[Intermission] Touched by an Angel
This is actually the last entry this year, and as I have said before I am extremely busy so I haven’t been able to find time to blog, to introduce a term. I am sorry. I hope things will settle next month, maybe it will.
One of the reasons why I am busy is Winter Comic Market[fuyukomi]. Well I don’t follow doujinshi so I always pass Tokyo Big Sight[国際展示場] and go to TFT to cosplay. This event is just for cosplayers, and it is called となコス[tonacos], abbreviated from となりでコスプレ[tonari de cosplay]. Because this event takes place at the building next to Tokyo Big Sight.
I joined this event with three friends of mine including the guest from Singapore, Zander-kun who cosplays Chesha cat in Pandora Hearts. I cosplayed Hijikaｔa from Gintama and Break from Pandora, and my friend cosplayed Takasugi from Gintama so we could collaborate together. Read the rest of this entry »
[Cosplay] Pandora Hearts Ⅱ
This photoshoot was so great, and I really enjoyed. I didn’t think that I could collaborate with such awesome cosplayers on Pandora Hearts because I just cosplayed myself last time.
It was a coincident they also cosplay Pandora Hearts, and there is no Break in their team so I could get in. This time, I could cosplay with Alice and Chesha cat. Mitsuki-san really makes a wonderful Alice, however, unless you really really follow this anime, you wouldn’t be sure when Alice shows in this costume. The answer is, the author’s[Jun Mochidsuki] artbook. You can see this costume only in this artbook. I am sure she really loves this anime and Alice so much. I so love this dress with blue roses, very beautiful. Meanwhile, I was surprised to see Zander-kun who cosplayed Chesha cat because he brought a big cardboard box when we met up at the station. In fact there was a pair of big claws inside the box! And he made it himself. I have seen his cosplays, and his props look all great. Actually he can cosplay Lucifer in Angel Sanctuary, and the wings are so wonderful. And he can cosplay Dolls, and Heart no kuni no Alice. These are shoujo manga or otome game, so…oh no, could he be an otomen? If that’s the case, he must work for me, and I will get him to be the leader of all the otomens in Singapore. He is still 17, younger even my Shinji-kun, but he can make such awesome props…I am sure he is a potential cosplayer. One more thing, he is wearing cat’s ears in the photos. If you have ケモミミ萌え[kemomimi-moe], you will be killed. １７歳にしてそんな萌え路線に走るとは… Read the rest of this entry »
[Cosplay] その執事、オトメン[The butler, otomen]
Ladies and gentleman, welcome to our blog. And if you have followed this blog, I shall say thank you very much as always.
My name is Sebastian Michaelis[セバスチャン・ミカエリス], a butler working for my goshujin-sama[master], bangin. He is away for a while on business, so I shall manage this blog.
I was told to explain the wonderful experience he had last week. He had four guests all the way from Singapore, and cosplayed with them together at the gorgeous mansion. One day, goshujin-sama recieved a mail from Singaporean cosplayer named 満月[Mitsuki]-sama and the ojou-sama had told him that she and her friends came to Tokyo. They are going to join a certain cosplay event around the year-end, but they still have enough time to join other events, so he recommended some more events. Coincidentally, Mitsuki-sama, her friends, and goshujin-sama cosplay the same series in common: Kuroshitsuji and Pandora Hearts.
Goshujin-sama tried to find a better event for the two series, and he found an event that took place at the gorgeous mansion. And they started to plan how they should do…and finally the day came.
He went to the nearest station to pick them up around 10:00 a.m., and met up with the four cosplayers; Mitsuki-sama, Kyubei-sama, Faustine-sama, and Zander-sama. All the four are much much younger than goshujin-sama.
The place where the mansion was just like a countryside, there was nothing to speak of. And when they came in to the mansion, the host was a bit surprised to hear they spoke in English. They hadn’t had any foreign cosplayers untill then, that is why.
Mitsuki-sama cosplayed Ciel, Kyubei-sama did meSebastian, Faustine-sama did Madame Red, and Zander-sama did Grell. However they did a dance party version, so Mitsuki-sama did Ciel’s crossdressing version. They were so stunning, and the mansion really went so well with their cosplay.
In the bathroom, goshujin-sama and Zander-sama changed while ladies did so in the Japanese rooms. He did make-up and set up his hair, oh well, it was a bit too hard to set up his hair although he read the comics again and again.
At any rate, he seemed to be quite happy that he could cosplay with such wonderful cosplayers, and appreciated so much. And he really wants to say this, あくまで、オッサンですから（笑） Read the rest of this entry »
[Cosplay] 侘寂 Ⅱ
December is the busiest month in a year. It is. I have to meet people, go somewhere, do assignments, and cosplay. If someone asks me, how was this year like?, I must say…well, it was so tough. Good things happened, but bad things as well. That is what the life is all about. Wherever I go, no matter what happens, the place I can come back is here. When I log in, I can meet you. That is why I could keep this blog until now. I didn’t think I could blog for so long now. Because there are people like you, people who follow my blog. Thank you very much. ありがとうございます＾＾
This month is crazy because I have three cosplay events to join. Lots of preparation! I am not sure how long I will be able to cosplay. Well maybe next year I will do, but after that I don’t know. Cosplay is good because I can forget everything while I cosplay. And I can feel I am in the work (anime, manga, or whatever). I would have to find a next hobby after I finished being a cosplayer. Because some of my cosplay friends have stopped and started to find another purpose in their lives.
Life is short. If you are still a teenager, you can fool around as you like. But time flies. Soon you will be around my age because time goes by so fast after you turn 20. So if you have something you want to do, please do so. If you do, you are a winner. In other words, anyone can be a winner even if you fail to succeed. While you hestitate, time goes by ruthlessly…
Life is ephemeral. When I think about something like this, I feel like cosplaying Japanese costumes like a kimono or a yukata. Somehow, those costumes make me feel setsunai[sentimental and nostalgic]. I don’t know why, though. This is Japanese virtue, wabisabi[侘寂]? I am Japanese, and I do like Japanese traditional costumes while I also like Western-style.
Last Sunday I joined the cosplay event. The venue was an old-fashioned amusement park named Hana-yashiki[花やしき] in Asakusa[浅草], Tokyo. This place goes so well with any characters who wear kimono, yukata, or the likes that there were such cosplayers here and there.
I cosplayed two characters there. One is Oono Suefumi from Harukanaru toki no nakade-Maihitoyo-, and the other is Lelouch from Sound Episode 2. And as an extra cosplay, I wore a yukata. Fundoshi is…maybe someday! Read the rest of this entry »
褌萌え [fundoshi-moe]
I was a bit surprised when I learned this has been hot among fangirls. But after a while, I got convinced because there are a lot of fangirls who follow Japanese traditional stuff such as 歴女[rekijo]. I just thought this is something elder people traditionally and conservatively like, however, I was wrong, there has to be it in BL which follows such a samurai drama…that is ふんどし[fundoshi]. In kanji, it is 褌.
Fundoshi is the Japanese traditional underwear for males, and you can learn from here. If you want to see a man wearing this in real life, you had better go to a fastival called matsuri[祭り]. Otherwise you will be able to see a lot of fundoshi guys although I must say most of them are elder people, and there might be some fundoshi ショタkids.
There are several types of fundoshi, but particulary rokushaku fundoshi[六尺褌] seems to be the most popular among fangirls since it shows “bare parts” the most, it’s like a bikini! Please look at the back side of the model in the right image. We used to call something like this Tバック[T-back] because the underwear looks like a T-shape. Maybe even now some people are saying, though. There was a porn actress named Ai Iijima[飯島愛] who was well-known as a T-back queen. And back to the photo, the front side sure looks like a bikini. Most fundoshis have a square cloth like an apron in order to cover the front, but rokushaku fundoshis do not have so it clearly shows…あの…形がくっきり見えちゃうって言うか…the shape of “that thing.”
Speaking of a fundoshi, we would think of a white one[白フン, shirofun]. But among BL fangirls, a color depends on a character so that it is not always white. Could be red or black. In that case, you could say 赤フン[akafun] or 黒フン[kurofun] respectively. I asked my fujoshi friend how she feels about a fundoshi to learn what makes fujoshis feel hot.
a[me]. Do you like fundoshis?
b[friend]. Yeah, I do love it. Lately it is getting so hot inside me.
a. So you go to a festival to see fundoshi guys?
b. No, because they are mostly elder guys[おじさん].
a. Some are young.
b. ※
a. Ah…I see. So where a fundoshi comes around is…
b. Sengoku BASARA, Hakuouki, Gintama, O-oku…any kind of samurai manga. In the BL doujinshis, there are abosultely fundoshis! White skin, and white fundoshi…KYAAAAAA, so hot! You know, if my favorite characters wear a fundoshi, I will definitely accept it. And we shouldn’t forget about ノーフン[No fun].
a. What is it?
b. You know ノーパン[No panty], right? ノーフン is an equivalence of it. No fundoshi.
a. What is so special about this?
b. Well, you know when a girl doesn’t wear a panty?
a. Ah…えっと…when she is waiting for her boyfriend coming…sexually.
b. Yes. So same goes to fundoshi. An uke[bottom] is waiting for a seme[top] coming with no fundoshi. And when a seme finds him not wearing a fundoshi, he is gonna say, “I was waiting for this” or something like that. キャーーー萌え！MOEEEEE!! (>∀<), don’t kill me! Kill me tomorrow!
a. Chill out, mate. Are you alright?
By the way, fundoshis are actually hot among gay people, and the hottest one is 六尺褌[rokushaku fundoshi] because, once again, it hilights his crouch the most. In above BL anime Ikoku Irokoi Romantan, when Al sees Ranmaru wearing a fundoshi, he strongly feels a feticism. Al is Italian, huh? Are fundoshis popular among non-Japanese gay people?
Besides, there is even a fundoshi bar where gay people meet fundoshi guys. You can bring your own fundoshi, change, and interact with other fundoshi guys. Even if you don’t have a fundoshi, you can come in.
Er? Now that I mention fundoshi, should I wear it? いやぁ～ん、オジサン恥ずかし～い(´ΨΨ`)って、何それ～きんもーっ☆
かゆい、うま[kayui, uma]
December has come, and this year is going to end soon. Time flies, really. Alas, things have become crazy, I have a lot of things to do including cosplay. But I shouldn’t forget about my blog.
By the way, the new type of flu[新型インフルエンザ] has been terrorizing us more and more here in Japan. If you happen to be staying here, you would be told to protect yourself, like doing a mask or something like that. Most of us at the company are wearing a mask, and the two persons got flu so neither will come out for a while…
Okay, speaking of flu or virus, I can think of something to introduce, that is かゆい、うま[kayui, uma]. Yes, it doesn’t make any sense. It seems to sound like かゆい、うまい[kayui, umai] or itchy and tasty. But what is this supposed to mean?
If you already know this, you would have played Biohazard[バイオハザード]. First of all, please watch this video.
I am such a coward that I can’t play this kind of game alone at night. ええ、チキンです。Though I like Clock Tower. Anyway, in this video the agent named Jill is exploring inside the institution, shooting down some zombies. And when she gets into a small room, she finds a keeper’s diary. According to it, he was supposed to look after the new mysterious creatures. However, he started to feel itchy around his back, and that went worse as time went by. And as the diary goes on, the passages don’t make any sense. It seems like he got infected, and finally he ate his coworker up. And the last thing he wrote is かゆい、うま[kayui, uma]. We can see 4 on the letters, but I am not too sure what it means.
The sentenses he wrote around the last part of this diary are missing something. Until May 14, 1998[1:36], it was okay though he wasn’t. But things started to be strange from May 16[1:49], here says, いったい おれ どうなて or what is happening to me? A small っ[tsu] should be between どうな[douna] and て[te] so the correct is どうなって[dounatte] though the full context should be like どうなっているんだ[dounatte irunda].
He got corrupted on May 21[2:17], it says かゆい かゆい スコット きたー ひどいかおなんで ころし うまかっ です or itchy itchy, Scott came, terrible looking, I kill, t’was tasty. This sentense is missing something though I can see the point. Yes, he became a monster.
こ、怖い…and the last word is かゆい、うま[kayui, uma]. Later this started to be so popular as to mean to be in a state of sickness like flu or even more terrible infection. You could say like かゆうま状態[kayu uma joutai]. 状態[joutai] means a state or status. Actually, I got flu around this May. I had to call the ambulance because I live myself. I got a high fever so I couldn’t even support myself. I was taken to the hospital and thankfully it was just a seasonal flu, not swine one. They told me to go home right away, but I was seriously in pain for the next four days, a terrible headache and stomachache, and I threw up a lot of times. I had かゆうま状態. Couldn’t even speak!
Reportedly, some people died because of the new type of flu. So again, please please good take care of yourself. And let’s end this year together. げん に ことし おわらせ
[Cosplay] スラダン世代[suradan sedai]
There is no integrity in my cosplays because I just cosplay as I like. Even I am not too sure what I am going to cosplay. If I come across someone I want to cosplay, I will do. If I want to cosplay someone I have already cosplayed before, I will do again. A while ago, I cosplayed Yagami Light in Death Note because I suddenly felt like cosplaying him. I think I am really capricious.
For some reason, I wanted to do Slam Dunk again because I found a white Shohoku uniform at auction. When I cosplayed Slam Dunk for the first time, I only had a red one. I couldn’t help but buy it because I really love Slam Dunk. Because I grew up with Slam Dunk, what’s called, スラダン世代[suradan sedai] or Slam Dunk Generation.
Well, the time when I used to read it in Shounen Jump was from 1990 to 1996, and TV anime was aired from 1993 to 1996. Of course I followed both. 年は聞くなよ、計算すんなよ。At that time, most of the classmates in my class belonged to the basketball club at school. I am not good at sports so I didn’t, though. Speaking of other popular manga from Shounen Jump around the time, I can think of Dragon Ball and Yu-Yu-Hakusho. But in particular, Slam Dunk follows not only basketball, but school days which we also had. Even though so many years passed since the series ended, I sometimes want to read the comics again.
Then why スラダン世代? What is so special about this? If you are a descendant from suradan sedai, you could remember some famous words, couldn’t you? The greatest ones are below.
1. 最後まで希望を捨てちゃいかん。あきらめたらそこで試合終了だよ。[You shouldn’t give up till the end. If you give it up, the game would be over.]
2. 安西先生…バスケが…したいです… [Anzai-sensei…I want to play…basketball…]
Ask anybody some famous lines from Slam Dunk, I guarantee most people would answer above two. People from スラダン世代 keep these lines in mind so they never forget. Keep going, never give up. That’s our motto. If you are one, you can say like this: 最後まであきらめませんよ。私、スラダン世代だから。[saigo made akiramemasen yo. Watashi, suradan sedai dakara] or I won’t give it up till the end. Because I am from suradan sedai.
…And my favorite character in this series is Rukawa Kaede[流川 楓]. Because he is a rare male tsundere, and voiced by 緑川 光[Hikaru Midorikawa] Read the rest of this entry »
レス [resu]
If you happen to own a blog, how do you take care of comments from viewers? Do you respond every one of them? Well, this depends on a blogger, I think. Sometimes I visit other bloggers, and I noticed some of them do not necessarily respond all the comments they get. The more popular the blog is, the more comments it has. And those bloggers are too busy to respond for each. If there was more than 100 comments for one entry, it would be just 6 responses or so. And then the 6 responses were only for the best comments of all.
We say レス[resu] or response and a comment, and there are several types of it. Let’s see some examples.
a. 全レス[zenresu]: To respond every single comment. Yes, I do this basically. あまりにも変なコメントにはしないけど。No matter how simple a comment is, I reply. Because I am happy that viewers give me a comment. And my blog is not something at all, so that it is easy to respond. However, 全レス doesn’t seem to be nice on such a big bulltien board such as 2ch because the viewers would have to read similar conversations again and again. Suppose I am talking about cosplay, there are 100 comments, and you are reading from top to bottom. What if you found more than 80 similar comments and responses like What’s cosplay? or Cosplay is blah blah blah…There is no point in reading something like that since such a question was already asked in the first place. If you see such a meaningless question, you could say ググレカス[gugurekasu] or “Google it, idiot.” We say ググる[guguru] or google as a verb usage. カス[kasu] means stupid or idiot. Some people are too lazy to research, so they ask somebody right away. Moe or otaku are already well-known, so anybody can learn on wikipedia or somewhere. Now do you ask it? グ グ レ カ ス. Sounds like a spell, doesn’t it?
b. 即レス[sokuresu]: To respond right away. In a few minutes, a few seconds. Japanese schoolgirls try to respond as soon as possible because they believe sokuresu could prove how strong the friendship is.
c. 亀レス[kameresu]: Very slow response. When you e-mail your friend, he/she would e-mail you back two or three days later. It’s very slow. That is 亀レス. 亀[kame] means a turtle. Yes, it’s very slow walking like a turtle.
d. 念レス[nenresu]: A while ago, one of the bloggers who visit my blog, Marie-san told me that I made a post on what she knew, just after she knew it. It happened a couple of times. In this way, someone says whatever you think or feel before you, that is 念レス[nenresu]. 念[nen] stems from a verb 念じる[nenjiru] or concentrate, strongly pray. Well, in this context it is like telepathy. So she could have said like 私の念レスが通じた[watashi no nenresu ga tsuujita] or 念レス成功[nenresu seikou] which mean,”My nenresu worked.”
e. 自作自演[jisaku jien]: To respond your own comment as if someone else did it. In order to make your entry look lively, you could comment on your entry. By doing so, it would make it easier for others to leave a comment. If you don’t pretend to be someone else and comment on your entry, it is 自己レス[jikoresu] or respond oneself.
f. スルー[through]: To ignore a response or a comment. If you own a blog, you might have seen a troll[荒らし] who meaninglessly makes a fun of you, I assume. I believe スルー is the best way to get through because they would enjoy seeing your reaction. The more you react, the more they enjoy. What troubles me the most is an incomprehensible comment or a comment that has nothing to do with the entry I am talking about. 僕の経験上、こういうのが一番対応に困る。Those who do something like that are not even trolls, so I don’t know if I should ignore or not. Anyway, we really have to be careful when to do スルー. 荒らしじゃなくても、あんまりにもひどければスルーしていいと思うけどね…
The one who can protect your blog or site is none other than you. If you get in a trouble, consider talking to someone you can trust. Blog is to enjoy, not to be bothered.
Usagi-san is doing 全レス...not writing his latest BL novel.
Japanese words of anime fans, by anime fans, for anime fans 