Archive for the 'Anime' Category

The Anti-Drabble Update, Finally

So when I first wrote back in October 2007 that this site would be “mostly a slice of Kevin’s life again,” I forgot to mention how sparsely the weblog would be updated. What, it’s been since April 10, 2008 since the last bit? Ah, seems it’s time to give a rundown of what’s happened over these few months. Hit “Read more” if you’re interested, but pardon the disorganization ahead…there’s a lot to talk about.

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Tekkoshocon 2008 – A Con Without Excess

In about one hour, I will be departing State College for a three-hour trip to the Radisson Hotel (Pittsburgh Green Tree) for another gathering of nerdism, Tekkoshocon 2008. Despite being their sixth year in operation, this is another small con unlike the 23,000-person, overcrowded Otakon 2007 (guaranteed again for 2008) – but it’s still several times larger than our own held in downtown University Park. Myself and a couple others from the Penn State Anime Organization will be promoting Setsucon as part of a friendly table exchange that this convention did with us back in January, and more from the PSAO are heading down just to enjoy the atmosphere and programming.

From what I’ve heard and seen, Tekkoshocon is one of the best anime gatherings in the surrounding states, mainly because it’s not so large as to force sloth-like movement and hinder desires to participate in everything on the schedule, but still filled with enough unique things to do in order to provide that “big con” experience. Hopefully, I can spend time updating this blog with some photos (unlike previous posts for Otakon 2007 and Setsucon 2008), as PSU Media Tech has lent me another camera for those spastic picture taking opportunities.

Now if only I had a cosplay ready for this event, since Tekko 2008’s fanart theme is “Super Sentai” – and giant robots are on the list. Or, if only I were better at drawing mecha. Oh well, can’t have it all at once, right? At the very least, thank God for opening up the time for this weekend, as the convention sits neatly between my last set of midterms and the inevitable final exams…

Gundams Aren’t Tall At All

Laughable given how busy school is, if I were a more avid Gunpla builder, I would’ve crossed dannychoo.com‘s sights more often. And late as I am for reading articles there, a few minutes ago I found this chart (bigger version here) comparing the heights of all sorts of well-known mecha – both real and super; it’s rather humbling for anyone who thinks a Gundam-esque machine is already tall (even the Psycho Gundam). Of course, the full-size image makes a nice wide-screen wallpaper, too.

And…it’s Spring Break for Penn State students. Time to figure out (um, finalize a decision on) what mecha to cosplay as for Otakon 2008 and study for my Differential Equations class. Let’s guess which task will be more fun!

That One’s Been Done Already

Well, it’s been confirmed that somebody else has already done it: cosplay as the ARX-7 Arbalest from the Full Metal Panic! series. Wow, the entire suit looks stunning. I doubt my first attempt at mecha cosplay will be so refined.

That’s not a Gundam, fellow photographer. It’s made of win. Even better, there’s also a shot of the Arbalest’s archenemy (season one): Venom! A Spanish-to-English (Google) translated thread about both “LSK” and his brother’s FMP! mecha debuts at the TNT GT2 convention (February 2-4, 2008) is here. Seriously, college is holding me back from doing awesome projects, like designing more Tesla Coils; then again, mecha cosplayers are sometimes aspiring engineers, so who says we can’t build a real Gundam with giant rifles and beam swords someday?

In other realms: Burning Fingers (!) and…RollerGundam?

Mecha Cosplay Desires

A few of my friends know that I have an account on Cosplay.com (well, now you do too); most of my time there is spent lurking the forums as well as extending webmaster updates for the purpose of promoting Setsucon, amongst other trivial tasks. However, if anyone ever looked at my “Favorites” album, one thing sticks out: the majority of images are made up of mecha cosplayers! Perhaps some of the most impressive costumes EVAR (yes, EVAR ever), I still hope for the day that I can motivate my hands to the point where it’s possible to build a Freedom Gundam…or something slightly simpler…

See, tonight I ran across this weblog summary of a Singaporean cosplayer who built his own full-shielded Gundam Dynames suit and presented it in December 2007. Amazing, no? Look at the last few images and prepare to laugh a little while staying amazed at his handiwork (it’s difficult to imagine giant robots kissing women, but cosplay does let it happen!). Then again, it turns out this man is none other than Clive Lee, a.k.a. “Mirage_cld,” or on Cosplay.com, “Miragestudio.” He has a lot of work underneath his cosplay résumé, and I definitely admire talent like that.

But what does a college student have that can compare to this man’s works? Apparently, he’s 29 years old, and with me being, er, about a decade younger, I still have a while to go: that is, get a supporting job at the least. If this sounds like a RELAy post longing for flight in jets, it should; collegiates (tend to?) study, not pursue lofty purchases/ambitions, and I’m no exception. Fortunately, unlike learning to fly the L-39C, mecha cosplay is actually feasible during an active semester. It’s the deadlines (Otakon 2008, Setsucon 2009, etc.) and a “slight” lack in funding that prevent me from doing so; all in all, though, one might expect me to…one day…say the same words the blogger wrote above: “I AM GUNDAM!”

On a personal note: I still would like to get something mecha cosplay-oriented done by Otakon 2008, but truth be told, it’s a long shot due to possible internships or summer classes. As awesome it’d be to do so, I’m no longer attempting construction of the ARX-7 Arbalest from the Full Metal Panic! series mainly because of the large number of smooth features and difficulty in rescaling the mecha to human proportions; Gundams, with their somewhat-narrower shoulders and less-curvaceous designs (in general) are a better option. Besides, there are far more model kits for the latter – excellent starting points for building a costume version.

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