Nervous!!

IM SO FRIKKIN NERVOUSSS


ARGHHH

SO NERVOUS SIAAAA


WHY THE HELL SO NERVOUSSS


NERVOUS
NERVOUS
NERVOUS
NERVOUS
NERVOUS

PANICKYYYY

NERVOUS!!!!

>"< ;;;

SO DEM NERVOUS !!! >"< ;;

*smacks head on wall*

arghghghghgrahgha

So you wanna cosplay?

The cosplay hobby is slowly gaining the hype and everyone wants to jump in the bandwagon. What used to be a simple gathering of friends who want to dress-up as their favourite characters for fun has suddenly become a fandom, a misunderstood event where people whore for attention. What IS cosplay? In my opinion, cosplay (costume-play) is to dress-up in anime, manga, game, j-rock or movie characters. The purpose of cosplay, is to role-play and portray the characters as accurately as possible. Some people goes to the extent of styling wigs, making replica weapons, wearing custom contact lenses and crafting seemingly impossible props all for the sake of cosplay. In Malaysia, the cosplay scene is not new, beginning even from roughly the year 2000 but only recently, the hype has gone up a notch.

The problem with cosplayers nowadays, especially the newbies is that they misunderstand the real concept of cosplay. Cosplay isn't all about the glamour, the show-off, the photos and the publicity. It is all about being happy to be able to be a character you love even for a day. Cosplay is all about having fun. Therefore, if cosplay is making you miserable, stressed out for not being able to do things right, don't cosplay, because cosplay is supposed to be a hobby, not a necessity or a compulsory thing. One thing that I have learned so far is, NEVER EVER rush a costume. I learned it the hard way and the result is a cosplay that is just mediocre in standard. If a costume is complicated, take time to plan all the parts, gather the parts that are needed and slowly put them together. If the costume requires special parts, make the effort to find out how to make them. However, if it is not part of your expertise, i believe that it is OKAY to commission it from other people so long you do not claim to have done it yourself.

What sets the standard for cosplay? Now, if we were to conseder cosplay a hobby, why do we have a standard to comply? Just as much as there is a quality standard in GUNDAM and ROBOT model making, cosplay has its standards as well. It is usually measured by how much you look like the character, costume and props accuracy, posing accuracy and acting accuracy. I am sure that many of you have experienced looking at an "awful" cosplayer photo and of course a very nice cosplayer photo. Sometimes, a nice cosplayer is rated "GOOD" just because he or she is good-looking or beautiful eventhough he/she does not even dress properly like the character. In particular, I do not condemn these cosplayers. Tney just have a bonus for being good-looking. This situation remains a heavily discussed topic as to what is a good cosplayer. There are some cosplayer who looks utterly horrible but yet have everything from top to toe accurate to the character. Should he/she not be a good cosplayer just because he/she is not good looking? I wouldn't say he/she is a bad cosplayer because i will definitely compliment the costume and props. However, looking like the character is part of the criteria and they just don't cut the mark for that section. In oppose to standards, cosplaying is suppose to be fun and nothing should stop you from wanting to cosplay a character you love. So, its up to your conscience as to whether you can portray the character well or not. (being sarcastic here)

In Malaysia, more and more people are wanting to cosplay. If you are a cosplay newbie here are a few tips I would like to give :
- don't cosplay a character that is too difficult

- try your best to find your sources for items, materials before asking others, it gets annoying when a newbie refuses to make an effort.

- everyone needs to start from somewhere, don't be put off because your 1st cosplay isn't as "nice" as the more experienced cosplayers. There will always be room to improve and in time, you will do better.

- If you are seriously going to attempt a complicated character, take your time to analyze the character. What materials am i going to use for the costume? Are the shoes rounded or pointed? What am I going to make the armour out of? Does the tassels hang this way or that way? Ask yourself questions about the costume and find the answers for them. And again, TAKE YOUR TIME to do these things as rushing won't do anyone good

~*When I started I was a newbie myself, my costume was at least 50% inaccurate minus for the fact I got my Ragnarok Online Alchemist Cart too look good. Here's a pic to show the "evolution" of my cosplay. With the ones on the left 1st and the ones on the right are the newer ones~*


The next best thing about cosplay is making friends. I have made many wonderful friends just through cosplay. I believe that cosplay helps to connect people from all over the worlds. Going to an international cosplay event will definitely land you with many friends from different races, culture and community. I would list all my newfound friends now but the list would go on forever. I hope to cosplay more and meet more people until of course, I am too old to cosplay and have much more important responsibilities. LOL

My experience at Cosfest V 2006 , Singapore

Last weekend i went for a cosplay event in Singapore, Cosfest V 2006 at Downtown East, Pasir Ris, Singapore. The event was superb and i got to meet many new friends as well as meet up with fellow cosplayers whom i have only known through online contact. Anyway...I took a train with Misao, DMJewelle, Heal, Kitty and kitty's friend Michelle on Friday night at 10. We arrived in Singapore at about 6am and we took a cab to our hotel in Bencoolen Street. After washing up and having breakfast at the nearest McD, we took off to Bugis Street. There are so many shops there and the bargains are awesome. We then start to tour the many Kinokuniyas and Anime shops around the area. Mainly we cleared the shop off comic books..lol...we met up with a couple more groups of Msians + singaporeans and had lunch together. We took entire 3 tables in the wanton mee shop LOL. We started to continue our tour like a big tour group and my trip ending at Takashimaya, a shopping complex with very expensive shops >o<.. Our target there is again the largest Kinokuniya in Sg. The reason for targeting kino is because the mangas are cheaper than msia and a lot of the titles are not available in Malaysia. I manage to buy Tokyo Mew Mew Ala Mode Book 2. Yay! We then got back to the hotel and washed up. At about 8, we all met up at Ang Mo Kio MRT and ate dinner at a foodcourt nearby. I tried the Singapore's mee rebus and....its ok ok la... pudding was for desert and we head on to a nearby comic store..haha...since everyone is manga/comic crazy @_@ ;; After that we return to the hotel, cleaned up and watched a movie being aired on Chn5. I was preparing some last minute stuff for my cosplay the next day. Misao did a facial and face massage for me ^_^; It was very relaxing. The next morning was D day. The event that we have all been waiting for cosfest~!. Taking a cab to the event in costume was really awkward. We couldnt help it as we had to check out before 12. The event was at 1 and we might not have enough time to prepare.

Anyway...enough with my ramblings and on with the photos ^^ As you can see the photos are all not taken by me...since i did not manage to carry my camera around during the event. If there is anyone who want me to take down the photos are change the remarks, do tell me. Credits to all the photographers who took these photos


Just look at the crowd in the hall


Artists and Doujin booths as well as booths selling goods such as lolita and gothic accessories and clothings


The bleach group was HUGE...REALLY HUGE....almost like a cult...with the kid dressed up as Kon standing in the middle as the cult leader LOL


Our guilty Gear group...we have:
May, Holy Order Sol, Kuro Ky Kiske, Kuro Millia Rage and Dizzy


I-no and Johnny. The Johnny cosplayer was very nice. I am glad there was a Johnny cosplayer~! So May has a partner ^^


One of May's poses..jsut following the artwork. Thx kazeki for taking this photo and yuu-chan for the camera @_@ ;;


Me doing sum weird pose. I am happy the anchor made it across the border. Phew!


May will pawn joo~~~!!!


May doing Jam's pose?? Lol i borrowed the dimsum covers from Michiko who cosplayed Kurodoberi Jam and did this pose LOL...

Sherman took a video of scenes in cosfest : here's da link :
Video taken by Sherman of cosfest

I would like to add that i was very happy to have met many many friends in cosfest and tighten the bonds between the friends i already have from Malaysia. Cosplay is not only fun. It brings worlds together. ;)