Cosplay for 2012

For 2012 I have spectacular plans but less time and money than ever. Not only have I moved to my own apartment, I have travelled all over the world and intend to keep doing just that. I've been to Japan and I'm going to London next week (27th).

I've also had a massive photoshoot with my Ouran cosplay that might or might not be published soon. Either way, it was amazing and we had so much fun. Some of the pictures and shoots were just so spectacular that the end result must be really good.

Next year it's Uppcon, Meuwcon, London Expo and Närcon planned. At the very least.

Will post more later, time to make a cake from waffles.

A new year!

Just.. One... More... Day..

New Year's Eve is tomorrow and many awesome parties are going to take place.. As always, I have so many people I want to be meet or be with on New Year's Eve but you can't fit everyone in one house, an even fewer in an apartment.. But nonetheless I have high expectations and it's going to be a great party even though many of my best friends won't be there :(

I have already decided on several vows to make for new years, all of which are secrets that I won't reveal for anyone. What's a secret if it's made public? Nothing!

But with a new years comes new responsibilities.. Nah just kidding. There's a new anime season, a new cosplay season and many other fun things that are more relevant!

2011 Spring Anime Season!
While this season sports the mainstream harem/ecchi animes there are a couple that I'll no doubt watch. Some that are promising for once!

Kimi ni Todoke 2nd Season:
My favorite this season. If you havn't seen the first season, try it out. If it's not your taste, drop it but it's really well made and packs a lot of drama/story & some comedy. Though I do not quite understand how it's going to progress, that's good too as it's not predictable. I daresay ecchi won't be one of it's tags, which in general means it's focused on story as opposed to fanservice. Yay! Though I don't mind a happy ending where they actually at the very least kiss eachother. Those everyone-being-friends endings are a bit annoying in my opinion..

I'll definately watch it, no chance of dropping this one :P





Infinite Stratos
While it has the tags mecha and shounen, it still has some hope. Firstly, the artwork looks splendid. Let's hope the shounen tags doesn't go into the typical mainstream harem/slapstick comedy where the main character consistently makes the girl he likes hate him for the whole anime bar the last episode.

No anime with the mecha tag will beat Code Geass, but this one could sport something Code Geass could not, a lack of angst perhaps? Worth a shot anyway.




Kore wa Zombie Desuka?
Come on, the title sais it all. The story is revolving a lot around the necromancer topic which also makes for an interesting character. The necromancer. A cute necromancer that falls in love with the male lead? Yeah, probably something along those lines.. But we'll see.

While tags are bit uncertain, "shounen" is definately one of them, mahou shoujo is also clear. Rest is a bit uncertain. I just hope it isn't another harem/slapstick comedy which is way to popular for no aparent reason.

I'll watch the first few and see if it's anything worth the time. For all I know it could atleast be entertaining, but looks might be decieving..



Fractale
The artwork slightly reminds me of Ef - A tale of Memories.. Hopefully it will be atleast as good though. No idea what tags/genre but the story will be about a girl on the picture. The male lead finds her, wounded and suddenly she turns into a necklace. Together they set out on a journey in a world where something called the "fractale system" is a force to be reckoned with.

Adventure? Shounen? Sounds a bit like Tsubasa to me but it's not made by Clamp. Still, it's worth a shot. Could always be surprised!






Dragon Crisis!
The male lead rescues a young damsel in distress who then turns out to be a dragon but in human form. They then travel across the world together on an epic journey. Sounds just like the last one to me, just switch the characteristics of the girls a little bit but oh well..

I guess I'll watch the first episode, I'll watch either this one or fractale probably.








Oniichan no Koto Nanka Zenzen Suki Janain Dakara ne!!
I guess the title kind of speaks for itself.. "brother, I don't like you at all", not exactl a perfect translation but that's basically what it sais. Another anime where the little sister has a brother-complex? Not unique this either. But as it's got the tag "comedy" it might be entertaining. Definately watching the first episode.

I suspect ecchi/slapstick being thrown in with the comedy which would lead to it being dropped really quickly.

Wildcard.




Other wildcards:
CARDFIGHT!! Vanguard
Rio Rainbow Gate! (too much fanservice probably)
Hourou Musuko
YUMEKUI MERRY
Freezing
Starry☆Sky (bishies as tag? reverse harem?)
Haiyoru! Nyaru-ani – Remember My Love

And some I definately won't watch:
Wolverine: I'm sorry, the ironman anime was not worth it. It feels like they just want more money from the concept.
Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika: I just don't really enjoy the magical girl idea, and the artwork looks like it's aimed for a pretty young target group.
Mitsudomoe Zouryouchuu!: The first season (LITERALLY) included too much shit humour for my taste. Disgusting and most often not fun at all. The artwork was not very appealing either.

The best animes

My favorites!

It always comes down to this. Which anime to recommend? Which type of anime do I enjoy most? It is really difficult to recommend anime as it's so much based on opinion. I've watched around 3000 episodes of anime, over 150ish unique animes and out of all those there are but a few I really would recommend to anyone.

Firstly I'll just mention this first. For me to give a 10/10 it would have to be an incredible anime in all perspectives, so here's a few things I would give points for:

Overall it's a simple 10 point system, without almost perfectly filling all the following categories, a 9-10 is impossible.
Voiceacting/music/songs: 2-3 points
Artwork/graphics: 2-3 points
Plot: 2-3 points.

Remaining points would be what I feel about the anime. Do I feel like I have to see it to the end? Strong feelings are also important. Does it make me feel sad if it's supposed to be a sad seen? Only a few animes have ever made me almost cry over how sad it is. Does it make me feel happy when it's going well? Can I really immerse myself in the anime? It's all really hard to describe but this is one ofthe most important parts, probably 3-5 points here in general.

So which animes are my favorites? It varies. But some animes stand out among all others. Here are a few of my all-time favorites:

Ouran Highschool Host Club 10
Tsubasa Chronicles 9
Code Geass 10
Fullmetal Alchemist 10
Pokemon (until Johto) 8


Favorite shoujo:
Vampire Knight 10
Nana 9

Favorite Shounen:
Major 9
HunterXHunter 8
Naruto 8


All of these are personal opinions obviously. Some are based on nostalgia or being the inspiration to countless animes.

HunterXHunter

It's a pretty old anime and one of the first I ever watched. It aired 1999, that's 3 years before Naruto. To be that old it's incredibly cool and have inspired many animes. The power of "nen" that exists in HunterXHunter is exactly like chakra in Naruto. Nen can be used to protect yourself, a bit like a shield/forcefield that reduces damage you take from a hit. It can also be used to make a weapon or punch hit that much harder by focusing your "aura" there.

Overall, Nen being a really cool thing that opens up a lot of possibilities.There are also amazing characters. I just love Hisoka, a mass murderer who seeks to fight only the strongest. He is a joker who uses playing cards as weapons mostly and is a really funny character, yet also dark and scary.
Kurapica is also an incredibly cool character who uses chains reinforced with Nen to attack his opponents. As the last remaining Kuruta clan he is obsessed with revenge against the ones who wiped out his clan. Sasuke, anyone? He is incredibly powerful and does anything he can to gain power, at the cost of almost loosing his life. If he uses his powers against anyone who isn't his nemesis, he dies immediately.

Despite not including romance nor cutting edge artwork possible now 11 years after the release of the anime, I'd still recommend anyone who loves shounen to watch this anime. It's amazing, the OVA, Greed Island OVA and Greed Island Final OVA (all taking part after the anime) are the best parts of it.

Pokemon

The anime revolves around the card game/ game boy games where you are a young trainer who just started out. In this world trainers are people who catch monsters, pokemon, and trains them to be partners for life. Trainers sometimes fight with eachothers monsters or compete in contests but most of all, they love pokemon! But to the despair of the world.. The evil Team Rocket is trying to ruin it all, and catch all everyone's pokemon!

This is the first anime I ever saw. Pokemon then digimon but I didn't enjoy digimon as much so I'll ignore that for now! Pokemon is the root to a lot of anime too. There are so many animes where you have monsters as pets or have monsters fighting for you. It's a common theme. But what made pokemon so amazing? It was original. Ash Ketchum fighting for what he really liked and those weird monsters he ended up with were pretty cool.

Though after the pokemon league and maybe orange league.. It kind of went out of hand. Each and every time he fail the pokemon league he would throw away all his pokemons and pikachu which should be incredibly powerful after 1000 episodes worth of fighting, still looses to a trainer who just recieved their first pokemon, lvl 4. Really? Please. . . . ..

But it's still a good anime. I don't know if I'd recommend it to anyone. It's aimed at pretty young people. Pokemon will always be that nostalgic anime that started my anime interest and I'll always love it for that.

Ouran Highschool Host Club

The story revolves around the poor girl Haruhi Fujioka who somehow attends the famous and amazing school Ouran Highschool - well known for it's well performing students and high standards. But Haruhi can't even afford the school uniform, if it was damaged, she could never replace it. She wears an old shirt, vest and trousers and together with her unkept hair... Noone knows she's a girl. One day she enters the clubroom to a strange club.. A host club! It's a club that tries to fill every need of the higher class ladies in school. They are very rich, pretty and princesslike and needs charming princes to serve them coffee and talk to them on their breaks.

By accident, Haruhi crashed an item belonging to the club and is asked to pay up or join the club and work until she's no longer in dept. Tamaki and the twins Hikaru and Kaoru eventually finds out that she's a girl and all falls in love with her - an extremely funny and great plot follows.

Out of all animes that I've ever watched - after thousands of episodes and hundreds of animes - this is the one I'd always recommend to anyone. It's such an amazing anime. There's nothing in it that is bad. I can't find a flaw that could be improved. Beautiful characters and artwork, great voiceactors and awesome plot. It is the best comedy out there and includes enough romance to make it interesting to just about anyone.

Code Geass

The child and prince Lelouch Li Britannia gets to witness his mother being brutally murdered but his father did not care. He sent Lelouch and his sister Nunally to Japan to basically be political hostages.

But Lelouch is incredibly intelligent and hides his true name and starts to lead a new life, while tending to his sister who is blind. Suddenly he gets into a tight spot and meets up with the beautiful C2/shi-tsu/C.C. who boasts a power unmatched to anyone. It strengthens the wearer by giving powers reflecting the deepest desires in ones heart. C2 makes magical contract with Lelouch, thus saving him and seemingly herself. Lelouch now gets the mystical power of "Geass" that makes him able to command anyone to do anything, if he is able to get eye-contact with them.

Apart from being pretty tragic and angsty from time to time, this is one of the best animes I've ever watched. The artwork is made by clamp so it's safe to say.. beautiful characters and artwork everywhere. All the costumes people are wearing looks good and "realistic". The music is also pretty good and the voiceacting really great. One of the best animes ever made.

The only downside of this anime is that it is pretty dark. People die and not just the enemies. The story is also very deep with psychological questions being put forth frequently. Is Lelouch evil for wanting to bring down the horrible Britannian empire that invaded Japan? Is his "Geass" powers really safe to use? Are his friends trustworthy? A lot of things happen in the anime but it is amazing and definately has to be seen.

Anime season fall/winter 2010

There is not much happening on the cosplay front until june next year. It's so far away. So I got an interesting idea. Why don't I blog a little bit on ongoing animes which I usually end up checking out anyway.


Currently ongoing anime

Star Driver
Bakuman
Yosuga no Sora
Fortune Arterial
Amagami SS
Shiki
Kami nomi zo shiru sekai/ The World God Only Knows
-
Sora no Otoshimono:
Mm!
Otome Yokai Zakuro
Shinra! Ika Musume

These are the ongoing animes I've atleast seen 1-2 episodes of. The ones below the "-" are the ones I simply cannot watch.. They contain little interesting plot, ridiculous ammounts of fanservice or are not interesting, hence I won't comment those at all.
The 7 others really are great - in general there is only 2-3 animes I can stand watching, the rest are just fanservice filled nonsense. They might not be 10/10, but atleast 6-9/10.

Bakuman is an interesting lovestory about a boy who aspires to be a manga artist, he's in love with a girl whom probably loves him too but neither of them dare even talk to eachother. The main character and his best friend is desperately trying to make an amazing manga.. Somehow he ended up promising to marry his crush if he made a successful manga, and she agreed to it.









Shiki is the best horror anime I've ever watched, but seriously, don't watch it alone in a dark house at the dead of night. It's quite scary from time to time. The story is about a strange and deadly epidemic spreading in a small town deep in the mountains. Very well drawn and interesting plot. Definately give it a shot if you'd like to watch something somewhat original and a bit scary.










Yosuga no Sora is a love story, while not my favorite this season it's the one with the best art. It's very well drawn and has some really interesting parts and some really cliché parts. I can't really decide wheither to drop it or not. Something keeps me from dropping it, so it's atleast a 6/10 way above average yet not that amazing.

On a sidenote, if you plan to watch this I hope you don't mind ecchi.








Amagami SS: Suffers from being really annoying. It's made from a dating sim, meaning there are like 8 different girls that all (might come to) love the main character. Now they decided to make 8 different endings for it, each volume with 3-4 chapters per girl... So basically the story is screwed up. Other than that, it's a pretty cute story and has a lot of comedy in it. Some fanservice, some ecchi but on a moderately "alright" level, not way over the top.








Fortune Arterial: Apart from the cliché accident of the main character being tricked into a girls bathroom and getting beat up for it, it seems to be a really cool anime. A very interesting story about a shady student council ruling the school. The incredibly popular vice-president loves the main character.. Or would she love to eerm. "eat him"? Either way, it's beautiful and sports a lot of comedy so far. I bet the shady student council will be revealed later in the series, because there's a lot going on..

Probably one of the best this season. 8-9/10.





The World God Only Knows: A weird story of the gamer of all gamers who's cleared EVERY dating sim/ visual novel in the whole world. Someone from heaven definately must have been struck by lightning, because one man had to get the task of saving young girls by making them fall in love with that chosen one man.

The anime is really fun, though it is a bit repetitive and I have a hard time seeing how the story will progress with all the.. lets call it backtracking to not spoil anything.






Star Driver is a somewhat ridiculous mecha anime which is my current wild card. I'm watching it hoping that it'll be worth it after a while. I'm no fan of mecha and the plot is a bit poor but the artwork is alright and the main character is interesting, or I should say entertaining... 6/10, hoping for improvement later in the series.

As can be seen on the image, it looks a bit weird, not to mention childish. It seems like a shounen, mecha. But it does not have the same cool art as some other mecha animes. It does have the tag romance though I think, maybe it will turn out to be a good story somewhere in the shounen plot.

Two new things decided!

More plans! Finally more cosplay \o/

Firstly I've decided to attend the game convent "Gamex", another Swedish convent over in Kista near Stockholm. Pretty large and focused on gaming. Hopefully I'll be able to attend it in my Vincent cosplay and compete over the prices but most importantly I'll have a lot of fun and I'll be able to show off the costume again! ^^

While that is uncertain and yet to be decided by others than myself, I've decided upon my next cosplay. It's to be Nero from Devil May Cry 4. Here he is:


It's a pretty complex cosplay just like Vincent. A lot of clothing and details..

A list of things I've planned making for the costume:
- Blue/Black Denim trenchcoat with red lining, and roseshaped buttons I might have to cast. And a symbol for "The Order" on each shoulder. On top of all that there is a fastener for the sword (leather).
- Very customized red leather vest with tedious and many decorative seams.
- Brown leather boots with 3 belts per boot attached.
- Jeans
- A crazy demon arm, perhaps I'll make it lit up if I can.
- A huge sword, "Red Queen". Yay! Always wanted one xD
- A huge revolver, but I might skip it as he never wields it and the sword at the same time.
- A black muscle shirt
- Leather bracer for the left hand.
- 2 rings for the left hand
- A white wig? No thanks. Silver, it will look a lot better and appear as a white wig but with shading! win.
- 1 belt on each leg, for looks I guess.
- No holster.. So where do I but that gun? T_T


Seriously, this character is really badass. He is completely amazing and kicks the new DMC Dante's ass. He is a weak emo boy. But Nero isn't. He isn't your average main character who's weak in the start and gradually growing, instead he's an arrogant tsundere who steadily grows warmer and nicer as the game progresses. Sure, at the end of the game he'll be stronger than in the start but he doesn't start at 0.

Another thing I like with Nero is the incredilby characteristic appearance. He's not like "L" in deathnote or just about any main character in a school anime who is completely devoid of anything recognizable. Carrying a 4-5feet sword might make people think SquareEnix but that isn't a bad thing, the demon arm and the trenchcoat are also really cool. Even a person who don't know the series will think it's a pretty cool cosplay I hope!

I mean, how can a trenchcoat, a huge sword, leather boots and a really mean demon arm go wrong? It would be even more amazing if I could find a Dante, Lady and a Kyrie but as there aren't any around in Sweden that I know of.. I'll be the lonely wolf Nero often was.

Convent's over

The week's end

The convent is over and I'm going back to my daily... boring... gray... lonely life. That's how it feels when you get back from an incredibly lively convent anyway :(

It wasn't boring for a second, I met so many nice people and amazing cosplayers. In costume the heat was the only opponent, it felt like the competitors were all on the same side. I became nominated as a finalist along with 9 others, all with amazing costumes. There were a couple of really good costumes who did not make it to the finalists so I'm proud, even if I did not win anything. For my first ever costume, I was one of the 10 best at the whole convent, that's prize enough.


I also got to talk to a whole bunch of other cosplayers and all of the finalists, I learnt plenty, got new ideas and got to know many nice cosplayers. Hopefully we'll all meet again at the next con, with even better cosplays and have an even better time.

Hopefully there'll be something on Youtube soon so I can see the rest of the competitors and the sketches since I missed them because of being backstage half of the evening. But it's been an amazing weekend and I hope I live to see many more just like, or perhaps even better, than this one.

Convent day 1

So if yesterday was doomsday, surely today was judgement day. Photoshoot and interview with the jury. "All that's left" is the grand cosplay gala, walk-on, vote and checking the results! Surely this will be a breeze? It's all down-hill from here, some might say. But really, for me it's kind of scary walking up on that stage as I've never actually done it before. The unknown is scary stuff. While I'm reasonably pleased with my costume, there are countless things that I could have improved.. Many things to make more smooth and practical. Could I have done it better? Probably. But is this enough? I hope so?

Not only this mentally tough situation but there are also repairs to be done as today was a long day. Sweat, friction & heat are bad for costumes. The gun lost it's trigger & another part which I don't know the name of, basically the guard around the trigger. There's also a dent on one of the pieces of armor on the boots. But that can be sorted out, somehow. I've got all night ^_^

What is my goal anyway? It wasn't winning, when I started anyway. Now it feels like a really amazing... possibility? Is that the right choice of words? Is it possible? Nah, probably not. I saw some indredible costumes. A really cute Vanille, heard rumours of an "Iron Man" cosplay. Some really good cosplays from Naruto too, which I usually frown at normally. And I've just seen the tip of the iceberg. Many amazing cosplays are sure to be seen at the convent and some tough competition is to be expected. All the same, I've recieved so many compliments about my costume that I'm flying high right now!