Fanime 2013 Cosplays

One of the things I love about anime conventions (or any convention for that matter) are the invasion of cosplayers. It was awesome seeing Downtown San Jose being infested and taken over by cosplayers and my fellow geeks and weebs. People might have been pissed by the traffic we caused and the endless lines we induced at restaurants, but we felt dominant! Made the city as “nigiyaka” (so to say) as San Fransisco is every night. It just made those four days and three nights so fun, and now that everything’s quieted down and returned to normal, I’m having post-con depression. I want Downtown Weebland again, dammit!

That being said, there were many great cosplays this year. I stopped to take a picture of almost every one of my favorite characters and shows whenever I came across them, but this is basically a list of my very favorite ones during the weekend. To those who didn’t make it into this blog post, I’d like to say that you definitely all made it to my Facebook albums. Just very wonderful memories overall.

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Rurouni Kenshin (live-action film)

My promise not to kill… This is my sakabatou!

I haven’t been posting because of the flu – I’ve had hellish nights during the past weekend.

I’m feeling better though, and no flu can possibly stop me from finally getting around to watching the Rurouni Kenshin live action movie. I was certainly hyped for this movie and I honestly lost my patience waiting for an eventual American screening – so I simply grabbed the Japanese Blue-ray and watched it anyway. Hell yeah!

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12 Days of Anime, Day 11: Another favorite

I’m always looking for new series to adore. Which makes me even more disappointed when a series fails to impress me in some way, or be even mildly entertaining and memorable. Which is why I always try my hardest to see the positive sides to anything I watch, read, and play.

There are quiiiiiiiite a few series this year that have disappointed me greatly. But we’re not going to talk about them today.

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…

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12 Days of Anime, Day 1: The Return of a Ronin

Image Credit: juria from Pixiv

A little less than seven years in the blogosphere and this is actually my first time taking part in a “12 Days of Anime” post-spree, a project in which bloggers recount memorable moments related to anime either this year or in general. I decided to do it about 2012. I’m pretty excited about it, mostly since I don’t really physically *celebrate* any holidays outside of buying one or two gifts before Christmas Day comes around… and taking a break from school.

I was originally planning on doing this when the REAL 12 Days of Christmas began (which is Christmas Day), but then I saw everyone else start doing it today. So, I figured, I was probably planning on doing it wrong, somehow…

Any-who, let’s get the holiday season started. *calls the Christmas Carolers*

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…

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You Can’t Fool Me Twice! (Puella Magi Kazumi Magica: The Innocent Malice)

So I just got around to reading Puella Magi Kazumi Magica: The Innocent Malice, up to the latest chapter. Suffice to say, it starts out pretty happy, but since I’ve watch the original Puella Magi Madoka Magica anime series, the quick shift to utter darkness didn’t catch me off guard this time around.

I have to say, the plot twist in chapter 14 was pretty awesome, especially since you can spot some clever foreshadowing while re-reading previous chapters. Even though it isn’t written by Gen Urobuchi, the overall spirit and mood of its parent series is still there, and is emulated perfectly by Maaki Hiramatsu. Kind of miss Ume Aoki’s designs though, but Takashi Tensugi’s art is pretty. This spin-off seems to have much more yuri undertones than its parent series did (which all could have been taken out of context, for all we know), so I’m a happy man. <3

Without being as spoilerish as possible, I summarize my thoughts on the latest chapter in two words: POOR KAZUMI.

And also…

(BEWARE)

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Slave to the Deceiver, Magician Madoka

I finally got off my bum and watched the one “magical girl” anime everyone’s been ranting and raving about: Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

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Phoenix Wright/Naruhodou Ryuuichi gets his own movie!

http://www.capcom.co.jp/gyakutensaiban/movie.html

So let me get this straight – An anime for Gyakuten Saiban/Ace Attorney has never been made, yet they get an idea to make live action film instead? Narimiya Hiroki doesn’t even look the part! Not enough spikes.

This better be good.

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Top 10 Xenophobic/Ignorant Attitudes Aimed Towards Japanese Media

I’ll give you a cookie if you can name all three characters and where they originated.

The list is in no specific order. #5 may apply to other countries, as well. Also note that I’m against these opinions, not siding with them.

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The Problem with Live Action Adaptations in Hollywood

First name: 安昂 Last name: Brown… Wait, what?

Most of us tend to despise live action adaptations of the anime/manga and cartoons we love, mostly because there is always something wrong with them. Whether it be adaptation decay, whitewashing, miscasting, character derailment… you name it. Most of the live action adaptations I’ve ever hated come from Hollywood because they usually combine all of these elements into one big clusterfuck of fail.

Do not proceed if you are a white supremacist, a fan of M. Night Shyamalan, or if you enjoyed most of his movies that are not The Sixth Sense.

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Dark Tales of Japan (J-Horror) 01 – The Spiderwoman

Also known as “Nihon Kowai no Yoru” in Japanese. This is the first installment in my reviews of this Japanese horror anthology, which contains five short J-Horror stories that aired on TBS on 2004 and was released on DVD by Geneon Japan. Naturally, my final thoughts on this J-Horror anthology will be written in the last post. I won’t be summarizing the whole movie, rather, I will be commenting on things along the way. Watch the movie yourself, you lazies! Now, let’s see if it actually scares me! :3 EDIT: I’ll continue this during fall, lawd. Halloween ftw.

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Mei-chan no Shitsuji 01

Is that a pedo we see?

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GARO 01 – Picture Book

Where there is light, shadows lurk and fear reigns. But by the blade of knights, mankind was given hope.

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Lucky Star/Kamen Rider Super 1 Comparison

Lucky Star’s parody:

The actual 1980s show’s henshin:

“Kamen Rider Sōjirō”:

In my opinion, one of the best cultural references in Lucky Star EVER.

Hanazakari no Kimitachi e – 01

One of the JDramas I’m watching as of now (as requested by Orion at the blog of Epic Win).

Based on the manga of the same name, Hana-Kimi is about a girl named Mizuki Ashiya, who disguises herself as a boy to sneak into Osaka High, an all boys school to be with her idol, Izumi Sano, a former high-jumper. All I can say is that it’s really aimed at those fangirls who squeal at the site of all those pretty boy actors and all of its reverse harem goodness. Can’t say I was really ecstatic with the whole atmosphere of this drama, but what can I say? I’m not a fangirl.

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Kamen Rider Den-O (仮面ライダー電王) ep. 01

Finally!

Got the time to watch the new Kamen Rider series. Haven’t had the time for much Toku lately… ^^;

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仮面ライダー THE FIRST (Kamen/Masked Rider The First) DVD in the US, by Media Blasters w/ English subtitles

Remember that horrible, horrible American adaption of Kamen Rider done by Saban long ago? You know, the one where they spliced footage of different Kamen Rider series while still using Kamen Rider BLACK RX suits? The one where there was a blatant, acidental “cameo” of Minami Kotaro? Well… it turns out Saban’s Masked Rider wasn’t the last “variation” of Kamen Rider to ever step foot into the U.S… And it turns out that this “Masked Rider The First” isn’t all that bad …You’re asking why? Well, instead of an American adaption using American actors and splicing the footage together, it’s actually the original film Kamen Rider The First subtitled into English by Media Blasters.

Original Japanese film at Play-Asia.com. (Region 2, for those who have Region-Free DVD players and are fluent in Japanese).

Offical subtitled film at DiscountAnimeDVD. (Region 1)