Gasukan 8

Gasukan 8 was....the awsomest! I can't accurately describe how it went and how I feel in the amount of text I'm willing to devote to this post...I'm mostly here to direct you to my Youtube channel which has pictures and videos of the most awsome day.

Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcFUxYsCOLQ

Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsmJGFsXMJM&feature=related

TO ZANARKAND! No just my dreams....

I’m going through changes…*can’t continue writing, laughing too hard*. Anywho, I just got back from Mexico (I have an Excuse! “Ladies and gentlemen the woman HAS an excuse for not blogging on a consistant basis!”)

Been doing A LOT of cosplay….as for changes, I’m starting to think I will use this blog largely for tutorials and fun videos of my cosplay ventures! (Though my computers are fast so I’m not sure how that’ll work for you). I’ve been having sooo much fun video taping my ventures and editing them into spiffy videos! It defiantly takes a while (especially when you are trying to sync video with audio) and doesn’t leave much time for much else…the days go by quick when all I do is work on my cosplay and make videos….

I have a lot to talk about but not making any promises on what I’ll write because you know how unreliable I am with that…;P.

I do want to say that after reading lots of article on my personal favorite aninme blog about the dying anime industry (I yes you heard me right) that I am happy to hear positive news regarding changes in the style of releasing of new series as well as the new blue ray format.

Also news on my first crossplay which I quite enjoyed!. I have two videos make now to put up, and two tutorials to come on REAL wig cutting and gun crafting.
Last but not least, the list of must see anime for the count down to fall/school as I have been doing more cosplay than anime.

Otaku Extravaganza!

Good news everyone! I recently got some videos up on youtube! They might not be up forever thanks to protective familys so watch 'em now!

Search the following for results

Javakat343 channel or...

The Otaku Adventures

http://youtube.com/watch?v=0pnNLNKX8X8




Adventures in Wig Cutting

http://youtube.com/watch?v=O37LoTGr6CM&feature=user

Also I just took part in the second anual Seattle China town Bon Odori parade in which Sakuracon participates...and so I made a video :)

Sakuracon Parade 2008

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyzo7Kkatew

Random Anime Thought #1

1. "Wow, there are way to many cross played Axels, (wanders upon unexpexted AxelXRoxas Yaoi) and too muchy of that....ohhh that 'actually-a-guy' Axel is relly hot".
2. Harry Potter and Host Club is a great combination.

Update

Hola Amigos! Just so you know....I am forgetful! I have been busy, don't get me wrong, but the reason for my lack of posting is pure forgetfullness. Now that I remembered..I will...in a week when school is out! Then I will be free to write freely.

For now here is the plan!

• The parade date was never June 20th but July, which means that I have more time to prepare! Whoot.
• What I DID do was go to Gasukan (A minicon in Washington) on the 7th and ended up on a "Where the Hell is Matt?" video! Will post a blog all about it!
• Posts on AMVs and plans for the future.
• More Cosplay
• BENTOS!

The Meloncholy of Marie Nunya

Okay folks I have some news! For one I just bought the Furuba (Fruits Basket) box set so I can finally finish the series (legally). Second, the Team Sakuracon parade is coming up on June 20th so I’m going to be preparing a really simple cosplay (I have exams and SATS only a few days before *barf*, don't get me wrong I will kick butt on the reading, writing, and language parts but I don't expect better than 80th percentile. I got 60's on the PSAT's, I'm a little too good at not worrying about it "Study...okay TOMMOROW!"... God will provide!)

I’m thinking of during Haruhi from…Oh gosh you should know. Anywho. You should know by know that I hate boring, just like Haruhi. We’re actually pretty similar…Except the groping part, so because I don’t have much time I figured I would do her cheerleader outfit and have my friend Jen do Yuki (either which or baseball). The only problem is (well I don’t care but I might regret it if people don’t recognize me) I have curly hair and no bangs….I’m thinking of cutting them…after the SATs…I’ll have to see. Because they could go wrong in a million ways…ug.

What In the World Do You Do At an Anime Convention???

The following is a bit I did for school...frankly its supposed to be about me and stuff but its just ramblings about cons...so I will probably have to do it over again later...anyway, I think its insightful so here you go!

First off, let’s be brief with the history, as I have explained it many times. I have wanted to go to this convention for ages. I had to wait an extra year to go because my dad scheduled a trip over the 07’ convention and I was out of town (“whoot” for colonial Virginia). A year passed and the time finally came. I was sick. I was stressed out. And those three days were probably some of the best I have ever had. Okay more explaining….The con was scheduled for the last weekend of March. This was really bad timing as it was in between two school breaks (mid winter and spring) so the teachers were merciless with the work load. I had been busting my butt to keep up with the work, when what I wanted, was to get ahead so I could enjoy the convention without homework. Yea right.
Well, it sure was stressful, and I will tell you that my immune system is broken by one thing, and one thing alone. Stress. But the cold died down enough for me to enjoy it, and luckily for me, my already bad sinuses plus the dying cold meant I didn’t have to worry about the dreaded “con-funk” (13,000 people in one building plus body odor).

So great, I got to my convention and had a blast, but still, a lot of people don’t seem to understand what you do at these conventions. Well, frankly if you don’t like anime you will probably be a little lost if not completely bored. If I was to go back to the Emerald City Comic Con I would probably be bored as heck because I don’t really like Western Comics (except the Tomb Raider stuff). I went once, at least five years ago, but that was just for merchandise and to get Jhonen Vasquez’s autograph (Jhonen Vasquez is the creator of Invader Zim, a cartoon that aired on Nickelodeon for a short period of time but was canceled due to its dark nature) which were probably the only things I could have done anyway.
You have to like anime, yes, but it’s not essential because there is so much there for you to do. Panels with manga artists and voice actors (both English and Japanese), workshops on how to draw for example, concerts, dances (the only place in Seattle you can rave it up without fear of drugs), photo shoots (where you learn to expect the unexpected), merchandise, cosplay contest (cosplay being short for costume play, and the cosplay contest usually designating funny skits and “walk-ons”), anime music video (AMV) contests, karaoke, and on, and on. But it’s surprising how many people skip the big events and still find things to do. Just walking around, making new friends, taking pictures, watching random dancing, playing spin the bottle outside (glomp style, A.K.A hugging) all can make your con experience more memorable.
The atmosphere of each con is also a deciding factor on what you do. Each one is a little bit different in terms of what to expect. Cons like Kumoricon (down in Oregon) are much smaller then Sakuracon so there is more down time to do the relaxing stuff. Some Cons like Anime Expo, the biggest con in The U.S, are high speed, and you may find your self rushing around to the next event.
Now here’s something everyone needs to know about the taboos of anime conventions. Always shower everyday and wear deodorant. Bring food as there may or may not be available (or just reasonably priced) food. AND NEVER, EVER, watch anime, at an anime convention. My friend Jen confessed to have had a crummy time because all she did was watch anime in the theaters they had. I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to watch something to sample it or soak up some extra time, but defiantly do it sparingly. Believe it or not a convention is about the people. It’s about interacting with people who share a common interest and appreciate the culture and art forms presented at the con. In other words what you do is have fun.

Demons of Cosplay: Crossplay

Cross-play....I’m slowly slipping into a bias against guy cosplayers…I just can’t stand it! But! It’s not really their fault… They are GUYS after all. And with the ever increasing bishonen population in the anime world its getting harder for guys. Frankly there ARE limits. Not the ones that I described before, (the more self patronizing limits people put on them selves such as body image and all that).

There is the social standard. Its not socially accepted in most cases for men to dress like girls, though our society has no problem with the other way around (too a degree…well most of the time anyway). Also most guy cross plays are jokes! The Sailor Moon men and “Man-Faye” are….well…laughable…people don’t take them seriously because they don’t take themselves seriously!

This brings up another issue! I take back the “females-can-dress-up-as-guys-without-a-problem” statement because they can’t! I don’t think that most people (unspoken rule) think that its “good cosplay” for a girl to dress up as say Insert very manly guy/anti-Bishonen. Unless! Of course the girl isn’t taking herself seriously. Here is (what I believe to be) a wonderful example. Shunsui Kyoraku from Bleach...hes a pimp, he has a beard, and hes most definitely not bishonen! But I want to cosplay as him anyway....I don't know if I SHOULD but I probably will anyway. Do you think there is a limit to what women can cosplay? Maybe women should only cosplay guy characters when they would look better then if a man would.

For example; Men KILL Inuyasha cosplay! I set out to make a GOOD inuyasha cosplay just to spite all the “five -o’-clock-shadow” inuyashas I’ve seen! Besides a heck of a lot of them don’t just not work, but arn’t even well crafted! All the REALLY good Inuyashas I’ve seen were girls! Same with the shessomarus. And they are only the tiniest bit Bishi! (at least I think so...maybe I need to figure out what bishonen actually dictates, is it just no hair and no muscle?) If you can call Sephiroth Bishonen and we can see some darn good cosplays then why can’t that apply to Shessomaru or Inuyasha? I think it may come down to the group that watches the show or plays the game. It may be that the demographic that plays FFVII is better suited for cosplay than guys that watch Inuyasha. The world may never know.

THE END.

A lot of debate and discussion goes into the endings of animes. All too often the anime starts too soon after the manga and soon passes it up leaving it without reference material. This results in fillers, more fillers, and then a REALLY unfulfilling ending. The characters never complete the main goal, and usually go their separate ways with the hope of resolution in the future. BULL! Either the anime runs out of cash (budgeting problems), hits a wall (runs out of reference because its already passed where the manga is in the story), or just decides to take a different path and be an “adaptation”. Now sometimes adaptations are a good thing. Some times they are a GREAT thing. And some times they just fall flat.

Examples of unfulfilling, “Huh?” or just “What?...It’s over?” endings (in somewhat order of worst to just-not-great);

Spoilers (not horrible ones) will be below in the asterisks (*)

· Inuyasha: amazing series, I personally loved it but saw where it was going with fillers around the 90’s (episodes) and dropped it. The ending was inconclusive, no resolution. They didn’t complete the task at hand.* You are told to read the manga to get your “waste-of-83-and-a-half-hours-of-your-life” ending.
· Claymore: Similar to Inuyashas ending, they didn’t complete the task;what I now call a procrastinator ending (“oh, will finish it later!”)
· Escaflowne: I really liked Escaflowne but endings are supposed to make you feel…something…this ending was so “huh?” or blah, that I don’t even remember the details of how it ended!
· Wallflower: Once again nothing was completed.
· Full Metal Alchemist: Had to be resolved by the movie, and the Movie still left thing to do…still one of the best anime ever though (its at the bottom of the list!)


Here are some good ones!

Now “good” is controversial. A lot of people may feel that these series belong on the opposite list because major characters died and they were sad, or the ending was sad…and they were sad…but hey! I never said a good ending had to be happy! Sometimes it needs to be sad or it goes against the whole point of the story and becomes a waste of time. It took me a while to realize this…it’s a battle of the Reality ending verses the Fairy Tale ending.

· Cowboy Bebop: Sad but definte. It ended! Yay..but still sad
· Witch Hunter Robin: Similar to Cowboy Bebop in that…*
· Full Metal Alchemist: With the movie it was fulfilling and mostly resolved.

I know these are short generic lists but my reference site for my anime database (http://www.anime-planet.com/) got deleted by a technical error on the site.

Just know that sometimes it may be worth the extra money to just buy the manga...its a complete entity. For me this is hard though as I really don't want to keep buying them when I don't know when it will end! 20 volumes is plenty, anything beyond that seems excessive. (ex: Bleach...never ends! Stop at 63! Skip the fillers!...I am considering starting it up again after the Bounty Arc though...anywho..) At least look at reviews (well thats sort of what one whould do on a site like mine) and do some research. (theanimeblog.com has consistant updates and new anime reviews...)

*Ohh! Scary Spoilers!*

*Bad: Never defeat the main villain

*Good: people Die!

Eh...urg

Sooo….wow…um, its been five weeks since I last posted ANYTHING, even an apology for not posting (which was what my last post was…how pathetic is that?) So anyway, I will try to end my I-never-told-you-that-it-was-an-unofficial-hiatus soon. My In depth interview of my English teacher is still going to happen and I really need to tell you about Sakuracon and my plans for the future!

Once again here’s some stuff to (not) look forward to;

Seattle Cherry Blossom Festival (videos of: Aikido, Tea ceremonies, and Dancing)
Sakura-con (three parts; Fri, Sat, and Sunday…with PLENTY of pictures and video)


here are some links to my photobucket (vid and Pics) http://s56.photobucket.com/albums/g182/javakat343/?mediafilter=images
and Youtube (video...doy)
http://youtube.com/user/javakat343