Nihon Christmas Party 2012

Another UBER late post from yours truly! This time, a Christmas event with COSPLAY as a theme. Of course, characters must have a touch of Yuletide in their outfits. I went as Gakuko that time (Female Genderbent character of the Vocaloid Kamui Gakupo) and I won an award! YAY!

With the president, Emil as host.

The party was organized by the Nihon Fure Ai Kai - A Touch of Japan Club of the WMSU College of Nursing. It's the only club that I belong to. The members of this club gather to promote and appreciate the Japanese culture in the college and in the university. The officers organized a mini Christmas party with Christmas Cosplay as the theme. Of course, my friends and I instantly joined the event. It's nice to celebrate Christmas in a Japanese way.

Some of the contestants of the competition. It ain't a major contest but still I enjoyed being a Chirstmas character a lot.

The party started with the presentation of the contestants. Here are a few shots by Sheed.

The Butler Sebby as a raindeer? :D

PJ gathered up her courage and joined the contest too! 

And me, As Santa Gakuko smiling like a hyena. :DD

With friends Shiba, Ralphy and Gairu.

After the presentation of the contestants.. dinner was served!  One of the guests of the event is a Japanese chef known as Oji-san to us. He brought Japanese curry that was served during the event and it was just deliciously spicy! Forgive me if I was not able to take a photo. We were a bit busy eating away all the good food! LOL

As a compensation to the lack of photos, here is a kid who dressed up as Iron Man that night. So in-character!

Where are the Ironettes? :)

So after eating, time for the photo op! I had fun spending time with my friends before going on a Christmas break. It was a wee bit different this time because we were in costumes rather than in fashionable clothes. :D

Some of us in our Christmas-inspired outfits!

Whole body shots!

Shiba and Gairu

After all those poses, the program continued on and the emcee announced the winners of the cosplay competition.

And I won second place!

Yaaay I won 2nd place! Here's Oji-san presented the prize.

With the winners!! Sheilla won 3rd, Cee - 2nd and Kuya Mark won 1st place!

After the awarding of the winners of the cosplay event, the party games were next. We joined a couple and our group won a few prizes as well. What a lucky night for us! 

I enjoyed the event a lot, especially the food! It was my first time to taste a real Japanese dish and I was not disappointed! Hooray for Oji-san's cooking! 

It was also my first time to dress up as a Christmas-inspired character. I hope I will improve more in the near future.

It was one of the merriest Christmas yet! Can't wait for the next Yuletide Season!

That's a wrap! Thank you for reading this entry. What do you think of my Gakuko Kamui version? Comment down below! Love lots!

Work-in-progress: New cosplay wig for an upcoming cosplay!

Acting like I just got out of the TV. :)

Hey guys!! My order from a new shop just came in and I am very much satisfied with the transaction!

I ordered my Panty cosplay for a shoot from Vanity Lair, an online shop that sells wigs and lenses especially for cosplayers. It's my first time to buy from this shop and I was a bit nervous upon ordering a wig from it (I always feel anxious when this happens. Wigs are a bit expensive and I cannot afford to be scammed just by anybody!)

Anyway, I am going to write a full review on this order and a bit on the shop. Maybe in the future I might feature this shop here if my future transactions with them will be flow as well as this one. Watch out for it!

Here are a few photos of the package and the wig. Enjoy!

The package arrived as expected!
Photo from my Instagram account

Teaser photo with the wig. :)
Photo from my Instagram account.

How does the wig suit me? Tell me what you think!

Otaku Kazoku invades One Mega Fair 2012

Super late post from yours truly! Sorry for the lack of updates recently. I got very busy with my last ward duty that I had little time to do leisure activities. Anyway, I am done with the hospital duties and I am now "semi-free" to write maybe everyday!

Anyway, the Tzu Chi Foundation hosts the One Mega Fair, a charitable event every year and last year, 2012, was the first time that I participated.  All proceeds will go to charity. Kind of a Christmas present to them! What a great way to help others!

We were in costumes that day to promote the hobby, cosplay, and maybe attract possible sponsors into organizing a cosplay event. As you all know, the cosplay community in Zamboanga is still quite new and we rarely have events and competitions down here.

I went to the event with my friends - we named our group Otaku Kazoku or the OK club. We cosplay and organize shoots for fun.

Some of the members of OK: Cee, Gin, Shiba and Emina 

We browsed the stalls for some wonderful items and we found a lot of nice books for low prices. Gin bought one instantly! :)

Look at all the shoppers!

                   
Products from fruits to makeup are all here!! Some of the stalls off hair styling using spray-on dye and glitters!

After hanging around and observing, we headed to the dressing room to change to our costumes. Get ready for our awesome transformation!

Hipster mirror pose? :)

Wacky, they said.

So, are you ready to see our transformation? Brace yourselves!!

Mugi needs her servant to apply makeup on her. Oh, Hime-sama!!

Usually Most of the time, I am the makeup artist of the whole group. Well, I am not complaining though! I really love trying out what I have learned in makeup on my friends' faces. :D

Lelou!! Y U IN THE GIRLS' BATHROOM??

We're all ready now! Off to see the world and observe people's faces! I was expecting questionable looks that day. I don't blame them. Who would expect a bunch of kids in costumes and wigs? It ain't Halloween!

This guy just went straight to us and asked us if he can take a photo. He loves anime, according to him! 

So instead of weird faces from shoppers, we were greeted by this guy who wanted to take a photo of us. OERGOERDZ!! Someone who's out of our friendship circle appreciated our hobby!! I am so happy! *tears rolling down)

Mugi and Lelouch staying in-character. Shiba all smiles, and Queen and Mark... are Mr. and Mrs. Hitler?!

We found some friends who dressed up for the event too!! I think they were not portraying any character at the moment. Anyway, we also found another couple of shoppers dressed in Japanese fashion too!! Too bad we were not able to take a photo with them because the encounter was just too short. I brought coscards with me but I was not able to hand it to them! D:

And our friends danced on stage! Way to muster your courage, guys! 

So after roaming around the grounds, in costume this time, we went upstairs to rest and to take more photos. I think my craziness, which will be shown below, is a result of my hunger. I tried my best to look like Lelouch despite the pervy look. :D

I COMMAND YOU LOLITA GIRL TO BE Y GIRL FRIEND! 

Lelouch: KISS ME
Shiba thr Lolita: NO! *uses geass canceler*

Because of my, uhh, behavior - we decided to feed ourselves with great food offered during the fair. Again, I was not able to photos of the food stalls!! Forgive me. D: 

We bought a lot and gobbled everything. I had dumplings with rice (my ultimate fave!).

Now that we were full, we were inspired to take pose for more photos and enjoy more! LOL. Before heading to a nice place to do a mini-shoot, ze MuGIN ordered me to draw her Kotobuki Eyebrows. We totally forgot to thicken her eyebrows during changing so I obliged to this request and pulled out my trusty pencil. 

RESTRAIN HER!! :D

I did a pretty good job, eh? :)

And so... off to the hotel's lobby for the shoot! 

The hotel had a gorgeous lobby. We were lucky to have our photos taken there!

Ishan had to head home so Sheed took our photos during this mini-shoot. Thanks Sheed!! You're really a great help to us!!

Well, that's it guys!! Hope you liked my event report! We had lotsa fun that day and it was a great experience shopping while helping others. Can't wait for Mega Fair 2013!

Cosplay Interview by Louise Bacani

Hey guys!! Been in hiatus for about two weeks!! So sorry for the lack of updates on this blog.

Anyway, I have been interviewed for a few times already and the topic is always about cosplay. I feel a little flattered when I receive questionnaires from people for their articles and news entry because I know they value my opinion on the hobby. I think entries like this should be encouraged to increase awareness of cosplay.

Below is a set of questions sent by Louise for her article on cosplay. If you have an interview questionnaire that you would like to send me, email it to this address: yourstrulycee[at]ovi[dot]com

Enjoy!

• What got you interested in cosplaying?

I was browsing for cosplay photos online when I stumbled upon a cosplayer’s online journal. After reading a lot of her posts on her cosplay adventures with her friends, I got inspired to dress up as one of my favorite anime characters. Her posts showed how much they enjoyed attending conventions and doing cosplay shoots, and these posts made me believe that I can also portray my favorite anime characters.

• Why do you cosplay?

Cosplaying is more of a hobby to me. But what made me cosplay more and more is when people comment on how well I portrayed the character, the praises that I got on a prop I made and the joy of finding a new person with the same interest. It is nice to engage in a conversation with another cosplayer or otaku who is also obsessed with an anime you really love – and making friends with them at the end of the day.

• What's the best part of cosplay for you? 

The planning stage is the best and my most favorite part: It’s when I plan out how to create the cosplay, from the props, costume and even my portrayal or skit.

• Do you make your own costumes or do you buy them? Why?

Since I am not skilled in sewing clothes, I hire a seamstress to do the costumes. I personally choose the fabric to be used in my costumes and instruct the seamstress about the details of the costumes and all.

• What happens to an outfit after you are done wearing it?

I keep it in a closet along with my other costumes. I do wear these costumes again in some other cosplay-related events but most of the time, as a new character. Reusing costumes isn't bad. You just have to do it properly for it to be effective.

• What are some non-nerdy (not anime-related) things that you like to do in your spare time?

I love taking photos of my figure collection and I do love filming random things and blogging.

• Is there a character you haven't cosplayed yet but want to in the future?

Yes, there is. I want to try portraying more male characters in the future; one is the Battousai from Samurai X OVA: Trust and Betrayal.

• Do you have any advice for someone who might be interested in cosplaying but doesn't know how to start?

I will never get tired of saying this to new cosplayers: START WITH YOUR FAVORITE CHARACTER. It’s the easiest way to start. If you love this character, most probably you know his or her attitude, mannerisms and or movements that are important in portraying while on stage or during photoshoots and such. Also, start with someone who has a simple costume, like a character in a school uniform for example. This will give you an idea on what it feels like to actually wear the costume. It will feel a bit odd for some because there is a BIG difference between imagining yourself as the character and BEING the character. Good luck on your journey on becoming an awesome cosplayer!

Open BLEACH Photoshoot: Ichigo Kurosaki by ASPC

Hey guys! I am back to bring you my latest cosplay photoshoot here in Zamboanga!! It was held last year December 30 at Hilltop Resort, San Roque. The shoot was organized by Veronica M. and her friends (she was Renji that day).

I must tell you, the sun was our biggest fan that day but the prickling heat did not stop us from pushing through the shoot.

I would like to thank my friend, Nouf, for inviting me to this wonderful event and to Sheed who took care of us all throughout the event. ^_^

All photos were taken, with permission, from the photographer's Facebook page. For more BLEACH cosplay photos, visit his Facebook page (link below).

Photographer: Anthomer Janolino Sabacho
Facebook Page
Twitter Link

Character: Ichigo Kurosaki in Bankai Mode
Series: BLEACH
Cosplayer: Cee

Click on the photos to enlarge it. :)



About the character:
Ichigo Kurosaki is the main protagonist of the shounen anme series BLEACH. He is a human being who gained shinigami (death god) abilities from another shinigami named Rukia Kuchiki. A shinigami is a spiritual being who is able to fight evil spirits (hollow) using a katana, which appearance is based from the wielder's powers. A shinigami can also perform a 'soul burial' - a some kind of event when a shinigami sends a spirit to the spirit world called Soul Society.

We took in all the heat just to attain great photos for this shoot. We chose this desert-like location to make it look like we were in Hueco Mundo from the Aizen Arc in the photos. Who can imagine we have a site like this just right in our hometown? Now that's what I call "REAL SITE-HUNT"!

This is, by far, my favorite cosplay and shoot yet! I think it's because we had a huge cosplay group that time. And the site was really perfect for the shoot! Plus the photographer was very nice to us, despite the heat and our number. He instructed us nicely and took a lot of photos with different poses.

So what do you think about the photos? Comment below and let me here your thoughts! 

MAKEUP REVIEW: LANDBIS Mini Cute Pink Liquid Eyeliner - Black

Hey there! So this is another makeup review on a product from KKCENTERHK.com
The LANDBIS Mini Cute Pink Liquid Eyeliner - Black

I love the packaging of this product. It looked very special to me. 

The company's description of the liner:

• Brand New With Original Retail Packing Box
• 100% Authentic
• The total length 11.3cm
• Mini size of liquid eyeliner is more convenience for fixing make up.
• More convenience put it into your mini hand bag when you dressed up to night party.
• Allows for a quick and precise application of eyeliner.
• Last all day without any flaking, smudging, smearing or streaking.
• Net Weight 1.25g
• Price: USD$10.99 

Tip of the liner

The pen tip of the liner is also very fine, which is advantageous in drawing the lines on the eyes. For me, I was able to apply very nice and clean lines on the first try. The ink also dries of quicker than dip liners, which is what I love about pen liners. Application is very easy and it gives out fine and precise lines, and it did not smudge off my eyes when I drew a few lines.

More on this liner:

• Very cute appearance, a pink pen liner that is easy to keep and carry.
• I did not feel any irritation after using it.
• No funny smell of any kind.
• The liner can be easily removed using makeup-remover

Dislikes:

• Not waterproof. It will smudge if you tear up or sweat.
• The ink/liner is not very black even after a few swipes. 

Would I recommend this product?
Yes! I think it's a great eyeliner that's worth your money. 

That's all guys! I hope you liked my review! What do you love about pen liners? Tell me all about it on the comment box! 

Winky!

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