They Are Not Real Ninjas!

On the 15th October a pretty big Japanese festival (aka: Japantag) took place in Düsseldorf.

To tell the truth, I expected a lot more from this festival. The whole idea and events sounded really really nice, but in fact I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to.

Well, first of all, there were hell too many people. I swear, most of them were simply breathing and doing nothing major aside from standing there and taking too much place. Of course, I'm not saying you should shot all those extras who have no real function in life, but I really don't get why this festival became an otaku event.

Well, fine, it leads me to the next thing I didn't like -- it's a hell JAPANESE festival... not anima con. HELL -- there were almost no people who were not dressed up like they are in some third rated anima con... and annoyed the hell out of me.

Yes, anima is indeed a big tradition and cultural element but it's far from being the only thing in the japanese culture, and it made me really sad that people didn't get it after such a long time.

Now, basically, the event itself was pretty neat... but I wont say well organized. The workshops were randomly put around the area and the map (*cough*) was as exact as my mom trying to tell a story. Trying to search for workshops was one of the most annoying thing I could think of (so I didn't do it. Which is a huge hole in my Japantag experience).

As there was no train I noticed (as far as I remember we found one doing half the way to the coast) that took us to the river... so we had to walk all the way. The good thing was though, that some random Japanese people put their stands there... and I could happily buy things when I got 1/4 the way.

The stands on the coast however were really crowded. I remember I couldn't enter some because they were filled with people who (again) simply stood there and did nothing with themselves. I hardly found things to buy through the crowd and didn't want to waste other people's time myself (so I looked around a bit and went away, like many many people should have done x.x. Trolls).

Putting the tables 10 cm backwards could be a good solution (considering the fact you couldn't WALK x.x because of all the people).

At least I bought new things and enjoyed some good food... heard drums and pretended to be pretty (singing songs in the train, street, station, hotel, wherever :P).

If you saw a weird person singing 'the internet is for porn' along the way -- it was me. XD

There were 2 good parts I really liked. The first one (surprisingly involving cosplay) was ninjas. Ya, you heard correct -- ninjas. There were some lame guys in ninja cosplay (not naruto... just ninjas) and I COULD SEE THEM. My first thought was "They are not real ninjas" you can't hell see them.

The second, involving the festival itself were the wonderful fireworks. I generally really like them, especially when they are pretty. I expected some sailor moon firework at the end, but the super huge one that colored all the sky yellow was really pretty as well.

Enjoyed, but not sure I'll go there next year. Was a nice experience anyway! ^_^ (we had an awesome hotel btw!).

Cosplay Trolls

I was just searching for an anima character to make a cosplay of, and I was shocked to see how much hate there is towards 'bad' or 'not good enough' cosplayers. Obviously, when you create a costume, you should think of your own body, face and personality, but all those hate comments just made me sick.

First of all, everyone can cosplay in my opinion, and I don't care seeing any character being modified. From the first place, since characters are art, there are different ways people can interpret a charcter. Speaking from my own experience, there was this time where I changed the whole outfit of Vita from Nanoha to be modern and less expensive (and hard to make), obviously keeping the personality of the character and the general feeling it's giving away. Hateful comments about this matter are useless and only show how stupid people are. I'm sorry, but I think everyone have the right to represent a character whatever they like. If you think they don't look like the character, pretend they created some other character.

Now, the second thing that bothered me was this talk about people making cosplays of bad material. Sure, so a person with a part time job that should pay for an apartment and food should go and spend 6 month salary on buying good material -- not. I mean, I do think that cosplays look better with good material... but hell no, I wont ever bother buying something I can't effort. And don't go telling me not to make a cosplay, because a cosplay is not about looking like a character but acting like one.

NOW LET ME COMPLAIN ABOUT NOWADAYS COSPLAYERS -- you know, before getting on my nerves and telling people they don't look good... go look at yourself. I don't see Shinku from Rozen Maiden standing with some random guy and drinking beer at the bar because it is a hell OOC! Cosplay, dumb people, is not about looking like the character and looking good... but mainly about acting like him. Like a play, you know -- even if you look like the character from the script and put him in a complete OOC from what it is... than you WONT be this character. You can die, you can pay thousand of dollars on materials and people to make it... you simply wont be the character.
I admire cosplayers that come with a simple outfit that looks like the character and act like it rather than idiots who ruin the character not by their looks... but more with their attitude.

Aha, so I'm not saying I support 5$ cosplay, because a person will look way better in normal clothes... but I'm also saying that you should look at the effort the person put into the cosplay.

Now, another really bothersome aspect is this dilemma between asian and non asian cosplayers. Obviously, photoshop and good photographer (and camera!) can make both really really beautiful, but take things with proportion. I mean, I want to kick any idiot who says asians make better cosplayers. Why is that? because you are freaking japanfans -- that's why. That's not that asians put more effort into their cosplays, it's just that you don't really look on anything else, and I really mean it. I was on so many cons and saw so many wonderful and terrible cosplayers, both asian and non asian.  There is no difference, believe me.

Fat cosplayers -- they can be really pretty. Stop trolling fat cosplayers. They should not go and lose weight, because it is hell natural to have weight. I mean, I don't mind either of them... but there are people who can not lose weight no matter how much sport they will do or whatever they'll drink. Fat is part of your body... even if you're thin you have fat. You live from some sort of fats. Stop being afraid of fat... that's like being afraid of people who don't look, talk or act like you do. Let's call all people who mock fat people 'racists' and it'll solve it. Stupid.
I must say that it's extremely hard to make a good looking cosplay for fat people because most of the anima characters are way thinner than any human being. In fact, some of them never even heard of 'bones' (good example: code geass). This puts fat people in a very very strange position: how the hell should they cosplay into... that.
That's when 'ugly cosplayers' come to the picture. They are not even ugly most of the times, it's just your idiotic phobia of fat. Stop killing yourself over it and keep an open mind.
I recommend, for fat people, to modify their cosplays a bit not only to fit the figure but to fit the whole image, because even though it is important to put the character as it is, but it's also important to make it 1. comfortable to wear 2. look good on you 3. reflect the way you see the character.
Fat people have the full right to cosplay and not pay attention to any idiots who will think their cosplay is not good enough. The fact they think so means they are immature and have no idea that 'big size' cosplay is really hard to make (as well as clothes).

Last thing before I sum stuff are the parody cosplayers. They are there to make fun of the characters, don't be harsh on them. They are not 'fail' they are consciously trying to make you mad. I'm actually pretty positive about them. They are sometimes pretty funny (but at other times not :P). They tend to go too over border even for me sometimes.

There is no age, no gender and nothing that should stop anyone from making a cosplay. Though, the person should think reasonably of their own figure, face, skin color, eye color, personality etc etc. You can modify the character into your needs, as long as it stays the same character with the same mood and behavior.