COSPLAY HEROES UNMASKED - PART 1 of 3 (8 Mins) [HQ]

Much thanks to maria for pimping. Here’s a documentary styled video produced by ANIMAX and filmed on AFA 2009. This clip features everyone’s favorite Cloud; Kaname. 

Kinda funny to see Tashigi in the still above xD. Anyway, enjoy !!!


EDIT: HOMG LAH, Kaname is SO Generous. He actually allowed the camera crew (and essentially the whole world) see his whole make up process plus letting everyone in on his little intimate cosplay secrets (padding) ??!!! I would never have the guts to do that !


Would you allow a camera crew to film you before you are ready?

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Autumn thoughts

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The Game Xpo 2010: Day 2, Photo Pimp 1

Many many apologies again for falling behind so desperately! Life has been straining  so pardon the slowness in updates.

This entry showcases cosplay photos from TGX day 2. I wasn’t cosplaying that day and arrived very little (as usual) and didn’t managed to take as much photos as I used to. But I did have an experience of a lifetime, literally, in a not-so-pleasant sense.

Let’s talk as I pimp photos.

 The first person I saw and took photo of was….. can you guess who is this?

When I first arrived, one of the first few familiar faces I saw was Sakurazaki (or was it Ashz?? pardon my STM). Who then led me to where Lenneth and her group were having their private shoot, somewhere off the corridors of the event hall.

And so I hung around there just randomly going trigger happy and joking with everyone. When I suddenly felt something hit me on the back of my straw hat.

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Have you guessed it ??

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Yes, its CVY!!!!!

 

ISN”T SHE TOTALLY ADORABLE?!?!?!! *SQUISHES HS PARTNER*
Leave a comment if you support cvy cosplaying more MOE girls!!!!!!!

Which is strange… because I was on the 2nd level, leaning on a railing that drops off to the ground floor. Meaning to say, nothing should be able to reach me from behind !!!!  Drew a little diagram to let you guys understand better.

I turned around slowly to see a pair of spectacles rolling off my body and dropping to the ground . My first thought was “ what an expensive object to use to pull a prank. What were those brats thinking ?!”. I thought some idiots were playing catch or something and  threw the pair of glasses up from the first floor.

What happened next were just fuzzy memories. But before I realised, a few mean looking teenage boys holding a cup of noodles (no joke=_=;; ) were standing less than 1 meter away from us. Raising their voices and making scary faces, not at me of course ^^;;;

Sakurazaki as a character from Magic Knight Rayearth

They were ganging up against this other guy. And before I could figure out what had happened, a digital camera fell to the floor and landed near my feet. The lone guy was then dragged away with me still dumbstruck.

Final Fantasy 4 !!

EDIT: Opps okok, I heard you guys. Its Final Fantasy 9 not 4 !! I recognise garnet but I have no idea why I thought it was 4 >.<;; 

He was led, or more likely half dragged over by the 3 boys to a short distance away. I guess the 3 teenager didn’t wanted to involve anyone else (us).

I won’t go on any further to describe the graphic actions ( because I didn’t have the guts to look either).  But let’s just said, it wasn’t ugly but it wasn’t a pretty sight either.

From the little we could hear, it seems like the lone guy(who looked like the usual otaku event attendee) did something along the line of touching the girlfriend of one of the teenage boys.  And the boys got upset enough to want to do something to him.

Lenneth as Megurine Luka

After a few fist and legs, the teenage boys got over it pretty soon and thankfully nothing life threatening occurred.

But it was still a pretty alarming experience for me and the people around. That was really the last thing anyone would expect from a Cosplay /Animanga/Game event. I’ve been attending events for 9 years and that was the first time I saw a real fight go on in front of me involving an event attendee and the event goers.

Kawaii Len & Rin!!

The scariest part about this whole incident was not the punches nor the kicks. But the fact that when the fight happened, nobody stepped out and did anything. Including myself.

I love Lenneth. She always look at my camera xD!!!! *kisses sexy luka*  Their entire team was so adorable and size appropriate XD

Everyone just stood around and gawked. And me? All I did was stand around and kept asking if anyone knew any of the them.
The incident just made me felt so............. bad about myself.
I felt useless to know that, in the face of violence, I was so helpless. I didn't know what to do and didn't know what I should do. Worse of all, at the back of my mind, I was most afraid of being thought of as a busybody intruder

Windy as Hatsune Miku!

You know, the bad thing about watching too much anime/reading manga. Is the fact that everyone of them either have some supernatural abilities or has
the skills to fight 10 gangsters off by themselves and are all passionately chivalrous and heroic. And you get pulled into thinking that that is the norm.

Which then makes you feel like garbage after watching those made-up people doing remarkable things you can only dream of. And then real life comes along to prove that those things are really beyond you -_-.

Okay, I rambled too much. Sigh.

Drefan as a character from Resident Evil 5

And this incident made me opened up another perspective towards Cosplay Event. The danger of attending such a convention either as an attendee or as the cosplayer.

As a cosplayer, revealing so much skin and putting yourself under the spotlight may be an undermined danger. Because amidst all the flashlights and glamour, Cosplay events are usually frustratingly crowded with too much things going on at the same time. And it can be easy for low handed, immoral individuals to make use of the situation to satisfy their lust.

 

And then somehow, god knows how, the cosplayers started ganging up against the photographer. And subjected them to brutal torture. like rounding them up and walling them around  with no way to get out! Forcing them to go crazy xD

And making them do random KungFu stances

Mind controlled them to become cotton boob caressing and skirt lifting …….gays.

 

And I’m sure this was another subconscious mind controlled behavior; Sentai formation!

I have this on video. Maybe I should upload xD

Lucky Dog?

  Xrystal, Yuanie and Sakana cosplaying from Dark Stalkers

 

Cheong Sam Sheryl, Ranka and…. ALTO?!!

 

Hoshi’s prop Owl ! Valefor made it from scratch D: 
Valefor must have casted Voodoo on it because it attacks human!

 

The owl and its 3 victims D:

I think nobody did anything to stop the fight because everyone was like me, uncertain if they should interfere. Humans are complicated animals =\ Its amazing and frightening to know the complexity of one’s thoughts and action.

I'm not saying this to bash anyone, but do you think the teenage boys did the right thing? Do you believe the event attendee touched the girlfriend (who i assume was cosplaying)?
Do you think he deserved it if hypothetically assuming he did touched the girl? What would you have done if you were in my shoe?

Ps: Sorry if this post seemed a little jumbled up and incoherent. My brain’s not cooperating.

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Rolling Girl Cosplay PV (Behind The Scene)

OMG! I can't believe I'm 2 weeks late to discovering this!!!!!!

Finally, the Behind-the-scenes video of Cvy & Kanasaiii's awesome Rolling Girl Cosplay PV is out!!!

I love how cvy did the black & white transition animation. She's just too good at this! Have I mentioned before that Cvy did the entire editing of the video herself? AM SUPER IMPRESSED LARH!

If you haven't watch the original Cosplay PV again now!

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Serialization of Akatsuki interviews continues

The second part of Akatsuki interviews has been uploaded to our Youtube account!

The filming took little longer compared to the first part. This time we had some action going on, which took numerous takes, some fooling and few snaps. We had some problems with outsiders, dogs and people in this case. We had to wait few times them to stop blabbing and barking under our window. We even made an little song about them in the brink of a moment. It went something like “It’s almost impossible to film when there are people talking loudly”-etc. We also had some problems with lighting also known as the sun. Because it was a cloudy day, not continuous shine all the time, the shots look rather dark. Some takes were not usable, so there are some small errors with few lines.

We filmed some extra material labeled “Sasori and Deidara moments” to be put out during this year in small portions. This for the celebration of our Sasori and Deidara cosplays, which we have worn out four years and for our blog, which we have wrote soon for a year.

Oh yeah, we didn't suffer any casualties, even if at one point we were coming down the stairs pretty fast.

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Sasori and Deidara gets interviewed again!

My eyes are heavy from all the make-up I require to make a decent Deidara. It might be that some of the weight is caused by crashing Movie Maker and the fact that I wasn't at my best today because of yesterday. But still, even if I was bit tired we had a productive day. We managed to shoot some material from Sasori and Deidara. Thus the second part of our Akatsuki interviews will be out tomorrow! We would have loved to finish and upload it today, but all-nighter didn't sound appealing for either of us.

We took few pictures so I can at least share something. Until tomorrow then!

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Costume Interview: JiaGold Bustamante (Xenosaga)

Finally this is out! I’ve actually finished editing this video slightly before I finished editing Gin’s Bad Apple video. But I held off publishing it so as not to clash with the other event reports and partly also because i forgot to upload + was too lazy.

Photo credit: Oakultura

But anyway, it is finally here!! My costume interview with the very beautiful Kos-Mos cosplayer from Philippine who was also one of the winner of the “Asia Cosplay Meet” along with Frankie at Cosfest 2010.

Jia Gold’s winning performance at Cosfest 2010.

I only met her at the dome after the sun had went down. As the dome was really dark by then, it further illuminated(pun intended)  her LED lights clad costume.

 
Photo credit: The dot Hacker

With evilneo’s suggestion, I went up timidly to ask for an interview. And was gladly surprised she obliged! *hearts*

In case you didn’t watch the video, Jia Gold’s Kos-Mos costume cost her around SGD 240 and has more than 60 LED lights on it! And those lights had to be turned on manually, one-by-one.

I was definitely impressed by her costume and she was especially a sight to behold in the dimly lighted dome. I was also very blown away by her toy gun arm prop! Was really marveled by the intricate and realistic details and found it hard to believe any cosplayer can go so far for it.

Jia Gold later reveals that it was actually recycled from her brother’s old toy which was 12 years old! You see, this is the reason why it pays to be  a Garang Guni!

She also demonstrated how one needs to think out of the box when creating a costume that cannot possibly exist in this world. Remember people, anything can be part of a costume prop! Think!!

Photo credit: Phil Anime

 

Photo credit: JL Liew

Jia Gold came across as a very easy to talk to and down-to-earth person.  The photo to the right is her on Cosfest day1. She had actually approcahed Yuanie and myself (Kagamine Rin & Len) and asked for a photo too. Was definitely kinda cool to be  approached by such a pretty lady (OMG THIS SOUNDS SO WRONG WTF AM I SAYING AHAHAHA?!?!)

And interviewing her was such a pleasure. My only regret was not having better shots of her, not having better questions and not having a more conducive interview environment. 

As you could tell, it was really dark at the event hall, so I was using my own flash light to illuminate her. I’m sure the light was very uncomfortable (trust me, I blind myself every time I use it-_-). But she did a good job not letting it affect her.

Many many thanks to Jia Gold for accepting my impromptu interview request and I sincerely hope she enjoyed her experience in Singapore =)

P/s: Any Philippine readers knows if she has any online account or gallery? Would really like to let her see this entry as a way of expressing my appreciation ^^
p/p/s: I’m really regretting not printing out some TCC Business card to distribute. Maybe I should do that for the next event!

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Really, I'm just being precautious

So...I think I need to open my Do not-post a bit from the "topical" part. Few weeks ago we kind of chose pair of characters to be done after Snowtroopers and before fabric sparing costumes. And I kind of had seen earlier some perfect materials on our local fabric stores. I obviously purchased them. Have I mentioned that I love autumn? It always inspires me and I feel more energetic and creative than in any other time of the year. So what could be better way to spend chilly evenings than to draw patterns, dye fabrics or sew?

I have stated many times to Yoki that we first finish the Snowtroopers and concentrate the Jedi duo after them, but now I find myself breaking that promise. Actually I think that I have nagged about the previous trying to imbed the thought in my own head, because I know my nature.


Uh, I almost feel bad, but then I glimpse at what I have done and feel a bit proud. Luminara is looking good already at this state of progress. And I’m also being precautious! The current items I have been working on are not complex, but time consuming. When they are ready I can’t take my time with the leather details, which need great amount of attention and planning. I also promised to help Yoki with her outfit. So doesn’t it sound pretty reasonable that I share the workload?

This is how five and a half meter of cotton and sixteen meters of cotton lace look like. The top is on its way, it required little over a meter of tricot. And there will be a hoop skirt also, I haven acquired it yet.

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Do not- From common to more topical

Do not think you can get away from reading instructions from body paints, spray paints, glues or pretty much anything. The time you read them doesn’t compare to the time you need to use to correct your mistakes after messing up.

Do not leave the make-up testing for the morning of the convention. Especially is you haven’t read the instructions.

Do not assume that you have the right sides of the fabrics facing each other before you start sewing them together. Check it and presumably double check it.

Do not wear one size too small shoes for a convention a) if you haven’t broke them in b) known to have great amount of will power to bear pain.

Do not assume that you have settings right on your camera before you start filming or taking pictures. Always check before long takes that you are actually filming. If lacking before, you might find questionable material when you are starting the editing process. You might also suffer from mental breakdown when you realize that all real material is nowhere. Be prepared for the previous or double-double check your settings.

Do not buy fabrics without references just because you think you have an excellent memory for prints, textures and colors.

Do not sew when you are upset or angry.

Do not do anything related to cosplay when you are upset or angry.

Do not start sewing a long seam or hem before you have made sure you have enough lower thread. Universal truth is that it will run out and you don’t realize it.

Do not spray paint foam of any type without a test out. Particularly if you have worked hours to get the foam perfectly cut and sanded.

Do not assume that your great innovation works without some tweaking.

Do not think that the time you have reserved for the preparations of putting on a costume is enough. Add at least an hour to it.

Do not start watching or reading interesting series before you have finished the costumes you are currently working on. New acquaintances don’t feel sorry for mesmerizing you.

Do not buy before hand anything for future projects just because you found perfect materials and pretend that you can just stick them in your closet and avoid the urge to start working with them.

Do not presume that you can just draw some patterns ready for the project mentioned.

Do not imagine that you could actually avoid working on the components for your future costumes, which sit in front of you ready and prepared.

Do not underestimate the power of the inspiring time of the year, boredom or the sudden burst of creativity. Mind of a cosplayer doesn't always settle for planning and imaging.

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The Game Xpo 2010: Day 1, Photo Pimp 2

Again, apologies for the delay. So much have been consuming me. Judging from my update rates I’m sure you guys will forgive me right xD *takes out bloody chopper*

Anyway, more of photos and less of nonsense talk!

Durarara! She had the vending machine and I requetsed for her to try carrying it. Which she very nicely obliged

 

but apparently…its really quite heavy =X

 

FWARHHHH~!! *Smashes vending machine*

And then begun the scary omake photos….

Xiaobai as Luffy with her fishballs which look weirdly suitable.  Mitsuki as a character from Guuren Lagann with fishballs that didn’t really go with her XD.

Notice the faces behind, thank you.

Top Left: That would have been an awesomely cute pic if not for the hand. Try guessing who’s hand that is xD

Top right: moar photo bomb!

Left: I’ll..leave this to your imagination

 

 

 

    

Fang selling Buns. 3 for $100. I swear I didn’t quote this price, she did!

 

And it was Sheryl’s buns! I mean erm, you know, steamed Chinese buns.

 

 

Karakuni as Kurapika!

  Kawaii~

Skye as someone from Pandora Hearts?

Hakuoki Shinsengumi Kitan!

I think Sakana was doing 5 stars story?

Our Inuran as Miku

Sakura Zaki as a character from Umineko?

 

I have no idea who these guys were cosing but they were quite funny. They kept runnign around and ‘tackling’ each other ahha.

 

Ranma 1/2 !!!

Both cosplayers were very cute and when they saw us running over (yes, embarrassing u_u) , they even asked if we want another pose from them to get a better shot. ^_^!

Someone brought big ass lights to the event hall o_o

 

Chrono! Black Rock Shooter!

 

 

Huhuhurrrrr omake fang!

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