Nippori 2023 - A speed visit in a neighbor town con!

Hello everyone!

Time for another con summary! After this there´s still Matsucon's summary to come and the con season of 2024 is about to start so... Yeah, I'm late. Not even trying to come up with explanations at this point. But let's get rolling!
(As per usual, all pictures in this post © Shiro Samurai.)

Nippori 2023 library part program poster.

 

Nippori is the traditional library con of Satakunta; the first one was arranged over 10 years ago so yeah, it's been a long time since the first Nippori event came to existence! The name itself has a fun double meaning; it's a combination of Nippon and Pori, the latter being the town the con was held at. However, it's also a "Fabric Town" in Tokyo (knowledge source Wikipedia) - and if this is a coincidence it's quite funny one since fabrics are quite essential part of cosplaying after all!
I had had an interest to go to Nippori for a few years but never felt comfortable going alone. This has nothing to do with the con; it has a lot more to do with the fact that I don't like to be in big groups just by myself and get anxious pretty easily if that happens. So my con company this time consisted of Shiro Samurai, my (now former) colleague Katriina and her two children!

I would also like to say this at this point: even though I was one of the main organizers of Mericon I didn't visit Nippori to walk all over it and stomp it to the ground. I went there driven by my curiosity and con hype, not to compare the two events - it would have been stupid to do so since even though both are small library cons in Satakunta they are still two totally different events. Thank you.

Nippori was a one day event and this time the date was 23rd of September in 2023 - Saturday. "Was" because in 2024 it will be a two day event - if I happen to be in the Western Finland then I will surely check it out!
Our Saturday morning was... Hectic. I can't describe it any other way. It was very hectic and stressful and, eventually, I didn't even have time to put my cosplay on so I went casual (which felt a bit bad at the time but eventually turned out to be the best solution in, like, forever). Shiro Samurai was cosplaying his original version of the Vocaloid idol Gackpoid, also known as Gakupo Kamui.

We left my apartment in quite a hurry since we were already a bit late. I had texted Katriina that it would take us about ten extra minutes to get to Rauma's Prisma - or rather, its parking lot - but luckily it didn't take much longer than that. There we hopped to Katriina's car (and played a bit of a human Tetris to make everyone as comfortable as possible) and begun to drive towards our destination. For those who don't know: it takes about 40-45 minutes to drive from Rauma to Pori.
Once in Pori we sought for a good parking spot for a while until we found one fairly close to the library. At this point I must mention that Nippori is actually held in two buildings; the first part of the con happens at Pori's main library (or at least happened since they are going to renovate at least some parts of the building - ABOUT TIME) and the second part at the local youth center. 

 

A couple of pictures from the library lobby.

When we arrived at the library there wasn't that much of con time there left so we basically quickly checked the Artists' Alley (talk about a shitty air quality - then again it couldn't be helped because of reasons), bought some stuff and then exited the library. Yeah, we didn't have too much time to spend there; would have had a bit more if the queue at the Artists' Alley wouldn't have been so slow but well, a big mass of people and a narrow corridor don't go together too well.
What I noticed though was that the atmosphere and amount of decoration was pretty much the same as it was in Sastamala - it was very clear we were at a library and tbh I like it when it shows (even though I wanted a lot of decorations to Mericon but happened to find ones that fit the theme so yeah). Probably because I'm a librarian lol but anyway. Library is one of the very few institutions that isn't based on spending money and is actually open to anyone so I think it's important in these kind of events that people can still recognize that hey, it's still a library. I don't know if anyone gets my point here but let's make it simply stupid: people might even want to come to the library once they've been there during an event. Unfortunately libraries aren't that popular among the young people so yeah, events like this are one way to get more customers of that group.

Of course there was a lot of manga...

...and art made by (supposedly) young artists!

A spot for relaxing and hanging out with your friends!

After the Artists' Alley speed run and a shitty encounter with local youngsters, won't go into details since Shiro Samurai explained this in detail in his blog we begun to walk towards the youth center - which was located at least a kilometer away. I had no idea the distance would be so great - and by "great" I mean "probably not too nice to walk in a costume likely with shoes that don't fit properly". However, we got there (even though I think none of us really had any con hype left at that point) and checked the program. I would have wanted to see the Final Fantasy panel but... We would have had to wait for several hours so yeah, had to skip it.
The cosplay competition would have also interested me but it was held even later than the Final Fantasy panel which kind of gives the feeling that this is meant to be a local event in which people can hang out pretty late. This is kind of understandable tho; even though Nippori has been gaining more visitors year by year it still counts as a small, local con.

Instead of checking out any actual program I spent a bit too much money at the Merchants' Hall. Still no regrets. 

The very crowded lobby of the youth center.

Merchants' Hall that was crowded most of the time.

 

We also bumped into Gure who also speed-visited the con; she happened to be nearby and wanted to check it out so yeah, Shiro Samurai and I hung out with her for a while until Katriina and her children were ready to leave.

So... Yeah. I... Really don't have that much more to say about Nippori since we were in kind of hurry. However, I would really like to check this event out with some more time in my hands; I definitely don't feel like I would've seen the whole potential of the event. So yeah, if I can synchronize my vacations with Nippori in the future I will certainly attend it again!
Library cons need more love. Seriously. 

So that's all for now, folks! My Mericon post was a huge one so I hope this one wasn't that heavy to read.
Next up: likely a Matsucon summary - except if I drop yet another lens review in between these summaries!
(And yeah, unfortunately no con loot post this time even though I bought a lot of stuff. Have a blooper pic of Shiro Samurai's Gakupo wig instead; this happened when I was re-braiding it and I had to take a pic lol, sorry about the phone quality.)

Hello there, DNA! eiku

 

Until next time.

- Firith