February 2, 2017

Throwback Thursday: Jushiro Ukitake cosplay from Bleach!

Hello you all!

This will be my last Throwback Thursday post for this time and it's gonna feature my fourth cosplay (fifth, if we count an OC) who, just like Ichigo on my first post, is a Bleach shinigami. The difference is that this time we'll be climbing up the ranks to a captain!

Ever since I found some really old cosplay WIP photos in the deep dark corners of my laptop I've been wanting to do something with them – like, for example, show them to the world because we all started somewhere. Yes, I totally took progress photos before I even started cosplay blogging. 
This means that, once a week, on Thursdays (because it's called Throwback Thursday for a reason), I will invite you all to experience a 'blast of the past' with me featuring old cosplay photos, WIPs and stories ranging from late 2009 to 2011. Fasten your seatbelts, we're gonna be riding the time machine one last time and you'll get to backtrack into my cosplay history and see some never-published-before photos on this here blog!  
Be warned that this, naturally, means a lot of (potential) embarrassment for me and highly varying photo quality for you. ;) I only had a crummy compact camera back then and didn't even notice if a photo was blurry or not...

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Jushiro Ukitake. Bleach.
Ah, good old Ukitake. He's the captain of the 13th Division in Soul Society and, despite having a fatal illness (similar in symptoms to Tuberculosis, although I'm not sure if it was ever officially revealed), he kicks some serious ass. He's a well-liked and highly honorable man who treats even enemies and those weaker than him with respect. Ukitake has a high moral code as well and goes out of his way to protect those he cares for. He's a really kind and likable guy who dislikes unnecessary bloodshed – he's the shinigami cinnamon roll, in other words.
From the first time I saw him in the manga he has been my ultimate favorite character in Bleach. I have a bias towards white-haired/long-haired guys anyway, lol. He will always be a dear character to me and, even though I haven't followed Bleach for years, I can't stop caring about him and wondering what has happened to him since then. Jushiro Ukitake to me is not just any fictional character he is so much more. I know this probably sounds cliché but he is tied to me on a deeper level, because of a really personal experience, which happened almost exactly 6 years ago from today. I know that the story below may sound unbelievable but I want to assure you that it's all 100% true. Read it if you want but I warn you, it's quite long and not really a happy one.

~storytime~

A long time ago, during the year 2011 and when I still lived at my mom's, I had decided that I wanted to start working on my next cosplay. I was aware that on an upcoming weekend the following Monday would be off from school, which meant a 3-day weekend to spend on cosplay making. I had planned to start working on my Ukitake cosplay on said weekend, which was now some few weeks away. This 3-day weekend was in the end of January or beginning of February, I'm sorry I can't remember more exactly.
So I waited and waited and on the Friday, the day before, I suddenly got struck with a headache and felt very slow and tired on the morning. I still went to school, not thinking too much about it.
When school was over I went home to one of my friends, who lived near school back then. While there I started freezing like hell and shivering the whole time. So when I finally got home (I had to wait for mom to finish work and pick me up) I had developed a fever and was declared sick. Oh well, I though at first that it was nothing more than a common cold, but after five days the fever didn't go away (it became worse, if anything!) and so we had to go to the health care center. There they listened to my lungs, took some x-rays and stuff and they soon found out that I had some defects in my lungs, gave me medicine and sent me home. Please note that because I'm scared of hospitals they gave us the option to continue at home.
Some days go by and my condition keeps getting worse, I couldn't hardly do as much as get up from the bed without feeling like I'd collapse or some such. Just simply walking around the house had never been so hard before. So yeah, you can guess that I couldn't work on my cosplay and oh dang, was I disappointed.

The week before the third Kitacon was to be held (Kemi, Finland) which I had been looking forward to since forever I had to leave for the hospital in Kemi because my condition was... alarming. Needless to say I couldn't attend Kitacon and the worst part was that the con was so close to the hospital that I could have thrown a stone from the hospital's parking lot and hit the con building. So yeah, meanwhile my friends were having fun at the convention I was stuck in an isolated hospital room, fearing that I'd die. It was horrible. I could even see the convention from my window. At least my mom went there and bought me stuff like Pocky and a Byakuya Kuchiki plush. #momgoals

At the hospital I got a room far back in the corridor. All the rooms were numbered and I got room number................. 13. Thirteen, just like in Ukitake's Division. When mom said that (yes, I had to ask her because I wasn't allowed to leave the room and, physically, I couldn't anyway) I would have burst out laughing, had I not completely lost my voice and, even if I tried to laugh, it would have immediately turned into cough attacks and I can't even start to describe how painful those were. The closest I can think of is to imagine that a shitlot of needles stabbed your chest for every single cough – and I coughed 24/7. All the time.
The reason why I got a room so far back is because the doctors wanted to isolate me and my mystery disease, as a safety precaution. This meant that except for getting room number 13 I also didn't have to share it with anyone, which was a luxury in misfortune. I remember how hard it was to get up from bed and walk those five steps to the bathroom heck, even when I was just lying in my bed, not lifting a single finger, it still felt like I was endlessly running for my life; I remember even telling my mom that it feels like I'm constantly running a marathon. I don't even want to know what my heart rates might have looked like because they must have been in the skies. There's that one early morning I remember being woken up by a nurse and she, half-jokingly yet in a concerned voice, asked me if I was alive – my blood pressure was way too low and I assume I looked like a ghost...
I also had to use a nasal cannula because I had respiratory problems and couldn't breathe sufficiently on my own. I could easily take it off though and put it back on and I remember how even being a short time without the breathing aid felt like slowly choking. Don't ask me why I messed around with it, it was semi-annoying to wear and would dry out my nose sometimes.

I was in the hospital for a week and the doctors didn't know what the hell I had gotten. They thought at first that it was H1N1 but the tests were negative. I had to take several different antibiotics (not everything at once though) because this sickness was immune to almost everything – now that was scary. I actually legit cried during the nights because I was too afraid of sleeping, thinking that I might never wake up again – and it wasn't even an irrational fear, it was highly real.
Not to mention that I had 41 C° fever going on and off in waves, which was pure torture. I've read somewhere that 42 C° fever is enough to cause irreversible brain damage and, in the worst case, possible death so yeah, 41 C° is pretty damn horrible in itself and I don't want anyone to experience that. The fever came and went really suddenly and thus, whenever it struck, it made me shake violently and just feel generally miserable; I remember being in so much discomfort I had to press the buttons to get a nurse to come with gel coolers because it was unbearable, those seconds I had to wait felt like the longest in my life. Do you know that feeling when you're in so much pain that your body starts crying unwillingly? That was my everyday whenever the fever hit me...
So, at last, they gave me this one antibiotic and I remember the doctor saying that normally they wouldn't give it to people under 18 years (which I was at the time), unless as a last resort that one actually helped. Sweet Jesus, the relief.
Afterwards I got to know what it was that I had – I was MYPM positive, Mycoplasma Pneumoniae. There's a 10% risk, I read, that when getting this sickness (which starts of as a common cold) it evolves into pneumonia and, because I'm such a sure-fire Donald Duck, I of course got it. ._. MYPM is also known as "walking pneumonia" and I've read that it's actually the least scary kind of pneumonia (my ass!) and that's because it's a mild one and does not generally require hospitalization; you could have walking pneumonia and not even know about it. And then there's me who, on top of it all, got a double-sided case and it was bad enough for me to balance on the brink of death for a week. Fuck my life. :)) I was born with underdeveloped lungs (and anemia) and I've had childhood asthma as well, which could be a reason for why it seems that I'm prone to get shit in my lungs...

I still remember clearly that final day in the hospital, when they had decided that my condition was decent enough to let me back home – two nurses came to assist me in leaving the bed and doing a test-walk in the corridor. They had to support me from both sides and even then I barely managed to walk more than a dozen steps without feeling like everything was blackening rapidly before my eyes. It still feels like it could have been yesterday my body was disobeying me; never has it been so extremely hard to do something as simple as walk and breathe at the same time. It's something we take for granted and when you realize that something so ordinary gets taken away from you it... it feels unreal. It destroys you in a way. It's hard to find words for it.
I had to use a wheelchair to get to the main entrance after the test-walk (they deemed that I couldn't walk on my own, obviously the right choice) and I remember how other patients, of all ages, around the hospital looked silently at me during the way down; I still wonder what they were thinking. All of this has burned into my memory – the helplessness, the fear, the uncertainty, having death breathing on my neck. Ever since then February has never come without me being anxious, scared and just extremely uncomfortable. Some years later during two separate occasions, around the same time of the month, two different family members got into life-threatening situations as well. I'm rightfully traumatized by February...

Because of all this Ukitake nowadays has a really special place in my heart. This cosplay and character means a lot to me – it's a memory to not take life for granted, to stay strong and believe in yourself. I'm glad that I survived, it can't even really be put into words the gratitude that I felt and still, to this day, feel from being spared from death's grip. Just because you are young doesn't mean that you're immortal; I used to think that nothing will happen to me yet but oh lord, so very wrong I was.
I guess it's a human trait to deny one's own mortality...

tl;dr - I got a serious, life-threatening lung sickness one day before I was going to start working on my Ukitake cosplay. I got hospital room number 13. Let that sink in.

~storytime end~

Okay, so with that cleared up it's time to talk about the costume process. ^^
Because I already had a shinigami shihakusho (the black robes and hakama), from my Ichigo Kurosaki cosplay, I already had a big part of my Ukitake cosplay done – I just needed to get a wig, make the captain's haori and make Ukitake's zanpakuto. I tend to call the white overcoat a haori but some people refer to it just simply as captain's coat or cloak or whatever.

I started to work on this cosplay some time after I got home from the hospital, which means in early 2011, possibly around March. Back then I lived at my mom's (same goes for the other TBT cosplays I've posted about) and so I had easy access to a sewing machine etc and also woodwork opportunities
– which meant that making Ukitake's zanpakuto myself was not a problem. But I'll get to the sword making later, first I'll talk about the haori progress. ;) You see, my mom is a former fabric store owner and once she closed her business she ended up with a lot of leftover fabrics and well, this has been extremely useful for me as a cosplayer – free fabrics! :D Yes, this haori didn't cost me a single cent because we had fitting fabrics at home. 

Warning: almost all of the photos below are of poor quality, especially the progress pics. They are almost all taken with my old compact camera and originate from 2011-2012.

13th Division insignia sewn on.
Above is the first progress photo I have of this project. I had already appliqued on the squad insignia really carefully; I had to measure it to make it the right size and attach it at the center. The details and strokes I paid a lot of attention to and decided to make them as how they appear in the manga, aka more calligraphy styled – I'm still to this day really proud of how it turned out. I've also gotten a lot of compliments on the insignia, haha. The insignia is made out of some ordinary black cotton fabric and it's backed with interfacing fabric, so to not wrinkle once sewn on.
The haori itself is made out of some kind of heavier off-white bridal fabric, possibly a cotton blend. It's extremely pretty, has a very slight shine to it, drapes very nicely (despite its weight) and just overall is a quality fabric that feels luxurious. I thought it would be perfect for a captain's haori because of the high rank.

Lining cut out and "tried on". Bottom details done.
The fabric that I used for the lining is actually not a proper lining fabric – it's a deep red/crimson quality satin, I think. It's not as thin and overall shitty as satin fabric tends to be. Mom had good fabrics. 
All those details on the bottom of the haori are appliqued on in the same way as the division insignia, and of the same fabric. It was extremely tedious because I had to carefully measure the distances so to not screw up a single centimeter. I'm still surprised that I didn't mess it up and it ended up looking really professional. It surely took a lot of time and patience but it was so worth it!

Finished Ukitake haori. Front.
(flash photo)
Finished Ukitake haori. Back.
(flash photo)
The haori was so beautiful when it was still new. ;_; I'm so angry at myself for ruining it at that one convention many years ago, just thinking about it makes me want to punch myself... in the face... with a frying pan. LU BU SMASH!!
The story goes like this: at Finncon-Animecon in 2011, which was held in Turku (Finland), I did a terrible mistake that I regret hard to this day. Me and my brother were sharing a hotel room for the con. On con mornings it was common practice for us to always put on our costumes in the hotel before leaving for the con, so much easier that way. I still do it. The weather was cloudy and gray while we were walking towards the convention, which was maybe half a kilometer away or something, can't remember. Oh well, guess what happened? It started raining, of fuckin' course. :)) And of course did neither of us have an umbrella at hand. So yeah, I ask my bro to go to the nearest shop to buy one and just one; we were cheap and didn't have much money on us. He comes back with one umbrella and we continue walking.
I notice that there's pools of water on the streets and it's raining quite heavily. I also notice that, to my utmost horror, my shoes (zori) are flinging up the shitty water onto the lower half of my coat while I'm walking. But at this point I really can't do anything because we're half-way away from the hotel and the damage has already been done so yeah, I continue walking and thus destroying my cosplay further with every step I take. Just imagine the mental self-hate and regret going on in my head. I'd probably had cried if it wasn't that I was so motherfucking angry at myself for not checking the weather forecast and putting on the cosplay at the con instead...
I remember that when I got to the con and met up with the Bleach cosplay group (my first cosplay group in Finland and from which I got some lasting friends) some of the cosplayers were worried and pointed out how dirty my coat was. I mentally panicked. Luckily the Rukia cosplayer quickly escorted me to the nearest bathroom and helped me clean off the big chunks of dirt; I'm still really thankful for the help because really, I was on the verge of a breakdown. ;_; We managed to get the worst shit off but my cosplay still looked horrible and cry-worthy the lower half of the coat was a muddy grayish brown and filled with stains and just completely soaked. I just wanted to disappear and pretend that it didn't happen. It was horrible, I felt so bad – I had just ruined my nicest cosplay for good and it was only the second time I ever wore it to a con (the debut con was Uppcon 2011). The disappointment was real.
Once I got back to my dad outside Stockholm (we took the Finland ferry to the con and then back; it was during our summer vacation when I visited dad) his wive put the haori in the washing machine. After that it got notably cleaner but there's still some faint stains left, but that's not the main problem
– the problem is that it shrunk unevenly. You see, I never pre-wash my cosplay fabrics (I can't be bothered because most times you never really need to wash a costume because it either can't stand it or it won't be worn often enough) and, well, the white fabric shrunk while the lining fabric did not. This makes it so that the sleeve mouths and the bottom is constantly "rolled up" and it just... looks ugly. It's the main reason why this costume hasn't been worn since 2013, even though it's one of my favorite and signature cosplays and I would have loved to wear it out more – I'm just so terribly ashamed and regretting that I messed it up. I hate myself for it, even to this day...
Psst, many years ago I even made a rage comic about the situation.

This is the best photo I have in regards to showing off the back's
bottom detailing.
Above is one of the only photos of the haori that shows off the back nicely, especially the hem details. It's actually an unintentional/candid shot – I was just about to stand up, after having been lying on the ground for some other photos, when my friend snapped this one.
Nowadays I'm really happy that this photo was taken because it's probably the best one in regards to showing off the bottom details of the haori, before it got fucked up of course.

But now, let's talk about the coolest part of this cosplay and what greatly added to the wow-factor of my costume on the old days of deviantArt
– namely the swords. You see, I wanted to stand out and be mega cool and so I tackled the challenge of making Ukitake's shikai, aka the released form of his zanpakuto Sogyo no Kotowari. A bit of an intimidating project for some, perhaps... but I did it. I guess my thought process was something along the lines of "I've done Ichigo's shikai Zangetsu so this shouldn't be so much harder...", lol.


As per usual I started out by making wooden bases. Cutting out those 'secondary backward blades' was a bitch, to be honest. I had to be really careful not to accidentally break the swords while cutting, because of the thinness. I don't understand how those back-running blades could ever be useful in actual combat but oh well, it looks cool. xD Bleach logic.

Blades painted and tsuba is test inserted.
The blades are painted with silver spray paint for the edges and the black is actually just some kind of indoor paint meant for painting walls, lol. It worked and we had a whole can left over so why not? Getting the silver parts to be crisp and clean was a bit of challenge since I had to really carefully use masking tape to block out all the black parts before spraying. I remember having had to repaint the black along the meeting spots a couple times because the silver paint kept bleeding onto the black anyway.

Finished tsuba.
The tsuba are plywood (not 100% sure) with craft foam details and painted with gold spray paint. All Bleach shinigami have their own distinctive tsuba designs and so it's important to pay attention to the details. I remember having had a hard time finding clear reference images of the patterns back when I made these in 2011, you know, with inconsistent references and the like...

Habaki made out of clay.
I made the habaki, blade collar, out of air-drying clay. It was my first time working with modelling clay and it went well, except that the clay cracked a bit once it had dried (it shrinks). Luckily it's not really noticeable from a distance and so I never originally bothered with covering it up, probably mainly because I didn't know how to.
At this point I also attached the tsuba – they were tight enough as-is so I didn't have to fasten them with anything. Besides, I would thicken the handle anyway so the tsuba would get locked in place.

Habaki painted. Made five silver charms.
Same progress as above, just a different angle.
Ukitake's shikai has those weird metallic-looking silver charms hanging on the rope that connects the two blades. Back then I didn't even know what worbla was and so I made these by layering craft foam, sealing with a water-glue mixture and then spraypainting them silver. I used a cardboard cut-out as a template to get identical ones. It's not the sturdiest build ever and especially not on a windy day – I've had several of them bending/creasing badly at the thin 'neck' and I had to repair them with duct tape during the con. Ah, memories.

Additional pieces added to thicken the handles.
Close-up. Same progress as above.
Both of the handles were thickened by adding a block of wood to each side, which I then filed down and sanded until I got a comfortable, slightly rounded grip. The blocks are kept in place by two screws that I drilled in.

I learned how to do tsukamaki (Japanese handle wrapping) and wrapped the handles by myself, using some deep red satin ribbon. I used a bit of universal glue at specific spots to make sure that the wrapping would last and not come undone – it hasn't gotten loose yet.
I screwed on hooks at the end of each handle and from those I hung some square-shaped, err, things. xD I'm sorry but I really have no idea what those are called but I know they're used when making houses and stepdad happened to have a few in reserve, which I immediately thought would be perfect for Ukitake, lol. I spraypainted them gold (they were white originally), attached each one to its corresponding hook and then I got some wide satin ribbon to make the 'rope'
– it was the best that I had readily available at home. 

Finished shikai form Sogyo no Kotowari.
Close-up view.
Those charms are actually sewn in place with fishing line onto the ribbon, which means that it always looks as if they're defying gravity. :D The stitches are invisible (thanks to the fishing line being transparent) yet super strong and I've never had problems with any of the charms coming lose, even though I've worn this cosplay out on very windy days.

I'm still really happy with the swords and surprised that I even managed to make them for friggin' 6 years ago – I mean, I barely knew how to use makeup back then, lmao. Yes, this was during the time when I thought that the only cosplay makeup one needed was a bit of powder and some really basic black pencil eyeliner, if even that. *cringes*

The good thing with this cosplay is that it's probably my most worn cosplay and thus there's plenty of old photos to be found; I've worn Ukitake to 8 conventions! The debut convention was Uppcon 2011 in Uppsala, Sweden. Sadly Uppcon doesn't exist anymore
– the last one was held in 2012. It was Sweden's biggest convention back then (and also the most expensive) and I still remember that year I wore Ukitake so very clearly it's probably one of my most memorable con experiences. I got so much attention, it was insane! I remember how I couldn't walk from place A to B, no matter the distance, without someone stopping me for either a picture, a hug or to comment on how awesome my cosplay/swords were. Just remembering it all makes me really warm and fuzzy inside. ♥ So much kindness and attention was overwhelming to me; I've never worn such a popular/attention-grabbing costume before or since then, haha. Then again, back then Bleach was still popular and I saw a lot of other Bleach cosplayers. It was surely one of my best convention experiences, even to this day. People were so kind to me, even though I was socially awkward, and I experienced some really memorable encounters.

One of my first Ukitake cosplay photos.
The photo above is one of my very first Ukitake photos, ever. I was trying to recreate a scene on which Ukitake would have collapsed from illness. It was probably the first time I ever tried out the full costume. I even remember how this photo was taken with my laptop, my old Mac. x) I used the inbuilt camera's timer and messed around with it. The quality was shitty but it was better than nothing at all because I rarely had a photographer available back then. This was also during the time when I raped all my photos with bleach filters and auto-blur-the-corner effects... :'DD

Another early photo. I blur-raped everything back then. x)
The wig was bought from Epic Cosplay and that was a good choice because their long wigs are known for not getting tangled as easily as other brands. I eventually had to replace my original wig with an identical new one because lazy me forgot to comb it thoroughly and so a horribly knotted mess slowly built itself onto the lower back of the wig, you know, the neck area where the undermost fibers are that keep touching your costume. I still have the first wig lying around somewhere, I've thought about cutting it short and using it for some other character. The second wig is still in usable condition, thankfully.

One of my first Ukitake selfies. 2011.
The photo above is one of my earlier tries at taking cosplay selfies. Do notice how I have zero eye makeup on! Back then I refused to wear any kind of eye makeup for Ukitake, mainly because "it made me look less like the character". I'm pretty sure that on this photo I've only darkened my eyebrows and, at most, I might have some powder on. I remember how I once, back then, tried doing him with black pencil eyeliner (I had nothing else) and it looked horrible and so I never did it again, lol. xD
I also want to mention that I've had a lot of people telling me how I'm their headcanon Ukitake or just generally the one with the best suited face for him that they've come across – it's really flattering, even to this day and, especially, because Ukitake is such a precious character to me. ;_; I've never been happy with my face (save for my eyes), to be honest, and so I never expected such comments, popularity nor that I'd really fit any character. It's still a weird thought to me, even though I can kinda see why people say it... weirdly enough. I'm sorry, I'm just rambling.

Early 2012.
The photo above is from my first tries at using fake blood. I was home alone one day, bored and decided to cosplay; randomly putting on cosplay at home when I was alone/bored was a really normal thing to do back then. Nowadays I can't be bothered unless I actually have a photoshoot planned or such, lol.
Oh well, for some reason I often depicted Ukitake in a suffering state when I cosplayed him. I wonder why. It was easier and it came naturally, especially after all those, back then recent, experiences...
Speaking of which, at some of the cons where I cosplayed Ukitake (especially during 2011) I did end up with randomly occurring chest pains and breathing difficulties, which made for some unintentional in-character moments. I'm pretty sure that if anyone (except those who knew, of course) noticed it they probably just thought that I was acting or faking it just to be true to the character but... I was really not, sadly. ^^" I mean, I'm not suddenly freezing in place (because of sudden pain) or walking up stairs reaaaaaaaally slooooooooowly just for the hell of it. :D
I remember that one time at Desucon 2012, me and some other Bleach cosplayers were heading for a nearby Chinese restaurant to eat. Everyone walked there in a group but, because I had so much trouble with a slowly ascending uphill, I ended up way behind everyone else suffering on my own. It took its toll, I was really out of breath (for a normal healthy person they'd not be affected at all) but luckily Ri-kun, who cosplayed Izuru Kira, noticed and helped me by carrying my bags and just being close so I could lean on them if needed. ;_;
I have a lot more similar con stories but yeah, it'd be a bit depressing to go through them. ^^"

Old home photoshoot. 2011.
If we go back to my Uppcon 2011 experiences I want to tell you all about one of my most memorable and cutest con experiences!
I was wearing my Ukitake cosplay and it was around evening time. I was walking somewhere upstairs when I noticed a really young boy who stopped right in his tracks and looked at me. I'm really bad at guessing age but I'd say that he was maybe around the 7-10 year range. But whatever, this little boy was looking at me and not saying a word. Once I met his gaze he walked up to me with his arms spread out, still without a sound, and gave me a long, big hug. Then he turned, walked away and disappeared into the masses.
I continued my con day like normal, although I couldn't forget about this boy. I kept being stopped by people everywhere (I even noticed how some would take candid photos once I had passed them) and then, some time later, I ran into the same boy again. I recognized him directly and smiled gently again. He came up to me and hugged me again, without warning and without a word uttered from his lips. I didn't mind though, something about his presence felt really warm and innocent and I happily let him hug me as long as he wanted. He walked away again once he had hugged me, I didn't follow him or ask anything – just smiled.
It was now night and I was sitting alone in the video game hall, casually watching how some kids in front of me were playing games. I was mostly just there to enjoy the atmosphere and to rest my legs, I didn't play anything myself. At one point one of the boys playing in front of me just suddenly puts away his controller mid-game, stands up from the chair and walks straight up to me. I realize that it's the same boy (if I recall right he had changed into a Bleach t-shirt) and this time he gives me an extra-long, super warm hug. I was thinking that maybe it's because he'd have to go sleep soon (it was quite late) and so I decided to give him a lollipop that I had in my bag and... and... the face he made when he noticed it! I swear, it was the cutest, most innocent smile I've ever seen and I think my heart melted then and there. ;O; It's really hard to describe but imagine that kind of expression that a young child does when they're really happy that genuine, heart-warming smile that is so pure and full of magic. That simple joy.
He happily accepted the candy, hugged me even tighter and, if I recall right, he actually spoke for the first time and told me, in a shy and silent voice, how Ukitake was his favorite character. I swear the cuteness level was over ninethousand. I just can't.
I have a really vague memory that he might have been wearing a pink t-shirt and that he had a cap when I first saw him not sure because it was so long ago. ^^" I have a really faint memory of his facial features but even those have gotten blurry with time. I sorta regret that I never asked for his name or anything, I still wonder who he was...

Oh and yes, I forgot to mention! One thing that I almost always did when I cosplayed Ukitake was that I handed out candies at the con. Mainly lollipops. I remember how at Uppcon 2011 I had my whole shoulder bag filled with lollipops – I had probably a hundred in there and everyone who saw it were floored. It was hilarious!

Another Uppcon 2011 memory is from when I was in the merchandise tent. I was just walking around casually when a Japanese holder of a nearby shop excitedly shouted out at me "Ukitake-taichoooouuu!" and, upon hearing the call, I stopped and went closer. She was really excited to see me and started saying something in Japanese to me; sadly I didn't understand much at all back then but I remember how she beamed lots of "sugoooiiiiiiii", haha. I knew they were compliments at least, it was easy to figure out from her body language. After a while I held out my swords to her (she seemed like she wanted to check them out) and she looked surprised, grabbed them and wanted her shop friends to come look at her while she did some poses – it was so cute, omg. So we all stood there, all happy and excited. I even have a photo of her holding my swords somewhere, haha.
Before I left I gave her a lollipop and, again, she was super happy and signaled with her hands a "wait a moment" sign. She soon came back and gave me a Japanese lollipop in exchange it was so sweet and cute of her! After that, every time I walked by her shop, she would smile and wave at me in an adorable way.
A bit later I noticed that my digital camera was nowhere to be found in my bag. I panicked and tried to backtrack in my memories. I realized that one of the last times when I had used my camera was at her shop. I went back to her, tried to explain what was going on and she actually went out of her way to help me find it. ;_; She worried for me and told me to go ask at the information desk and, luckily, whoever had found my camera had been a kind soul; they had dropped it at the info desk and thus I got it back – with all my photos still there and no damage done.
Some people are amazing.


Taken at Desucon, Finland. 2012.
The photo above is one of the more recent photos I have of this cosplay and yes, I'm still without any eye makeup, lololol. :D On this one you can also see the haori after the shrinking accident and how the sleeves are rolling themselves in a fugly way; it bothers me to no end and I'll try to do something about it whenever I get around to repairing this costume. The swords need repairing as well, one of the square holder things broke at Närcon 2011 when a Matsumoto cosplayer accidentally struck it with her hand the swords need a new paint job as well and, possibly, some partial remaking. I also want to add the tsuba designs on the other side because I originally didn't do that and, afterwards, it started bothering me, of course.
I can't wait until I get to take Ukitake out again and see what he'll look like in my current standards! I really want to have a proper photoshoot of this cosplay as well those swords deserve to be showcased properly, goddammit.

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So yeah, Jushiro Ukitake is a cosplay that holds a lot of memories to me, both wonderful and painful ones. It's the costume that pawed the way for me  it made me go from basically a nobody to being known as the Ukitake cosplayer. :'D I don't think I'll ever be able to completely stop cosplaying this white-haired captain so expect him to be a long-lasting one in my cosplay repertoire.
I'm probably forgetting to mention a lot of things about this costume but I feel like this post is getting way too long already so... yolo!

Current status of this cosplay: In need of repairs/update.

Thank you for reading this final post in the TBT series (for now)!

January 31, 2017

[Sponsored] Lens review: O-lens BaviPhat 3 Color Pink

Hello world!

Here comes a review for a really natural and ultra comfortable pink lens, namely the O-lens BaviPhat 3 Color Pink. I got these lenses from my newest sponsor, Pinkicon, and this post will thus also include a quick store review. ^_^ They contacted me a while ago and invited me to review a pair of lenses from their shop! Of course I accepted the offer!

The lenses in this post were kindly sponsored by Pinkicon.
All my reviews are 100% my honest, unbiased opinion. Always.



Base curve: 8.6 mm
Diameter: 14.5 mm
Water content: 38%
Life span: 6 months




Before I go on with the actual review I want to say a few words about my experiences and thoughts about Pinkicon's store and customer service.
Pinkicon is a circle lens shop based in Hong Kong. I must admit that based on the country of origin I was a bit worried at first, mainly because Hong Kong is largely known as a "bootleg country", meaning where a lot of counterfeit goods come from. Good thing is that I knew about their shop before they contacted me (thanks to having read reviews by some friends) and thus I also knew that they weren't shady but actually a trustable store – yet I had never bought anything from them before.
So yeah, they contacted me and invited me to review a pair of lenses, gave me some options, I picked out the one that interested me the most and they sent the lenses and gave me a tracking number; tracking numbers are always an appreciated addition! I decided to go with pink lenses because they stood out from the swarms of brown options and I was excited about the idea of an unnatural color like pink looking unnaturally... natural.

Pinkicon seem to focus more on daily and casual/everyday lenses, instead of more vibrant costuming ones – so if you enjoy more natural-looking lenses then Pinkicon is a good store to check out. They also carry a bunch of brands that were previously unknown to me (and I know a lot of brands, haha) and also have some well-known ones, like EOS, Dueba, Neo, Freshlook etc. :) Of course they also carry the ever popular GEO lenses.
On a quick glance it seemed like a majority of the lenses were brown in color (or meant to enhance dark eyes), especially those from the brands that I didn't recognize. This is just a wild guess from my side but I think that some of those brands that are new to me might be popular daily brands in Asia; I'm not as invested in everyday circle lens brand knowledge. ^^"

My first impression of the store itself was that it looks a bit crammed/cluttered (so many images on the front page!) but it's also surprisingly easy to navigate, I have to admit. There's a convenient brand list and tabs that you can hover over to find what you need. Pinkicon carries more than just contact lenses as well – you can buy cosmetics, beauty products and even some wigs. As you can guess from the name the main color on the website is pink and it gives a really cute and feminine touch to the site.

I can't say much about customer service except that their English is surprisingly good and they answer within reasonable times. I got my lenses in approximately two weeks, which is pretty standard for a shipment from Asia to Europe. I really have nothing to complain about and I'm happy to get this chance to do a review for them and try out a new brand of circle lenses! I would recommend Pinkicon, especially if you like to wear natural or semi-natural circle lenses in your daily life!


So I got my package in about two weeks and it was one of those ordinary bubblewrap envelopes. The lenses came in a cute plastic package and were safely wrapped in bubblewrap. I also got a printed order confirmation sheet, a Pinkicon booklet showcasing the O-lens series collection (it's really nice!) as well as instructions on how to wear and care for contact lenses. I'm not sure why but I also got a GEO lenses paper with lens care instructions as well, even though I did not order GEO lenses. Oh well, at least newcomers can't possibly miss out on how to care and insert your lenses because there were two papers detailing it and even the pretty booklet had a page dedicated to it. xD

Pinkicon package contents.
I want to specify that the O-Lens collection booklet featured several different O-Lens lens series with model photos, eye close-ups (with lens) on the different color choices, information about the lenses (diameter, lifespan, material, water content etc) – it's honestly really nice to look at and it's informative as well. The booklet is mainly in Chinese but the lens specifications are written in English. In the end of the booklet there's a compilation/overview list showing all the lenses and ranging them by lifespan: 1 day, 1 month and 6 months. The list is really convenient and makes it easy to compare all the different series for future purchases – I wish other stores also did this kind of booklets!

The front of the O-Lens BaviPhat Pink's package.
(the lens case is there for size estimate)
The backside of the O-Lens BaviPhat Pink's package.
That's about it for my Pinkicon experience. I must admit that the little pink plastic package the lenses came in was cute and it was also easy to open. Heheh.
Now let's move on to the actual review of the lenses themselves!

~ Lens review ahead! ~

As per usual, before wearing these lenses, I put them to soak in lens solution over the night. Make sure to let your lenses soak for at least 8 hours before wearing them; the solution in the vials that the lenses are stored in is not the same as your ordinary lens solution and thus it might irritate your eyes. It's highly recommended to let your lenses soak before wearing them.

These lenses look semi-natural in their vials, and by this I mean that the color looks sparse enough to be of the kind that will blend naturally into my eyes. These lenses also have a surprisingly thick dark brown limbal ring, which makes your eyes stand out and look bigger. I like how it's brown and not black because the brown color is not as in-your-face and gives a calmer appearance and smoother transition from the pink – it's simply just more discreet and works well with this kind of lens that isn't aiming to be a costuming lens.

One lens in. Notice the enlargement effect.
As you can see the lenses are decent in size but a bit on the big side, especially if we consider that they seem to be aiming to be a more everyday lens. I actually like the enlargement, it doesn't feel overly big or like I'd suddenly have huge doll eyes; I think these BaviPhat lenses would work just fine even without makeup! I'm actually finding myself liking these lenses a lot more than I initially thought I would. Also, a stellar comfort doesn't hurt.

I have light blue-gray eyes naturally and these lenses look pretty lovely on my eyes. I like how the pink doesn't completely disappear into my eyes and you can actually tell what color it's supposed to be, while still letting my real eye color shine through just enough to make the lenses look beautifully semi-realistic. The blending effect is balancing perfectly on that fine line of being eye-catching yet subtle, if that makes sense.
It's a simple lens in terms of design but it has its charm in being just that, simple. I didn't think that pink lenses could look this realistic while still being recognizable as pink. Sometimes having a more toned-down lens is really refreshing after all those super vibrant cosplay lenses; I'm starting to see the appeal of more realistic and 'humble' lenses, haha.

A lot of lens photos ahead!
All photos taken by me during a January afternoon with a semi-clear sky. All close-up photos are free from color filters and such and that's so that the colors would be as true to real life as possible.

Apartment room light. Lamps on.
Facing the window in my apartment. Sun side.
Bathroom light.
Bathroom/shower light. Steamy. My friend recently showered.
Flash photo.
White light in the corridor.
Yellow light in the corridor.
Facing a window in the corridor. Not sun side. Blue hour...?
Facing a window in the corridor. Not sun side.
Weak yellow light in the staircase.
Indoors storage room.
Here's a couple more close-up photos, all taken outdoors!
Of course these are also free from color filters and taken by me as well.

Back against sun. Facing the wall, in other words.
Facing the sun while it's hidden by clouds.
Facing the sun.Winter-time light, aka sun is low on the horizon.
Facing the setting sun.
Holy crabsticks. The comfort. The freakin' comfort.
It was ages ago I last had a lens that was this pleasant to wear! ♥ I seriously was a bit sceptical to these at first but they punched my assumptions where it hurts and grabbed that gold medal. I swear I've worn these for 8+ hours and ever since I inserted them I've barely even noticed that I'm actually wearing circle lenses. These are ultra mega comfortable, easy to insert and thin in a non-frustrating and non-floppy way, lol. I honestly didn't expect these lenses to be anywhere near this amazing to wear! I was expecting average comfort but this is like... one of the best lenses I've ever owned. Holy shiiiiiit. I also want to make it clear that I normally have dry and sensitive eyes and thus it's quite the challenge to find some really comfy lenses sometimes – but O-Lens BaviPhat hit the spot!
These don't blur my vision, no scratchy feelings, no watering eyes, red eyes nor itchiness and I have to remind myself that I'm wearing lenses or I would probably fall asleep with these on, lmao. I even went out in town and visited a friend with these on and all around I couldn't stop being impressed by how invisible the lenses felt in my eyes. If only all lenses could be this perfect in comfort...

Distance photo!


Short summary:

Color: 6/10
For being a more natural lens, yet being pink, the color is surprisingly good! Soft shade.
Design: 6/10
A simple design. It has its charms and works great as a daily lens because it's not too fake looking.
Opacity: 5/10
Blends into my eyes, creating a semi-natural look. The pink still shows up more than I initially expected, a pleasant surprise!
Enlargement: 5/10
Quite big for being a semi-realistic lens. Not overwhelming. Good size.
Comfort: 10/10
Extremely comfortable. I can wear these 9 hours and I don't even feel that I have lenses on, even with my dry and sensitive eyes! Extremely easy to insert. Invisible to wear – exceeded my expectations tenfold!
Naturalness: 5/10
Even for being an unnatural color these come off as semi-natural. The size and the limbal ring gives them away on a closer look, but this is definitely a solid everyday choice for lens lovers!

Thanks you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this review! ^0^
Thank you, Pinkicon! ♡

January 26, 2017

Throwback Thursday: Amari Nobunaga cosplay from InuYasha!

Hello mah friends!

A while ago I started a new Throwback Thursday themed blog series on which I'll go through some of my early cosplays. In last Thursday's post I talked about how Byakuya from InuYasha was my debut cosplay and today we'll stay in Feudal Japan and fight youkais. Today's showcased costume is actually one that pretty much no one knows that I've done, hehe...

Ever since I found some really old cosplay WIP photos in the deep dark corners of my laptop I've been wanting to do something with them – like, for example, show them to the world because we all started somewhere. Yes, I totally took progress photos before I even started cosplay blogging. 
This means that, once a week, on Thursdays (because it's called Throwback Thursday for a reason), I will invite you all to experience a 'blast of the past' with me featuring old cosplay photos, WIPs and stories ranging from late 2009 to 2011. Fasten your seatbelts, we're gonna be riding the time machine and you'll get to backtrack into my cosplay history and see some never-published-before photos on this here blog!  
Be warned that this, naturally, means a lot of (potential) embarrassment for me and highly varying photo quality for you. ;) I only had a crummy compact camera back then and didn't even notice if a photo was blurry or not...

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Amari Nobunaga. InuYasha.
Holy fuck. This guy. I guess not many people remember him from InuYasha and, well, understandably so – he only appears in one single volume in the manga (early in the beginning) and one episode in the anime and is never to be seen again after that. He was my third cosplay and don't ask me why I decided to cosplay him; it was a spur of the moment combined with being nostalgic, rereading early InuYasha volumes and also wanting to wear my hipster frames to do a cosplay that, likely, no one else has ever done before. :'D
Oda
Amari Nobunaga is a really obscure character from a popular series and if anyone remembers him it's probably either because his pet monkey stole Kagome's underwear or that he was the guy in the episode with the toad demon and the princess. Kagome also at first thought that he was the famous Oda Nobunaga but... he's definitely not.
Actually, Amari is a very different character from the usual character archetypes that I cosplay – he's clumsy, kind, naive, idealistic and honorable and, despite being weak in combat he still tries his best to protect those he loves. He's also a comic relief. I can't help but like him – he's hilarious and yet so human. 

I sadly have no memory of when exactly I started working on this cosplay but it must have been around mid to late 2010. I made all three layers of clothing (the undermost white kimono was my Bleach one recycled) and the hakama myself. I skipped making a sword exclusively for him since his sword is so generic that I could just use any katana and call it a day.

Almost done with the violet and the outer kimono.
This was also, just like with Ichigo and Byakuya, done during a time when I didn't either know (or care?) about seam placement regarding kimono accuracy. I knew a fair amount of other pieces of information about kimono construction but I just did my shoulder seams without a second thought and lived my life happily. Needless to say that nowadays it bothers me because it's actually important if one cares about an authentic look. Oh well, we learn from our mistakes.

Ribbons and stuff attached.
All those brown decorations are made of bias tape. Also, regarding those white 'window squares' all of them are appliqued on. I made a base of plastic and then used it as a template to draw and cut out a lot of identical squares. I didn't count them or anything, just went by my own judgement. I sewed them on in the exact same way as I did with Byakuya's haori applique, aka a very wide yet narrow zigzag.
On each square decoration I ironed on some interfacing fabric on the backside so that it wouldn't be wrinkly once sewn on – it made for a really neat appearance.

Close-up image of one of the squares.
The hakama were my first try at making accurate hakama for a cosplay – I had learned from Byakuya's ripping fake hakama and wanted to do it right. Or well, not 100% right because I didn't bother to handsew the whole thing and I didn't follow any specific "authentic measures" or  such, I just went by eye measures. I also happened to find in one of mom's old pattern maps a pattern for some really humongous 80s pants and well, after widening them even more they were good to use for a hakama base.

Hakama in progress.
To make the side openings I just folded the 'corners' in and sewed them in place; I made sure to take in the same amount from both the front and the back so that the slits would match and be equally deep. I sewed straight stitches across the ties to strengthen them.
Of course I sewed on all those squares before I started pleating or doing any sewing.

Close-up. Notice the pins. I had just finished pleating.
After pinning the pleats in place I ironed them; I used steam and water (aka placed a wet rag on top) for them to be crisp and last longer. In case you didn't know hakama have five pleats in the front and two in the back.
I did notice afterwards that I should have made my hakama even wider because in the end the pleats weren't quite as deep as I would have wanted, but it still looked okay when worn so it's not too bad.

Close-up of the back. Finished hakama.
(note: flash photo)
For the koshiita insert I cut out a piece from a plastic candy box, glued craft foam on both sides of it and wrapped the whole shebang in a lot of jesus tape duct tape. I left one side of the koshiita open so that I could insert the... insert. Hurr. :DD I sewed it closed afterwards.

Finished hakama. Front.
(note: flash photo)
Finished hakama. Back.
(note: flash photo)
The ties in the front are notably longer than those on the back
– that's how it's supposed to be. Oh and yeah, the blue fabric that I used is a medium-ish weight cotton. It's actually the same fabric I used for my Team Aqua cosplay. When it comes to Nobunaga's wig I was still dumb – meaning that I had a medium length wig that, of course, couldn't be put up in a high ponytail just like that. So needless to say I did the low ponytail shit that I did with Byakuya as well. Eww. :DD But, unlike with Byakuya, I barely have any cosplay photos of Nobunaga and that's simply because I only ever wore him to Uppcon 2011 and that year was a warm one and, well, three layers of kimonos is equal to being a portable sauna! So yeah, I could only wear this cosplay for a few hours before it got too hot to bear and I really had to go back to the hotel to change out of costume. That said, I have no photos to show of me actually being in costume because since then I haven't touched it... :'(

Recently finished hakama properly folded, for storage.
I still of course want to rewear Nobunaga because hell, I've spent a fair amount of time and effort on this cosplay and it'd be a waste if that short-lived Uppcon debut was to be its only chance to come out of the closet.

Regarding props I already mentioned that I didn't go out of my way to make a generic katana for him... but instead I went out of my way to find a white monkey plush. You have no idea how fucking hard it was to find one! xD I plowed through all local toy stores and whatever other stores carried plush dolls, on several occasions, and luck finally hit me at former Barnens Hus (nowadays Barnens Land). There on the shelf I found what I was looking for – my much needed pet monkey prop!

I found you, Hiyoshimaru! :-DD
It's stupidly cute and just the right size! ;U; I love plush dolls, okay? I could probably pin him to my shoulder the next time I wear Nobunaga out – good thing one of my newer wigs will work just fine for him! I just need to do some minor modifications on the sleeves of the kimono (I've realized they're inaccurate), namely sew the sleeve mouth closed since I had originally left them open, just like on Bleach shinigami kimonos and that's simply because I wasn't sure since the manga references didn't show clearly what his sleeves looked like; I decided to leave them fully open so that I could alter them later, if needed.

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So there you have it, my third cosplay and my second InuYasha cosplay even to this day. I still of course plan to do more InuYasha cosplays and Nobunaga will definitely see the light of day again, hopefully in a near future. Nobunaga is one of the most obscure cosplays that I've done, but probably still not the ~most~ obscure one. ;) I just like to give some cosplay love to characters that haven't gotten any instead of doing characters that have been done to death. Not like it's wrong though and I've done some really popular chars myself but hey, sometimes it's fun to enter hipster mode; it's a cool feeling to know that you just might be the only one in the whole world who has done a certain character... hahah.

Current status of this cosplay: Needs some minor modifications.

Stay tuned for next Thursday's episode!