Pets cosplaying their favorite characters?

I am amused as how some event organizers cash in on the cosplay craze and use it to describe costume party events.

Case to point: Pet Cosplay.

Making costumes for your pet is a common and generally liked hobby by pet enthusiasts.  But to use the word "cosplay" usually brings to mind a mind-boggling marriage between a hobby about wearing costumes of your favorite character, and a creature that generally has a hard time communicating with humans what their favorite is, beyond their familiar comforts such as food, shelter and attention.

Cosplay is about wearing the costume of a character you love and admire.

Im sure he admires lobsters.

I  have nothing against owners dressing up their pets.  I think its cute that they wear something different once in a while to amuse human beings.  I just don't like how Cosplay is being inserted in just about everything concerning costumes.  What's next? Ati-Atihan Cosplay?  Mariones Cosplay?

Going back, I had always hoped that cosplaying would be within the limits of pop-culture and its fandom, normally done inside the confines of a convention.  It would help as a reminder that we are there to celebrate one's fandom, that we chose to do so willingly and not forced unto us by higher beings thinking we look cute in them, or its a sure-fire way to win a contest by sacrificing our dignity.

For the record, I'm glad that pets are such forgiving creatures.  Either that or very patient ones when it comes to plotting their revenge.

Its been a while

Its been a while since I last posted.  For the past month there has been so many things I'd like to say about cosplay but I just end up deleting the whole entry because it reads like I overdosed myself in LSD and is now looking for a face to chew on.

But in the end, I realized its just wasn't worth the time to mull over as there are much better things to work on like preparing for upcoming Cosplay Tournament of Champions and Cosplay Mania.  In the end I'm glad I didnt go through my initial foam-in-the-mouth rants as a few days later I read this article by cosplayer Jin Joson called "The Misunderstandings about Cosplay" and my faith is restored.

If you don't know who Jin Joson is, then it's high time that you should go beyond the media drivel of "cosplay gods and goddesses" labels and get to know her, as she is in my opinion the best person to represent the virtues of cosplaying.

A lot of people tend to follow only the surface and never dig deeper as their reasons are never really about the hobby but about other things.  Don't worry, I totally understand that one.  A friend may have invited you to join in without providing any real insight, or discovered your crush has joined the ranks and wanted to be part of it just to be close, or you saw the success on TV and decided its a stepping stone to fame and fortune-- these can be legitimate stepping stones in trying to find out the real core of the matter regarding cosplay.  That is, if you are even willing to take that one crucial step beyond that.  But since not many people are really the research type and are more of "im-just-here-for-the-moment", they probably wouldn't care less about the hobby's core concept and history and just go with the flow and make things up as they go along.  "Walang basagan ng trip".  To each his/her own.

The sad thing about this is that some of the media (traditional and new), in their goal of making things more interesting, make things up and label it as their "their own style" just to make theirs different and yet use the same word to describe them.  Sooner or later, the Apples and Oranges comparison will no longer exist, as the end product will most likely have no resemblance other than the kind that stink.

But I'm just glad that there are still those who do it right.  I was asked time and again that maybe I should be more vocal about my views or even be more involved.  I am in my own way, through this blogs, through the events I help organizing, and by example.  I'm not after sending a loud message for the masses, just a clear whisper for the few willing to listen or having the patience and insight to ask.

What the Internet taught me about Holy Week

Advisory: This entry may contain several Christian references and practices that may be unfamiliar to readers, but are welcome to read and understand.

Holy Week has come and gone, and we are again reminded of how much was sacrificed to save what remains of our faith and continue on learning how to live by it.  But as the long weekend has passed, I have arguably spent a good amount of my non-working 5 day vacation sitting in front of the computer (or cellphone thanks to WiFi) either finishing up other projects, playing games or surfing the internet.  And in the internet is where I would mostly try to figure out the world around me and how things have progressed as time passes by.

I'm sure you've stumbled into this picture before (see left).  This picture and what it triggered has intrigued me for the past two days.  It was spreading like wildfire in Facebook and other social media.  And the comments ranged from pity to fire-and-brimstone flaming.


"Galing mo,,ginawa mong laruan ang krus na sya tumubos sa kasalanan ng tao."

"Oh. Such a disgrace :(" 

"what's great with those pictures? all I can see was full of thrases with people there disrespecting our God. They don't even know what they were doing and yet they are having a good time. Such worthless creatures that doesn't deserve God's Love."

 And this is just the tip of the iceberg.  More so with those posting in the cosplay community where I'm in, and the posts were as unflattering as what I just mentioned here.  Honestly I felt shock when I saw this picture, but kept quiet because I wanted to know how exactly did this happen.  Eventually I stumbled upon the Facebook album where it originated and also read an online article describing the event and eventually concluded that the cross was actually part of a tourist attraction in Angeles, Pampanga for photo ops.

I felt sad how much internet culture has permitted us to spread news like wildfire and post comments without any thought of consequence.  Many have already condemned the woman for violating our religious icon by posing sexily for photos, without giving any thought of why she did it.  Is she even Catholic?  Is she local? A foreigner who knew no better?  Why isnt anyone surrounding her stopping her from climbing up the cross and be photographed?  And why are there several pictures of other people doing the same thing?

Questions no doubt will probably be answered soon, thanks to our local media finally getting hold of the story.  I hear it was already featured on TV.  And the contents actually, in their own little way, lectured to those who callously called the woman a sinner, hypocrite, disbeliever and such, to take time to look into themselves and ask how pure their intentions were in the first place.  Which makes me wonder how selective we are in determining which is considered blasphamous and which is considered tolerable, particularly in the anime and cosplay community.

 Tokyo Babylon Cross Fashion

Cross-motiff gun to destroy a lot of things

Rei chained to cross in sexy dress. Nuff said.

And I'm pretty sure even popular artists are very much into these things.

Or some might call, Gaga on a Stick.

Madonna, obviously not singing "Like a Virgin"

So at the end of the day, I often wonder if i'm the only one who seems strange enough to say that somehow, these images don't disturb me enough to make me go raging over the internet.  Is it because I have a good sense of humor?  A sizable level of tolerance?  Or because I'm pretty much jaded by what's been going on these days?  Probably a little of everything.  But once in a while I always thought that we are all very much human in so many ways, that I am reminded that perhaps God designed us that way, so that in the end we would realize our mistakes and move on to become better human beings.

I think that's a much better deal than being born completely perfect.

Words of the past : Reflections of the present

I bumped into this old interview article back in 2007 where a multimedia reporter for Inquirer.net, Ms. Erika Tapella, asked me for an online interview regarding the topic of Philippine Cosplay.  This particular segment that I cropped made me pause a bit because it somewhat reflected what I believed cosplay is then and what I hope would become in the next coming years.

I cannot say much about my first wish.  Years after the interview I realized that it doesn't really matter, since you cant please everybody, and there will always someone completely biased regarding cosplayers: and with good reason, since it takes just a few to stereotype the whole.  And of course, there will always be people who simply like to give the community a good prodding just for the pleasure of seeing it squirm.  Welcome to the internet, so they say.

As for my second wish mentioned, I think its safe to say it's still happening, at least on the surface.  Four years later I often think if we are walking in the right direction, at least when it comes to international recognition as a community, not just individual achievements. 

What do you think?