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Casey M Addy
User Experience and Interaction Design

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Fate|Stay Night

I just recently finished watching another anime series, Fate|Stay Night, and would like to spend some time sharing my thoughts. While I may not be the best at mentioning everything about the anime and my reflections on it, I will enjoy the opportunity to talk to you in person about it .

Story

I especially liked the story. This anime featured Emiya Shirou as the main protagonist, who suddenly finds himself amidst a war for the Holy Grail. He becomes involved in the war, as he finds himself in a near-death situation and ends up summoning Saber, a magical servant who wields an invisible sword, and who will also listen to Shirou’s orders. Shirou also ends up befriending a fellow Master at school, Tohsaka Rin, who was my favorite character (not only can she wield a wide assortment of awesome magic – all in German – but she also had a very decisive and professional demeanor). They then travel around town trying to solve the mystery of a wide range of mysterious comas, and to also figure out how to end the war for the Holy Grail (trying to give no spoilers). I guess one of the other best parts of this anime was that it mirrored the traditions of Arthurian lore, and gave it a unique Japanese twist.

If you like magic in your anime and a well-written story that is very engrossing, I’d recommend you spending some time with this one. It’s worth your time. There’s a wide assortment of characters, costumes, action, and lore to absorb and enjoy. Enjoy also the lion, a symbol for Saber and Arthur.

For the Future

In the future, I’d like to cosplay Archer, the Servant of Tohsaka. I’d only end up cosplaying him if I had someone going with me as Tohsaka (it only makes sense – I’d want to enjoy the con with my “Master” and it would be a great group cosplay). To do Archer, I’ll need to not only make the main black suit, but also the red coat/covering of the suit, his ying-yang swords, his white hair, no makeup, work out to get his abs, not sure if he needs boots, and the gloves (there may be a cape in there as well). I’ll have to go back to episode 14 to fully get his costume specs, as that episode featured a ton of different angles for me to pick out for the details of his costume. I’d also like to cosplay him, as he is a very matter-of-fact personality, is always around when Tohsaka is around, gave Shirou the motivation he needed to be able to get through the tough battles, and oozes amesomeness. Here’s some pics to help remind me and you of how he is.

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The Beginning Search

So the past week I started to develop a beginning search on what spacifically to tackle within my design space: cosplay. It’s fun, and it’s just awesome. So here’s a news report as to what I did this past week – it’s written in note-ish form, so have fun with it!

It started with a conversation…

Here’s the results of a starting of a conversation with the professors at IU’s HCI/d program. There’s a lot to start with! Below is some more musings about what I could be doing and what I have done with the past week. It’s not too pretty, either, but it’s a start…

Window Shopping on the Web

http://www.cosplayhouse.com/

– This was an interesting place to window shop, as they sell everything, along with having commissions and convention schedules
http://www.cosplaymagic.com/
– they sell costume packages, but also include video game and comic book characters as well
http://www.dream-angels.net/
– they sell everything, commission costumes, auction, wigs, and even contact lenses!
http://www.cosaru.com/ This site didn’t appear to have that much to offer, but it also had more costumes of female characters, which doesn’t necessarily mean all of the customers are female.
http://www.harajukustyle.net/cosplay.htm I really feel this site knows what it is talking about. After engaging with this site, I want to save up money and go shopping for these clothes – they are bloody awesome! As a side note: in Japan they congregate around harajuku and cosplay for fun, where they mix and match different sets of styles.
http://www.qqcosplay.com This site sold many different costumes. I was impressed by the breadth of the selection offered – and it’s also from China as well!
http://www.solgoo.com/index.php This site didn’t have too much selection, and it also appears the community that was here has left.
http://www.cosplaylab.com/This was a great and awesome site. There’s a real community here, and has lists of cons to go to! One could see how experienced they were!
http://www.mooncostumes.com/pcat/Cosplay This site felt rather generic and business-y, and didn’t spend too much time there.

Internet blogs

I also began to start looking for blogs of people who cosplay, and here’s what I found so far: (looks like I lost a couple of them)

http://rayearthblue.wordpress.com/She makes her own costumes and goes to cons, and the pictures up there are superbly-well done. This leads me to wonder if and how cosplayers communicate at all, other than at cons?

Other pieces of awesomeness

Japan’s Akihabara district -otaku central, big cosplay area
– so why and how did this become socially acceptable to do so in this area?
Activities done while cosplaying – example, cosplay chess? Can something be designed to help promote fun and more interactions while in costume?

A big thought on my mind

For me, and my experiences in my life, I have constantly been reminded of how “the clothes make the man”. From a philosophical standpoint, I would also like to engage in developing peoples’ worth through their clothing and their actions. As a student, I don’t have too many nice clothes, so I don’t look like a scholar or a designer, and so I get treated in that way. What do you think?