Adventure at Tosho-Con 2016

Hey guys! It's KpopTokki ^_^

This weekend I was able to experience my second anime convention, Tosho-con 2016 in New Jersey.

I went as an assistant for Batzy, who was one of the awesome artists in the convention's Artist Alley. Overall the convention was a good experience compared to my very little experience of anime conventions so far. There were so many nice people, especially some of the artists that I had conversations with and allowed me to video of beautiful artwork. I can see their excitement of being there and the love they shared for their amazing art!

Compared to other conventions like Otakon, Tosho-con is a fairly small and local convention. It was held inside of a library, so it was awesome to see many people who lived in the area, come and participate in the fun, even if they didn't like anime. But a good thing was that, Tosho-con prepared events and activities for all ages, so even little toddlers had a room to themselves to make awesome super hero costumes. It was nice to be in an atmosphere that was friendly towards everyone.

There were also some cool panels, unfortunately I only got to stay at one full panel, which was the Cosplay 101 panel. I've been into cosplay since Middle School, but I've never built the courage to actually do it until last year, where I cosplayed for the first time at Sakura Matsuri in Brooklyn. I was very cautious about the way I would look in certain cosplays, especially being of African-American descent, and most of the anime characters that we love are on the complete opposite skin tone spectrum from me, so that discouraged me even more. But this panel actually helped me build courage in cosplaying! Celsius was the one in control of the panel, and as an African-American, herself, she helped me build a lot of courage to cosplay whoever I want no matter the color of my skin. One thing she said that I found really inspirational was that she said to learn to cosplay for yourself and not anyone else. I felt like that built my self-esteem up to many levels (over 9000). So I want give a special thanks to Celsius for hosting an amazing panel and now I look forward to cosplaying more in the future!

Who knew you could can gain a new inspiration in life by going to such a small convention? :D

The cosplayers at the convention were just amazing! I can tell the loved what they're doing and had some true dedication to acting as their character. Shout out to the awesome Yato, who was carrying around a cardboard sign to grant any wish for 5 yen, he was hilarious (Watch Noragami if you don't know what I'm talking about). Here are some pictures of cosplayers:

I'll post more pictures on my Facebook page: KpopTokki

I think my highlight of the convention was the surprise appearance of some of my friends. Neither Batzy nor I were expecting them to come but it was great to see them and have a small reunion. And of course, once we're all together, we had to blast some K-pop at Batzy's booth and start dancing. I was surprised that when we played BTS's Fire, some people noticed and started dancing with us and started talking about KCON in New Jersey next week! Thanks to Ming, Jay, and Belle for coming to join the fun :)

The convention was amazing and I had a great time there! Thanks to the helpful staff, awesome cosplayers, and wonderful artists for making this convention enjoyable. Big thanks for Tosho-con for putting such an amazing convention together and I hope to come back have more fun next year! :)

I made a vlog of some of my experience at the convention, so be on the lookout for that!

Okay...I Give Up, I'll Watch It (Anime Edition)

Hey what's up guys? It's KpopTokki ^_^
So I have a really bad habit (not really) of when people talk about something, whether it be anime, k-pop or a movie, and they talk about it SO much that my ears want to bleed...*cough*FROZEN*cough*...(I eventually watched it though)...I don't want to watch, listen, breathe, sleep, or eat with it anymore.

I mean the person literally just annoys the hell out of you saying, "OMG you should really watch it, it's so good, it will be the best thing you ever see, (insert random character) is the coolest person and they're better than (insert favorite character)"...

I just really hate it when people do that to me because it ruins the fun for me to discover this thing on my own and create my own opinions or feelings for it. And then I feel really bad for not giving the show or whatever it is, a chance to give me pure enjoyment. So you know what....THAT STOPS NOW!

For now I will try to be patient with people and not let their spoiling of something, take away my chance to enjoy it also. So! I've decided to make a list of a few Animes that I didn't even give a chance to watch :)

1. Fairy Tail

2. Free! (both seasons)

3. Mirai Nikki (Okay, this anime is a special case compared to the other two. No one ruined this anime for me, I ruined it for myself xD Mainly because I sometimes have the attention span of a goldfish *pretty short* and I thought the 1st episode was boring and I didn't really pay attention to it)

Also I will take recommendations for good anime! ^_^

DEAN Takes Over NYC: The Ups and Downs

Hey guys! It's KpopTokki! And I'm here to talk about my whole experience at the DEAN concert that I was able to attend on June 4th.

DISCLAIMER: This is purely my opinion and experience of the concert. I can not speak for anyone else who attended to the concert and have feelings that differ from mine.

So let's begin from the battle over tickets that went on sale on May 13th (which happens to be the day before my birthday, May 14th). SIVA GROUP were the people responsible in bringing DEAN to NYC (thank you very much :D) and they had several ticket deals that fans can possibly choose. Of course, many of us wanted Meet&Greet tickets aka the Golden Ticket! But here's the catch...those tickets were very limited. So unless you were online like 2 hours before the tickets went on sale, constantly refreshing the page, and working your hands at the speed of the lighting...getting those tickets were going to be a struggle.

Luckily for my friend and I, who woke up 2 hours early and was constantly refreshing the page, was able to obtain Meet&Greet tickets to see the lovely Dean himself. I would like to call this birthday magic xD. We started jumping around and literally fangirling like this for the rest of the day:

Now jumping to June 4th, the day of the concert, my friend and I were trying to decide what time should we actually go to the venue because the day before, SIVA Group contacted fans to notify them that the venue doesn't want fans to line up hours before the concert, which was suppose to begin at 7 pm. If you're new to K-pop or Korean concerts, most fans will line up at the venue at the buttcrack of dawn just to be in the front of the line (the fan life is serious). But thankfully SIVA Group made arrangements for the fans to have a space inside the venue at 3:30 pm. But here's the downfall of that plan...

Meet&Greet ticket holders were put in a separate room, where the Meet&Greet was to occur. But that left people, who have regular admission, to go to the stage area where Dean was suppose to perform. So by the time, the Meet&Greet session was over, there was a lot of confusion among Meet&Greet ticket holders, who also had early entry.

Another down to this concert was during the Meet&Greet session. We were told that with our tickets, we were given Hi-Touch (hi five or hand shake with the artist), Photo Op in groups of 3 and early entry into the stage area. But things became chaotic when Dean entered the room. The Hi-Touch became "if you get a chance to Hi-Touch Dean after taking your photo," which many didn't get the opportunity because there was a rush to hurry up and get the next group with Dean. The groups of 3 became groups of 5 or 6 and had to squeeze together in the picture with Dean. Then when we arrived to the stage area, General Admission (or GA for short) were already up close to the stage and leaving little to no space for early entry to actually see the stage.

And then the craziness and anger of the fan start to begin:

A representative from SIVA told us that they are experiencing severe technical difficulties and that Dean didn't feel comfortable to perform with those issues. So they were able to find another venue that will allow Dean to perform. But here's the good and bad to that.

The Good:
SIVA Group didn't cancelled the concert, which I really appreciated because I was really looking forward to seeing Dean perform. And they were able to get a venue at last minute.

The Bad:
We were told that the venue was "walking distance" which was complete bs. 20 blocks in NYC isn't walking distance. Also after the announcement was made, many fans were pushing and running down the stairs to leave the venue. Also some were running through traffic, which was incredibly dangerous for them to do.

While moving to the next venue, we were also told that the concert time was going to move to 9 pm. It was about 7:00 pm when my friend and I arrived at the next location. Half of the entire block was already filled with fans, mixed with GA and Meet&Greet ticket holders. Thankfully, SIVA gave Meet&Greet people a VVIP pass, therefore it was easier for them to separate the line.

About an hour before the concert started, it started to pour rain on us! *plays DEAN's Pour It Up* Jokes aside, everyone in the line were literally soaked! My mom told me to bring an umbrella with me, but of course I was stupid and didn't listen her... But thank god that I had a hat on because if anyone of you understand the struggle of black women... rain and natural hair DO NOT mix well. Also thank goodness I already met Dean because I didn't want him to see me as a disgusting little wet puppy. But the staff were nice enough to get us plastic bags and cardboard to cover us in the rain. I would also like to thank the staff for keeping the line in order as much as possible. Especially when certain people tried to jump the line, there was a staff member who said she will make sure that person goes to the back of the line if anyone jumps the line. And for that, I applaud her

We were finally let inside the venue, a few minutes after 9 pm. Despite all the problem that occur with certain fans, I actually really enjoyed myself. Also note to tall people, whether you listen or not, why not let short people in front of you, you can see over us anyways. I'm 4'11, literally anyone can see above me. So please do me a favor and not stand in front of short people! Thank you... Moving on, before Dean came out there were 2 opening acts. We were told about the first opening,which was Milan from the Korean Hip Hop Survival show, Show Me The Money 5. He literally gave me life when he was rapping. I especially loved when he started rapping to Zico's 'I Am You You Are Me.' But the second opening was some random guy that I didn't know (or was even Korean related, I think) so even though, his performance was okay, I found it as a waste of time. The time he was performing, Dean could've been on stage performing instead.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take pictures of Dean because it was too crowded and wild to take any good pictures. But I was able to take some okay videos of the performance, with some minor blockage by some tall people >_> Dean wasn't able to perform as many songs as I hope he would've but overall it was still a great concert. Dean has a beautiful voice and the way he handles to the crowd and feeds off their energy was far superior compared to other concerts I've been to.

I might put up some of those videos on my Facebook Page, KpopTokki https://www.facebook.com/KpopTokki/

EXO Exploding The Hearts and Heads of Fangirls With Their Latest Comeback 'Monster'

The boys who captured the hearts of many EXO-L and K-pop fans around the world, are back with their latest songs, 'Monster' and 'Lucky One.'

Hey guys! It's KpopTokki and I'm here to give my reaction/review of EXO's comeback! Now I'm not an EXO-L but I respect EXO's music and therefore I will give my most unbias reaction/review as possible :D

Okay! I will only be giving my reaction for 'Monster' in this post. So... at the beginning of the music video, you see the lovely boys of EXO gathered together and already looking like they're about to rip out the hearts of many fangirls. Then that beat dropped... And my reaction is already like "okay o.o.....this is not the EXO I'm used to" *continues watching music video*

The music video just started but Kai and Baekhyun looks like they are about to devour my soul...

Vocals are already on point and I can't help but just melt away by D.O's sweet voice~ I've always favored Chen and D.O's vocals so I'm not surprised when they immediately caught my attention.

Before listening to this song, I was thinking of possible concepts that EXO might be trying to go for with 'Monster.' Were they literally going to be monsters? or is it just figuratively? But from what I saw throughout the music video was just EXO looking like they were in several gang fights before shooting the music video.

Also can we just take a minute to look at this scene:

This scene reminds me a lot of Alice in Wonderland, sitting at the MadHatter's table. So this kind of confused me a bit of what kind of concept they were going for. But then again...I could be overanalyzing it XD

Now let's jump to MY favorite part of the whole music video and it was truly unexpected for me...

WHO IS THIS PERSON?!! IS THAT REALLY SUHO? THE LOVING MOTHER OF EXO? SINCE WHEN CAN HE DO MOVES LIKE THAT?? Suho was literally the MVP of this music video for me... My reaction was just like:

Besides that I thought this comeback was really good and I really like the dance. I think EXO should stick with dark concepts because they look great doing it. But I'm being biased because I like dark concepts from any group XD.

Anyways guys, this was my reaction/review! Sorry it was so short, this is my first time doing this kind of stuff but I hope in the future that I will get better at this and have you guys to support me!

Thanks for reading! ^_^ Tokki Out!