We've made it to another end of another year and, at the very least, I'll say that 2022 was better than 2021 for various reasons! It was still tough, but Im here to say we made it through and we are looking forward to another year ahead. In this blog post, I'll look back at all the fun times this year brought and perhaps you may have shared a moment with GHOST GiRL GOODS! We hope everyone can look forward to 2023 and, hopefully, the year will bring us brighter days.
At the start of this year, we returned back to the convention scene for our first local convention after a long time! March Toronto Comic Con was our first convention and we got to share it with our good friends at Morbid Prince Art! You can check out our full convention report in this blog entry.
It was nice to be back doing more conventions and this year, we had a very special line up! We had 2 more special guest appearances at conventions in the USA!
As we prepared for our first US event, we did a collaboration with Harajuku brand HYPER CORE! We made the HYPER GIRL T-Shirt and Beanie, which we coordinated to release at A-Kon!
These items were also sold in the HYPER CORE shop in Harajuku!
Going to A-Kon was definitely one of this year's highlights! Not only was it our first time travelling to Texas, but we had such a blast at the con, surrounded by kind friends and new/returning customers! The fashion show was AMAZING and the stage was beautiful (still cant get over it!) And to top that all off, we found a Round 1 arcade that had Initial D for Kyelor haha! You can read our full A-Kon and Texas adventures in this blog post!
Shortly after A-Kon, we found ourselves at Blue Mountain for Yeticon! (WE LOVE YETICON!) We were special guests this year and hosted a fashion show, Jojo's Bizarre Red Light Green Light, and a panel! Yeticon is always a fun time~! For the 2023 year, Yeticon had to make some changes to the way the convention will run. But we are confident that everyone will still have a blast as usual! You can find out more info on Yeticon 2023 here! GHOST GiRL GOODS will be there, we just aren't sure if we will have a booth or use this time to just enjoy the convention!
Here's a photo of our booth!
And here are all our awesome fashion show models~!
Anime North usually happens in May, but this year, it got moved to July (because of previous year restrictions and rescheduling) It was a very crowded (and unorganized) event this year, but hopefully, they'll improve for next year. I've have mixed feelings about Anime North for a while, so Im hoping they'll make some good improvements for 2023!
I must say, we did get the biggest booth we've ever had at Anime North!! And the location was PERFECT! (Hopefully, if we go in 2023, we can get this same spot!)
Throughout the year, I conducted a few more mini interviews! (not as many as theprevious year!) You can take a look at them here. They include some indie designers and also Japanese shironuri artist Minori!
At the end of August, we also did Japan Festival! As always, we did a fashion show as one of the pop culture events for the Saturday. You can see all the photos and read more here.
Alexia in action as the MC after the show!
Some smaller events we participated in were Kei-Con and the Street Geek Pop-Up Market hosted by Pink City!
(Both of those were held in October)
We made a little goal this year to try and work with more local businesses! It's not always easy, but we did manage to work with Supermoon Japanese Cheesecakes! We had a small pop-up event there and created a collaboratoin t-shirt to commemorate such! It was our 5 year anniversary this year and we wanted to do something special, since we've never celebrated any milestones! It just so happen to also be Supermoon's 5 year anniversary, so it was a perfect fit.
Next year, we will do another collaboration with bubble tea shop Wonder Bubble Tea! If you came to our first event in 2021, we created a special menu themed around our characters! We are planning our next pop-up with them and hope to announce it early new year! You can find out more on the first collab with them here!
Our last event for the year was Sin City Anime in Las Vegas! This was one of the best convention experiences we've ever had!!! Great fun and a great team helping us out as special guests! We definitely want to return if we can! Our full Vegas report can be found here.
Here's the giant group photo from the closing ceremonies (I am in the middle and Kyelor is to the left side with come of the staff and V Tuber SushiiSuzii!)
I hope that this new year is good for us all. We've pushed though and adapted to 2022 after being stuck during 2020 and 2021. Lets look forward to 2023 and keep our minds open to new possibilities, new adventures, new experiences, and hopefully more peace of mind! And as always . . .
BE STRANGE. FEAR THE NORM.