Otaku Taiiki 2009 - a walk down memory lane

^The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is popular for a reason, it is a crazy and fun series.
Sure, the characters are what you typically find in most anime shows but at least in this one, they were all put together in one series as the main cast XDD

Haruhi and Nagato was mine and my sister third completed cosplay.

I was targeting to debut the costumes on Otaku Taiiki 2009. Back then, I still believed that cosplayers are only cosplayers when they join competitions. So we had the costumes and I really tried hard to gather all the cast members and then some coz I had my heart set into joining the group cosplay. Lucky enough, the event was on the day of my birthday! I used the "it's my birthday" card paired with puppy dog eyes to convince my friends into joining the group cosplay, mind you, most of them weren't really cosplayers or into otaku stuff so it was really hard to get them to agree.

Otaku Taiiki Stage in Megamall

There were a lot of things that went wrong in the process.
For one, I would never forget July 26, 2009. That was the day we went to Divisoria to buy materials for our costumes, we were all oblivious to the fact that there was a typhoon. It was raining so hard that flood was inevitable. It took longer to get everything we needed but we were able to check off everything from the list.
By 7pm me and my friends were able to ride a bus in Lawton (going to SM Fairview, it took us a while because all the buses were full). When the bus reached Morayta, the driver was hesitant to go any further coz of the high water (waist deep, yo) along España, the passengers all kept shouting that the driver should stop being a wuss and just go on, the driver obliged and the bus rolled until past UST and then it stopped. Too much water in the engine perhaps... and then the passengers shouted that the driver was stupid for thinking that his bus could handle the water, I just shook my head and face palmed at this. So we got stuck, along with about 3 more buses who copied our bus' brave attempt.

It was raining hard and it was dark. Mosquitoes were feasting on us. We were all hungry and thirsty and our phones' battery got drained. We were stuck along España until about 2am because funny enough the bus stopped in front of a power box, the exit was right in front of it, anyone who went to that area would get "grounded" and the driver was too cheap to pay the locals to push the bus so he just opted to wait for the water to go down a bit. The crazy got the best of us, we sang a lot of random songs and Minami's temper was...

But at least we were able to survive, so to anyone who goes to Divisoria, NEVER EVER GO TO DIVI WHEN THE WEATHER IS BAD.

Another thing that went wrong was, the school emblems for the uniforms were so fugly I exploded at Minami. I was busy with school so I asked Minami to have the emblems embroidered but the one who did it was so bad it looked so horrible. I really got mad with Minami coz how could she accept such shoddy workmanship? I didn't want the emblem to look bad because it would be really noticeable since it would be on our chest, we had to redo the chest part of the seifuku and find a better person to do the embroidery.

Then one of our "villains" suddenly could not make it. gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh! orz

Costumes need improvement, skirts too long and top not such a good fit

anyway... the original cast!~ =3

The villains are characters (which did not exist in the series) were conceptualized by me, they are cockroach beings from another planet that wanted to take over our world.

 Jofer was cockroach minion 1. Koko was the cockroach general. Otep was cockroach minion 2.

Geno was Itsuki. Jazz was Mikuru. Me as Haruhi. Minami as Nagato. Fritz as Kyon

It was also tough getting everyone together for rehearsals.... I never thought that a group cosplay would be so hard, still I tried my best to really produce something as I didn't want to just present a lame dance skit with no story what so ever. Even before, I believed that if you are going to join a competition, you should prepare for it and do something that shows who your character is.

In the end, thank goodness, we were able to still push through, we were able to complete the costumes, make a skit with a story, we even had props and audio hahahahaha We even won! LOL Funny enough, it was just our group and one other so it was a pretty fast segment XDDD

There were more problems but I'd rather not dwell on them, it was a good birthday though as more friends came to support us that day and it was really sweet of them.

Moving on, it was fun being Haruhi but I was never happy with how I portrayed her back then. I never got proper photos so the costume got stuck for a long time. I really liked Haruhi as I thought her personality was so similar to mine. I vowed to really do a good portrayal of Haruhi with better make up in the future. gaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Make up skills were non existent back then >_< so fail! orz
I also ran out of poses easily back then hahahaha

First time out as the boss, Haruhi Suzumiya (2009)

 make up skills = level 0

No contact lens even orz

I liked her attitude, how she likes being the boss and taking charge and doing everything she feels is necessary to get what she wants.

earlier in the day, we still looked decent somehow XD

people prolly liked our group coz we had the main cast 

the hat was cute soooo yeah >3<

Don't mind the head, I don't know who that belongs to XDD

This is us on stage. The script was also made by me.

Th story was, the SOS Brigade was in their club room, it was a typical day and Haruhi was bored as usual.

Nagato was reading a book, Mikuru serving tea, Kyon and Itsuki playing a board game. Haruhi wished for something unusual to happen, and that was when the cockroach alien army from another planet came.This woke up the team, instead of battling with arms to take over the world, it ended up with a dance battle for the Earth's peace. The cockroaches danced to a remix of K-pop tunes and and the SOS Brigade to hare hare yukai. The cockroach army had wicked moves so they won, this displeased Haruhi and it caused a rift in the space-time continuum. Itsuki immediately realized this and lucky he had a mega bug spray canon safely stored somewhere and pulled it out for emergencies like this.

This eliminated the cockroach alien army, Haruhi was happy with victory and everything reverted back to normal for the time being. The end. XDD

props making skills = level 1 / karton level

yep, mega bugs spray canon was made out of old pancit canton boxes, tissue paper rolls covered with cartolina.

mega bug spray 72609 to remember our long bus ride experience in España

also, just a random trivia, our group's name was Aqua Team España, yeah, the memory of getting stuck was so fresh and funny that we just had to incorporate it in our group XDDD

and how out of character am I here? LOL

After our skit, we were so tired.

We decided to make camp in front of the stage and watch the performances, me and Minami rolled up our sleeves and we now had summer seifukus! hehehehe

Suddenly though we got dragged into the jail booth, we were arrested for reasons I don't remember. hahahaha

Our prison cell was small and cramped. Four was already a tight fit, and then we realized, where the hell is Kyon?! He took off his coat and moved away so he wasn't caught along with us >_<

The police officer kept telling us to pay up so we can go, the bail was 10php but we left our stuff and honestly we didn't want to shell out.

Miss police officer is a cutie.

Someone almost got pummeled when a certain "friend" tried to do the moves on this female police officer. The boyfriend was watching not far away when a certain some released this line

someone: are you blind? can you see me?

police officer: yes

someone: how about saturday night?

hahahahaha things almost got ugly but lucky the boyfriend was a man of reason and he listened to our explanation. whew. -_-"

Minami as Nagato, still in character sitting in a corner

we were in jail for more than an hour I think coz we really refused to pay up haha

10php is too much

plus we didn't mind, we were stuck in a dark and damp bus far longer than this so it was easy peasy XDDD

more got arrested, they left almost soon enough coz they immediately paid bail

aqua team españa didn't mind, we were strong as a mountain haha

The cockroach army along with Kyon were free to roam, but we in the jail booth were bidding our time.

Miss police officer wanted to let us go already, if only we just paid bail but we really didn't want to hehe

The announcement of winner came and what did you know, Aqua Team España won! 

We got released from prison! Yay!

hahahaha! Look at that! I think that is Miggy as Skurai and my dear Katkat as Miku? XDDD

Miggy why you do that pose?

It was really a fun birthday.

The prize wasn't as big as promised, I think they lowered the prize money because there were only 2 teams competing but at least I was able to use it to treat my friends to dinner heheheh

Too bad we didn't get any certificate or anything to remember this victory by, oh well. 

I had presents and lots of cake that day, I'm really happy my friends came to support our first attempt at a group cosplay ^^V

 with college friends

jamice, my oppa sami and lukring

oh how I miss them...

 another friend from school, hans

he brought me cake!

and I look like a man in this photo hahahahahha

goodness, I looked so bad hahaha good thing now I know how to do proper cosplay make up XDD

back to my everyday mode

me and my bestest friends since forever:

Kalabit Penge feat. Berting

♥ ♥ ♥

Thanks, KP, love you =3

they aren't really an otaku crowd but they still came which really surprised me, am lucky to have such friends ♥

to my old group mates and friends in Aqua Team España, thank you for obliging with my request hahahaha

lady luck was on our side that day.

Am so glad we were able to do this together. /hug

Oh jazz, I miss these days. And the boys hahahaha no one can resist the puppy dog eyes! hahahaha

Looking back, I am horrified by my lame attempts at cosplay but at least I improved. (did I? hahahaha)

I initially didn't want to share these old pics of my previous cosplays coz I didn't want people to see how lame I was back then, but truth is we learn. These photos are just so embarrassing hahaha But now I think I shouldn't hide or deny them.

We shouldn't be stuck in one phase forever, as humans, we should always be improving and constantly leveling up. Everyone starts out the same, if you really want to be better then do something.

Utilize the power of the web, research and ask for help. If you keep at it long enough and you really try your best, you'll learn a lot of things and before you know it, you'd have grown.

Have fun while learning.

If someone like me who knew nothing and knew no one was able to improve, I know you would be able to do so, too. =3

Enjoy, learn, have fun.

Happy cosplaying, everyone!

<

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thanks for reading!

 jaa! visit me again, ne!

     arigatou! (*^3^)/~

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