To keep up with the Tradition to  post things way too late I present you today the pictures of the Dokomi which was held at the beginning of June. These Pictures have actually been sitting on my Flickr Account for quite some time but my Flickr WordPress Plugin died on me recently and I didnt feel like inserting them manually.  In the end I decided to do this post anyways since there were some pretty nice Cosplays attending. Hit the Jump for the pictures!

First off I have no clue if these pictures might be too big for the screens of some of you.If this should be the case be sure to drop a comments so that I know for future posts. As of now there doesnt seem to be any other proper plugins that would take this workload of me.

This was my second Dokomi and while the program of the convention wasnt any special ,which is to be expected of such a small convention, there sure were some really nice Cosplays present to make up for it. Overall this years public interest was far more than expected and the  loaction was loaded with people. I expect the organizers of the even to switch to a different location next year since there isnt any room left to grow which in itself is a good thing.

I was in the lucky position to make my bro come with me as my lackey which isnt fun since it includes  hauling a softbox around and  reacting to my commands. I dont think that he really did mind though. The next convention ill attend ill have to make do without a Flash-Boy/Girl  and Im sure that itll be an adventure itself…

The weather was a fierce mix of heavy  bright sunlight and  some rainshowers inbetween and it was hard to get the right settings for  these pictures so some  are a lil bit too blown out. Furthermore I  realized that my D3000 is reaching its limits since it isnt offering high speed synch and therefore I am limited to a rather closed aperture on such days without any nice Bokeh.Its a real shame when you outgrew your camera in some areas but are still not up to better ones in other areas so I am really pondering if I should invest into a new body. Guess that this all depends on my next tax refund

One of my biggest flaws yet is still the ability to see what makes a good picture and turning it into reality. Most of the time it ends up in mere Portraits since I know jack about poses or composition.This is something I try to work on yet have problems with to turn into action. I think my pictures are getting better over time on the technical side but this  more creative side seems to be my weak side.

One of the good things that came out of the Dokomi is that I was able to  make some contacts with nice people and that ill be able to take pictures with them in the future which is always a good thing since its really limiting when you are  taking pictures at conventions only.

Before you start to doze off I better start posting pictures though huh?

Lets start off with this group of Guilty Gear Cosplayers. I started to fangasm when I saw them and I hope that I didnt scare them off to much with my enthusiasm. I am really lucky that Ill be able to meet them again at the Gamescom with even more Guilty Gear cosplayers <3<3<3

Millia Rage is definately one of my fav characters. She was really happy I recognized her

Next up is everyones favorite Trap

My absolute Highlight of the group was A.B.A though <3

As you probably noticed the light on the GG Cosplayers is rather harsh thats because Iaccidently set my DSLR to 1/250th and my Cam is only able to synch up to 1/200th ^^;;;;;

Next up are two Highschool of the Dead Cosplayers I encountered and luckily I was also able to talk with them a bit and  well be able to take some more pictures  next weekend. Hopefully these will have a better background than these:

I admit that I dont really like either Character but the girl doing Rei is cosplaying as Saeko next week <3

And since all good thing happen thrice Ive met yet another group, this time from Kannagi, which Ill be able to take pictures of later on aswell

Yeah, I sucked ass with the flash in these pics ^^;;;

This is my absolute favorite out of the Kannagi set. The lighting on her is so nice~ I wish I could have done the same with the other girls ^^;

Kami-nisama and Haqua from the World god only knows

Beatrice from Umineko

Kino from Kino no Tabi

The Great Murdercase with the culprit from Gintama, the victim from Naruto and the investigators from Ace Attorney XD

Emma Skye eating snacks way past their prime

Pearl trying to be cute

Pearl trying to be angry

Hakufu and Mou-chan

And then I stumbled across a Gintama Group and I was sure that this was such a successful Convention in tracking down stuff that I like. Even if i can appreciate good cosplay its still the best for me when its from a series I like.

Do you notice something?

Maybe now?

I expected so… Since this always happens to me. These two revealed to me that I photographed them the other day too! Its Kami-nisama and Haqua XD

Aww Kyuubei why must you be so hot? <3

The Birako arc was actually more enjoyable than I thought

Maggie Byrde, Maya Fey and that weird ass cook from Ace Attorney

The Sperm Girl from Touhou err I mean Yomu? I think XD

Rachel Alucard from BlazBlue

DRRR!!!

And now something for the Ladies:

FREAKAZOID!

QUAILMAN!

I always liked the Persona Designs but sadly I have no clue who these two are cosplaying ^^; Oh WAIT! A Bird suddenly told me that its nameless Maincharacter Dude and Mitsuru Kirijou

To round this off ill post some more pictures of the  Girls that opened this post:

I still dont know what to make out of that pose ^^;;

Oh man inserting these pictures manually took me more than an hour. Please tell me there are still some Flickr Plugins that are working with the newest  WordPress Version. Otherwise my desire to post will drop even more….

Heres one last picture for the ladies of an especially sexy fella

EDIT: Damn the dark BG makes those highlights really pop out…. ^^;;;, On a light BG they look just fine …. Another lesson learned XD

I cant believe how fast time is flying by… Its already been way too long since my last post on this blog and I dont seem to be able to get back into a somewhat regular schedule.I figured itd make sense to atleast deliver some sort of content until I can make some space for  figure reviews and  hence I present you an Artbook by RinSin given the creative name Visual Art Works.

While most of you probably havent heard of him I promise you that most of you probably encountered one of his works ( especially those of you with an Y Chromosome). Hit the Jump to enter the merry world of RinSin

I know next to nothing about RinSin except the fact that hes ( I actually dont even know that its a He but judging by the artworks im pretty sure that its a HE) hailing out of the City Mie in Japan and has the Blood Type 0. Luckily all of that doesnt matter to us since we only came here to oogle over some drawn boobs. Most of you probably know RinSin from two sources: Ikki Tousen ( S2 and ongoing) and Queens Blade

Ikki Tousen had a different Character Designer for its first Season of its Animation and I am more than glad that they decided to switch with their second Season . He was on the other hand responsible to bring  the very different Style of the Queens Blade illustrators together for the Animation right from the start and did a pretty good job with it. Sure the Characters may look  more generic than their initial illustrations but the series would have been  a visual mess if some sacrifices werent made.

Most people probably have encountered one of these two works throughout their anime viewer career but there are also some classic properties that are based on his designs. I expect that most of the guys have encountered these on these lonely,boring nights when you were young and searching for some “special” anime. He was  the Character Designer for such classics as Midnight Panther,Words Worth,Twin Angels,Body Transfer,La Blue Girl Returns. To put it short he knows how to design women that appeal to a certain demographic XD

I am more than pleased with the package Ive got since I only knew of his Ikki Tousen and Queens Blade works until then. I knew that there was some Tentacle Grape Images in this Artbook but I was quite suprised to discover that  some of these are from Twin Angel and that Id encounter some other very familar series.

I am still amazed how an artist in japan can illustrate the H Stuff and regular Mainstream Work without having to fear about any severe conquences. Back in the day when I found out that Rei Hiroe (of Black Lagoon Fame) also does H-Doujinshi I nearly lost my pants and couldnt believe my eyes. Guess such a streamlining between hardcore and mainstream is only possible in japan and thats why we love it so much.

The Book itself comes with a dustcover,a shoutout from the artist under the dustcover aswell as a folded two sided poster and an interview I cant read.The print quality is pretty good with strong colours and the binding looks like itll last quite a few years.I am a bit unhappy that sometimes the avaiable space in the book isnt used efficently with lots of free space and tiny pics while in other instances its pretty crowded with several pics crammed on one page resulting once again in small pictures.Thats the only beef I have with this book though.Most of the illustrations in the book come from his commercial works or tv animations so youre prolly gonna be unhappy if youre looking for Original Characters by RinSin

Some of the following pictures are more or less explicit so scroll down at your own risk. Most feature some boobies but there are also some Tentacle Grape ones at the end of the book that I threw in for Tier ( who of course owns this book ). As usual these pictures arent intended to serve as a substitute to buying the book and rather an incentive to buy this very fine book.

Without Dustcover this Artist Shoutout becomes visible:

Thanks for buying my Artbook! Since I started focusing on tv series, the amount of work i do on copyrighted characters has increased so i was able to release a second book

THX @ Meronpan

The foldout posters

I love my QB <3<3<3<3<3<3<3

I didnt expect that this book contains only tasteful QB Art. Considering the Artists  background I expected it to be a bit more on the ecchi side. I dont complain about that though!

This depiction of Ryomou becomes later on a pretty darn awesome figure by Alter

Rinsin also did the Designs for Cospas Ikki Tousen Dakimakura

I remember that I digged the Succubus and the Catgirl in Words Worth ^^

Doesnt this make you feel nostalgic?

Let the good times roll…

I cant remember much about Twin Angels except that the main baddies dick was so full of sperm that the girls he did exploded from it XD

Look he can even do cute girls!

Some Shoutouts from fellow artists he met along the way

Jeez whenever I see my lousy excuse for fingers I realize I should have become a Gynaecologist ^^;;;;

Annelotte  is the main heroine of the Queens Blade Rebellion storyline and shares as Leina, the heroine of the first Queens Blade, the same fate of beeing a a pretty boring, good hearted maiden that moves out to change the world for the better. I sometimes wonder if theres some sorta secret requirement for main characters that they must be as interesting as plain joghurt?

I assume that even Hobby Japan realized that a Character without any distinct characteristics makes a boring  heroine and  decided to add a little flavor by giving her a “dark” secret. The Character with dark secret itself isnt terribly exciting but if we stick to the joghurt metaphor were having strawberry joghurt now.  It wont make your tastebuds explode by its flavour but its better than plain joghurt any day.

Hit the Jump to find out more!

Before I continue with this post Ill put this  warning ahead: QB Rebellion is the follow up to QB and therefore some of the information in this post may be considered spoiler.

If you are interested in a short rundown about the general setting of Queens Blade Rebellion I encourage you to read this post beforehand.

Annelotte is the heir to the Magrave-Kreuz Kingdom and was for some unknown reason raised as a boy infront of the public eye. It was after her kingdom and the people living in it were crushed by the new Queen of Gainos,  Claudette , that she decided to stop hiding her gender and to fight for justice by founding an Rebellion Army.

These are the rather uninteresting facts about her so lets take a closer look at the more interesing  (spoilerific) ones:

Annelotte is a Maijin which is a half-breed between a human and a demon which are tremendously powerful and coldhearted when awakened. Sounds familiar? Aldra, the former Queen of Gainos, was also a Maijin and was in search of her younger sister. It probably doesnt come as a suprise that Annelotte has a older sister whose whereabouts are unknown.  HMMMMMMMMMMMmmmm….

Did I also mention that she can summon her steed Ambrosius from the Underworld at will? That sounds pretty awesome to me!

Annelotte has been designed by Eiwa and her Maijin Blood only shows twice in her Visual Combat Book. Her full Demon Form is visible behind the Dustcover as her 2p Version including her goldenn Armor :

Regular Annelotte

2P Annelotte

In a more subtle way her rotten blood also shows in the reflection of a enemy blade:

Notice how her  armour remains the same? I assume that even when she isnt in her demon form her reflection will show her true self sorta like with vampires or whatever it was.

Back when Annelotte was announced I was a bit on the slow side and missed out on ordering through a proxy and feared that I might miss out on her. In the end I had to order her through Toyslogic. I had my fair share of trouble with them and to be honest I wouldnt be doing business with them again. I dont know what theyre smoking in their warehouse but I bet it would sell pretty well on the street.

The Figure is like all QB figures cast-offable and in the Megahouse tradition its an absolute pain in the ass. Unlike with real girls its pretty easy to take her clothes off but getting them back on is where youll sweat tears. Not only did I break off one of the pegs while I was trying to get her skirt back on, I also had some golden paint transfer onto her skin while I was trying to slide her skirt under the top part of her armour. Luckily you wont notice the broken off peg nor the small paintmarks and like hell Id ever cast her off again but still its annoying to know that you did some damage to a limited figure.

This is where I am sometimes questioning the neccessity of cast-off but then I am remembering that people like boobs.

One of the first things that people think when seeing Annelotte is that shell become a leaner but I cant notice any change after 1/2 year of displaying her. One should be rather on the lookout for how she is attached to the base: her foot slides into a little plastic part that is then attached to the base. Id support Annelotte with one hand while moving her around to prevent her from falling of the base since the little plastic part is rather loosely attached to it.

These are the only negative things about Annelotte though since Megahouse`s Kibayashi Norio did a very eyecatching job with her.In fact they even sculpted her a new  awesome face to accurately represent her Demon Form including pointy demon ears.I admit that I was a bit indifferent about her Original Sculpt but the pose works alot better with her 2P Version and its sinister face. This way I imagine her leaping infront of her prey shortly before striking it down while I cant really tell what original Annelotte is supposed to do there ^^;;;;;

While I like the details on her armour and sword one of my favorite things about her,besides the face, is the flow of her long black hair.

The Paintjob is excellent and while a golden armour would normally break the balance of a figure it works out very well with her since it underlines her very pale skin beautifully. The very onesided colour theme of gold and pale makes her eyes pop out even more and something subtle as the colour of her lips asks for attention.While not subtle at all the biggest speck of colour on this figure would be her purple underpants which I absolutely approve of.

I can see alot of people disliking this figure for its more radical theme but thats where the beauty of her lies in for me. Pale Skin,Black Hair, Sinister Face  <3<3<3<3

Its been some time since Ive dont a figure review so it was quite hard to get this together and even then I feel like the review part of this is way too short. I hope to get back into this quickly but then theres hardly any figures I have on preorder atm and Ill have to rely on my backlog until then.

Check out  Animatic Figmation and Biotoxics Blog for other reviews of Annelotte!

I really,really dig her face

The flow of her hair is excellent!

My favorite shot out of the whole set

I nearly chocked on the smoke when doing these ^^;;;

[spoiler]

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This was the first time I was doing a figure review with the recently purchased SB-900 and I must say that I really like how these pictures turned out even though I used only one lightsource. Its good to know that the Ezybox also does a good job at home for something as profane as a figure shooting. Its far from beeing perfect atm but thats what my current setup is looking like:

I am wondering how this post will fare against all the boob-laden posts I usually do because this time its solely about a guy.He was the third Cosplayer at the Event I attented in December and of course I also gave him the attention he deserves even though taking pictures of guys wont become a favorite past-time of mine XD

Hit the Jump for some Pictures and some further rambling!

I know that this is totally out of the usual context of my blog but I hope people wont ignore it or worse just because its pictures of a guy this time.I think that he should have the same opportunity as the girls to be photographed and published on my blog.Even if this isnt your Cup of Tea i think its only fair to acknowledge that also males are cosplaying and putting effort into this.

I was rambling about how I got interested in Cosplay Photography in my other post and ill refrain from doing that again. Instead I wanna talk a bit about what I learned from the shooting and the weather we had to work in.Its pretty obvious that it was snowing around that time of december and boy was it snowing.We were pretty lucky that it wasnt snowing for the most time during the shooting and were able to have a smooth session without having to take cover or switch location.

I took my small Lastolite Reflector with me because I thought that it might come in handy because there were actually people that could hold it for me this time. Soon after arriving in Cologne I realized that it isnt needed though because the snow is of course reflecting the light, making the reflector obsolete.This well known property of snow brought up another problem I already expected to encounter: your DSLRs Light Metering System is pretty useless. The Whiteness of the snow is messing pretty badly with it,ending in underexposed pictures unless your manually correcting your cameras setting or shooting in M mode.

Throw in a bright Costume like Garuru`s and your in for a pretty hard time.I had my fair share of trouble to get well exposed pictures of him.Unlike the two girls hes covering less of the frame and as a result more snow is visible ready to mess with the my DSLRS`s Metering. Throw in the wacky yellow Jumpsuit and you get many bad pictures that sadly end up in the garbage bin.

Talking about that wacky Jumpsuit…Garuru is cosplaying a Character named Hiro-C from a series called Dear Girl-Stories-Hibiki which I of course have never ever heard of before.I tend to notice that what I like and Cosplayers like doesnt seem to be compatible at all.I guess this is mainly rooted that I feel more in touch with the English Speaking Scene and those are often limited to the german scene only.The Fact that I have a tendency to like Ecchi Series is probably also noteworthy even though I am of course not limiting myself to those only.

As you might have already noticed theres also a inconsistency of colours and sturation inbetween these pictures which werent as obvious with Hotaru & Kyouya.This is also due to the fact I had a hard time balancing exposure,colours and saturation in Lightroom thanks to the snow and jumpsuit. Its not awfully bad but noticeable and I cant see a way around it unless I tone down the pictures and take away some of the BOOM. To me Cosplays are alot about the colourful Outfits though so I decided to live with it and hope for better working conditions the next time.

What else is there to say? Its still obvious that my Composition has alot to be desired and I still have problems to get rid of pictures that didnt turn out too well but I am strangely very attached  to them.The next CFS is just around the corner and hope that my experiences from the first CFS will help me to take pictures there.

Its actually pretty hard to find interesting poses for a Cosplayer whose character you have absolutely no Information about.In the end you have to make everything up on location and that doesnt work out too well as you can see in this set.My only excuse is that I jumped into this three days before the event and couldnt look anything up about the characters.This is definately something ill have to chance for the next event.

]]> http://flyingpussyfoot.com/wordpress/2011/02/20/1-cfs-part-two-garuru/feed/ 3 http://flyingpussyfoot.com/wordpress/2011/01/23/1-cfs-part-one-hotaro-kyouya/ http://flyingpussyfoot.com/wordpress/2011/01/23/1-cfs-part-one-hotaro-kyouya/#comments Sun, 23 Jan 2011 02:42:15 +0000 Blowfish http://www.flyingpussyfoot.com/?p=1840 Continue reading →]]>

Many things happened the last few months and theres no real excuse that the blog has been on hiatus this long except for my own lazyness.I hope to keep up with the blogosphere and my own blog from now on though and hope to make this somewhat of a routine of mine for the last few readers of my blog that are still left

As you may remember Ive taken a liking to Cosplay Photography and had the Chance to delve a bit deeper into it last December.Hit the Jump to read about my experiences and for the first set of pictures.

One of the very first things I realized after getting an interest in People/Cosplay Photography ( whatever you wanna call it ) is that its very hard to get Models to practice on.Your very first move would be to look around if someone  in your family or friends want to be your very personal guinea pigs but atleast in my case everyone acted like I had the Cholera, Smallpox and the Black Death all at once.

Cosplayers on the other hand are the exact opposite,since they normally are happy when someone asks for pictures of them.The fact that they share the same general hobby as you is a definite plus aswell and should break the ice in the at first awkward situation.

My first experiences with “Cosplay Photography” were the usual Events where Cosplayers popped up and you could snatch a few pictures of them.I started off as nearly anyone with a Point and Shoot ( the Nikon Coolpix P50 in my Case) and took pictures where the opportunity arose and I had the guts to ask for a picture.

Ive bought my first DSLR,the D3000, last year and this is where my interest in Cosplay Photography turned into a serious interest after realizing all the possibilities in regards to techniques and posing of the character.My pictures were still pretty much on the same level as my point and shoot camera but I hoped to work on that.

Ive spent some time on the Internet and reading Photography books and a short time later I decided to switch from my Kit Lenses (with limited abilities) to a high grade 50mm Prime Lens by Sigma.The Crop Factor of my DX Camera  turned the 50mm glass effectively into a 75mm Lens which makes it a nearly perfect lens for portraits.I was hestitating a long time about this decision since it involved a good chunk of cash but the 50mm Prime has basically become my exclusive glass nowadays. There are a few occasions where I switch to my 15 – 55mm because of space restraints but otherwise I stay faithful to my prime.

Fast Forward a few months and another Convention and I realized the next big step I had to take.Taking pictures every few months at a Convention might be fun but pictures will stay mere snapshots because of the surroundings and you get only very limited experience out of this.This is where I realized that I actually have to do some social networking even though I am no big fan of it.I gave out my namecards a few months later at the Animagic but the resonance was rather small you could even say nonexistant.This is where I knew that I had to rely on the one thing I actually hoped Ill never have to do: register at the biggest german Anime/Manga/Cosplay FanSite.

As probably most of you I try to avoid local Anime Communities like a hikkikomori avoids the outside.Most people registered at these sites are a whole different breed than those wed usually like to socialise with but most suprisingly I didnt encounter any of those yet.Instead of glomping Yaoi fangirls Ive gotten Access to a pool of  Cosplayers aswell as Cosplay Photographers and most importantly some exposure to the potential peer group.

I joined a few Circles there and luckily soon after that an Event  popped up that I swore to attend: The First Cosplay Foto Shooting NRW. It was organized by one of the Sites`s members called Kyouya who took part in similar Events in Munich. Its basically about people meeting up and having a good time while posing and taking pictures.The First Meet Up was rather small with only one Photographer and three  Cosplayers but I actually liked the laid back atmosphere of this. You dont have the pressure of  having to take great pictures like with a private Shoot ( I am still learning after all) but it isnt overcrowded like a Convention either.

Throw in some people that are fun to work with like Hotaru, Kyouya and Garuru ( hes gonna be featured in a  different post) and you can produce some pretty decent results.These pictures were taken in cologne during the snow-ridden december days and proved to be quite challenging in terms of lighting.On the one hand the Snow masses made a reflector nearly obsolete because it was reflecting so much light but on the other hand it was hard to find a balance between blowing out the snow covered parts of the picture and correctly lighting the subject.I still have huge problems to pick only the cream of the crop and usually keep more pictures than  true photog would ever do.Guess I just cant part with my babies ^^;

The Girls were Cosplaying two characters from the Show Hitman Reborn! of which I havent got a clue of because I dropped it after 2 epsiodes of enduring the annoying name giving protagonist ^^;;

Hotaru cosplays as a guy known as Dino Cavallone  and Kyouya is doing a apparently humorless fella called Hibari Kyouya.If youre more interested in the characters id recommend that you check out Wikipedia or if youre more the M type of personality feel free to endure watch the series.

Before the whole post looks like a giant wall of text ill stop now and save up some for the second post thats coming hopefully sooner than later ;-P

These two pictures represent a dilemma I often have.Nearly Identical pictures yet I like something about both of them and in the end I keep them both anyways…On a second Look these two arent looking too great though ^^;

Here we have a special case where I didnt want to get rid of the picture above because it is essential to the Titanic Feeling we wanted to catch with these pics for fun.The picture above has a very busy background with objects that disturb the “composition”.The picture that follows is alot better in that department but isnt really showing the rail which takes away alot of the desired  atmosphere.Only Hint to Titanic here is the pose of Hotaru and Kyouya

I like how these turned out

SNOWBALLED!

Okay were now sort of entering very mild Yaoi territory but remember this are two chicks just dressed up as guys basically making it very mild implied Yuri ~~ XD

I like this closeup the most out of the three pictures even though it isnt showing too much of the winter scenery.Yup another case where I can definately decide on only one picture and  keep them all ^^;

Same goes for the lying in the snow acting all gay pictures ^^;

This is one of my absolute favorite pictures out of the whole set.Hasnt got anything to do with serious cosplaying because the girls were goofing off while I was trying out my settings.Sometimes natural pictures beat the best planned ones

Here we have once again the case where I have nearly identical pictures with lightly varied poses where I couldnt decide on only one.

Kyouya doesnt seem to be too happy about the Bird

Thats it for today girls and boys! I know that I still have a long way to go before my pictures are “truly there” but so far Ive been quite happy how these shots turned out. That doesnt mean I am open to any sort of critique though.If you got any hints or advice feel free to share be it composition,lighting or postprocessing of the RAW Files.

Check out my Flickr Set if you cant get enough of Hotaru and Kyouya and want to see some unused pictures!

Ah Aldra! The former Queen of the  Capital of Gainos! The Girl with with the Meat Rendering Blades! The Girl who totally got ingnored by the Otakusphere for said  Blades! Shes back! This time shes armed with a much more crowdpleasing weapon! The Charm of a caring and loving housewive! Find out who shes married to right after the Jump!

Yup,Aldra is married and what sounds like another awkward move of  HobbyJapan, turns into one on ingenuity when you realize that shes married to you,the player. Aldra should prove to be a real crowd pleaser this time, now that those phallic blades are gone, but HobbyJapan of course delivers a worthy substitute in form of LunaLuna

Her character was designed  by a guy named Kantaka,which I sadly havent heard of before but a quick search on Gelbooru revealed that he designed the Original Aldra.Furthermore he seems to be the guy responsible for the Characters in Koihime Musou and some kinky Idolmaster Art.

I could write up a paragraph about Aldra by myself but since  Fabio of Synergetic Beans already translated her Character Profile Ill just repost it here:

Summoner Aldra

” Ill do my best for you! “

The half-demon that once won two successive Queen’s Blade championships and ruled as the “Bewitched Queen”.
In the last tournament, the Demon Delmore, the source of her super-extraordinary powers was torn-off from her and she was defeated. By losing most of her powers, her body that had stopped growing reverted to its true form.
After that, she embarked on  a journey to find her lost sister but she suffered memory loss.
What saved the physically and mentally exhausted Aldra was the “love” from a certain man. They married and Aldra’s heart was healed.
A short-lived happy live began before the war between the Queen’s Army and the Rebel Army spread through the whole Continent. To protect her loved husband, she was determined to throw herself in the fight. She will use her innate summoning skills again. She summoned and made a contract with the Underworld dwellers Belphe and Dogor. However, those two are a dangerous threat that plots to eat their contractor Aldra when they get the opportunity!!

STATS

Height: 163cm
Bust: 87
Waist: 57
Hip: 85
Occupation: Gondolier
Arms: War paddle (oar)
Protection: None
Likes: Her husband (for some reason, no one has ever seen him)
Dislikes: Carrots
Hobby: Going out with her husband

I most certainly didnt expect this turn of Events for Aldra since the  Anime hinted that she becomes a nun along with Melpha.This could be of course just another inconsistency of the Anime but most likely theyll explain the change in profession in one of the future OVAs.One of the simpler reasons I can think of is that since a Nun cant marry she probably left the church to marry her sweetheart but maybe her Mamoru past plays another role in this.

As long as we dont get any answers by HJ these assumptions will remain unanswered for now.

Lets take a look at Aldras Outfit for a Moment and lets discuss the crass change in Aldras Apperance.There  are two possibilities for the changes made to Aldra:

A: Her new Outfit is supposed to resemble the change of heart that Aldra experienced after getting seperated from the evil Demon Delmore. Her former Outfit was designed to show off her absolute power with spikes,blades and an aggresive colour scheme to impose fear and uncertainty in stark contrast to the cute and loving Aldra of today.

B: Hobby Japan realized that Girls with things resembling certain male bodyparts dont sell and tried to make her as Moe as possible as a counter measure.

Since HJ released another Girl with clearly phallic appendages and even a TRAP I prefer Theory A, unless they are actually aiming for financial loss with those two XD

Check out Persocoms Blog for more thoughts on Aldra

Without much further Ado I finally present you what you came for anyways: the pictures!

As usual you can find the 2P Colour behind the Dustcover

The Character Relation Chart finally gets populated!

One thing I noticed throughout the book is that the Size of her boobs varies quite a bit.I have no Idea if this is intended or just coincidence.

Now arent those two summons  cute eh…stuffed animals?

Nothing beats the good old myserious white liquids somehow ending up on girls

I wonder what role the golden sealing bind (?) will play throughout QB Rebellion.Its located on her former “evil” arm…Maybe it still needs sealing?

Now thats something original!

Aldras Healing Move is on par with Nyx`s!

The Usual Conversations at the end of the book plus the character profiles of  Aldra`s Summons

The Character Card and one of the AmiAmi Preorder Bonuses for ordering the Limited edition that came with a Original Aldra Revoltech!

As you probably noticed my Blog is still on semi-hiatus since my flat still hasnt been fixed and Im still stuck at my mothers place.Its really hard to get somewhat decent shots of anything in this flat and as you can see in this post the quality of these is still somewhat dubious.I do hope youre gonna stick with me some more though!

I have one major thing going on and a few other figures like Momohime and Siggy also arrived at my doorstep

Until next Time,

Blowfish Over and Out

I thought it might be a good idea to show that I am not dead and decided to make the best out of my situation right now and post some pictures from my trip to Belgium in late August.After alot of trouble and mishaps I savely arrived in Hasselt and was able to meet up with Smithy.The Results of that Trip can be found after the jump!

Smithy told me a few weeks ago about the biggest Japanese Garden in Europe which is located in Hasselt/Belgium.We decided that we could meet up there if the weather allows it and soon decided on a weekend.It turned out that the weather god wasnt on our side but luckily we were able to enjoy the garden without getting wet.

Smithy didnt come alone but also brought along his Yoko Dollfie to take some pictures of her and to convince me to join the dark side.It was quite funny to see other visitors reactions when Smithy started his  photo sessions with his big ass doll.Before I arrived at our Destination I got lost in the Netherlands though and arrived about 1 1/2 hours late in Hasselt and then had major problems finding that damned garden.Smithy already told me that its okay to bail out if its such trouble to get to him but  soon after that I found him.Due to all that trouble most pictures didnt turn out too great but I decided to post them anyways since I used them as Training Material for Colour and Lighting Adjustment.Its my very first try and fear some results may look unnatural ^^;;;

There isnt much more to say as of now except that until the mold situation in my flat is solved I can only update very irregularly and only do things like magazine/artbook reviews since I cant access my equipement for figure reviews.

Enjoy the pictures!

Those were some BIG and vicious Koi!!!!

It was a long and hard fight this time…I capitulated infront of her many times and thought Id never be able to make it.Who would have thought that getting a girl to put on some clothes would be this hard?Sure,I enjoy a nice pair of boobs like every healthy young lad but sometimes you want to have her to wear something classy like a maid outfit with a see-through dress.Lets honour the Clockwork Automatons outfit right after the jump!

Lets start with a brief description of Vingt before I start to rant about this figure:

Vingt is the Clockwork Automaton,built by Huits mother, that never leaves Huits side and is bodyguard,friend and assistant to Huit in one person.The key Huit carries close to her heart is used to wind up Vingt from time to time to keep her going full power throughout their adventures.Huit issues orders to Vingt via Runes written on the “remote control” she carries around.

Will she continue to fight for the good cause or might her remote control fall into the wrong hands?

Check out my Visual Combat Book review of Huit and Vingt for more Information about the characters.

Vingt is  a QB Rebellion figure which means that you can strip her down to all her full glory ( speak boobs).Megahouse doesnt provide any cast-off instructions as usual and I doubt they ever will but her cast off progress is rather straightforward.This is partially thank to the fact that Vingt is semi-poseable and her limbs and head are easily detached from her body.After that you simply remove the apron,dress & top-pantsu combination and youre done.The top ,which is made out of rubber-like material, may remind you of Mirims Outfit which was a major pain to remove thanks to her tightly closed  thighs.Luckily her detachable legs  saves us from going through the same soul crushing experience again and you can strip her naked easily

Sounds like a QB figure with an incredible smooth cast-off mechanic and in fact it is unless you want her to get  dressed again.The problem lies in the rubber-like material of her top which is very soft and tends to give in when you want to push the pins into their female counterparts.

The Top wraps very tightly around her chest and allows very little movement making the cast-on process even harder than it already is thanks to the material it is made of.It took me literally several weeks to get that top back on her because of the high temperatures in my room making the already soft material even softer.The top features 7 pins  wheres 3 are located at each side of it and one connects the bottom part with the panty section. I felt like a bomb defusion specialist becasue it takes alot of concetration  and tact to connect all parts without making others slip out again.

I could have screamed when I had all side pins connected and only the panty pin was left only to have several others slip out of it hole during the last one.In the end I decided that gray hair isnt worth the trouble and left her panty piece unconnected. Whos gonna notice anyway?

The Cast-On trouble aside theres very little to be concerned about this figure.Some may have had their doubts when they heard that Vingt will be an” articulated” figure but Megahouse did a fine job not sacrificing the looks for poseability.Furthermore they didnt raise her price into insane heights like GSC does with their Actsta figures.

So how does the Articulation look like? To put it bluntly:  the limbs arent glued to the body and are therefore rotateable.Each limb has a one axis joint in the elbow/knee area and allows some very basic movement but to call it articulated is a bit of a stretch.Furthermore her outfit restrains her movement even more,especially in the leg area, therefore youll get the best results with her wearing her birthday suit.

Megahouse even  threw in an extra hand and poison gas hand adapter to further incorporate the “action figure” feel which is quite cool in my book.Since were already talking extras it should be mentioned that she also comes with a base for Huit and her remote which can be attached to Huits arm.

Vingts base is kind of unique since it isnt your run by the mill peg into foot base but she basically rests on two sockets which are fixed to the base  and only her right foot is fixated via a pin in one of the sockets.This may sound very unstable but from my experience the few limited poses you can do on that base leave her pretty steady.

Whats left to talk about?Paintjob and Sculp are typical Megahouse quality which means very nice craftmaship which should make any figure collector happy aslong as you dont expect Alter Quality.I personally love the freckles on her face but thats just a tiny tidbit which shouldnt influence the overall figures expression ^^

One Thing I DID notice about the sculpt and is that Megahouse seems to try out new waters since they gave her a very,very delicate ,only noticeable upon closeup, mons pubis. This probably doesnt sound like a big deal to most people but I find cast-offable panties pretty senseless if a  barbie crotch is waiting for you.The Only other instance of sculpted female anatomy I know of from the QB line is Melona and she isnt cast-off and therefore safe.

I wonder if  Megahouse will pursue this path further but I am looking forward to their next effort now.

Thats enough talk for now so lets enjoy some of the pictures

A Short Reminder: Theres approximately 3 weeks between the Shoot of Cast-Off and Normal Vingt therefore the differences in lighting etc.

The Front Hair pieces only look this “tacked on” under strong lighting conditions.It looks perfectly fine under normal room conditions

Those kinda remind me of the striker units of the strike witches

Love that translucent dress!

Do you want to be served by a maid?

How about some Kyouka,master?

Poison Gas Attack!

(I also really like the rose patterns on her fists and apron)

Huit and Vingt together!

Re-enactment of one of the illustrated stories scenes

The AmiAmi exclusive Telephonecard that came with my Huit/Visual Combat Book + Vingt Set.Its charged with a whopping 300 yen!

Vingt: Lets go ecchi!

[spoiler]

When building a clockwork automaton its of utmost importance to recreate the female anatomy

In this picture you can see the faintly sculpted mons pubis.You probably have to zoom in to see it. Kudos to MH

Yup, A kneeling position is also possible

Vingt disassembled into her parts

[/spoiler]

Thats it for today Girls and Boys!

Wonfes 2P Annelotte Coming soon!

Ive finally made my debut as a more ambitioned Cosplay Photographer last weekend at one of Germany`s biggest Conventions called Animagic which was held in our former capital Bonn.Upon my arrival I was armed only with my trusty camera gear and optimism that Ill finally succeed in doing more than snapshots of people in weird clothes.Did I succeed? Find it out after the Jump!

First off I want to send a huge thank you to Meronpan for the support and guidance he gave me when I told him a few months ago that I want to get into Cosplay/Portrait Photography.He endured alot of silly questions and chatter from my side and was patient all the time.Its thanks to him that I decided for my Sigma 1.4 50mm Prime and not for the photographers standard solution of a Zoom Lens with 70 – Something mm. I simply dont wanna turn back to my Zoom Lenses after laying my hands on my prime even though it involves alot of walking to frame the subject. ^^;;;

One of my biggest drawbacks in taking pictures of cosplayers has been my shyness in regards to asking them for their picture.I always felt kind of awkward taking pictures of girls in scantily clad clothes and had a hard time during the Japanday`s aswell as the Dokomi.Luckily I overcame that shyness pretty fast at the Animagic and throughout the days Ive shot more than 750 pictures.The Organizing I did the last two days was pretty time consuming but I wanted to post only the cream of the crop ( which in my case is still pretty mediocre ^^;)

Another thing that took me some time to get used to was to hand my meishis to the cosplayers since I felt once again awkward advertising for myself like this.I thank JimmPantsu for encouraging me to hand my meishis to Cosplayers.It turned out that most cosplayers were more than happy to take my card and who knows maybe some opportunities arise from these exchanges.

Since were already talking about German Bloggers  I recommend you to take a look at JimmPantsu`s aswell as TMSIDR`s  Cosplay Gallery.We were often prowling together for our prey,thats why quite a few pictures display the same characters but in the end the personal preferences of the bloggers resulted in a nice variety of pictures.

My last big thank you goes to all the cosplayers that did allow me to take pictures of them.You all rock!

Time for some pics otherwise its TL;DR huh?

Who you`re gonna call?

Fuu,Mugen and Jin from Samurai Champloo seem to be obsessed with a dango ^^

One of the many alternative Saber costumes which I think is from Fate/Extra

Wedding Ceremony of the Dead? eh…I mean BRAAAAAAAAAIIIIINSSS!

PinkStoneShooter and what I believe to be Kei Kishimoto of Gantz

EXCAAAAALIBUUUR!!! and Free from Soul Eater

Decided to spice up their poses a bit eh voila…Wonderful!

Stein,Death the Kid and Soul from Soul Eater beeing Asymmetric

Thalassa Gramayre from Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney

Thalassa,Klavier Gavin and Ema Skye from Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney

Black Star joined the Gang!

I believe that this guy is an early Version of the Guy in Jin Roh ^^;;;;

Lookie,Lookie I even photographed Miku and Luka for you fine people

Furio Tigre from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

Excel and Ha-chan must have been in dire straits since no Menchi is to be seen ^^;;;

Love and Peace!

This is a very coolsome and dedicated Voldo Cosplay including barenaked ass.

Taokaka is more confusing than regular cosplayers since you cant even see the cosplayers face

Ranulf,Lethe and…girl I forgot from Fire Emblem

Zoidberg and Fry

Blair from Soul Eater.One of the few instances where shes running around fully clothed ^^;;;

Looks like Frank West took care of the Zombies

Now hes thrown into a much more fightening nightmare than a city crawling with the undead: an anime convention.

But hes gonna be alright.Why you ask? He`s covered wars ya know?

Our favorite  14 year old readhead with boobs like melons: Yoko

Another Taokaka! I wa sreally pondering if I already took a picture of her or not.Luckily I didnt

I think these are the Silent Hill Nurses without that stuff on their faces?

Oh Yoko how I love your big …Gun

This is the Moment where I went Nuts… A Queens Blade Cosplayer of our favorite non-loli Ymir the Dwarven Steel Princess! And this was only the beginning!!!

Nabeshin and his afro

Gintoki without his trademark dead fish eyes and Haruko with her trademark Rickenbacker

Okay,okay in this Situation a  WideAngle Lens would have been the better choice.Crappy Framing aswell and  poor Konata is hidden behind  the PomPoms….Im sorry girls ^^;;;;;;;;;;;

Claire and Jill!

I guess Frank West had help clearing this area of Zombies

Lucy/Nyu and Nana

The cast of Jibril: the Devil Angel

My hats of for cosplaying a hentai series.Btw that series had an interesting way to level up your powers … ^^

Fanboymode increased! Second QB Cosplay Get!

Menace and her trusty friend Sethra! Too bad she was so busy.Would have liked to take some more pics because it was a great cosplay.

Harima and Tenma

I think I must have foam on my mouth when I saw QB Rebellion Ymir and QG Alice XD

Those two were really nice and agreed to take a few more pictures later

Gurugu Mawaru! Harima,Tenma,Sou,Eri,Hanai and Yakumo with Iori!

This is where I have to apologize to the awesome Alice Cosplayer…I used the intelligent auto focus function of my camera during this shot and the camera was intelligent enough to focus on the wall instead of you…It didnt show up blurry on my Cameras Screen even when I zoomed in otherwise I would have taken another picture worthy of the pose I asked you to do.

On the other hand these two look great.I especially like the close up of her face below

Heres a short intermission before we continue with the pictures…

When I asked Alice and Ymir for a few more shots with posing all the sneaky photographers jumped out of their corners and started taking pictures aswell.I never knew how annoying it feels as a photographer when other people take advantage of the fact that you asked for pictures.I felt quite pressured  by all the people taking pictures behind me and is probably one of the reasons why I messed up the full body Alice Shot. I used to do the exact same thing on the Japandays and now I realize that it isnt exactly the nicest thing to do since youre disturbing the photographer that had the courage to ask and wants to take some nice pictures.

I dont want to sound snobby or anything but guys please wait until the other ones done and then ask for pictures again.

Awesome QB Rebellion Ymir Cosplay! She should have come with Eirin!

Great Pose!

Love how these Close Ups turned out thanks to bokeh

Elizabeth! I wonder  what happened to Zura?

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

Gundam and Transformers united!

Heres a nice Aria Cosplayer!

Was fun to see how much she enjoyed  that pictures were taken.

BRS once again but this time with blue flame…and a Blowfish Reflection in her Shades XD

Shichika and Togame from Katanagatari.

Too bad that no Maniwani Ninjas were around

CHEERIO!

Yes,another QB Cosplayer! This time its the infernal temptress Airi waiting to suck out your life energy!

The funny thing is by the time Airi popped up I thought that its not possible for me QB Cosplayers popping up but I was completley wrong ^^

Asuka and Rei in one of the trillion alternnative costumes

Row,Row fight da Powa!

Yoko,Nia and Simon

Yup,this Ymir also agreed to let me take some more pictures

Thank you!

Meryl Strife must have been in cold sweat when she realized that there were several Vashs running around the area ^^

Black Gold Saw by the former Ymir Cosplayer!

God I love Closeups with a nice bokeh

Nicholas D Wolfwood beeing badass

DRRR! Mikado + Anri beeing harassed by the Ganguro Girls

Poor Shinobu was all alone…Noone else from the Bakemonogatari cast was seen.I do know that she also cosplayed Taokaka.I wonder if shes one of the Taokakas I got infront of my lens.

Milly Thompson infront of a terribly outburnt sky

Yes! More QB <3

Elina beeing sneaky

A girl in Shuffle Uniform! Sadly I forgot the characters name ^^;

Real Life Mario Kart!

Hehe… Okay,this is where it starts to become epic!

Nowa and Tomo from QB

Ru is just hanging around.Lazy Ape!

Young Phoenix Wright and Miles Edgeworth from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

Yay! More QB!

This time its Sai Nyan from QB Rebellion!

Remillia and Hong Meiling

Remillia is sporting such a great pose!

Woot! New QB Cosplayer get: Alleyne!

I guess its time to say that I was really,really lucky  and that there was a QB Meeting going on.You can only imagine how happy I was,as the QB Fanboy I am, when they allowed me to come with them to take  some more pictures.

A BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIG THANK YOU to you girls. You cant imagine how happy you made me with this.

Heres another Airi thats beeing watched by Beethoven in the background

Thats the cast I was allowed to tag along with: Ymir,Airi,Tomoe,Alleyne,SaiNyan,Nowa

I was really excited that this opportunity showed up and therefore I made quite a few mistakes like forgetting to change the ISO Higher when shooting with a smaller Aperture which resulted in blurred shots.Its quite a bummer because I wanted to give my best for these shots.

I hope the girls arent too disappointed by my shots.I hope the other Photographs pictures turned out better

This was a hard decision…I couldnt choose between these two pictures for a few reasons:

Picture one is crisper but has the other photographers arm in it and Tomoe is nearly completley covered by Airi

Picture two is a bit more blurry but everyones visible and hasnt got the photographers arm in it.Sadly Airi isnt looking too good in this shot.Seems like I  pressed the button in the wrong moment ^^;;

If any Cosplayer is reading this: Do you prefer good compositions or good expressions? Both at once would of course be the optimum but what woul you choose if you had to pick one?

Recreation of the Anime!

This Picture is kinda awkward since Ymir is completley covered by Airi ( seems like Airi likes to do that) and it was the only one of the series that didnt turn out blurry.The Bokeh on Airis face on the other hand was on purpose.I wanted to give the picture a feeling of depth. I hope you dont mind Airi ^^;

Celty and Izaya

Celty Cosplay sounds good on paper but looks rather unspectacular in person.Its not that she did a bad cosplay but  Celtys gear is just black and a helmet.Theres not much for the eye to discover

The wise deity Horo

And last but not least Trucy from Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney

The last few days have been quite interesting for me since I think that Ive gained alot of great personal experience not only in regards to photography but also in getting in contact and socializing with others out of this weekend.Its great that you get so many chances tomake your shutter click and to ban so many people on your cameras sensor.Ive shot quite a few crappy shots throughout the weekend but I also feel that Ive taken quite a few nice ones.

I learned to always double check your settings before jumping into an exciting shooting the hard way but hey we all started as beginners right?

Im gonna rest now for a bit and gonna post a Convention Impressionn Post in the next few days.

Until then~

Blowfish

PS: None of these Shots were edited in any kind.Just developed them with Lightroom and Watermarked them in PS Elements.

Reviewing figures is still a pain because my flat is still flaiming hot so I decided to do a sweet and short review of Huit and Vingts Visual Combat book from Hobby Japan.Lets take a closer look at the Little Elf and her Clockwork Automaton right after the Jump.

I know your soul is burning to see Huits adoreable sidekick in its semi-poseable 1/8 figure form but I guess its sometimes good to be a tease and to post an interim book review inbetween both figures.

While my copy is the Limited Edition of the Visual Combat book theres no difference between the regular release of the book except for the excellent Huit Figure.I take it for granted that you like Huit & Vingt when youre buying this book so I recommend to get the decently priced Limited Edition

All in all its the regular Queen`s Blade (Rebellion) Visual Combat book deal: hardcover,full colored and comes with the character card you need to play.Only difference I noticed to other releases is that under the dustcover isnt a 2P illustration but a single one of Huit.I wonder why they decided to stray from the norm in that regard but it isnt a dealbreaker in any kind since most people treat these books as artbooks anyways…

Huit and Vingt were created by Koume Keito and were,if im not mistaken,the second release from Hobby Japans Queen`s Blade follow up series.Like all other QB Characters both of them have a detailed background history which I want to write about before advancing to the pictures:

HUIT

Vingt is from the tribe of the little elves who are specialized into alchemy and live in a secluded area far away from wood elves like Alleyne & co.Shes the daughter of  Great Alchemist Cyan,who happens to be a close friend of the weaponsmith Cattleya,and mastered the exceptional skills of her father already at a young age.The Neighbouring Kingdom of the Margrave-Kreuz family has close bonds with the little elves and their children Annelotte and Huit grew up playing with each other becoming childhood friends.Annelotte had to play the role of the crown prince, despite her gender, to keep order in her kingdom.Annelotte saw herself as the kind,big brother of Huit and spoiled her quite a bit throughout the years and even until today Annelotte remains the nii-san in Huit`s heart.

While Huit has a gentle heart and is kind to the ones close to her shes still a prodigy tactician and resorts to cold hearted tactics when the cause justifies the means.While she is able to defend herself she mostly resorts to her Alchemy powered Clockwork Automaton Vingt who she has a close bond with despite her robotic nature.

Who would have thought that Annelotte and Huit meet each other again in  a twist of fate thats so much different from their childhood days?

VINGT

Vingt is the Clockwork Automaton,built by Huits mother, that never leaves Huits side and is bodyguard,friend and assistant to Huit in one person.The key Huit carries close to her heart is used to wind up Vingt from time to time to keep her going full power throughout their adventures.Huit issues orders to Vingt via Runes written on the “remote control” she carries around.

Will she continue to fight for the good cause or might her remote control fall into the wrong hands?

As earlier mentioned the Character designs were done by Koume Keito which most people probably know from the Spice and Wolf and Kujibiki Unbalance Manga.He did a terrific job in adapting the QB Style while still keeping a mainstream appeal which some of the Visual Combat Books cant achieve.You could of course argue if its good to keep a general Anime style or the distinct style of some Artists but I think Hobby Japan does a good job to keep this in balance with its different artists.

All in all its another great Visual Combat Book that should find its way into your bookshelv if you even remotely liek the characters

No 2P behind the Dustcover this times

A Picture instead of Conversations this time.I guess this is due to the fact that no other characters were established at the time these went into print.

I find Vingt adorable despite her Elf ears :3

EAT LEAD!

VINGT KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK!!!

My,my look where Vingts finger is “touching”…

Left Picture is one of my favorites throughout the whole book XD

This is her doing her Ultra Sonic Sound Attack.Not what you think you pervert