Houshin Engi ( Photoshoot)

as Taikoubou       &          as Yozen

Photos by: Brian Lim

Assistants: Erika & Roger

I’m sure most of you reading this blog have no freakin idea what series this is. This is a Manga turned Anime series called Houshin Engi (Soul Hunter), it ran in Weekly Shounen Jump from 1996 – 2000. There is a total of 23 volumes and the Anime version was broadcasted in 1999. 

Yes, 12 freakin years ago.

“ The story is set in legendary China. A beautiful female fox spirit named Dakki (妲己^?) is controlling the emperor Chu-o (紂王 Chū-ō^?) and the ruling In (殷) dynasty, and is using her power over him to do evil in the nation. An immortal-in-training named Taikobo (太公望 Taikōbō^?) is chosen by the great immortal sages for the Houshin Project (封神計画) — to seal away or destroy the evil demons that infest the world. In the course of his adventures, Taikobo gathers other powerful companions and sets out to seal away the demons and eventually destroy the fox-spirit Dakki. There are significant plot differences between the novel, the manga series and the anime.”

~synopsis from Wikipedia

I started reading this manga when I was just a school kid. I even remember clearly how I picked up this manga without any recommendations from anyone. I was renting Mangas from a Comic Shop then and someone kept renting away the final few volumes of YuYu Hakusho! Many trips to the Comic Shop resulted in empty returns so out of boredom and frustration, I randomly pulled a book out from a shelf, sneered at the front cover, read the nonsensical introduction at the inner flap of the cover by Fujisaki Ryu (Author) and decided “ Oh fu**! I’ll just read this then ”.

And I found myself devouring the next 22 volumes of manga hungrily.  

To be honest, I’ve always loved Heroines. But I also love Heroes. And I’ve always wanted to cosplay the heroes but I never quite found the courage to attempt many of them because I felt my feminine physique wouldn’t cut it and my cosplay skills were not good enough to assist me in my endeavour. I’m glad after so many years of procrastination and ‘Cosplay Skills’ accumulation, I finally found the courage and partner to do it!

Special thanks to Yuanie for agreeing to be my Yozen and sticking through to her promise >w<! We initially had a 7-8 person strong team but things cropped up and we had to indefinitely postpone it ^^;;. *sigh*

So you can say this is probably my first “Childhood dream come true’  cosplay. Other than Battousai (from Rurouni Kenshin ) which I did very very long ago, but then again, I cosplayed Battousai/Kenshin when I was still fresh into the fandom. So I was more than a little surprised my love for Houshin Eng after 12 years, was still enough for me to push through this cosplay.

 
“Those guys can handle it… I’ll just …. research on more lazing methods *Munch chips*”

Taikoubou is probably one of the wackiest and most despicable Shounen Manga Hero ever. He sleeps and eat potato chips in the middle of a war. He acts like an idiot but always have a plan. He isn’t the most powerful but he is a leader that everyone looks up to. And above all, he always place himself the last and will do his best to save every last soul he can. To me, that is real ‘kakoii’. Not a sword wielding, demon slashing and flying around in supersonic speed sort of cool but a totally different level of admiration and courage. I’m sure we’ve all met someone similar in our lives before and secretly hoped we could be like him/her even though we never admit it. Kinda like Rin from AnE too haha.

 
“ZZZZzzzzzzzz … eh? we’re losing? I don’t know nothing .. nah don’t worry. ZZZZzzzz“

It almost feels unreal that I’m here with these pictures and the costume done. At every moment before the shoot, I was entertaining thoughts of cancelling the Cosplay altogether. I didn’t have enough faith in myself to finish it. At every step of the way i was questioning myself. “ This is such a low profile and old series, the costumes are not beautiful/cute/sexy/handsome and it will never propel you into idol statues or gain you anything; why are you still doing it? ”

I’m really glad I did it still.

I know for certain I’m not the only one who let such negative thoughts run through my brain. So I hope people won’t judge me for being so brutally honest with my feelings. Anyone have a similar experience? please comment and let me know!

Like all costumes I make, this seemingly simple costume was also such a pain in the ass to make. I had a lot of trouble constructing the top since it was so different from the costumes I’ve made before and it seems almost uncomfortable to wear!

Every single bit of this costume was made by me except the wig and the black long sleeves top. The white pants was recycled from my Chang Wu Fei (Gundam Wing costume! Maybe I’ll do up another entry to talk about the costume construction if you guys want =)

I’d have to thank Brian for the awesome photos and edits! A cosplay cannot be completed without good photos! I’m glad I managed to psycho him into picking up the series and liking it xD Also thanks to the super cute Erika and helpful Roger for all the Saikang help on the shoot itself! I shall talk more about the photoshoot on my next entry =)

Apologies for the insanely long ramble. I just had SO MUCH I wanted to say because so much love have been put into the costume and character. Remember to leave me a comment and share your thoughts ^^!

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Rondo of the Sun & Moon (photoshoot 2)

And so I had a “Rondo of the Sun & Moon” photoshoot in June (OMG WHERE DID ALL E TIME GO?!). Read my first entry with more write-up about the shoot here.

Special thanks to all the photographers and helpers involved that helped made the shoot such a comfortable and enjoyable one despite the humidity and mosquitoes! Also major love to my Miku, Inuran for being such a cute Miku

Photos By: & Brian Lim
Hatsune Miku:
Megurine Luka:

Helper: Joel

Pimping Inuran as Hatsune Miku before I spam photos of erm…me =x Isn't she cute ^^? I think innocent and moe looking character suits her a lot =)

 

I’m sure many people will wonder how we achieved this dynamic picture. You might not believe it but this was shot with just me doing a 120 degree turn while holding my rapier. There was no natural wind, neither was there a helper to help me flip my wig.

The backlit light is a real sun setting but of course, colours is tuned in photoshop by Brian.

Zeratul made me look super tall here *hearts*

This marks the end of my photo pimp. I’m sorry I talked so little, the photos silenced me XD Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the photos because they were a lot of hard work from both the Cosplayer and Photographers. Leave me an encouraging comment if you liked it XD!

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Rondo of the Sun & Moon (photoshoot)

I actually debuted this costume with my dear Inuran last April during SOY’C. But both of us were so swamped with other stuffs that we never managed to shoot this costume until June 2012. More than a year later!

It was not easy pushing through for a Photoshoot, especially when everyone involved is so busy. It took a lot of dedication to finally pulled everything together. Another reason for the massive delay was the lack of inspiration for the theme. We didn’t want to just focus on the outdoor shots since it was done before.The final push for the shoot was the discovering and recommendation of this location by Inuran ! Turns out Brian was also a veteran with the location so it was a deal and we ventured ahead xD

Photos By: & Brian Lim
Hatsune Miku:  
Megurine Luka:

Helper: Joel

 

Getting to the location was not an easy feat. We had to climb through forest and tolerate the mosquitoes so I was really glad the photos turned out to be one of my most polished shoots/cosplay yet.

Because we had to bash through the forest and the harsh weather, I decided to go to the shoot bare faced and do my makeup at the location itself. That help kept my makeup as fresh as it could be but I think the photographers and helpers all died of boredom xD

It is also the first cosplay that allowed me to draw a very intense mahogany/black smoky eye. I think I might fall in love with ominously dark smoky eye makeup xD!

And I’m super in love with the edit Brian did here. The slight vintage nuances to the picture enhanced the gold in my makeup and accessories so well! Love how my makeup turned out in the pictures!

I’ve never done any ‘Yuri’ hinted cosplays/shoots before so I was really happy I got the chance to try it out this time. Ok, granted our pose and photos isn’t very “Yuri" but you get what I mean xDD After so long into the hobby, I think it’s about time I explore other genres and themes =)

Because I am literally falling asleep here, I shall abide all of you good night. More individual photos from this shoot will come soon (I hope)!

Remember to leave me a comment and tell me what you think about the pictures!

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Skip Beat, Prisoner PV Photoshoot

When I was in the land down under (Sydney lol) for SMASH last month. Zephyus and I decided it would be awesome to organise a shoot with a local photographer, get into the local community and have a foreign backdrop.

Mogami Kyoko: Kaika
Fuwa Sho: Zephyus
Photo by: Icie / Pireze
Helpers: Rayuzaki

So I asked on facebook and 冬美 ティナ kindly gave me a list of Sydney photographers I could get in touch with.

Pireze’s (Icie) website was the first on the list and the first I clicked. And I was happy to know, it was the Sydney photographer Brian had marvelled and shown me pictures of some time ago. When Zephyus propose we do a Skip Beat shoot in Australia, Icie was the first photographer I thought of (partly because he was the only one I knew but hey, for someone who’s as bad at remembering things as me, it means something if I can remember someone’s work xD). I would have contacted him first if not for the fact that my desktop and laptop both decided to self destruct and cleanse all bookmarks away. So you bet I was happy when 冬美 ティナ passed me his links! Thanks again for the help babe ^_^

We discussed on possible shoot location and Icie being the awesome photographer he was, proposed this tunnel place in a park which both Zephyus and I thought was perfect for ‘Prisoner’.

The location was a little out of the way and required a bit of walking to get there. We were thankful Icie was nice enough to travel down to Central Station to meet us and then lead us to the location. It would be such a horror to be lost before a shoot ;_;

Evil smirking Kyoko >D

Like Zephyus mentioned in her comments, the weather was way too cold for a Singaporean but on the up side, that also meant our makeup lasted through out the shoot and we weren't sweating like pigs. I was shivering through out my entire Australia trip and seeing how thin Kyoko’s gown was, I decided to not only wear thermal pants but also stick heat pads on my abdominal area .With the grace of Jesus, it turned out to be one of my hottest afternoon in Sydney xD Amen!

I accidentally flushed my contact lens away the morning of the shoot so Icie had to photoshop them for me =_=.

Vulnerable Kyoko

The iconic scene in ‘Prisoner’. Kyoko the Angel strangling Fuwa Sho the Devil to death. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any balcony like structure around and we had to make do with….

wait for it.

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A short plateau like structure=_=. LOL. Poor Zephyus and Icie had to lay on the floor to get the shot.

I took off my heels for the shot because it was just too hard to bend over in a cancan with long skirt over a slope. Apparently Ryuzaki and Icie were both very amused by this sight… that and the fact that I was wearing socks with heels. You can’t blame me though, it was cold D:!

Annoying Sho jeering at Kyoko

Read and view the rest of the photos at Icie/Pireze’s website !

Overall it was a pretty fun experience working with Icie and working with Sydney’s winter. I have worked with photographers who wouldn’t discuss shots with cosplayers and I admit, I was pretty afraid Icie would turn out to be one of them. Thankfully he wasn’t and we all had a good time together.

Special thanks to Rayuzaki for helping us get ready and hold my wings for me in the shots >.< Because the wings were originally designed to be 'close-able’ in crowded areas , it was a bit  uncontrollable for static pictures and Rayuzaki had to help me hold them in place. Thank you so much babe!

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Lovely Complex Photoshoot (Part 2)

And so Brian finally got around to editing the rest of the Lovely Complex Photographs. Apparently editing night lights in these pictures killed him xD

Koizumi Risa: Zephyus
Otani Atsushi: Kaika
Photographers: Brian & Lynweh
Helpers: Maria

Poor Risa… look at her double bend xD

* Moar Photos after the cut! *

Special thanks to Sochii for lending us her precious School Bag ! Couldn’t have completed the student look without that xD!

Hope you guys enjoy the pictures! Sorry I didn’t say much, I don’t know what to say. Remember to leave me a comment and tell me what you think about our cosplay xD

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