I hereby convene the 1st SakeYakinikuCon!

It’s Friday night at Little Tokyo, and I’m hanging out with friends, some old, some new, all involved one way or another with the otaku scene. Cosplayers, anime and manga fans, gamers and GMs.

I’m downing my fifth shot of cold sake and I’m thinking about several things all at once. Someone complained about the state of a certain cosplay forum they used to haunt. Another brought up the Animax-sponsored K-On! event everyone and their distant cousins were invited to. Another ranted about the new Cosplay Critique Center on Facebook that popped up recently.

I turned over the karubi I was barbecuing with a pair of metal tongs and I wondered why I didn’t care.

I mean, I cared mildly, in the way one distantly cares about something a friend is concerned about but doesn’t affect one personally. But I didn’t CARE. Me. I get on my soapbox for semantic hairsplitting like ‘cosplay’ vs. ‘costrip’ but I didn’t care enough about any of these new things to rant about them.

Or was it because my opinions have somehow gotten ‘safer’? I miss the days when I didn’t know ANYTHING about the scene so I didn’t mind offending anybody. Now like many of my contemporaries my ‘items’ just keep getting blinder and blinder. Is it true? Am I losing my edge? How depressing.

Another shot of sake and another slice of yakiniku please.

Let’s be honest here. I actually have a lot to say about all of those things and more. I mean, take the K-On! cosplay. Put aside the fact that it’s corporate-sponsored. That doesn’t concern me. What does concern me is this:

Un...tan?

Look at this. I mean frankly, the entire idea of K-On! is that these four girls are moe precisely because they’re completely unselfconscious of their own moeness. That’s not happening for me in this picture, even though the outfits are spot-on. Ashley comes close in appearance, but we all know she’s the confrontational one, as opposed to Mio who would wither onstage before picking a fight. As for Yui, one needs to have a certain innate level of naivete to do the “Un-tan” routine with the castanets properly. Observe:

As for the so-called Cosplay Critique Circle — well, dissing others for what they look like has been around since we developed sight organs. This is nothing new. Anyone who has gone to a club or been to a high school with girls in it knows what this is like. The only thing new that this has brought to the scene is the sheer public nature of Facebook, which is a step up from simply putting up a troll blog which only a select group of bitter jilted cosplay lovers read. So people puffed up behind the safety of the Internet are giving harsh critiques about people they’ve never met in order to feel better about themselves. WHAT ELSE IS NEW?

There’s another thing I don’t understand. Of COURSE looks matter when it comes to cosplay. Cosplay is inherently visual. Looks aren’t everything, clearly, but it’s just like dating, or attending job interviews. Your appearance is the first thing people notice. Some people will dismiss you at first glance. Others will take the time to get to know you. You are cosplayers. By the very nature of the hobby you are exposing yourself to public scrutiny. GET OVER IT.

How DARE you tell me I can't cosplay who I want!

Here’s what I don’t understand. Here we are, me and my friends, some from way back, some I just met that night, and we’re all united by our love for the hobby. (And by sake and yakiniku.) Why can’t it be like this on a larger scale? Hasn’t this been what I’ve been trying to say all this time? Well, hasn’t it? Even the forums are either dominated by some strange agendas of people who were clearly bullied as kids and want their belated turn as the big kids on the otaku playground, or by people who intend to simply capitalize on the scene, either for cash, fame, or their pick of naive ingenues who like to dress up. Why don’t I just put up my own community of people who actually LOVE the hobby, LOVE the scene enough to make fools of themselves from time to time in the name of FUN?

…

Yeah, why don’t I?

More sake and yakiniku, please!

Haruhi, you're doing it wrong. Festival time is definitely not supposed to be the same thing over and over again.

At Cosplay Mania, I wandered convention hall, no longer Cliff, lawyer, obedient son, Filipino citizen. For that moment in time, I had become Lelouch: deposed Britannian royalty, student, revolutionary, enemy of the state.

It was awesome. It was liberating. Festivals are supposed to be liberating. If festivals were just like every other day, if they demanded that you acted the way society demands that you act every day, then they wouldn’t be festivals, would they?

So why is cosplay turning into work?

I had been urged to cover the opening of a cosplay photo studio, to show the growth of cosplay as big business. As an added incentive, the Gosiengfiao sisters would be there. Which means the crowds would be there too.

Not that I blame them or anything.

Now I’m no cosplay ‘purist’. I had my costume made by someone else. The first time I cosplayed as an anime character at a public event was Cosplay Mania. I just happen to be a dude who likes wearing costumes and playing characters, and hanging out with like-minded people.

But this ribbon-cutting thing was at 11am, and there didn’t seem to be anything else going on aside from this. Maybe a contest — but I’m not a big fan of joining cosplay contests either. So what was my incentive for going? Aside from, you know, gawking at pretty girls in costume?

It wasn’t festival time. It was work. And I decided not to show up for work.

The Greeks had a balance between Apollonian and Dionysian time. Apollo was the god of the Sun, of Music, of Philosophy, of success and excellence. Apollo is the god of applying yourself to the fullest in your intellectual or athletic endeavors.

Apollo is the God of SRS BZNS.

Little known fact: Apollo is also the god of 'kouros', which is basically Greek for bishonen.

Dionysus is, on the other hand, the god of wine, and parties, and waking up in the morning with someone you don’t know lying on your arm.

Dionysus is the God of Festival Time.

Even Baby Dionysus can drink mere mortals under the table.

Our modern, clockwork post-Industrial society seems to have forgotten how to party properly. Geeks, especially, who have plugged into the Apollonian current of academic and career excellence, don’t seem to know how to drop their school or workplace personas and just let it all hang loose. The non-geeks understand the need to let loose, and get intoxicated “on wine, on verse, or with virtue, as you please,” as the Baudelaire poem goes, and have many outlets for their Dionysian drives.

I personally like getting wasted with my geek friends. Getting drunk while playing tabletop RPGs while J-pop and game music and grunge is blaring over the speakers, dancing like a maniac to Initial D Europop and Maximum Tune trance, being able to drop the socialized facade and just be the drunken maniac your friends all know and love. It’s my festival time.

Cosplay is festival time for me. When I am in costume, I don’t want to be talking about the New Civil Code, or the rising price of oil. I want to be Lelouch, or Gendo Ikari, or Kintaro Oe. I want to pretend to be someone else for a while. I’m not there to impress. I’m there to party!

On second thought, maybe Kintaro's idea of fun isn't for me.

Am I alone in this? Is cosplay for fun dead?

EDIT: I’d been told that the cosplay photo studio opening has been moved to October 17. Maybe I’ll go. Maybe.

EDIT 2: I originally intended to post this two days ago, but one computer mishap after another has kept me from getting online. And here I thought the retrograde was supposed to be over.

The White Hat Strawberry Yogurt

I was finishing off my cup, watching the crowds at the Shangri-La Mall line up for photos and frozen yogurt, when I realized that this particular cosplay event wasn’t anything like a convention at all. It was a carefully choreographed, well-organized media event that appeared to be a cosplay competition. It was pure publicity for a charity tie-in with a consumer product.

And I didn’t have any problem with it.

The particular cup of White Hat frozen yogurt with peach topping that I was consuming at that moment (which tasted identical to its Red Mango counterpart — a good thing considering my addiction to the latter) had been sponsored by Mike Abundo, because he had caught me before I could get to an ATM, and I really, really wanted a cup and wasn’t about to pass on a freebie.

My little group had arrived late and had apparently missed Alodia and Ashley personally serving everyone, or so Mike was telling me. Eric Chao, the Marketing Manager of White Hat, was telling us that he wasn’t actually familiar with cosplay, or even the word ‘otaku’. It was plain from the turnout, however, that his comprehension of the subculture wasn’t the least bit necessary. All he needed to know was that cosplay, and the Gosiengfiao sisters in particular, would draw a crowd.

And it did.

Got Heart? Plushie Tin Man could use a spare.

Which was good news for the Got Heart Foundation, the lucky beneficiaries of 50% of the event’s proceeds. This begs the question: If you cosplay for money, but half that money goes to charity, how much of a cosplayer does that make you?

Frozen yogurt and plug suits. The hallmarks of a good day.

Speaking of cosplaying for money, I met a pair of girls cosplaying as Asuka and Rei from Evangelion who were promoting a soon-to-open cosplay studio in Ali Mall. Asuka in particular was apparently a nineteen-year-old model who was new to the scene and was overwhelmed by all the attention. That’s right, I said model. I leave it as an exercise to the reader if this disqualifies her from being a cosplayer, especially considering she also won the Best Kid Costripper award, beating out a very dejected twelve-year-old girl who cosplayed as L (who, come to think of it, was possibly aiming for two awards at once). This makes Asuka both a model and a costripper. If you get awarded in free frozen yogurt for two months, are you still considered cosplaying for pay? This is all so confusing.

The sisters, bookending the winners of the day's competition.

Note the guy in the half-face mask and ornate armor. He is the poster boy of dedication to his craft. Why, you ask? Because that mask is superglued directly onto his face. I am not joking. Lacking access to an affordable prosthetic adhesive, he simply applied some Mighty Bond directly onto the mask and stuck it on his face. I know this for sure because after he extricated himself from his costume, the inside of his mask had bits of skin sticking to it. Wow.

Willy Wonka proposes a yogurt-chocolate joint venture.

After the winners had their pictures taken with Ashley and Alodia, the sisters posed for pictures with other people. Naturally I took the opportunity to get a picture of my own. As we posed for the cameras, we exchanged a few words before I let them get back to their adoring public:

'Andaming nangyayari sa blog mo a.' 'Oo nga eh. Exciting!'

I was also introduced who Richie Dela Merced of Fat Boy Studios. I professed my admiration for his beautiful and detailed sculptures. He professed his admiration for my writing. It was an impromptu meeting of the Otaku Mutual Admiration Society, and I left with a promise to get the inside scoop of his experiences with the international toy and sculpture collecting community for Project Otaking. Watch out for it!

United by cosplay

I also introduced Seedsop and Sese to Ren aka MaxiCollector. Business cards were exchanged, talks commenced over frozen yogurt. This didn’t feel like a convention at all. It was more like a networking event between geeks, connections being established, deals being made.

This, I decided, was a good thing.

And then, as the event began to wind down, the true star of the show made its appearance.

Worship the MOE Cow. MOE!

This googly-eyed idol suddenly appeared from the wilds of Alodia’s personal effects and perched itself on a table that quickly became the center of all attention. Its effects on the crowd were immediate. I lost all pretense of journalistic integrity and began cooing at it unabashedly. Cameras that had been put away suddenly reemerged to capture the image of this icon of power. Alodia must have acquired it from a dimension of pure cuteness, waiting for this moment to unleash it upon the world.

Even Ashley's camera reemerged from behind its lens cap.

The event was over soon after this, the crowd dispersing. Clearly it was a success. But for whom? Got Heart Foundation, for sure, as well as The White Hat. And for the Gosiengfiaos as well. But for cosplay? If you consider it a demonstration of cosplay’s crowd-drawing power and growing mainstream acceptance, then absolutely. But what about cosplay for its own sake? As a craft? As a hobby? Or as a sport, for that matter?

I leave the answers to these questions to observers with much more impressive credentials. But as far as I’m concerned, the event made a statement: Cosplay is now big business.

As for the Red Mango/White Hat showdown, my verdict: Red Mango has green tea, White Hat has strawberry. It’s a draw.

Monkey See Monkey Do

The White Hat Charity Event

I’ll be attending the White Hat Charity Event tomorrow, Sunday, August 30. The main draw for me is the whole ‘yogurt for charity’ thing, really, since I’m partial to Red Mango, which is just down the street from where I live and I’m looking to compare. Oh yeah, and there’s apparently cosplay and some charity thing too.

Okay, let’s be fair. It’s for the Got Heart Foundation, a charity that focuses on empowering Filipino entrepreneurs, a cause I fully support.

So it’s cosplay for a good cause. Or is that costripping? Modelling? I give up.

Since the Gosiengfiaos are behind this, expect big crowds. I have to say though, their move to upscale their target market is becoming pretty evident at this point. First Rockwell, now EDSA Shang. Cosplay appears to be moving up in the world. Costrip? Modelling? Anyway.

I wouldn’t be surprised if at some point there will be a cosplay event for some big pharmaceutical company (preferably one that peddles whitening lotions, wrinkle creams, and other cosmetic wonder drugs) at a large hotel function room in the near future… Although the thought of creepy corporate execs pawing at young impressionable cosplayers is pretty disturbing.

I have mixed feelings about this. Cosplay has a very strong grassroots element to it, an egalitarian ethic that cuts across all economic strata, uniting the fandom through the sheer love of the hobby.

(Someone said ‘sport’ to me once when I called cosplay a ‘hobby’. This explains the competitive nature, I guess.)

Personally I just hope this move to more upscale venues for cosplay translates into better ventilation too. Cosplay events, like any other kind of large-scale otaku gathering, tend to get pretty ripe-smelling late in the day. Just saying, guys. Otakudom and personal hygiene don’t have to be mutually exclusive. If your hair starts to clump together and you haven’t applied any hair product to it in the last 24 hours or so, it’s probably time for a washing. This is a crowded tropical country after all. Have a heart.

Here’s the copy from the web page for the event:

The WHITE HAT – Italian Frozen Yogurt company’s fifth CELEBRITY-FOR-CHARITY event resumes this August 30, 2009 (SUNDAY) at SHANGRI-LA PLAZA MALL, as famous cosplayer, artist and model Ms. Alodia Gosiengfiao and her sister Ashley dress up in costume to serve authentic Italian frozen yogurt in their bid to raise money for GOT HEART FOUNDATION.

And to make it even more fun, everyone is invited to come in their own costume as well. There will be special awards for the following 4 categories:

Best Male Costripper
Best Female Costripper
Best Crossdresser Costripper
Best Kid Costripper

Each winner, who will be chosen by our celebrity servers, will win a special prize of 2 MONTHS SUPPLY OF FREE YOGURT + a SOUVENIR CAP + SOUVENIR PICTURE with our Alodia and Ashley. In addition, a photo wall will be set-up for customers to have photo-ops as well.

GOT HEART FOUNDATION is a non-stock, non-profit organization that aims to empower marginalized Filipinos by helping them become entrepreneurs. It runs a social entrepreneurship academy, a support center that helps farmers, indigenous people, and out-of-school youth in developing products and marketing them. It also has a public school development program.

“We’re very happy to welcome Alodia & Ashley to our store and demonstrate to the public that business is not all about making a profit, it is also about giving back to the community. With our unique way, celebrities get a chance to actually SERVE customers as a symbol of the way they serve the less fortunate. And since 50% of the entire day’s sales will be donated to their chosen charity, everyone will feel good to contribute to this worthy cause and also promote their health by eating FRESH and REAL yogurt from Italy, where the best tasting yogurt in the world comes from,” said Eric Chao, marketing manager of TWH. “We also decided to make it even more fun by inviting customers to come in costume and compete for the special awards. Can you imagine eating delicious yogurt amidst famous ANIME characters? It’s a one-of-a-kind event”

So if you have a big heart, a big appetite, and a creative mind, drop by THE WHITE HAT at SHANGRI-LA PLAZA MALL on August 30 (Sunday, 1 to 5 pm) and help make a difference

Even though I don’t have hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, I’m going to be there with some friends, cosplaying as your typical EDSA Shangrila patron, to try to understand the qualitative difference between cosplayers, costrippers, artists, and models. Oh, and having yogurt for charity too. All while staying completely in character. You know, for FUN!

So who else is going to be there?

What?! Over 9000?!

Holy crap. Despite Ashley Gosiengfiao’s assertions to the contrary, it seems that based on the comments to yesterday’s Otaku Taiki post, there aren’t actually any real cosplayers anywhere. Or at the very least, cosplay seems to be a very fragile state of being that can be disrupted by the presence of money, professional photographers, or Parokya Ni Edgar, or the absence of competitive spirit, skits, love for the character being portrayed, or by playing a character no one actually knows.

So now we have a dizzying minefield of terms to add to the vocabulary of any unwary newbie (like myself) taking the plunge into the messed-up world of cosplay (which, as previously mentioned, doesn’t appear to actually exist):

• Cosplayer
• Costrippper
• Registered Costripper
• Cosplay Fan
• Cosplay Mafia
• Modeling
• Actor

And let’s not forget Gay, Whore, and DOM, apparently an integral part of any cosplay observer’s repertoire when writing hard-hitting, telling-it-like-it-is reports in the name of Truth™.

What the hell people. Are we so eager to label people differently from ourselves just to proclaim our uniqueness? Maybe it’s human nature for any group to naturally splinter off into factions, but I don’t have to like it.

Someone should send a memo to all those kids in costume, although I think that since some people cosplay as a way to define their unique identities, telling them that they don’t know who they really are will probably just make things worse.

Are there any cosplayers left out there? Who the heck are you people, really? Do you agree with Ashley’s statement?

“As long as you’re wearing a costume to play a certain character from a game or anime or whatever, then it’s cosplay. That’s all there is to it.”