Lolita takeover of Doki Doki Manchester

As anyone who knows me will be aware of, I’m not a massive fan of manga or anime. I’ve read/watched something occasionally and I’ve nothing against these or people who like them, they’re just not a major part of my life and have little to do with my interest in Japan. This translates onto avoiding most Japan-centred cons and events, since their dominant target group are manga and anime fans and otaku, however, last weekend I made an exception and attended Doki Doki Manchester.

Since C.L.A.M. was going to have a table for Lolita and other J-fashion, as well as do a little fashion show, makeovers for charity and even a fashion panel, I thought that this would be a fun thing to do. It just happened that my boyfriend had the weekend free, so he joined me and I took advantage of his closer location to Manchester and his car to bring the two things together that weekend.

| Angelic Pretty Sweet Cream House round collar JSK | Axes
Femme blouse | Innocent World Lauretta OTKs | Sosic Shop
heels | Amavel bag (seen in a later photo) | Taobao hairclips |
Milkribbon brooch | Etsy/Twinkle Kitty Boutique rings |

Closeup of my accessories.

As I’m on a quest to wear the pieces I haven’t worn in a long time (or at all yet), it was time to whip out AP’s Sweet Cream House round collar JSK. Although this cut is super not boob friendly and I can only wear it with the corset lacing taken out and when wearing a sports bra, I can’t help but love it, I feel it’s a flattering cut for my body shape. This was the closest I’ve ever come to creating a chocolate coord and I will reluctantly admit that I enjoyed being all chocolate-y for a day. I keep fluctuating between expanding my actual Sweet wardrobe and wanting to go more Classic and florals, so I end up getting more Sweet-Classic/mature Sweet/light or even pastel Classic pieces and having a wardrobe that straddles the two styles. And AP’s recent releases aren’t helping me make up my mind, but that’s a topic for another day.

The doors for Doki Doki, which was held in a literal sports hall at a local sports centre, opened at 10am and we got there around 11:30am. This was still early enough that we could see and do everything on the schedule that we wanted, but didn’t have to get up at the break of dawn (although I still had to wake up earlier to get ready). Sadly, shortly after entering I must’ve lost one of my hair clips whilst taking my jacket off, which I didn’t realise until a little later. RIP, little chocolate clip, you are dearly missed (especially now that I discovered that the Taobao shop I got it from no longer stocks it).

I must say that I was positively surprised at the variety of activities and stalls available to the visitors. You had your usual, more weeby stuff like the anime merchandise tables, a maid café and lots of cosplayers and a cosplay contest (which we didn’t stay to see). But there were also plenty of artists, not all of whom worked exclusively with the anime style, there were some kawaii clothing and accessory shops that could be used in a variety of J-fashion styles, Black Candy Fashion with their cosplay wig range (which is a shame, I totally would’ve bought a wig from them if they brought more natural colours), but also stalls for the Japanese Railway Society, Aid for Japan, groups and apps for learning the language and kanji, as well as live performances of taiko drummers and traditional and modern singing. The modern singing wasn’t particularly good, it sounded like a bunch of cats in pain, but taiko drummers, who must’ve had an average age of around 60, were great and fun to watch (biased opinion as I love taiko drums and music played on them).

We eventually located the C.L.A.M. table, where I got to catch up with my friends and look at some dresses sent by Baby Ponytail, which were meant to be featured in a fashion show, but they sent sizes that fit hardly any of us and sent it way too late for any of us to prepare. I also signed up to do the J-fashion show, which was super fun – very different from modelling in a proper fashion show, but more like the cosplayers show where you just have fun showing off what you’re wearing. We even got little goodie bags as a thank you, which was incredibly sweet!

Overall, we probably spent maybe 2-3 hours at Doki Doki, when we’ve managed to have a wander round, buy a few little bits, get some really nice Japanese food and comment on what other people were wearing. I didn’t stay for the J-fashion panel, which I regret a little, but at the same time we were done a bit too long before the panel started and we didn’t fancy waiting around. For the pre-booking price of £10/person, this was not a bad con. Especially if you were the type to spend the whole day there, it works out a good value for money. For us it was sort of just about right, although I doubt that we’d do Doki Doki again unless there was something either of us really wanted to do.

Look at the cute mini-cakes!

Look at them!

Very lovely katsu curry with some jasmine tea.
The taste brought me right back to Japan!

Strawberry shortcake. Coincidentally it's also
the Japanese Christmas cake, so extra festive
points there!

After this we had a quick stop at Domino’s (because my boyfriend didn’t fancy any Japanese food), then at Archie’s for a milkshake (they’re seriously great milkshakes if you’re ever in Manchester or Liverpool area) and then decided to go to the cinema to see Thor: Ragnarok. We must’ve caught some sort of special offer because the tickets were only £4.99 each – usually an adult cinema ticket costs around double that, so it was a nice icing on the cake. For anyone interested, Thor was great fun, it stays within the style it set in the previous films, i.e. very funny and laughing at itself, although it probably had a bit more of that. But more importantly, there were no unnecessarily prolonged bits, it kept an even pace and we did not find a single boring moment. So if you were on the fence about watching that, I’d say go for it, although equally you won’t lose anything by waiting for it to come out on DVD.

Oreolicious and Mango Madness.

After this we headed home – although by that point my feet started hurting a bit and felt as if they wanted to cramp, but didn’t really, so the walk back to the car was a bit slower than what I would’ve liked. Still, it was a fun day and I’m glad we went, even if I don’t feel like I’d go to Doki Doki again.

Last but not least, here’s my little haul. I probably would’ve bought more, but since the other bits I wanted were Sweet-appropriate rings, which I feel like I have enough of, I stopped at these two. So it ended up being a very tiny and cheap haul, as the rosette cost £10 (it’s from a friend, she tags her shop with a #wonderboxdesigns on Instagram, but I can’t find a shop link anywhere) and the necklace from Bubblegum Emporium cost £6. And since I sold a blouse for £15 at the con, I essentially only spend £1 – because wonders of logic!

Sorry for the naff photo, November is shit for
taking any photos after work.

Have you been to any good cons recently? What are your local ones like in terms of balancing weeby stuff with less weeby stuff? Or are you not one for cons at all?