I can deal with anime,
I can deal with the rampant consumerism of otaku
I can deal with the weird looks of other people when I tell them I like Japanese cartoons
if it means I can continue watching art like this.
5/5 tears cried tonight.
New Gallery Added!
Just a quick update for all of you Yoko cosplay fans out there. I have added a gallery link in the upper right corner that archives all of the Yoko Littner cosplayers we have encountered at our con attendances over the past couple of years. Alternatively you can just click HERE.
-Simeón out
Con Report: Animazement 14, or I’m Too Damn Old for This
I want to start off this post with some personal background. The past few weeks have been crazy for me. I drove up to Raleigh from Birmingham, only to return after the weekend, only to drive back up to North Carolina a week later to Asheville, where I now live. Throw in some car trouble and a lack of internet during that week and you have me, apologizing for waiting so long to do this writeup.
Animazement 14 was Simeon’s and my second time at the event, as I’m sure you all remember. The con was held at the same venue, the Raleigh Convention Center. Little changed about the overall format: the panel rooms were at the south wing of the building, the dealers’ room downstairs, and the main events in the huge ballrooms upstairs. Panels ranged from commentary on the industry to fandoms of specific series and genres to cosplay workshops. Guests included a number of voice actors, both American and Japanese, but the most prominent guest in my opinion was Kyoko Kon, widow of the late Satoshi Kon. Read more…
Yoko Critique Mk III
The moment everyone has been waiting for has arrived. It is time for our third ever Yoko cosplay critique! We’re a bit late with this Animazement 14 critique but as stated before my photo editing software went crazy so I reinstalled it so I could make some levels and brightness adjustments to our photos. Compared to last year’s Animazement 13 we had a much higher turn out of Yoko cosplayers; SIX as compared to last year’s three so it is very exciting. Before we get started let me make my default disclaimer: this isn’t personal and I try and look at each cosplay objectively so do not get your feelings all hurt if I think your cosplay is not a 5 out of 5. We handed flyers to each cosplayer and let them know they would appear on the blog. Each cosplayer has had about two weeks to get into contact with us regarding whether or not they want to appear on the blog (which one did and we’ll get to that later!) So without further ado let’s get started.
Here are the standard reference photos.
Standing and detail shots
Action and under-boob shot
The five categories I use are: Details (All the small nit-picky things), Rifle, Attitude, Overall Appearance, and Zettai Ryouiki (Which will be graded purely on how accurate it is compared to the actual Yoko Littner’s Absolute Territory). These are presented in the chronological order in which we encountered the cosplayers. Also under-boob is always a plus but not necessary. Read more…
Upcoming Critique Mk III and updates
Hello to our faithful fans and followers. Just as an update, the new MK III Critique post will be up this week. I had planned on having it done today but my photo editing software went haywire so I’m doing a full re-install. So its coming later than expected, also in the pipeline is our post-con impressions of this year’s Animazement 14. This con’s critique is going to be great, plus we have a special critique in store later this summer thanks to KT (one of Animazement’s Yoko cosplayers) and her upcoming trip to Otakon! So stay tuned!
In other news, Tobias and myself have recently reunited IRL and he is now living in the same city as myself. This should help the updates come a little more regularly and the content should improve as well as we can collaborate face-to-face and not chat-to-chat.
Speaking of Tobias, he started doing this whole Tumblr tumbling re-blogging photo thing that is way beyond me. But if you are a fan of Gainax like he is then you should check it and re-tumble (?) his stuff: Gainax Fuck Yeah I’m sure fanboys/girls will rejoice at the tumble of images.
As a final note I thought it might be useful for everyone if I included a list of the cons we will be attending and have attended as of right now. This list could change later, and if it does substantially I’ll make a new post about it.
WTH? Con February 4-6(This was mostly to see MC Frontalot)Hoshicon April 23Animazement 14 May 27-29- Sukoshicon Louisville July 30 (Maybe)
- Gen Con Indy 2011 August 4-7
- Anime Weekend Atlanta 16 September 30 – October 2
That’s the list for now, I hope we see a lot of Yokos out there! If you are interested in meeting us, or want to arrange to have your cosplay critiqued just comment here and we’ll start a correspondence. Until later this week.
Simeón out
PAX East ’11 Breakdown
Many months ago, I wrote an article entitled The Community, in which I describe what I like about fandom in general. It was written with the Penny Arcade Expo in the back of my mind, as I was unable to attend last year and pretty bummed about it. Luckily that was not true this year (going, that is, not being depressed about it). It was one hell of a trip, but completely worthwhile. PAX East was a different convention experience than the anime cons I usually go to–one I’ll definitely try to repeat in the future. Read more…
The Polarizing of Anarchy Panty
It’s no secret that I haven’t kept up with the anime scene the past year or so. I can blame it on having too much to do or the quality of the shows themselves, but after AWA, I decided to make a solid effort to keep up with the new season. How lucky I was to find that Gainax was putting out a new show then: Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt. This show is different from anything you’ve seen out of Japan recently: one part homage to Western animation, one part body-fluid and sex jokes, and one part Imaishi wackiness. The art style varies from incredibly simple… Read more…
We here at The Yoko Critic (specifically me, Simeon) would like to clear up some misunderstandings on the part of both us and the world at large. This post is to address the recent “controversy” over my last Yoko Mk II critique. Due to an error on my part, the cosplayer in case study number 2 was unaware that she would be appearing on our blog and has requested that her critique and photos be taken down which we have done as promptly as possible.
I would like to first make clear that we are not setting a precedent. This is the first and final time we will be removing a critique from this blog. As I have clearly stated in both of the posts thus far and I will continue to state each time I proceed in making these posts: nothing about these critiques is personal so do not get your feelings hurt if I pick you apart, these critiques are only about the costume so it’s not as if I have attacked the cosplayer themselves or said they are ugly or something like that. Second as I have also stated; this blog is about myself and Tobias’ interests and opinions. If you do not like them, please feel free to leave. Last and most importantly I would like to point out that the back of the AWA badge states, and I quote:
“In accepting this badge, the holder consents to being photographed (on film, tape, or digital) for exhibition in all media.”
Therefore we at The Yoko Critic do not need a cosplayer’s permission to take and post photographs to this blog. We hand out flyers and speak with cosplayers because we respect them and want them to be aware of what is going to happen. If we forget to hand out a flyer please do not tell us we do not have the right to do what we are doing, because legally we do. I do not know if this is true for all cons but be aware that we will check the fine print of the future cons we attend.
This has been a PSA from your friendly Yoko critic.
Simeon out.
Edit: (Tobias:) What Simeon said.
Too many people on the internet felt insulted that we dare critique cosplay costumes, even if it is a one-character shtick. To those people, I’ll say the same thing they said to me: Get a Life. A little constructive criticism never hurt anyone, except for the ones too immature to take it, but for those people, I’ll once again issue the above directive: Get a Life. We decided to take down this particular cosplayer’s pictures not just because she asked us to; she described to me a series of unfortunate circumstances beyond her control that negatively impacted her costume.
Once again, I want to issue my own sincere apologies to the girl in question and to her alone. I hope more of you guys wake up and realize we’re not doing this to pick apart anybody or hurt their feelings, but work toward better costumes and art. What’s so wrong about that?
Japanese Girls, Lasers, and People Who Love Both
It’s been a little over a week since Anime Weekend Atlanta 16 ended, and I’m just now coming down off the con high. I haven’t experienced a feeling like that in the five years that I’ve been going, and I think a big part of it was heading the Touhou Project panel. Unfortunately, the time slot I attained wasn’t long enough to go over everything I wanted, the biggest thing being the fandom and how it contributes to the world of Touhou. I’ve been asked to write a piece on it here, so I’ll do just that!
The rise of Touhou’s popularity has both taken me by complete surprise and not really surprised me at all. The series is quite obscure as a Japanese independent shoot-em-up series, and really, as far as “bullet hell” games go, the games are among the easiest of the bunch and don’t really stack up to games like Mushihime-sama in terms of ridiculousness. The games themselves, as a result, aren’t really all that spectacular. What really sets it apart are the characters and the music. ZUN, the creator of the series, is a musician at heart, and his vast number of compositions, hit or miss as they may be, are a marvel to be sure. Every stage and every boss character has a unique theme, and with 6+ stages per game in over 12 games, ZUN’s musical portfolio is pretty substantial (and I won’t even go into his original works outside of the games). I think the characters really deserve their own paragraph.
There are a ton of characters in the Touhou series, but the secret to why some people flock to the series is an obvious one: there are over 100 characters, and of them, there are only three documented males. If you’ve ever wondered why a series like Queen’s Blade gets a following as big as it does, I can promise you that it’s not for the engaging dialogue. No, it’s because the series is full of girls that people find visually appealing. Touhou is no exception. The series covers a number of anime archetypes: maids, catgirls, all-powerful magicians, princesses, Sunny Delight crows, the usual. What’s more is that ZUN seems to love elaborate outfits, so you’re going to get a flurry of colors and some really silly hats. It’s definitely enough to catch your eye, and as a result, Touhou doujinshi and cosplay are becoming more and more common.
On to the fandom! The world of Touhou doujinshi really hit total exposure with Marisa Stole the Precious Thing, a remix of one of the boss themes from the seventh Touhou game, Perfect Cherry Blossom. In the game that follows, Imperishable Night, one of the characters, Alice Margatroid, is loosely, and I mean LOOSELY, interpreted as being in love with her friend Marisa Kirisame. This comes from one sentence that appears in one ending. As a result, people often pair the two characters together; Marisa Stole the Precious Thing reflects this in its lyrics, and when combined with a cute flash video and a catchy tune, you’re well on your way to love-colored stardom. Fast forward to years later, and the doujin world is flooded with remix albums from talented electronic artists and comics of varying natures, from the comic to the highly erotic. One of the most popular (and morerecent) doujin works is a video to a song called “Bad Apple!!”, a remix by Masayoshi Minoshima, sung by the seiyuu nomico, of a song of the same name featured in the games. The video features the characters as black and white silhouettes, dancing to the rhythm of the song, and it has received millions of views on both YouTube and the Japanese video site NicoNicoDouga. It’s a very visually impressive video, no doubt the result of a lot of time and effort, and it is but one example of what the fandom is capable of. Other feats include Touhou Time Crisis, a Time Crisis parody made with MikuMikuDance, a program designed to choreograph dance moves for the Vocaloid Miku Hatsune.
Of course, with elaborate outfits comes people who want to dress in those elaborate outfits. As with any fandom, there are cosplayers, and some of the outfits in this series are by no means simple. Touhou has to have one of the most dedicated fandoms I’ve come across, because the clothing alone is so outlandish and colorful at times that a real-life creation of it is no easy task. What’s more is that there are so many characters to choose from, it’s easy to find a character that works best for you, but many in the fandom want to dress up as a majority of them instead. This isn’t cheap or simple, but we love Touhou. I’ve included a handful of cosplays from the series in my AWA 2010 Pictures album, which has pictures from the Touhou photoshoot held on that Sunday. It’s but a small sampling of what can be found within the world of Touhou cosplay.
This is only scratched the surface of what Touhou has to offer. Perhaps I can return once again for another installment of this piece. There’s so much to say and so little time to say it all. I guess if you have any questions about the world of Touhou or its fandom, ask away! I’ve got plenty I can write about, after all. Thanks for reading!
The Evolution of Mecha Design
While we were at AWA, Simeon and Tobias decided to have a party Saturday night. I hear it was a grand fun time for all but left them completely unable to exist in the early morning hours. As such, Tobias had to miss two panels he wished to attend: The Evolution of Mecha Design and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, both presented by the good people at Anime World Order . I however was able to attend both, and oh how grand they were. Here is a brief summary of the Mecha Design panel.
In the beginning there was Astroboy. Perhaps not what most people would consider as Mecha, but he was a robot, and his design greatly influenced his larger siblings. Also, keep in mind that Astroboy was modeled after the character designs of Walt Disney. This is not the only time we will find Japan looking across the Pacific for inspiration. Read more…
