Filler Post of the Day

Found this randomly while FaceBook-ing:

You can find the picture from this link: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=263265263775066&set=a.172274696207457.26274.168594109908849&type=1

Anijou's Mascots!

Anijou mascots. Can you name them all?
Art by Sam Suansing

So, I heard you've attended this Anijou event, ne? You look around and see this peculiar artwork bearing not only the schedule but also the guild's logo. Is this some kind of mascot?

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you the Anigumi Joukai mascots.

Apparently, before Anijou didn't have mascots during their events. They would usually come and go and make posters and such to promote the event. However, things took a different turn for the 2011 October event.

October has always been a special month for Anijou as not only it marked the month of Anijou's first main event, it was also one of the reasons why the guild was formed. But enough about history, let's talk about the first mascot: the Gamehouse Clash mascot/Gamehouse-chan; better known as Asobi-chan.

Asobi-chan, October 2011 Gamehouse Clash Mascot. Can you see the different consoles on her?
Conceptualized and drawn by Audrey San Juan 

I actually can't remember the exact date on when or how did the organizing team thought of creating a mascot for the event (although my gut feeling tells me it was Audrey's ingenious idea from the start). All I remember is that sketches began popping up in the organizing team's chat page and it stuck all the way to the end.

Old sketch of Asobi-chan by Audrey

If you are keen enough, you could see that her outfit sports hints of different gaming platforms such as XBox and Playstation. Her name, Asobi, is means play in Japanese and was coined by yours truly (what a shameless plug in there ^_^;;)

Unfortunately, I cannot find her chibi form. Yes she had a deformed form but somehow I cannot find it in the older posts of the group.

If you would notice that Asobi has a bit of a different look in her old sketch. Instead of wearing a one piece suit, the old sketch is a two piece outfit. The only ones that were carried over to the final design were the gaming console icons.






Next, are two very familiar faces if you guys have attended the cosplay cafes on February 2012 at Brew Burgers and May 2012 at Book Latte.

Love and Struck.
Conceptualiazed and drawn by Sam Suansing
Layout by Audrey San Juan
February 2012 Cosplay Cafe @ Brew Burgers

The first time these two lovebirds appeared was during the February 2012 Cosplay Cafe held at Brew Burgers. The name was thought up randomly by me (again). Why Love and Struck? Basically the cafe was on a February and that month is basically the month of love so Lovestruck. These two served as the meal tickets/bookmark souvenirs for the cafe customers. Apparently they were quite popular, most especially Struck (?) in which there wasn't enough bookmarks to go around. Added bonus, for the first time, Brew Burgers was completely full and sold out, as said by the owners Sir Richard and Sir Babak.

Love & Struck for the Book Latte Cosplay Cafe
Art and Layout by Sam Suansing

\The next time these two appeared was during the Book Latte Cosplay Cafe event. Now, if you guys can still remember it well, that cafe was solely focused on cosplays that involved characters from books and fairytails. Examples would be Death from Neil Gaiman's The Sandman and Snow White. However, there were some who chose to cosplay characters from their favorite anime series and manga. An example would be Inu x Boku.

Love Ticket/Bookmark souvenir 

Struck Ticket/ Bookmark souvenir

Once again, Love and Struck adorned not only the posters but also the ticket/bookmark souvenirs. As I, myself, wasn't completely present in the event, I'm not too sure on successful it was nor was the event sold out.

Ai-Expo's (Anijou Iloilo) Mascot: May-chan
Art by Audrey San Juan

Early sketch of May-chan by Audrey San Juan

The last in the line up is the very familiar May-chan. Not only does she adorn every single form laid out on the Anigumi Joukai table, she is also found on the promotional posters, Facebook page and the tarpaulins. She was conceived, designed and drawn by Audrey San Juan, the resident artist/advertising designer of Anijou. Audrey was the one who coined her name, probably because that Ai-Expo was held in the month of May.

May-chan looks like a kitsu-mimi (or rather a girl with fox ears and tail). I'm not too sure if this is the indirect effect of the Fate game for the PSP on her as it just dawned on me that she might be inspired indirectly from Caster (Tamamo-noMae). Nonetheless, May-chan's quite cute.

chibi!May-chan with the Ai-Expo logo
All by Audrey San Juan

And there you have it! Now you know who are the Anijou mascots. Hopefully, this was a bit helpful to you. Until next blog post! >_<

Cosplay: No Limit to Creativity

It's not that I'm offended or anything but everytime I stop and think about it, I'm a bit bothered.  If I'm going to offend anybody please take to mind that these are my own thoughts and I'm just trying to express myself. I do not mean to be rude to anyone in this post.

A random picture of me failing as England from Hetalia Axis Powers (Steampunk variation) Picture by Gee Jay Loreno and taken from Ai Expo 2012

1. Cosplay Reservations 

I really don't see the point in this. 

Don't we all believe that cosplay is for everyone no matter what the body size, just as long as you can really give justice to the character itself? And as the highly competitive creatures we are, a little bit of competition doesn't hurt since I really think it lets us go wild with our imagination on how to  tackle the costumes ourselves. Competition also somewhat helps us discover what are the "cheats" or easier ways on how to pull things off to how to be resourceful without spending a lot.

In all honesty, this "character reservation" kinda places wall to creativity. And besides, it's not really fun when you're the only one standing there and everybody mistakes you for a different character or a fashion. Also, this is one way of finding out who are in the fandom. A primary example is Hetalia Axis Powers, although in the US, Australia and Japan, it's an overused cosplay, here in the Philippines you hardly chance on any cosplayers. Sometimes, it even takes luck on finding one!

My Happy Fruit Fwendz: Banana, Strawberry, Blueberry, Cherry and Mango

2. Lolita as Cosplay

Define Lolita. Define Cosplay.

Lolita: Fashion.

Cosplay: Costume Play.

Is it even possible to cosplay a fashion statement? That boggles me just a bit. 

Are we lolita enough for you? :P

3. Cosplayer = Art Student (or anything close to that)

Ok, I get these A LOT when people start asking me what's my course. They say, "Shouldn't you be in -insert artistic course here- ?" 

First, I know a few medical course related cosplayers and they are really excellent cosplayers. I do not see the connection between your course and an artist hobby/outlet. 


Second, cosplay does not choose its course or year or age. As I said cosplay is for everyone.

Unfortunately, this Acolyte's Heals aren't enough for the might of this ghoul (Jherben Lagon, 4th President of Anigumi Joukai as Ragnarok Acolyte)

4. Cosplayer = Model

Woah. PAUSE.

This I really, REALLY don't like. I have friends who are plus sized and do not have a Tyra Banks-like build and height but they are excellent cosplayers. Cosplay doesn't have a body preference and what's important to us cosplayers is that we truly give justice to the character we are portraying.

Plus, photogs this is a hobby and we are not your models so please don't get mad if we do poses that express our character's personality but not to your liking. But we do want to hear from you if the pose doesn't look good from behind the lens.

Even Lelouch needs to fix himself to keep his good looks (Marc Louise of Anigumi Joukai as Lelouch Vi Brittania) 

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Ok this is all I could think of right now XD If I offended anyone then I apologize