The Past Few Cosplay Events I Attended!

Soooooo, lot's of reporting to do here!

I just want to post some feedback, photos and links related to events I attended in costume during the past few weeks!

It included a lot of costuming and crafting. More to come, but for the next few days I will be prioritizing orders placed by customers. During that time, my next costumes will be brewing in the planning and preparation departments, especially those coming up for rAge Expo.

I realized that this post would require so much work, and I really need to condense the content since I am sooo tired but also don't want to put it off any longer since I have a moment for this update now. I am mostly just going to link back to my Facebook albums containing photos of the below mentioned events.

First up, the 5th cosplay picnic happened on 20 April 2013.

I debuted my Nyan Miku Cat concept there.

 Photography by Omesh.

Photography by Kaylee.

You can find a few shots of this cosplay in this Vocaloid album on my Facebook page. Here is an album showing coverage of this event on the Cosplay Cape Town Facebook group.

Moving on! At the end of April Yamaki and I had the cool opportunity of shooting in studio with MWEST. We took Ling Xiaoyu from Tekken (Game) and Gintoki from Gintama (Anime). Here are the results on Facebook.

Then the Free Comic Book Day event hosted annually by Readers Den happened! Here is one of the Readers Den albums covering this event, but note that there are more! Have a browse if you're interested ^_^

Here is a photo of the Yamaki as Len and Myself as Gumi, photographed and edited by Nazeem Ryklief. We worked hard to bring these costumes into existence, just like so many of the other cosplayers that attended this event. Yama and I entered into the 'anime & manga' category of the cosplay competition, and though in the end categories went out the window, we managed to make the finals. Well done to all the other finalists and the top 3 cosplayers! You can find pics of it all on the Readers Den Facebook page :3

Yama and I also practiced very hard to put together a duo performance as well as a solo each for this event. You can see videos of that on my Youtube channel here.

Next up was the 2UpGamers event.

Photo by Zombiegamer! Yamaki took her Project Diva 2 Len cosplay and I took Miku as a maid, both Vocaloid characters.

They have a really cool spot in the Green Point Trinity club now, every month! They do a lot to accommodate cosplay and I look forward to attending more of their events in the future! <3

The next event was a Road To Ninja Naruto movie screening hosted in Stellenbosch by Anime South Africa! They have an album here covering the event. It was lovely seeing that movie, but I won't go into detail here regarding my thoughts on it (that would require a whole review post lol). As you can figure out by the pics, I cosplayed Kushina for this event.

Here are some extra shots on my Facebook page.

3 events happened after that where I got to wear my Misa Amane cosplay from Deathnote (Anime & Manga).

The first was Geek Pride Day hosted by Premiere Fitness & Leisure Gym, the 2nd was the bday of Grant Hinds and the 3rd was a gaming event in Observatory (hosted by 2UpGamers). I shared some photos of those instances in this Facebook page album.

Then, the last event was a photoshoot in casual UtaPri clothes from the anime Uta No Prince Sama. It was a photoshoot won by Jamey (who cossed a casual Nanami), with Yamaki and I in crossplay. This was my first ever full body crossplay, and now I am HOOKED. It's so exciting and challenging pulling off a male cosplay haha! See some phodies here :3

Here is one of my fav images from that shoot, based on fan art we saw online! :D

Exciting new developments in the loop for me. Will post about it soon! :D

Significant Past Cosplay Events not Blogged of Yet

I haven't gotten to blogging in a long while, and thought I would share some links and information on the awesome past cosplay events I had the pleasure of attending!

On 3 March we had a cosplay on ice day, where we went socializing and ice skating at the Capetonian Grand West casino in cosplay!

Here is a photo of the group of cosplayers that attended, and below it follows links to more photos (on Facebook).

My Public page photo album of the event, and photos taken by Kaylee.

Dragon Lily Cosplay made this sweet little video of the event.

On the weekend of 24 March I was able to get lovely photos of my Ling Xiaoyu Tekken 5 (Game) School Uniform cosplay, along with Yamaki cosplaying as Tokiya from Uta no Prince Sama (Anime).

Our talented photographers for this day where Nazeem Ryklief and David Orridge. You can see a full album of the photos on my public Facebook page linked here.

I adore the following 2 edits Nazeem made for me, as well as the action shots we got! 

Taking a nap with and on Panda!

Art of the Phoenix fighting stance.

A bunch of bloopers from that day are featured in this Facebook photo album from my page.

After this, on the weekend of 29 March we attended an Easter lunch in cosplay. Below is a photo of the group that attended.

Here is my Facebook photo album of this event. It was lovely. 

Baka_Sakura, myself and Yamaki Chiya cosplayed casual Vocaloid girls!

Yamaki and I did our Ponponpon dance cover in the restaurant, followed by a Caramel Dancen dance cover by Baka_Sakura as Luka. 

We stuffed our faces with sushi and chinese food, then went to Canal Walk to ingest ice cream and milkshake. We ended it off with fun and games!

Omesh was in attendance with his bad ass camera to get some of the amazing shots you will see in the linked album, including this one above! I was so hooked to this rhythm guitar game!

This past weekend on 20 April, the 5th Cape Town cosplay picnic happened! Currently we are in the middle of a rush of photos and content being shared on the internet from this event. I want to give this event a blog post of it's own, because there is so much content to it! I debuted my Nyan Cat Miku cosplay there! A blog post of this event shall follow soon :)

For upcoming South African cosplay events, be sure to check out the Cosplay SA website where they are all listed (on the events page)! =^.^=

Color Contact Lense Review - UV Pink from Baka_Sakura

After my horrible experience with lenses from Chaos R Us, I am very pleased to say I have found a more than suitable alternative for UV/Bright/Block Pink lenses!

Baka Sakura's Costuming and Crafts provided me with bring pink lenses that last a year!

I was very excited when I received these lenses but also very careful not to open them until right before I needed to use them, as this would extend their span of use.

I needed these especially for my Gumi Panda Hero Vocaloid cosplay (my full album here). Besides this cosplay, I love pink in general so was really happy with how vivid they looked even before use!

I did this Gumi cosplay with 3 others who also cosplayed Vocaloids. It just so happens we were all wearing lenses from Baka-chan's store! 

From left to right: Baka_Sakura as Luka, Kayley as Teto, Yamaki as Kaito and myself as Gumi.

When you buy lenses from Baka-chan, you might as well grab a SUPER KAWAII lens case! Here are the options so far!

I got myself a blue kitty pair! It's too cute *O* You can view her online store and any other links of hers via her cosplayer feature on the Cosplay South Africa website here!

She stocks & imports a bunch of other nice cosplay goodies so be sure to give it a peek should you be interested in cosplaying, or have friends and/or family who do! =^.^=

Debuting our Vocaloid Panda Hero Group Cosplay!

Hey you guys! This post is to squish together all the awesome links that have become available since our cosplay yesterday!

Cosplay Studio X put together a Vocaloid Panda Hero group cosplay (with an added friend as Teto). To get the formality out of the way, if you aren't familiar with what Vocaloids are, check out this handy Wikipedia link.

From left to right we have Baka-Sakura as Luka, Kayley as Teto, Yamaki as Kaito and myself as Gumi.

We were privileged to have a professional photographer accompany us for the day, and here is the result of his photography. 

He also managed to capture all the cosplayers on stage at the event we attended, the Japanese Cultural day. So far he has only released the Panda Hero stage time, which can be seen on my Youtube channel here. The rest of the cosplayer stage time he captured will become available soon. 

Our Teto also made a bad ass vlog about our day together, here is the link! 

Various others have posted photos and videos from the cultural day event on our Cape Town Cosplay facebook group! 

The sun burn I got on this day was made sooo worth it by all the fun we had!! Next weekend we take vocaloids to the ice rink at Grand West casino! :D Yes, we will have photos and video made again! xD

My Involvement in All Otaku Magazine

A while back I was recruited by All Otaku Magazine to write for them. That is probably one of the reasons I am quieter on this blog. I do however have loads of content still coming to my blog so it's not useless! Keep them eyes peeled! :D

AOM is a digital magazine, you can see the issues released so far on their website here.

My input features as of the 4th issue.

The kinds of topics I cover for them are cosplay, game reviews, anime reviews and events such as all the cool cosplay events coming up that I will be attending!

When the 5th issue is released I will be sure to share it here =^.^=

Upcoming Cape Town Cosplay Events

LOT'S of big stuff happening this year in the South African cosplay scene.

This post is just to share some of the cosplay stuff that lies ahead in Cape Town for the next few months. So far we have something cool happening every month up until May!

23 February - The Japanese Consulate in Cape Town contacted us and has invited cosplayers to attend their cultural day hosted on this date! Entry is free and it's happening in Green Point! Looks like the cosplayers who go and want to will have stage time too! :D Should be a lovely event!! Come hang with us there if you're around! Cosplayers will be chatting with peeps there who may have more questions about the art etc. (I really like the educational element to that)

You can keep up to date with developments of this event on Facebook here.

I will be cosplaying Gumi here with a Kaito by Yamaki-Chiya and Luka by Baka_Sakura from Cosplay Studio X! We are portraying the Panda Hero style there! yay :D

March - The specific date is not yet fully confirmed, but we have a little Vocaloid cosplay group going who will be going to Grand West for ice skating, go carts and fun content creation! MWEST and Animated Meanderings will be present as well. So far we have a Miku, Luka, Kaito, Kasane and likely a Gumi too! (other cosplayers [any cosplay as long as it's not fragile or restrictive of your movement if you want to ice skate etc.] or friends are welcome to tag along for the crazy fun ride!). Facebook event page here. Our vocaloid group will be going in casual outfits of our choice! This is a very chilled casual initiative for FUN! LOTS OF IT.

20 April - Another Cosplay Picnic at Kirstenbposch Gardens! Facebook event page here. Not sure yet what I will cosplay here. Possibly Misa from Death Note or a Vocaloid!

4 May - Readers Den is hosting a cosplay competition, cosplay display & performance initiative as well as a bunch of awesome stalls then! I won't be sharing what I will be doing there just yet (That will require it's own post, coming soon)! More info on our Facebook group here.

This event is gonna be a big change to what we have been seeing in Cape Town so far!

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I will be covering these events for All Otaku Magazine so keep a look out for that if you wanna know what went down! Lot's of related pics and video shall be spammed :D

Online Costume Shop Farce!

Sashi, our most experienced and one of our favorite local cosplayers, says: "Another good reason to make costumes yourself instead of buying them online :/ (You never know what you're going to get!)

A friend of mine found this and pointed it out to me. A french site using a stolen image of my Fuu cosplay to sell cosplay costumes. They even put their own watermark on my photo D:"

WHAT? EXPOSE THESE THIEVES! 

*spams link*