Threed Place

Last Friday, while other people sat at home celebrating May the 4th by torturing themselves with Star Wars films, there was a gathering of anime fans at the Japanese Friendship Garden in Phoenix for Ani-MAYhem.  And that's where I was, too.  I meant to take pictures but alas, the camera died.  Caj diiid manage to get a couple of photographs of my cosplay first, but we'll get to those in a moment.

We started with a stroll around the garden.  There were so many trees that provided refuge from the heat of the afternoon sun.  They were beautiful and exotic and I could only imagine how much work it must take to keep it looking so alive in this desert. I'm lousy with growing plants. Every time I tell Caj that I want to grow something, he tells me to leave it alone then. t_t

A few sculptures dotted the path adding variety to the scenery.  Through the center of the garden was a large pond with a waterfall towards the east end.  This was the home to dozens of koi that we were permitted to feed their special koi food - cheerios.  Just a small handful was enough to bring the fish together in a frenzy, twisting and squirming around each other in a fight to reach the little cereal first.  Fish can be so aggressive!

We arrived at the event a little late, so we missed several of the demonstrations. I did get to enjoy seeing the performances by At Your Service cafe, based off the maid and butler cafes that can be found in Japan. It looked like a lot of fun, and I couldn't help but think of them as the cheerleaders of the cosplay scene. I think it's something I'd love to try sometime, but I don't think Caj would like me calling other people "Master" while serving them. Even so, I went ahead and came up with a maid design anyway. I think as a maid I'll be called Honey-chan~!

Not long after that I noticed my friend Ally, who helped me to meet some new people there. She even convinced me to participate in the cosplay contest. Even though my cosplay wasn't quite finished and I had to grab a suit jacket from my closet and flip it inside out to complete the look as best I could with what I had - I placed Third in the competition! It completely blew my mind, but I'm really grateful. It has really encouraged me to continue working hard on sewing and performing for my next competition. The best part of the evening? Meeting Banzai Productions again! At least, I got to chat briefly with Oz and SWP, I didn't see the others. I think my nervousness during the contest was due more to me geeking out about Banzai than being on stage. Afterwards, SWP even asked me about where I got my shoes because she was looking for some just like them. It makes me feel good that I can talk to them about these things. Later, online, Oz even told me that I should try a Masquerade next time. Yay~ I believe the night could not have been more perfect.

(Okay, so I mentioned I'd post my pictures, but the camera is at school. I'll come back and edit this post with pics later, okay?)

Cosplay Spotlight Saturday: Banzai! Productions

Cosplay entertainment has the green light for this group of four girls.  I'm talking about Banzai! Productions, and they are breaking ground in comedic insanity.  On May 28, OzTheNekoMaster, ChEsHiRe-K, SuperWeaselPrincess, and ValdaAbyss celebrated their first year anniversary, and together have quickly found sweet success in the cosplay community.

But it hasn't always been the foursome we know and love today.  For nearly a year and a half prior to their official debut, Banzai! only consisted of OzTheNekoMaster, a girl who dreamed of having a group where she could share her love of cosplay with friends.  Devoted to her pastime, she uploaded her own cosplay videos to Youtube.  At last, after convincing her childhood friend, ChEsHiRe-K, to cosplay, and meeting ValdaAbyss and SuperWeaselPrincess at the Kaigi Picnic, Oz had the cosplay group she had been waiting for.  That's when they feel Banzai! truly began.  I asked Oz if she ever felt discouraged, and she said, "At times, I was. Cosplay was a huge hobby of mine and even though I had a lot of friends, none of them cosplayed and I wanted to share that hobby with someone. But there were times when I was completely content on my own. But to be honest, my creativity was definitely not as good as it is now with the other members contributing."  What kept Oz going until the three others came around?  "I suppose you could say Banzai! Productions went on a temporary hiatus. It was simply what I called my Youtube channel and I was 'OztheNekoMaster.' What kept me going with Banzai is my complete love for cosplay and small hope that I would find someone who I could get along with that I could cosplay with."

So what advice does Oz have for anyone looking to start a cosplay group of their own?  "Advice I would give to cosplayers trying to start a new group is to just remember to have fun. It's probably a good idea to get your closer friends together. If you don't have any close cosplaying friends, there's great people in the cosplay community that you could get to know--and regardless, it's always great to get to know your fellow cosplayers. Be patient. Wonderful relationships could come from that. When you're in a cosplay group, you have to be negotiable, able to communicate well, and be considerate of each other. And it's probably a really good idea to avoid drama. But the number one piece of advice, is to always, always have fun!"

With the group finally complete, it was Go, Go, Go! for Banzai! Productions.  They participated in their first masquerade at Taiyou Con 2011 and won Best In Show, and soon after won Masters Best In Performance in their second masquerade at Phoenix Comicon 2011.  Nice work!  Patience and commitment really paid off.  The key to performing is staying in character, so what does Banzai! do to get ready?  "We usually cosplay characters that have similar personalities to us or that we can easily relate to. For example, it's really easy to get into character for Vocaloid because our personalities are already really similar to the 'default fanmade' personalities given to them. Otherwise, we research the characters and study them."  They also don't limit cosplaying to just conventions.  This group takes any chance they get at gatherings, picnics, making Youtube videos, or just for the fun of it.

In addition to their participation in masquerades, Banzai! Productions hosted their very first panel at Phoenix Comicon 2011 and plan on doing more in the future.  For all the cosplayers and convention goers, I say, "Please do!"  Their panel was a shining star- hilarious, informative, well executed and highly entertaining with mini skits and a Powerpoint presentation, and completely family friendly.  Future panelists and cosplayers could really learn from these girls' examples.

With these experiences under their belt and more to surely come, what do the girls feel is the key to their success?  "Our bond. Even though we've known each other all together for a year, we are incredibly close. We cry together, laugh together, and just happen to be very close friends who happen to be cosplayers. We often think of each other as sisters."

Is there anyone Banzai! would like to thank? "Definitely our parents for supporting us and even helping us out with finances. Our fans for keeping up with us and supporting us. And our friends for hanging out with us, collaborating with us, and being awesome!"

Thank you, Banzai! Productions!  And to my readers who haven't seen their work yet, please go visit their pages.  Their videos are priceless and cosplays are beautiful.  You will not want to miss out watching this group!

Banzai! Productions on  

DeviantArt Youtube Facebook

Comicon?

Maybe my expectations were too high because of my experiences at Anime Expo, but Phoenix Comicon was such a bust. Half of the panels were unprofessional, felt thrown together and unplanned, so we walked out. A quarter of them were cancelled or the panelists just never showed up! We were really looking forward to the Cosplay Drama 101 panel Saturday afternoon and were so disappointed by this time with having one event cancelled, another one ending an hour early because they failed to plan, and now panelists just not showing up altogether, we left the convention never to return. But with all of this, we did have some highlights.

Highlight #1: Tips, Tricks and Etiquette for the Cosplayer panel by Banzai! Productions! Seriously, this made my convention. If it weren't for this group I would have felt like I completely wasted my husband's money. I was never aware of their work before, but I feel okay in that considering they've only been around for a year and I haven't had internet for a year and a half. I will certainly be keeping track of their work now. What made them and their panel so amazing? It was so clean! There was no offensive language, no offensive behavior, no innuendos. The room was packed full so obviously they don't need it, and really, nobody does. That's what people need to understand. No one is going to complain that you don't swear enough, but people will leave if you are too offensive. If you need to swear like a sailor and joke about explicit behaviors to get an audience, maybe you suck and shouldn't be performing. The true performers are the people like these who are highly entertaining without the trash. Thank you.

Highlight #2: Red Cross Blood Drive! Wow, was the convention so bad that having a needle stuck in my arm for half an hour made it to my top 3 highlights? Yes. And I'm type O-Neg so I know how important it is to give blood and am really giddy about any opportunity I get to do so. I'm usually really timid but the people there were such a joy to talk to, and I'm sure they felt the same about me. Any time I feel good chatting with complete strangers is a highlight for me.

Highlight #3: Cosplaying as a Family! I don't care how cool my cosplay is, cosplaying alone is depressing. It was so much fun going with Caj and Jac and people took so many pictures. Being able to bring a smile to you, the convention-goers, is why I cosplay. That and it's good fun dressing up.

It was also really cool to see Bruce Boxleitner, he seemed to be a pretty cool actor. If it weren't for Caj's favorite movie being Tron (at least until Legacy, which changed his favorite movie to Dune), I wouldn't be familiar with him. Now I intend to keep a closer watch on his work.

I've never been real big into American comics, so I didn't know much about Stan Lee either, other than he is Marvel Comics. I'm so glad I went to his panel though because that man is a hoot! I love funny old men. I'll probably follow his work more closely now, as well.

So that was my convention experience. I hope Caj wasn't so disappointed with it being his first con that he never wants to spend money on another one again. I may volunteer for SabotenCon this year to see if it's worth going to, otherwise we'll have to save our money and go to Anime Expo in a couple of years.