Reality’s Mirror

Well I guess it’s about time I wrote about my weekend at Polymanga which was held from the 3rd to the 5th of April 2010 in Beaulieu, Lausanne. I wasn’t able to take pictures, because I was cosplaying for the first time of my life!

Pedobear Polymanga 2010

It all started at Japan Impact (my previous article), where I took several pictures and met a couple of cosplayers. During the event, the idea of making my own cosplay crossed my mind, and after a couple of discutions, pedobear seemed like the perfect choice! We were neither drunk, nor high, we just came to the conclusion that me cosplaying pedobear would be kinda perfect.
One problem is that I had no memory of my sewing lessons from back when I was 7-8 years old, and had no sewing machine, but thought it would be fun to make something, even if badly done. Pedobear being a uniform brown costume with a mask seemed doable, especially in the short time I had available (less than a month, during which I also happened to move).

Pedobear and Pikachu

Thus started my quest to make a pedobear costume. I bought the material (tissue, stuff for making the head, needles, thread, etc) for about 150 CHF, and started sewing like there was no tomorrow. The model for the pieces of the body were too small, which I realised only once everything was put together, so I started making a great big mess of my costume to make it bigger. I had the tissue going up my balls and ass because I was too tall for it, and trying to bend down turned out to be… a very painful experience. Anyway, I did what I could, and had to do several chaotic tries to finally get into my costume without it breaking apart as soon as I would try to move in it. Next up was the head, which was a nightmare to make, because I had absolutely no idea how to cut/glue/attach/transform my material into a pedobear head! Somehow I managed to make it look somewhat like the original (as long as you looked from in front), and was finally set for the big event (aka: next morning!)

Pedobear and Friends

So off I was, driving to Polymanga with a pedobear costume in the back of my car. Good thing I wasn’t stopped at the customs (was at my fathers in France during that weekend), I don’t know how I could have explained “I’m going to a party disguised as a paedophile bear”. I had my Pikachu friend buy my ticket since he was there early, so I didn’t have to wait for ages to get in. I started off the first hour or so of the event in civilian, checking out where things were, finding my friends at Omusubi, and basically just scouting, until I decided to go and get my costume. Walking from the parking to the event, with the giant queue in line waiting for tickets suddenly looking in my direction made my heart race like it never raced before. “Will they recognise my cosplay? Will they get the joke? Will someone punch me in the face?” Such questions were rushing through my mind at the time, until I joined up on Pikachu which hopefully helped relieve the stress and the anxiety.

No one can stop pedobear from kidnapping lolies!

The rest of the 3 days were just… amazing. I initially planned to only go a day or two, but the whole experience was so thrilling that I finally went all three days. I usually go to these events as a spectator, not an animator, so it was really incredible to be the centre of attention for once. Many people got my cosplay (maybe too much, especially little lolis), and many liked it and figuratively took their hats off to me for pulling it off. After a couple of hours, I started to really get into my cosplay character and chased kids around, hugged random people who recognised my costume, and basically had a blast. Some great moments involved some of the organisers asking me to race some guys while they were filming. The pics don’t show it, but my vision was really limited (I couldn’t see under ~1m50), so when they asked me to chase someone rushing down the stairs, I was sceptic, but it was fun.

Pedobear's new prey!

The most… well let’s say interesting (and tiring) day was the last. By then I had made many acquaintances, so I could hang around people (when not harassed by Thai lolies chasing me around the place). Everything was fine until I got mixed up in a giant “catapillar”, where I was put in front. We went around the whole complex twice, grabbing more lolies each meter. But a video is probably worth a thousand words.

Yeah, pedobear leading lolies to his car! I was forced into this, and was absolutely covered in sweat from head to toe by the end of this madness. The good side is that I managed to lose about 3 kg during the weekend!

Anyway, it was such a great experience being on the “actor” side of the event, I can’t help but look forward to the next event in the sorts. Until then, I must think of a new cosplay, heh. Maybe Reimu from Touhou? Or even better, Haruhi for the lulz, or Yoko for the WTFs

Pedobear and his lolies

admin otaku, sorties Pedobear, Polymanga 2010