Taylors Anime Fest 08

Finally i've got the line up and running. Sweet 4megs all to my.... owh wait.... i'm sharing with my housemates (damn it!!!) But it's still fast so who needs to complain =P

Anyways, saturday signalled the birth of something new. Hahahaha after the long wait, (and several skipped hair cuts) i've finally managed to transform myself into an anime character....












(successfully too!) in the form of Reno from the Final Fantasy series.

Do you know how hard it is to be an anime character? Aside from this being my monologue for my humorous cosplay performance it's a very real question. A lot of preparation has to go into the job. Costumes need to be designed or bought (this puts constraints on one's budget), hair style can be a problem too... colour can be one as there's lots of fantasy colours like purple and green which aren't exactly natural hair colours and then there's the spiky haired bit =.= and the length of hair.... I spent 5hours plus in the hair stylist's chair to get the look i wanted. That included trimming (my hair was very thick), bleaching (it's very irritating to the scalp), dying (needed a bright red to get hair colour like Reno's) and of course the most painful part... Hair extending (ouch is what comes to mind coz my hair was tugged like a lot!).



Once all this is done there's some final touches to be added. Yes! There's more lol you've gotta put on some make up (anime characters have perfect skin =.= something i don't have) foundation is necessary and i needed red streaks down the sides of my face which Reno also has. Eye liner needed to be applied, which kinda made me very goth at one point and my eye brows needed to be thinned and shaped a lil to get a more sharp effect (most characters have straight pointy eye brows not crescent moon shaped one's like mine). Owh... and you've also got to get the eye colour right. I purchased some green contacts before the event and it was another first for me.


Once the costume and make ups done there's still the portrayal of the character. You need to know how to act. As for me... Reno needs to constantly make a fool of himself (easy job XD just act as i usually do and it was smooth sailing for me lols) My tongue was gonna fall out i think.... Reno is well known for the tongue sticking. Half his pics displayed as much though i know i over did it and i regret it now. Future events will involve less tongue sticking i promise XD it was my first after all and i'll do more research into poses next time around.















Boring Technical stuff aside.... Here's the details of the event as far as memory serves. Got there before noon. Showed up in full costume and baton in hand. Felt rather nervous as i wasn't sure what to expect. Walked up 3 flights of stairs as usual and was immediately welcomed once i walked through those MPH doors. Everyone wanted a photo =D and i obliged by letting them snapped away.


The rest of the day was filled with more photo snapping, Stepmania playing and sushi eating (yes there was sushi available for purchase) and curry rice (which i heard was very good but i didn't try due to stomach problems). I guess it would've been rather boring if you didn't come in costumes.... there wasn't really much to do and the activities as many others before me have ranted about weren't very appealing. Bad organization was experienced throughout and i think the only time the crowd reacted as a collective was when the FMV's of funny anime clips were shown (those were pretty funny btw).



Eventually it got to the cosplayer competition. Contestants were expected to perform something for 3-5 mins.... I wasn't sure what i was to do so i decided to do something funny XD starting by purposefully tripping on stage and beginning a monologue on... You guessed it... How hard it is to be an anime character. I did a lil cat walk like those models do and posed with my tongue out as usual =P that somehow won me first place and i'm quite happy about it. I've made a fan too who goes by the name anna sagara. Biggest supporter aside from my other friends (thanks for shouting eventhough you embarrassed yourself in the process, i appreciate the love!)






I would like to express my displeasure about the Stepmania pads malfunctioning... GRRRR!!!! That 100RM should have been mine man... The pads just had to malfunction at that moment in time... owh well... maybe next time i guess. I had fun showing off my moves though, i'm sure a lot of people were amazed at the swiftness of my feet (ego expanding) but i guess that comes with practice (i have been playing for 5 years after all).







I met some pretty cool people and i had fun being someone else for a change. All in all it wasn't a total disaster from my point of view. Improvements do need to be made and i'm sure the future holds a lot for all of us who strive for our dreams. As for my next cosplay attempt, I'm invited to some convention mid August where they'll be interviewing cosplayers about their cosplaying lives. Hopefully i'll make it and use the chance to work on my role playing skills.






Thanks everyone involved in hosting TAF! It wasn't the best but if it's any consolation, i had fun and i'd like to thank ya'all for the opportunity. Till next time!