2025 Summer Recap

Final Year and Seraph Syndrome

In May, I finished up with my final year of Uni! Despite having such a crazy busy year, I managed to submit all of my assignments on time! During my final year, I had to travel for conventions nearly every month. The school year started off with MCM London, Y/Con, ThoughtBubble, and MCM Birmingham, and in between it all I had presentations and deadlines for uni. On top of it all, we had a new comic to work on which we wanted to debut at ThoughtBubble. I was struggling pretty badly to juggle being a full time artist, paying rent, moving house, and working on my visual novel + finishing uni. By the time May came around I was completely strung out. But I did it!! I submitted a fully finished, coloured animation, a demo for my visual novel, and all my other assignments!!!! Before leaving for Dokomi, I had to set up a display for my end of year show. I unfortunately had to miss the end of year show because of Dokomi, but my friends told me my work was really well received!

Dokomi 2025 (6-8 June)

Pretty much straight after finishing my uni deadlines, I went straight to Dokomi. I didn't get accepted at first (for the third time in a row lmao) but my friend K (shockpinkrosary) was really kind to share their booth in the 18+ area with me! They had a large booth with 2 tables.

Honestly, coming up to Dokomi this year, I considered pulling out of it. It's one of my favourite conventions to attend, but I was so exhausted and really not in a good place mentally. I was super stressed out about the fact I hadn't made any new merch in months as well - majority of my time drawing had been spent on uni work, so my stock for this year was not too different to last year. I was just getting in my head about it and feeling like my booth would look shit and that I'd look like I put in no effort. But everything had already been paid for, and my girlfriend convinced me to power through.

Dokomi is usually a super social convention for me, I love going to the rave with friends and meeting different friends for dinner every evening. I love getting to see my friends in mainland Europe who I don't get to see as often, and usually I'd have a friend take care of my booth for some time so I can enjoy some of the conventions events. This year though, I kept things very lowkey. I didn't go out with any large groups of friends, I mostly just stuck with my girlfriend Sarah after the con. Even at the rave, it was just the two of us, and we didn't stay for the whole thing.

We did meet up with our friend Komo for hot pot though !!

It's always fun going to dinner after conventions to see which little meow meows people bring out at the table. I got this little Gumi plushie from Internet Co just a couple of weeks before going to Dokomi. I pre-ordered her just cuz I collect everything Gumi, I thought she was a little bit weird looking. But the moment she arrived I became so enamoured with her. I took her everywhere with me during the summer. Sarah brought the little fella from Roses and Champagne (which I haven't read) and Komo brought Oosaki and Shimbashi from Ooe (which I have played fully now, but I had only gotten through Ariake's routes at this stage). Even though I wasn't feeling great over the weekend, fujoing out with friends was good for the soul...

The con overall was fun, but in terms of sales, I didn't do as well in the 18+ area compared to being in the regular artist alley. Last year was my busiest Dokomi ever, and this year didn't quite match it. It was still very good; my NSFW works were well received, I was able to have them out fully on display. All of our comics sold out completely, which was great. But I really didn't feel I had enough 18+ work to justify being there, and I had so little new stock compared to last year.

Even if a convention isn't crazy money wise, though, it's always worth going to meet fellow fans and see my friends who I don't get to see often.

It's also super refreshing and inspiring going to cons like Dokomi. Conventions in Ireland and the UK are largely corporate, and can be a little bit soul draining at times. There are a lot of grifters in the artist alley scene and people who aren't really passionate about fandom,just drawing whatever stuff is popular or they think will make money, and you see a good bit of tracing and even AI slop now. People are also much more prude and weird about NSFW artwork, and will make weird or rude comments or mock NSFW artists pretty often. That's not to say the convention scene is bad at all - there are lots of indie cons run by colleges that are amazing, and especially in Ireland there is an insane amount of talent for a small country. But it is very nice to go to Dokomi and see passionate artists from all corners of the globe, and being able to see people freely displaying their NSFW artwork. I was so burnt out from working on my uni project for so many months, it really made me inspired to create again.

Like where else could I get something like this?

Sometimes I see merch and I'm like "DAMN! I wish I thought of that first!!!". These stickers are scratch and sniff. You scratch their ass and it smells good. There are some people in Ireland that might want to kill me if I made something like this. I really want to create something inspired by these though!

This was everything I got in the end! Most of it is from trades, I was pretty broke this summer so I didn't really do a lot of shopping. I did splash out on this beautiful hand printed zine by Moosaic though (top left)! They had a limited amount, so the moment I had earned €80 I got a friend to take care of my booth and ran to get it.

On Monday then, we returned home to Belfast, because our next con was 5 days away and practically at our doorstep!

Q Con (14-15 June)

QCon in Belfast has been one of my favourite conventions in Ireland for a long time! I have done artist alley every year since like, 2018? It's always a really fun time and since it's in my home country, so many of my friends are there. This year, we also invited our friend Cley to visit from France! I'm always looking for an excuse for my friends to come over and visit, so I told them to apply the moment applications went up hahaha

Q Con this year was... Interesting... I honestly was not super chatty or energetic at it either. Maybe because I still hadn't recovered from uni and Dokomi and was exhausted? A lot of other personal stuff had been happening which was stressing me out too. But what definitely didn't help... Was the con layout... I had never been so squished in my life in artist alley. I'm pretty forgiving for college run cons, but there were way too many artists squeezed into a small room to the point where it was dangerous. I was in the middle between Sarah and Cley, and 3 artists were behind us also. Except, the artist behind me wasn't exactly behind me - our tables were squished so close together that I was sitting beside the person behind me. And once I sat down, that was it - I couldn't get up and leave without making like 4 other people move. It was really really uncomfortable and I spent all my time at the con excited for it to end, which was a shame because I really do love this event.

Even though the convention itself was tough to be at though, I had lots of fun with my friends! On the Saturday after the con, we had a bunch of friends over to hang out at our place and we played smash or pass. Basically I just make everyone fill in characters they wanna fuck in a form and then make a powerpoint presentation of them all and people yell at their favs.

The highlight of Q Con for me was having Cley over and showing them around Belfast! It was fun being a tourist in my own city and going to the Titanic Museum, going to restaurants, seeing the salmon of knowledge. We went to the fancy cinema to watch Final Destination, bought blind boxes in HMV, went to Fresh Garbage to get emo clothes, watched my shitty old DVD of Peter Jackson's Braindead - it was like being an emo teenager again. We also went to my uni so I could finally check out the end of year show before it closed up!

My heart is so full from time with friends!

Sunnycon (27-29 June)

This year I attended Sunnycon for the first time! It's one I've seen praised a lot by UK congoers, so I was excited to check it out!

The entire leadup to this con... Was very stressful lol. Sorry it seems like I've only been complaining in this blog post about how stressful this summer was. But omfg. The moment Cley headed home, me and Sarah got to work deep cleaning out old house - our lease was up on the Friday and we had a lot of stuff to clean and move, and we wanted our deposit back!! So straight away we spent the whole week cleaning and cleaning and going back and forth between houses. On top of it all, I had to go into Uni that week to take down my display and take it home, plus we had to do our con prep for Sunnycon. I make some of my stickers, and all of my badges, from home by hand. So it was just non stop work. We were cleaning that old house right up until the Thursday afternoon - our flight was at like 10pm that night - so it was a rush to pack and press badges. And then!!! To top it all off!!! The guy at the airport was being really weird to me about my baggage. My suitcase was caught in security, and usually they'd just search it? But this guy sent it through again. And it got caught by the scanner again. So he was like 🤨 what's in your bag? And I was like... "I dunno, clothes, a hair straightener maybe?". And he said "Did you pack it? You should know what's in it". And I was like !! IDK!! SORRY I'VE HAD A STRESSFUL TIME AND DONT KNOW EXACTLY WHAT'S IN WHICH SUITCASE!! Anyways he eventually did search it and I had me and Sarah's comics in the front pocket of the suitcase... this comic... Not only did he look through every page of the comic, he looked through every page of ever COPY of the comic... PEVERT!!!!!! Anyway that pissed me off lol. But eventually we got to Newcastle and got to our hotel and I played Ooe for the rest of the night.

The convention started on the Friday then! It was fun! The attendees were super nice, and I had a good few friends tabling there too who I got to chat with!

It was really nice to go get dinner with my friend Nat (NatalieHaku)! I don't do many UK cons so it's always really nice to get the chance to see her. I love meeting people who are as obsessed with Vocaloid as I am because I can just yap and yap and yap... Like everyone likes Vocaloid. But I. LOVE!!! VOCALOID!!!!! Nat got to see the Blooming tour - the First show of the blooming tour, Teto's FIRST time performing with Miku at a CFM concert like that, so I was just grilling her for information so I could live through her lol.

I mostly had a chill time at the con though and stuck with Sarah. We were so tired we would just go get dinner then hang in our room and Sarah would scroll on her phone while I played Ooe. Most of my memories of that weekend are me lying on the bed playing Ooe in my underwear.

Our hotel was super close to the Chinatown area, so we were sorted for food at least!

One of the restaurants we ate at had a lot of toys in the front window, it was so cute.

Sunnycon was fun! But I don't think I will go to it again for next year. June was so packed and busy, while I liked the con, I think the time would have been better spent resting or drawing new stuff for the bigger cons I had coming up. We flew home on the Monday morning, had a nap, and then went straight to the cinema with my friends lol. I wanna bring it up cuz it was a really cool screening in my city focused on internet horror!

I had seen pretty much everything before aside from some of the Atraxia entries. It was great to see them all on the big screen! No Through Road and My House Walkthrough were definitely my favourites though. The creator of My House Walkthrough was super excited about having his work shown in a cinema, we all hyped him up on twitter afterwards and he followed us back haha. I hope he knows he has friends in Ireland...

Japan Expo (3-6 July)

Next up was another big event, Japan Expo in Paris!

So... Japan Expo is a difficult convention. It's very difficult to apply to - they are VERY strict, and require a lot of paperwork and personal information. They're so anal about their paperwork, I ended up without an exhibitor pass for Sarah by mistake so I had to go and buy a normal attendee ticket and we took turns using it.

We had 2 days between coming home from Sunnycon on Monday, then traveling to Paris on Thursday. We were absolutely exhausted. When we got to our hotel, we couldn't check in yet, either, so we had to nap in the lobby. I was so tired and gross and stinky. And then while I was trying to nap, Sarah kicked me and pointed behind me. There was a guy wearing a Junji Ito shirt and then I noticed that it was fucking Junji Ito who was standing there. He was the guest of honour for the con but turned out we were sharing a hotel! He ended up sitting beside us while Sarah was cutting out stickers of Cloud Strife as a catboy, and I was drawing pics of Shimbashi from Ooe... I was too scared to say anything cuz I didn't wanna be annoying though. I WISH I DID THOUGH!!! BECAUSE YOU HAD TO ENTER A LOTTERY TO MEET HIM AND I ENTERED IT LIKE 20 TIMES AND LOST EVERY SINGLE TIME!!! 4 DAYS I spent at that con and tried multiple times per day but nope... At least I'll always have the pic of him standing beside me though :")

Anyways, eventually we managed to check into our room and finally finally had a nap! We ended up going to set up at the con a little late. We felt so ill and exhausted. We decided to set up quickly then get some good rest and finish off set up in the morning. I went to go collect the tables - we had a corner booth with 2 tables - and. They gave me one table. I booked this type of booth before and they always gave me 2 tables, so I was like... Um... I have a bigger booth I think I'm supposed to have a second table... And they were like hmm no you had to pay for that. I felt like I was going crazy. I texted Sarah to go to the staff desk they directed me to so we could buy a 2nd table, while I collected the first table. And Sarah comes back with the news they HAVE no tables left. At this stage I was so tired and exhausted and frustrated. With the type of booth we had it would have looked ridiculous with one table. I went to the desk myself to ask for a 2nd table again and THIS time, for some reason, they gave me one!! It was a good bit bigger than our other table, so we only had a very small gap to get in and out of our booth, but we got one! The worst part was though we had to just carry it across two halls to our booth by ourselves. And it was heavy. We were struggling towards the end, but luckily one of the vendors saw us from his booth and helped us out the rest of the way.

We stayed setting up as long as we could, and eventually we left late in the evening and collapsed at our hotel.

Luckily the next morning, I was feeling a little better! Japan Expo is long - 4 days - but after the set up day, it was really chill! Not many of my friends do Japan Expo anymore, so myself and Sarah were hanging out ourselves for most of it outside con hours, which I was fine with because I was feeling so ill at this stage. It was also Sarah's birthday on the Saturday, and a lot of attendees were really kind and came with gifts for her, which was really sweet!

While Japan Expo has its issues, I really love tabling in Paris because people have SUCH GOOD TASTE! So many people are into visual novels, there are lots of Umineko fans! And people in France are avid readers, it's great talking to people into more niche manga and visual novels. I wish I could come to Paris more. It's one of my favourite cities to visit, too; there is just so much to do. I don't think I will be able to visit Japan Expo next year because of how strict their application process is, but I really hope I can work something out.

Hyper Japan (17-19 July)

I didn't attend Hyper Japan as a vendor, instead I visited as an attendee! I didn't apply to it this year - it's just not a profitable enough event, as much as I like it. But I needed a break so bad, so we decided to go see Phantom of the Opera and attend Hyper Japan! Sarah got me the Phantom tickets as a belated birthday treat!

We travelled to London on Friday morning and spent some time wandering about the city! We walked around Soho and Covent Garden and browsed some shops. We heard Miniso in London had some Chiikawa stuff, so we went to check that out! We didn't buy anything, but always good to see Hachiware's face.

While in the Chinatown area, we went to Coco Ichibanya for Lunch! London has two Japanese chains I like; Yakiniku Like and Coco Ichibanya. They are not as good as in Japan, and are waaaaay more expensive, but at least they're there. Waiting for the day Ichiran comes to Europe...

We also were in London during peak Labubu hype era. We saw a couple of the bakeries in Chinatown had Labubu cakes lol

After exploring for a bit, we went back to our hotel to get dressed up and went to go see Phantom! It was our third time going to see it. Each time we've seen it, there were different actors. I wouldn't consider myself a musical person - the first musical I went to go see in London was Wicked, and it was..... fine. The costumes, sets, and actors were amazing, so I had a great time, but the story was kinda doodoo. But a gothic story like Phantom is so delicious... It blows me away every time. I really liked the actor for the Phantom himself this time round! I love it when the actor makes him sound more sinister and talks in a bit of a husky voice.

and for dinner... my absolute favourite restaurant ever... the beautiful beijing dumpling...

Then, on Saturday, we went to Hyper Japan! I wanted to go this day because my friends at Vocafest were hosting an official concert for IA, as well as one of their own! Vocafest are so passionate about Vocaloid and running Vocaloid events in the UK, the work they do is amazing!

I also cosplayed Shimbashi for the first time! I had to use a cheap wig, I'm gonna re-do the cosplay for MCM London. I was scared about wearing red contacts... I had never worn contacts before... but I did it!!!

It was fun visiting the con just as an attendee! I haven't gotten to do it in ages! I had a couple of friends who were tabling, so I got to chat with them and catch up! We also watched the cosplay masquerade, and there was a really great Uma Musume cosplay group performing at the end of it.

I really like Hyper Japan because unlike other events in the UK, its focus is Japanese culture! Anime, manga, music, food, etc. Most conventions in Ireland and the UK are just general corporate comic cons, but I really dgaf about marvel, dc, and a lot of western pop culture, so those kind of events do nothing for me. An idol I really like, Isiliel, was also performing at Hyper Japan, but unfortunately I missed her cuz she was performing on Friday! But she also would be performing at Narcon, so I'd get my chance!

On Sunday, we went into the city to meet a friend and get some pancakes, then headed back to the airport to go home! Except. We left it waaaay too late to get our plane. I don't know what we were thinking. It was getting closer and closer to our departure time and we were still on a train to the airport and i was like fuuuuuuuucccck we are SO missing this flight. BUT!!!!!! ☝️ We made it 10 MINUTES before our departure time!!! Nobody had started boarding yet! And the moment we got there, the intercom announced... our flight would be departing from a different gate at the complete other side of the airport lol. So we got to just casually stroll across the airport with everyone like we hadn't just been running for our lives. I could not believe we made that hahahaha

Narcon (24-26 July)

So. At this stage. Between final year uni, moving house, cleaning out the old house, travelling for multiple cons which all ended up being kind of mid... I was tempted to pull out of Narcon. I had never been to Sweden before and getting there was pricey, and I knew this con was a college con and was worried about making money back at it. On top of that, my stock for the con was all going to arrive AFTER the con, so I was going to have very little stock and straight up none of my best sellers. And to rub salt into the wound, the internet started being censored like crazy. Overnight, I lost access to NSFW media, itch censored a huge chunk of visual novels, I won't go on about the details. But the state of the world was making me very scared and very sad. I was broke and tired and was kind of crashing out and needed a break lol. BUT! Everything was paid for, and we were rooming with a friend, so we couldn't pull out. We had to keep going. And I was so!!! SO glad we did!!! It was my absolute favourite event of the summer!! I had so much fun!!!! Everyone was so nice and had SUCH good taste!!!

Our journey to our hotel in Sweden began at 5am on Wednesday and ended at 11pm. First, we had to get a bus from Belfast to Dublin. Then, a flight from Dublin to Stockholm. Then 2 trains from Stockholm to Linkoping. And then, the bus from Linkoping station to the venue for Narcon. We set up on the Wednesday, because the con began on Thursday and then ended on Saturday. The journey was long, but smooth! We took our time setting up since we had a good while to do it.

After set up, we got to our hotel at like 11:30pm, finally ate something, then crashed until the next morning.

I just had such a lovely time tabling at this event. Hours were very long (10am - 10pm if i remember correctly?) but it didn't even feel like it because I was having such a good time! I met so many Umineko fans! It turned out there was an Umineko meetup one of the days and I was raging I didn't bring my Erika cosplay! Next time, for sure!

Also, I met like ..!?!?! 5 OOE FANS!?!? Most of whom I didn't even know before the con!!! Even though she hadn't started playing it yet, Sarah made some Ooe merch which a good few people recognised! One of my favourite interactions was with an Ooe fan I was talking to who told me how much she loved Takeshiba. She said "I actually have him with me right now" and took out this small, velvet bag, and from it emerged a little Takeshiba she had made by hand from clay! She also had a little sticker of Takeshiba on her phone. I was flabbergasted... At this stage I was not yet finished the game (I was on Shijoumae's route) but Takeshiba was, and still is, in my top 3... I love him...

Speaking of Ooe fans! We also got to meet Coco and her gf for the first time!

Sarah knew Coco for a while through BL discords. We got to hang out with them on the Friday of the con, we left our booths for a bit to get dinner with them! There were a lot of food vendors around the con, and this one caught my eye... Their booth was done up like a medieval tavern and they were roasting meats before my vert eyes... It looked so good, I didn't know what to get, so I got a combo platter. BIG MISTAKE. When it comes to con food, I'm used to stingy portions. I thought they would give me like one slice of each meat and maybe two or three potatoes. I was so wrong.

They gave me FOUR slices of ham, FOUR slices of pork, TWO big fuckoff sausages, a bunch of potatoes, two slices of bread. It was crazy. I could hardly make a dent in it. I got the salmon from them the next day, which was Much more of a normal portion and it was so yummy.

This con was so delightful to attend. I wish I had a helper so I could have gone and enjoyed the con more. There were AMV contests, a Touhou Rave, idol events... We did go to see Isiliel perform, and saw a bit of the AMV showing, but I really wanted to go to the Touhou Rave!!! I was just so wrecked. I loved the vibe of the con so much. It was like a festival. It was mostly outside, and there was so much for attendees to do! It really rejuvinated me. Me and Sarah couldn't stop laughing at our selves from a few days ago, wanting to cancel.

On Sunday, we travelled back to Stockholm by train. I booked 2 nights in a hotel in Stockholm for me and my gf so we could relax a little and see a little bit of Sweden before our flight on Tuesday!

When we arrived in Stockholm on Sunday, we checked into our hotel, had a nap, then explored the city for a bit!

The next day, we went into the city to do some touristy stuff! I wanted to see the Gigas Maximus (a.k.a. Devil's Bible), but that was pretty much all I knew about Stockholm.

After looking up more stuff to do, there was a Viking museum which looked fun, but it was closed! So we went to the palace to check it out instead.

After exploring most of the day, we relaxed in the hotel spa for a bit (and I played in the pool...) which I needed so bad... and we went to a CRAZY hot pot restaurant for dinner which Coco recommended. i still think about it.

Narcon, I really want to go back!!!! I really really hope I can go again, and next time I want to bring a helper too!

Abunai (8-10 August)

And finally... OUR LAST CON OF THE SUMMER... ABUNAI IN THE NETHERLANDS!!!

I hadn't been to this con before, but wasn't expecting it to be too crazy. We mostly wanted to go so we could meet our friends.

Once again I had to get a 6am flight... At least it was from Belfast and I didn't have to travel to the Dublin airport, though. We flew into Schiphol and then got 2 trains to Eindhoven, checked into the hotel, had a nap, and went for food!

Abunai was a really nice con! It was really chill, lots of stuff for attendees to do, and it was in a hotel! Getting to and from our booth was as easy as getting an elevator up and down! (That, and navigating the maze of hallways lol... the hotel had a super confusing layout.)

The hotel also had a pool, which I spent a good bit of time in lol. I went for a swim the evening we arrived, and it was fun to see a lot of con staff playing together in the pool! The next day, I set up my booth as quickly as I could and went swimming again lmao. People were asking Sarah where I was... I was just swimming... I had been seeing so many posts from friends on summer holidays sitting by the pool and was super jealous, so the Abunai pool sedated me for the time being.

Abunai was fun cuz I got to reunite with Flick, Hen, and Komo, who I hadn't seen since Dokomi! Out of the people I have met through doing cons on the mainland, they are some of the people I have known the longest, and it's always so nice to hang out and catch up.

Me and Sarah also cosplayed Shimbashi and Oosaki together !! My cheap wig was getting kinda fucked up after its 3rd use lol, but I'm excited to cosplay again at MCM!

The con was super fun! But wasn't crazy sales wise, which I already knew would be the case from researching previous years. We did it cuz we wanted to see friends, so I'm glad we went, but also it was like. The 2nd or 3rd summer con we did that was just Mid profit wise. Which maybe would have been alright another year. But after the stress of the past couple of months, I was just so done with airports, traveling, packing, badge pressing... I had hardly drawn in months and still wasn't settled properly into the new house because it had all just been constant go, go, go. I had already hit my limit and I had a good time but was really excited to go home. I'm lucky I have so many great friends wherever I go to brighten things up.

Goodbye Summer!

I think I can safely say I bit off more than I could chew this past year and a half. Since starting final year in September 2024, everything had been absolutely non stop. I never got a break, time to relax or chill out. I had hoped to finish my visual novel for October MCM, but after all of this, I need to take time away and become inspired again. I read Ooe over the summer which I loved, and am currently reading Misericorde, among other things! I'm trying to watch movies, play games, and just spend some time inside doing nothing again to recharge. I had an amazing summer and am really glad I got to spend time with friends, but I just wasn't able to do as well as usual considering I hadn't really gotten to work on any merch for cons in over a year. Living on an island means I have to catch flights and pay for hotels for most of the events I go to, I can't just hop on a bus or train. The traveling is tiring and expensive and I just wasn't prepared for it this year. I feel like I was only ever able to give anything 50% at any time. I had to divide my time up between work, uni, and my personal life, and felt like I was never giving anything 100%.

I really want to revamp all of my stock and have a fresh start for next summer! I'm working right now with Doujima in mind, thinking about what I want to put out into the world, and getting inspired! I'm definitely going to edit my con schedule down for this year and give myself a bit of a break.

For the last month of summer, we threw Sarah a very belated birthday party with 20+ of our good friends crammed into our little house, and it was such a good time!

I'm glad now to be home and finally, finally drawing again! I've drawn more this September than I have over the entire summer, and I feel rusty, but I'm enjoying drawing and not dreading picking up the pencil! I'm drawing fun stuff I like, and working super hard for MCM London. I want to earn enough at MCM so I can comfortably rest a but during Christmas, and get back to work on my visual novel!