It’s finally done! Thank god. (; ^_^)

I have to apologize in advance, though; most of the pictures didn’t make it because they ended up blurry (some here still are, actually), though they looked pretty sharp on the camera screen. orz

SOY’B, which apparently stands for “Start of Year Cosplay” (don’t ask), occured on the 30th of January (last week) at Ngee Ann Polytechnic. SOY’B marks the third time SOY has been held, and we’ve already covered last year’s event as well.

The event was held in and around a lecture theatre, with the various competitions occuring within the lecture theatre itself, and booths selling art (as well as odds ‘n ends) were lined along the corridors around the lecture theatre.

This was pretty much the scene outside the event entrance for most of the day. It’s likely that some people didn’t bother paying the $5 entrance fee (or $3, if you pre-ordered, are a student or applied as a blogger) since most of the cosplay action was outside.

It may or may not have been intended by the organizers, but it’s pretty much impossible to perform proper cosplay in the corridors, especially with the booths taking up half the space.

Sadly enough, I only recall a familiar face, though the art sold at the rest of the booths wasn’t disappointing either. I was almost tempted to get a Rin/Len bookmark. >_>

By the time I got to the lecture theatre though, it was almost full, with people crowding the back area. I stuck around long enough to watch the emcees cosplay and imitate characters from Ouran High School Host Club as they welcomed other cosplayers on-stage for the singles competition.

There was a mini-cafe outside the exit (a “Tofu Cafe” to be exact), though I couldn’t find anyone else who wanted to go and have a look. I believe they served simple pastries and bottled drinks, and it wasn’t a complete bank-breaker like the Moe Moe Kyun~<3 cafe was, thankfully.

There was an entire team of BRS-themed cosplayers, probably based on the other BRS PV variations you can find on Nico Nico Douga. There was a Rin, Len, Meiko, Kaito and IBRS (!!!). Thankfully, their choice of weaponry appeared to differ, since it’d be pretty weird if everyone wielded a gun and a single blade.

Here’s a solo shot of BRS, Rin-version. I like. <3

Here’s an actual Masked Rider Kiva cosplayer who has paid very close attention to detail to the Emperor Form with the Zanvat Sword (along with the Wake Up Fuestle) to boot. I didn’t actually watch the series though. :/

I hung out with some WLNF (We Love Nendoroids and Figmas) mates, and some of them were taking pictures of their figmas and dolls outside, I snapped this one who was aiming for me but missed. ^_^;

Also, anyone know what these people were doing? I was told they’re doing a school project, but I cannot possibly fathom what sort of project would have you shooting scenes at a cosplay event.

I saw the full costume later; apparently it also had a dragon-like helmet. Does anyone know whether it’s real cosplay, or just something completely made-up?

My photography has improved, but not by leaps and bounds; for some reason this shot turned out relatively sharper than the rest, but I completely screwed up the composition by blocking BRS (Meiko version)’s face. Aaaargh.

P.S. IBRS needs more…insane look. Also, thanks Hirito for lending me your camera to use!

Finally, here’s a Miku (World is Mine version) by Joy. You may have already seen this one in the preview post, so here’s some more to satisfy you:

World is Mine Under Construction

Naturally enough it wasn’t long before everyone was camera-whoring her (though I kinda started the whole thing). Eventually some bugger decided to ask her to wear her shoes to satisfy his shoe fetish, and this was the result:

On an unrelated note, do visit Kodomut’s blog. Also, sorry dude, didn’t recognize you without the beanie hat. >_<

Here’s Rin and Len, done by Snowi and Revive respectively. Note that this shoot was more personal and was done after SOY’B, so there was actually a lot more room to breathe and shoot. Also, kudos to both of them for letting me shoot them, and let me tell you, shooting cosplayers personally is a totally different experience compared to shooting them during an event.

They were cosplaying the twins from this particular song named 夢桜 (Yume Sakura, above), and though I had no clue about the song, they quickly filled me on the details. Thankfully they didn’t need to explain about the whole VOCALOID thing. XD

Source: Pixiv by yucco

I tried my best to recreate some scenes from the PV, though taking a photo at night with no tripod is a recipe for disaster. For some reason though, the above photo made it out okay, with the help of a diffuser for my built-in flash provided by Snowi herself.

Coincidentally, the above photo was the very last one I shot, after multiple pleas for “just one more shot”. Thanks for putting up with me, you two.

Returning to SOY’B, it was a fairly alright event, with a decent amount of management. Excluding the competition though (which was exclusive to the small lecture theatre), the event turned into a simple cosplay meet-up, and I was hoping for more than that, actually.

It was also a great chance to meet up with friends (since I don’t go out much myself), and though I came sleepy and returned exhausted, I had a great time. Looking forward to next year’s SOY, guys!

You can check out additional coverage by our friends:

• The Banzai Effect!: [1], [2] and [3]
• Kodomut

And a final question: did you visit this post just to see Joy’s photos? =P

Obviously a lie but my conversation with Fuzzy led to this. Also obviously my misinterpretation.

I truly am sorry for delaying the SOY’B post; it’s really amazing how much life can keep you occupied when you really need the time to do stuff. Or maybe it’s just me and I fail at managing my time. orz

While I’d really like to stay up till the wee hours of the morning to write up the post, I have to admit that I haven’t been sleeping well for the past few days, and it’s beginning to impact my performance at work. I wouldn’t want to get fired now, do I?

Coincidentally, this week marks the beginning of university applications, so I’ll probably be sleeping late again just to fill up the application forms. Missing this chance is a no-no. ( *A*)

For now, enjoy this photo of a World is Mine Miku cosplayer (especially all you foot fetishists out there).

EDIT: Finally finished the coverage post.

Miku looks quite lovely indeed.. ^^

Just last Saturday, 2 cosplay events were held; The “Start of Year Again” (SoYA) and the other is Cosplay Challenge.. Well, I am gonna do a 2 posts, each talking about the 2 events separately.. So for today, I’ll be talking about the SoYA event and the nice cosplayers that attended the event while for 2morrow I shall be doing the Cosplay Challenge..

For this year, SoYA was held at the same place it was held the previous year, Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP) and it is organised by NP’s Tsubasa Cosplay Club.. Me, Blurmage, Fuzzy, Scorio and Malzias went to the event place just on the starting time which is at 11am..

Though Scorio and Malzias left earlier to get some film for Scorio’s camera and then meetup with Hirito and Ruby, the remaining 3 were there to take some great pictures of cosplayers that would attend the event.. Without further ado, I would like to leave you all alone to enjoy the wonderful pictures I took during the event.. Enjoy!!

Sage Naruto ready to strike on any enemies..

At first glance, I thought she was from Burst Angel due to the almost similar outfit.. xD

Bill (From Left 4 Dead) was spotted amongst the horde of cosplayers, looking for zombies..

Hinamori Amu is simply beautiful.. She looks cute.. =3

Can anyone identify this character?

Well, thats all I have for the event.. I hope you all enjoyed looking at the pictures.. It is such a pity that there wont be any good events anytime soon though.. I spend my time at the event till 2pm which after that I went together with Blurmage, Scorio and Hexlord to go to the Cosplay Challenge.. More on that event in the next post..

As for now, here are some of the sites that also do the coverage on SoYA:

SN Anime Gardens – Sakurazaki Naoki (Cosplay Competition 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
Furu Anime Panikku – Double
The Banzai Effect – oOgA
The ZhuKeeper

Gomenasai~

Lately, as you’ve seen, Fariz has been doing all the blogging. I’m almost non-existant on the very blog we made as brothers, but all for good reason:

I’ve been busy.

I’ve been rushing some assignments recently to meet the deadline (though one missed it by 5 whole days >.>), and it’s put a lot of stress on me.

I have plenty of assignments left to complete (3 actually) for next week, as well as a test on a subject I feel I’m not very strong at (Ethics & Law of IT, anyone?), so I’m not feel relaxed anytime soon. I’m thankful this blog has more than just managed to stay alive, thanks to Fariz’s frequent posts, even if he ends up staying up late or waking up in the wee hours just to submit a post.

Arigatou, onii-san. ^.^

I have a huge backlog of blog posts now, so I’d imagine I’ll never run out of material, especially when I stumble on fresh ones every single day. XD

For the gaming reviews I promised (and didn’t deliver), particularly Shin Megami Tensei: Online, I’ll probably have to give you only a short-and-sweet one, especially since I lost all my screenies after a freak accident with the uninstaller. I’ll summarise that review in 2 words though: it’s slow. But that’s another blog post for another day.

Thanks for the Miku pose. <3
Sadly my camera is no DSLR.

Recently I’ve also been to SOYA, since I haven’t been to a cosplay event in a while. It wasn’t teh epic convention, but I found a few good cosplayers to ogle at. The competitions felt lacking though; if I couldn’t be easily entertained I would have ignored the emcees completely.

Don’t worry though, Fariz will post the juicy details up later.

Hopefully I’ll start posting regularly again; I have some cool stuff I wanna share with you guys, and I can’t let Fariz have all the attention to himself.

Till then, wish me luck~