The final challenge came when I went to put on the costume. The hat was not big enough to hide my real hair under it, so I stuck my pony tail down the back of my shirt and let the green yarn cover the rest. Luckily, it worked, or Dijiko would have had a blond tail. ^_^;
