What I did in 2014
2014 is one of those years that went by so fast, I only realise it’s end on the very eve of it. Alright, I might have exaggerated my oblivion but darn, this year went by so fast! Looking back, I am still surprised that The Cosplay Chronicles is still here and is running for the last 5 years!
2013 was a year bounded by academics and work obligation while 2014 was a year of enjoyment haha! I’m a little ashamed to admit that 2014 was a year of little improvements in both life , cosplay and blog >.<; The only thing that improved was my salary , which isn’t too bad I guess xD
Now I’m here with my annual ritual; a summary entry of the things I did in 2014! I find this to be a nice way of recounting my time and efforts in 2014 and hope you guys enjoy it!
1) Fushigi Yuugi Photo shoot (Amiboshi x Suboshi)
Link: here
My dream cosplay happened! I’ve called myself Kaika after this new name Amiboshi was given halfway through the show for more than a decade. And now I’ve finally cosplayed Kaika! Mega thanks to Yuanie for being my Twin brother, couldn’t have done it without her!
2) Kyoukai no Kanata Dance & Photo shoot
It was a crazy idea but Chiiyo and I decided to do a dance cover of the Kyoukai no Kanata insert song; Yakusoku no Kizuna. We had initially started off as a full photoshoot team but the Boys couldn’t make it, and since we were already near completing our costumes we decided to go forth anyway. And then 1 week before the shoot we decided, let’s just do the dance cover anyway because we can. And we delayed the photoshoot for a week and underwent a rigorous week of costume making, dance choreography and dance practising all on top of our life routine. Special thanks to Lynweh, Sara and Haruko for helping out that day!
3) Sword Art Online Photo shoot ( Lyfa x Kirito)
Link: here
Yeah! Another photoshoot partnering with Yuanie! We came as a Brother and sister duo this time. Lyfa was a very different character for me; I seldom wears costume that reveal so much bosom and require so much padding -_-;; Wearing it also made me self conscious of how girls present themselves in the public. Much thanks to William for the pictures ^^
The entire costume was bought and I only made the blade!
4) Aprils Fools Day!
Link: here
I pulled my first ever Aprils Fool Day prank on the internet by telling you guys I was shutting down the blog and youtube channel due to family pressure. I was shocked by the amount of response I got (87 comments by far!) from you guys telling me not to go and ever if I do go, please don’t take the tutorials away XD.
It was heartening to say the least, especially for someone who slog hard behind the computer to bring original content to the community. I often felt like this blog and myself is so insignificant in the community and was expecting an embarrassing prank fail where nobody cared if I was there or not. I guess you could say this was a rebellious teenage-ish sort of prank hahaha.
While I have to be honest that while it was a prank, I myself is not too sure how long the blog and youtube can continue to function as it does now. Eventually other important life commitments will take over and well, I don’t know how long this will last but hope you enjoy the fireworks while it shines =)
5) Kyoukai no Kanata Sakura Photoshoot in Japan (School uniform version)
Link: here
Yeap! I flew over to Japan for a short 5 day trip and managed to squeeze in a KnK Shoot with 2 lovely Filipino friends! We cosplayed the school uniform version of Akihiko (Lunaru), Mitsuki (Nikki) and Mirai at the Kasai Rinkai Park; the Park that was the design backdrop for an episode in Honey & Clover.
With the help of Migz (our photographer friend who took all these shots), we also somehow filmed this impromptu but much feels video!
5) Cherry Blossoms in Japan!
Link: here
Well, this is not exactly Cosplay related but its Japan! After 4 trips to Japan , I saw Sakuras for the first time ! They were so magical and so beautiful! A sea of pink, white petals swaying in the cold dry air was so magical. It made me understand why the Japanese are so obsessed with Sakura for it’s mesmerising yet fleeting beauty. It was amazing to see the things only God can create. Earth cannot be Earth without Art in it =)
I blogged a series of other travel related tips and reviews for travelling in Japan, check it out at my personal beauty blog here.
6) A Chinese Ghost Story Cosplay
Link: here
It was such a fun experience to hang out with friends and just plain ol’ cosplay at events. And our costume of choice this cosfest day 1 was from this classical Chinese Ghost Story! We were cosplaying as characters from a very old Hong Kong Movie å€©å¥³å¹½é‚ A Chinese Ghost Story. It’s a timeless classic in the Chinese society and most of us grew up watching it! It was a crack team where everyone got along very well and did our best for this cosplay ^_^. We intend to do a parody video and photoshoot soon but I guess that will have to happen in 2015.
7) Finalist for the Singapore Blog Awards 2014
Link: here
I wish I could have said that after 3 years of participation, I have finally won but I didn’t so haha. If I take part again next and got into the finalist, I’d need you guys to vote for me again T_T
8) Best of Anime (Manila)
Link: here
I was invited to be a guest Cosplayer/Blogger at the Best of Anime in Philippines. It was an amazing experience and everyone I met there was so sincere and fun loving. Super thanks to the awesome and professional organising team for bringing me! I had so much fun hanging out with fellow Cosplay guest; Karael, Onnies and Liui. My Marshals from Anime Alliance Philippines were amazing people and I had a very nice experience there.
9) Skip Beat - Guam Arc
link: here
Zeph and I did another Skip Beat photoshoot because we love the series so much ahah! This time Kyoko and Ren flew to Guam for work and while we couldn’t physically transport ourselves that far, we managed to find a suitable location in Sunny Singapore! Check out the blue skies and clear waters!
10) Crazy YOLO Philippine Cosplay Trip
Link: here
Having visit the country for 4 times and made so many friends there, it was finally time to make a trip there just to hang out and photoshoot! It was a crazy crazy plan where I wake up everyday and get ready to cosplay everyday ahhaha! Fellow Cosplayer Friend Cvy commented that she was surprised by my passion since she has never seen me so enthusiastic about Cosplay before hahahah. I surprised even myself @A@;
I brought 4 costumes for a 5 day 4 nights trip (technically it was more like 4.5 days since time for both the first and last day was mostly taken up for travelling) . The months leading up to the trip was an stressful rollercoaster where I had to deal with delayed Taobao shipment of fabrics, running out to buy fabrics and materials in the last minute and well, just a heck lot of things to prepare. But the trip was worth it because of all the help and care my lovely Filipino friends gave me during the entire trip. For the entire trip other than coming and going to the Airport, I never travelled alone. Dinner was always treated by them and awesome food they fed me indeed ^_^b
11) Levi Ackerman Photo-shoot (Manila)
I alighted the plane around 6am and cosplayed Levi the following afternoon. Much thanks to Photographer Kira Hokuten for planning everything and helping me to borrow the 3DMG! The belts were such a b*tch to wear it took an hour of fumbling around hahhaa. Thanks for letting this Levi Fangirl fulfil her dream of cosplaying her favourite captain!
12) Rurouni Kenshin Live Action Movie - Kyoto Inferno Photoshoot (Seta Soujirou )
I finally cosplayed Seta Soujirou after more than a decade of wanting to. I had lost all hope of ever cosplaying him but the Live Action Movie came along and re-ignite the cosplay passion for this old series and I somehow managed to find myself an awesome group of teammates! We had Kenshin (Jin. Joson) , Shishio (Marco) and Yumi (Sese)! Everyone was amazing and took so much care into replicating the Movie costumes! It poured very badly that day but everyone held on and we had a gloriously fun day!
Here’s a BTS video done by Reskiy to show you how wet we got ahhaa.
13) Mononoke Hime Photoshoot
My favourite Studio Ghibli film has got to be Mononoke Hime. The Art style and story direction was just ace. I only discovered this gem recently and decided I had got to cosplay it! So I was very thankful when Katz decided to drag her old San Costume out for a shoot with me. I really wish I could have done a manlier job as Ashitaka but …well I tried my best T_T. We didn’t managed to take as much photos as we hoped to due to the terrain but I’m glad we got some pair shots!
I really need to get around to doing a proper solo photoshoot of my favourite prince soon!
14) Rurouni Kenshin - Yukishiro Tomoe X Himura Battousai
Link: here
Another dream shoot accomplished! Yukishiro Tomoe was my very first cosplay and it really brings a lot of fond memories back. I really liked Tomoe as a character for her air of mysteriousness and elegance. She was a very different woman from the girls I usually cosplay. The Jinchuu Arc was also one of my favourite Arc as it gave depth to the man we came to know and love as Kenshin. Kenshin could never become who he was without Tomoe and that pure love they held for each other breaks my heart every time I think about it.
The heartbreaking and spine chilling death scene was one Jin , Resh and I had always wanted to do. I hadn’t dared to hold hopes of ever accomplishing it but Jin with her amazing talent brought this scene to life T_T . This cosplay turned out to be the best Cosplay collaboration I am involved in this year and probably for many years to come.
15) Comic Fiesta
Link: Here
After missing it for a couple of years, I finally returned to Comic Fiesta in Malaysia again! Travelling in big groups with Cosplay friends really brings me back to the old days where Comic Fiesta was still a small Doujin Event and we would charter a bus over the course way to attend it. Going over always makes me a little nostalgic as I recount the years that have gone by and the people that have came and left. Over the decade, so much things have happened ; we made friends, fell in love , struggled on our cosplays together, practised hard for competition skits and had so much fun. But we also fought amongst ourselves, fell out of love, stopped placing Cosplay as a priority , focused on different things in life, arrived at different milestones , became husbands, wives and even parents.
Time ticks by without us realising and nothing can stop it from escaping our palms. But it was a good journey =) Comic Fiesta 2014 was a fun trip as I hung out with awesome friends and met old and new people!
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I guess this year though uneventful and lacking in Milestone, was a nice year of self discovery and enjoying of the moment. I cosplayed a lot more this year than I did the past few and of course what that translates to is lesser blog and youtube updates. I hope you guys continue to support TheCosplayChronicles while I continue to struggle between blog and cosplay ahhaha.
in 2015, I hope to expand my cosplay genre, make more new friends and work with different cosplayers and photographers! If you’re interested in doing a certain series that we all like, feel free to drop me a mail! I work at a snail’s pace though hahaa. in 2015 I also hope to work on possibly improving and bettering the community. Maybe spread the positive energy of Cosplay for a bigger cause and encourage the world to think less about ourselves but more about those who need us. How am I going to do that? I have no frikin idea! But I’m sure with a willing heart, God will lead me places to do the things He wants me to do.
If you're interested to join TCC as a guest writer or photographer, also feel free to pitch that idea to me ^_^.
With that I end this post, have a great 2015 and God bless!
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