BITCH TIEM.

About the oh-so-raved-over(?) OTACOOL 2.

I really wanted to make this post somewhere that will get more attention, but I shall start here where I know cosplayers will read and share their opinions. I will try not to be too rash in this post, but I'm quite raged right now so this will be a very heat-of-the-moment bitch post. Raging not because I didn't get picked (I didn't even submit), but because I don't agree with how cosplay is being sold/portrayed. Can't keep silent no more.

Firstly, when a friend showed me the official release of Otacool2's cover on Kotobukiya site www.kotous.com/news/otacool2-w… , I realised they made a mistake of one of the cosplayers. The lightning cosplayer isn't Saya-san, but is instead Yosuda-san, as you can see from the submissions page here: www.dannychoo.com/post/en/2538…
Yosuda-san says she has 1 year of cosplay experience, but usually goes around as a photographer.

Now, what would you think of this kind of unprofessional mistakes being made? It's almost the same as identity theft, no? I would think either Kotobukiya or Mr. Danny Choo would have noticed the error before they released the news and cosplayer names officially, but as you see, many people have been tricked into believing that the Lightning cosplayer is Saya-san. I feel angry for both the cosplayers named here, as well as for the readers who are given mistaken information.

Anyone who follows Saya-san's works will know that she has been cosplaying for more than 1 year now, and places a lot of emphasis on how her cosplay photos turn out. I've been checking her photo blog entries and backdrop/location seems to be of a high priority to her, so I find it hard to believe that she would have cosplayed on the streets of Akiba AND submitted a photo with random people and vehicles in the backdrop. (No offence, Yosuda-san.)

[edit] Ok I just looked at past entries on Saya-san's photo blog and it appears that she did help out at a Kotobukiya event in Akiba ._. xxsayaxx12xx.tuna.be/?mon=2010… Now I have a feeling that Yosuda-san is a photographer who posted a picture of Lightning. So maybe it is Saya-san after all! *blinks* Ok I'm confused myself oTL Sorry about all the confusion ._.

Secondo, I didn't like the idea of the cover just showing -faces- of cosplayers. I wish their costumes were given more exposure, but it's just my thoughts. If that's how they want to sell the book and cosplayers, so be it. However, I couldn't swallow the fact that Stormtrooper-san gets away (gets featured) AS A COSPLAYER, without his headgear! Someone tell me which scene in Star Wars did we see a Stormtrooper like that please? Seriously, too much emphasis on the face =_=. It's cosplay, not cosfaceplay, mind you.

And the Ayanami Rei? A friend showed me her DA photo, and I jumped to her site from there.
vampbeauty.com/gallery_flip.ht… Tell me, do you think her costumes exist? It looks too much of a Computer generated photo if you ask me (especially the brown shoulder bits). It's too much of a waste to not have photos from other angles for such a beautiful costume, if it is real, that is. There's also the thing about how I don't see her doing much cosplays, but yet gets to be featured on her first/second "cosplays". Did she just start cosplaying like really recently? I wonder how she defines cosplay.. Feeling a little mad that someone like that calls herself one of us. Hmmm, actually why do I bother at all? :/

Cosplaying is not just about CG-ing, because if that's the case, all cosplayers should just cease work on recreating costumes and poses and just their heads onto photos of costumes! It angers me to think that that is how cosplay reflects in the eyes of non-cosplayers, and that they think that they can just join in the ranks of cosplayers as simply as that. Sorry to be a purist, but as someone who has been with this hobby half her life, I refuse to recognise that as cosplay.

As such, with things such as no respect for the cosplayers, mistaken concepts of cosplay etc, it has led me to conclude that OTACOOL2 is quite poorly managed. Truth to be told, I had once considered submitting my entries for OTACOOL. With all due respect, I've seen very awesome submissions, and if I were lucky enough to have my submissions published along with those, it would mean a lot to me. But after seeing all the above ugly... it just seems like a fan-for-fan book; their concept of cosplay is too different from my principals and I don't think I want to be part of that.



*stands by for flames* XD