2013 ~ Cosplay Kulture!

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Cosplay Special on King of the Nerds! - USA, reality TV

King of the Nerds, an indie reality TV show featured a Cosplay segment with the contestants dressing up as RPG characters and be judged by awesome celebrities - Adam Bush, Yaya Han and George Takei

It looked like tons of fun I reckon

Yaya also talks about her experience on the show when she filmed last year in LA on her Facebook

"I was hugely flattered that they came to me first regarding this guest appearance... But I actually declined, because I just wasn't sure what the appearance would entail, and because they had to shoot during San Diego Comic Con where I already had a plate full! The production company was super nice and kept asking me over several days hahaha, including explaining to me in details what the shoot would be, and finding a way to jet me up to LA from San Diego the Friday of SDCC. The entire crew was extremely professional and kind.

I found out later who my co-judges would be (to my delight).
I asked the hard questions regarding portraying cosplayers in a positive light. They answered them all.
The deliberations were actually much longer. I insisted on looking at the costumes up close, as I always do during every judging. Later I realized that request probably took the crew by surprise lol, but they indulged me and all 3 judges walked onto the stage to look at the craftsmanship up close.
We talked directly to the contestants, from our chairs, and gave them a lengthy critique. I liked Danielle's costume the most because there was so much hand work done on it, compared to some of the other costumes being put together from found pieces. Yes, Celeste's cube was also well constructed, and I said more than 1 sentence about her lol.
I was thoroughly impressed by George Takei's and Adam Busch's professionalism and respect toward cosplay. Thumbs up, gentlemen!
Once my portion of the shoot was done, there was so little time that I RAN to change and was rushed to the airport, as I had a booth appearance at SDCC that afternoon. I think I still had bits of the costume on at the airport lol. Made my flight by mere minutes, phew!

I've gotten many tweets and comments about the show and my tiny mini pop in. Most are so sweet, my heart melted. LOVE you guys. But! I KNOW some of you have serious apprehensions about the overall show, and that's ok! There are plenty of blogs for you to disuss those thoughts on. I just want you to remember that reality TV shows have to be made a certain way, and editing can change everything, from expressions to sentences said. Even my favorite completion show - Project Runway, devotes many minutes of its program to inter-contestant relationships and not the fashion designs. That's the TV reality we live in right now.

All I know is - an episode about cosplay could have been all kinds of out of this world, in all kinds of freaky manners. Just from web media coverage, you can see that cosplay is viewed in a million different ways. I appreciated the effort all the contestants put into their outfits, performances and the hours they must have stayed up rehearsing. And their efforts showed on camera! Hurray!

Since cosplay is an extremely personal passion, LARP-ing does interject with cosplay for some. Just remember, there is no wrong way to cosplay :)"

Friday, February 1, 2013

Showcase - Amazing Arizona Comic Con! - Arizona, USA

Phew, Janurary was sure a quiet month for comic cons and cosplay. BUT! Jan 25 to 27 was the Amazing Arizona Comic Con!

Let's check out the awesome photos from the those who were there!

BEAUTIFUL photoset by GBrummett of flickr. LOVE YOUR STUFF man!

Also TONS more photos by DTJAMM

Sexy Red Skull!

Steampunk Harley!

WHOA! Loki and Thor!!!

Jessica Nigiri as Morrigan from Darkstalkers! LUV IT!

Jessica Nigiri also does Assassin's Creed!

Looks like a great start to the new year! Can't wait for more cons and more events!

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Flab to Fab story! - Ajo from Taiwan - Rocket News

Phew, have been INSANELY BUSY with work at my new job. (I work till really REALLY late like to 10pm)

Rocket News reports that a Taiwanese Cosplayer by the name of Ajo shed the pounds to be this super awesome hot chic to Cosplay!

"Around ten years ago, Rolan Ajo of Taiwan weighed over 70 kg (154 lbs) and decided to try cosplay for the first time. But Ajo was disappointed with her reflection in the mirror and felt bad about her body.
“What I saw was the fat version of my favorite anime character. My impression of the character instantly crumbled…I was laughed at and looked down on because I was so fat and it broke my heart,” she remembers bitterly."

"From that point, Ajo’s diet began. But it wasn’t an easy road to becoming slim. “I knew I had to not eat so much in order to lose weigh, but I quickly rebounded. If I relaxed and tried to have fun losing weight, I gained weight,” she admits.

Whenever Ajo’s spirits were crushed, she turned to cosplay for support. She thought of the cosplay costumes she wasn’t able to fit in and visualized being able to wear them. She also imagined how happy she would be when she was finally able to wear a very revealing costume. With cosplay as her motivator, Ajo succeeded in losing 20 kg (44 lbs) after ten years of dieting."

I mean whoa! Would you look at the results!

As Lum-chan!

Juliette Starling from Lolipop Chainsaw!

Disclaimer though: There is NO SUCH THING as get slim quick schemes. Ajo worked VERY HARD to look this awesome. Please DO NOT take diet pills and crazy miracle drugs. Also please DO NOT STARVE YOURSELF and live on some crazy as celery diet or something nuts.

Monday, January 7, 2013

Photoshoot - Mortal Kombat goes Grindhouse! - 12 North Photography

Mortal Kombat is one of those video games you either like or hate. Either way, it's about people kicking each others ass in violent gory ways and about babes with er.. lots of boob.

12 North Photography grabbed a bunch of cosplayers together : Jessica Nigiri (Sonya), Rosanna Rocha (Mileena) and Paris Sinclair (Jade) and took photos of them in the desert beating each other up. Fun, naughty silly photos.

Rest of the awesome set here : )

Thursday, January 3, 2013

JP Cosplay Culture - Interesting Things About JP Cosplay Culture

Kotaku has stuck a pretty neat article about JP cosplayers, the hidden culture and something interesting: They are impressed with foreigners who cosplay

According to the article, JP cosplay culture has a 'respect' level too:

1. Cosplayers who make their own outfits Vs Cosplayers who buy outfits from the store

Considered not cool by hardcore cosplayers

The TRUE cosplayers always believe in making their own outfits instead of getting them off the rack at the store with the believe that you're being more hardcore and love your character more if you make the outfit.

2. Cosplayers who act in character Vs Cosplayers who just like the character's outfit

Nuff said. There's more respect in geek/ cosplay circles if you BECOME the character rather than just wear the outfit.

3. Noob Cosplayers should not try to outshine Veteran Cosplayers.

In Japan, hierarchy is a very big deal. It's same at work, it's same with family and junior-senior stuff is taken very seriously. Like you can't say 'SUP YO!' to your boss, senior at school, or your grandma or your senior co-worker. Same goes in Cosplay. If you're new to the scene, it is expected that you respect the more veteran cosplayers and not outshine them until you're more established kind of thing.

4. JP Cosplayers do look up to Good Foreign Cosplayers

Cuz you know, only a Caucasian guy can pull this off

This is because they know that they can't pull off certain looks even if they tried their darnest and totally respect foreigners who can pull off good cosplay just cause well, they're born that way.

It's interesting cause a lot of the hierarchy stuff is actually the same in Singapore and I think internationally too. (the how hardcore of a cosplayer are you etc.)

Go read the full article on Kotaku

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Article - Setting New Year Resolutions - Life Hacks

Yup, it's a brand new year! And with that, people start setting all sorts of resolutions for the year. However, chances of you ever finish them/ accomplishing them is very slim.

Why? Cause they're too far off goals that no one actually wants to finish. Your brain just messes with you and says 'bah, so far off, don't care.'

So let's say you wanna start the year fresh with learning a new skill/ trying to lose weight or learn a new language/ save money etc.

1. Start Small

If you want to run a marathorn, you gotta start training for it. Start with a small distance first that you can manage. Then increase the distance each week.

Same goes, if you want to try save more money - allocate some money to save in a week like $20 Then when you've been good, you can try to save more money each week.

Don't do some HUGE DRASTIC thing and then find you can't continue the habit cause you made things too hard for yourself - eg. ran a crazy distance and burn out and then don't want to continue training.

2. Try to be consistent and schedule yourself

To cultivate a habit, you gotta just continually do something so that it becomes part of you. Like when I wake up in the morning, I turn on my computer and check my e-mails. Your new habit should sorta be as easy as that.

So like if you plan to finish an outfit by a certain con date, plan a time after work to at least work on it a bit. Even if you're really tired, just do a small thing.

Cause I find if you don't do something just once, you fall off the habit and it's very hard to get back on again.

3. Yay! Finished a goal? Make a new one!

Awesome! Reached your mini goal? Make a new one! If you don't make goals then you'll just kinda flop about and stagnate... So keep going! If you were able to do a bunch of push ups, you could always increase the number to more!

If you were able to not smoke for a month, you can try not to smoke for another month!

4. Don't forget to reward yourself a little

A friend of mine used to reward herself with a music CD a month using the money she saved not smoking.

Like you can reward yourself with 1 ice cream after a month of not eating desserts.

Of course, don't go crazy with the rewards and have something major after a week.

5. To Do Lists do help

Well it did help the Bride in Kill Bill

Don't know what to do with your life? Make a To Do list. It helps you focus on stuff you need to do and when you've finished it, it's satisfying!

Hope this stuff helps for the year!

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Showcase - Winter Comiket 2012 - Tokyo Japan

K-ON Girls

Ahh Comiket. The Comic Con of Japan but even LARGER and MORE INSANE.

I remember going to Comiket, 2 years ago in 2010 during off peak period and it was STILL PACKED AND CRAZY.

Comiket stands for 'Comic Market' which is a huge convention for all things Manga - fan drawn Manga in particular. (the funny thing is probably 90% of fan drawn manga is porn. But you don't have to buy the porn ones obviously)

the 'Cosplay Zoo' (as I affectionately like to call it), is the area where Cosplayers are allowed to pose and do their thing. Some people really love to camwhore here wearing pretty skimpy stuff in the middle of winter..

Anywayz, here are some of the awesome cosplayers spotted at Winter Comiket 2012

Great photos from Figure.fm here
Most of the lovely pics from French website, Adala News