Fanime 2013 Cosplays

One of the things I love about anime conventions (or any convention for that matter) are the invasion of cosplayers. It was awesome seeing Downtown San Jose being infested and taken over by cosplayers and my fellow geeks and weebs. People might have been pissed by the traffic we caused and the endless lines we induced at restaurants, but we felt dominant! Made the city as “nigiyaka” (so to say) as San Fransisco is every night. It just made those four days and three nights so fun, and now that everything’s quieted down and returned to normal, I’m having post-con depression. 😛 I want Downtown Weebland again, dammit!

That being said, there were many great cosplays this year. I stopped to take a picture of almost every one of my favorite characters and shows whenever I came across them, but this is basically a list of my very favorite ones during the weekend. To those who didn’t make it into this blog post, I’d like to say that you definitely all made it to my Facebook albums. Just very wonderful memories overall.

Ragging on Japan for no reason – not doing the research

7:19

“…What am I saying to these girls? No matter what I choose they always seem to have sex with me.”

-Gamespot

Yeah. Yeah, this guy is a moron.

Joking about Japan’s perverse media is all in good fun. That is, when it applies. When it doesn’t, you just come across as a giant bigot.

Which is exactly what this is.

The Podcast With No Name – Episode 1: Popping the Cherry

On the agenda for our pilot episode, we have the upcoming Little Busters! anime, Spice & Wolf and other light novels, Da Capo III and other untranslated visual novels, Tales of Xillia being localized, and of course, plenty of extra topics because we can’t stop talking.

Intro Music Title: campo de girassol Artist: Shibayan Circle: ShibayanRecords Album: À procura de felicidade

Ending Music Title: グリニッジによる二台のチェロのためのアルマンド Artist: 菊一倖殷×中雑魚酒菜 Circle: 街角麻婆豆 Album: The Catcher in Greenwich

RE: The roots of our fandom

Yumeka of Mainichi Anime Yume wrote an article where she harkened back to her childhood and examined the origins of when her love of anime first began and, of course, why it still persists in her heart today. She asked her readers if they could trace any instances of early “nerdom” within their childhoods that may have contributed to their love for anime today and if there were any obstacles in regards to the indulgence in these hobbies (home environment, parents, peers, etc.)

Instead of sharing my own story as a comment on her blog, I decided to reply to it as a post of my own.

“Why do the Japanese draw themselves as Caucasians?”

Funny thing is, they don’t. The belief that anime characters “look white” is all based on a narrow perception that people tend to have when they are brought up in countries that have a large European influence.

Top 10 Xenophobic/Ignorant Attitudes Aimed Towards Japanese Media

I’ll give you a cookie if you can name all three characters and where they originated. 😛

The list is in no specific order. #5 may apply to other countries, as well. Also note that I’m against these opinions, not siding with them.

Cosplay Corner: Nakano Azusa

Writer’s block calls for…

Azusa cosplay dump. Do not proceed if the thought of random Asian girls in cute outfits disgusts you.

The Problem with Live Action Adaptations in Hollywood

First name: 安昂 Last name: Brown… Wait, what?

Most of us tend to despise live action adaptations of the anime/manga and cartoons we love, mostly because there is always something wrong with them. Whether it be adaptation decay, whitewashing, miscasting, character derailment… you name it. Most of the live action adaptations I’ve ever hated come from Hollywood because they usually combine all of these elements into one big clusterfuck of fail.

Do not proceed if you are a white supremacist, a fan of M. Night Shyamalan, or if you enjoyed most of his movies that are not The Sixth Sense.

Cosplay Corner – Asuka Langley Soryu (Arisa Mizuhara)

Arisa Mizuhara is honestly one of my favorite Japanese cosplayers. Along with her absolutely adorable appearance, she has really high quality costumes (I believe she makes them herself :P) that make her look absolutely kickass during the final product. Her male cosplay is great too, even better compared to real male cosplay (er, no offense to all you angry male cosplayers out there! ^^;;).

She always manages to bring out the essence of the characters she cosplays as in an very excellent way, and that’s the very reason why I just adore seeing any cosplay pictures of her compared to anything else that people take! Her site can be found here. Now, let’s take a look at one of her cosplays as Asuka from Neon Genesis Evangelion.