Hey everyone!

My favourite month of the cold half of the year (at least here in Germany) has started and I hope to have enough free time to enjoy it every way I want to! I hope that all of you having a wonderful december and a great christmas season!






In a few days (december 7th) I'll turn 26 and just as every year at this time, I'm making a wish list. I always love it when friends post their wishes somewhere because I don't like to make gifts the person concerned doesn't really want to get. So I'll do the same.

There aren't many material things I wish for because I already have everything I really want to have and I can buy the rest myself and don't have to bother others with it.
But I always love the things others made for me, like photo manipulations, music videos, any type of fan arts and things like that.




And what I'd personally like the most: I'd like to work with more photographers. Those I've already been working with are wonderful, it's not about that, but I so love to have shootings and I don't want to bother my friends all the time. And it would also be great to discover new ways of photography.
Also richte ich mich wohl am Ehesten an die Deutschen unter uns: Hat jemand (aus München oder nur auf der Durchreise) mal Lust auf ein Shooting?







The 1.000.000 pageviews are drawing near and I'm currently working on my last costume for this year (not telling yet). My goal is to reach the million by sylvester, but let's see if that works out XD

Anyway, I want to entertain you the best I can with new costumes.
Here goes my list of things planned. This time the list is longer and contains everything I'm 100% sure of doing, in-between surprises excluded of course^_- Since I keep my next two costumes secret, I'll start my list with the beginning of 2010.







- Ken Wakashimazu of Captain Tsubasa:
[link]
I have to postpone him until the weather is better, so it'll be spring. But I already bought almost everything for this cosplay, so the first days of visible spring will be the time.

- Frédéric Chopin of Eternal Sonata:
[link]
Since I'll play him in the upcoming spring premiere musical of my troupe TnS - Tsuki no Senshi, this is definitely the top point on my to-do-list

- Sephiroth of Final Fantasy: Dissidia:
[link]
I had to postpone him, simply because I had too much to do. But since I have everything for that, too, it won't take long

- Muraki Kazutaka of Yami no Matsuei:
[link]
I have always loved him, did him years back and now I want to do it properly. He's planned for quite a while now. It's time to revive everyone's favourite doctor!

- Lucifer of Angel Sanctuary:
[link]
Another long-time wish. Coming in summer.

and of course


- Riku of Kingdom Hearts:
various varieties, just what *Evil-Uke-Sora feels like.

and

- Sebastian Michaelis of Kuroshitsuji:
With *Evil-Uke-Sora and others. To which, of course, I'm looking forward a lot^_-

I kept you waiting^_-
For those of you who don’t follow my stuff for long or just didn’t care (and happen to care now out of the suddenXD):
I lead the show troupe TnS aka Tsuki no Senshi, an Anime, Manga and Videogame Musical Project. We recently brought you e. g. the by now quite well-known musicals of Kingdom Hearts II and Kingdom Hearts – Chain of Memories. After our recent manga-based musical Ludwig II., featuring You Higuri’s boys love story of the famous bavarian king, we’re now switching to videogames again.
Starting soon into our 13th show year, I'm glad to announce you not one - no, TWO new musicals we’re currently working on!



Spring release 2010: ETERNAL SONATA

Paris, 1849: On his deadbed, the world-famous pianist and composer Frédéric Chopin enters a fairytale world – here, his music comes to life. Polka, a girl with magical abilities, is condemned to death. Allegretto, a boy from the streets, fights against Count Waltz’s cruel domination. Chopin finds allies and foes on his journey, searching for the end of his ominous path, that seems to become more and more entwined with the fate of the world.
Light or dark; dream or reality; your fate in your hands or you in the hands of fate - Eternal Sonata tells of both in a story that brings to life what moves us all: the power of music.



In this show, I’ll play for the first time the leading main role, represented by Frédéric Chopin. I’m looking forward to the challenge of acting a stranger in the world, someone who is a secret to himself. Chopin is a gentle character – I do not act such roles very often. I hope the play to be poetic and strong and I hope that you will like it!



Summer release 2010: FINAL FANTASY VII : CRISIS CORE

I don’t think that anyone needs an introduction to this. The story of Zack Fair, SOLDIER of Shin’Ra, is certainly known to everyone here.



After years of playing with the idea of setting up a Final Fantasy musical, I was intoduced to Crisis Core and found my perfect base – I knew that I wanted to turn this into a play the moment I saw it. And not just a simple play. I was captured so intensely that my mind started to work on every little aspect before I knew it. I was so inspired that I didn’t know what to do but to set it up in my mind before an hour was over. This has never happened to me this way before.
I know that the expectations are very high if you take up a theme with such a gigantic fan base. I want to meet them. I will work the hardest to try to make this the best musical we have ever done. This is the least I owe to the Final Fantasy fans. I am convinced that we can manage this.
And I am totally excited about the chance of bringing Crisis Core on stage!


I hope that you’re going to enjoy the shows and that you’d like to see one of them – or even both. We’ll work hard to entertain you the best we can, also in our 13th year and those to come afterwards!

Thank you for your all-time support!

I'm working on a lot of projects right now, a new musical among them, and since I decided on how exactly I plan to spend my extra time and money next - here are my next coplay projects.


- Ken Wakashimazu of Captain Tsubasa:
[link]
The few ones of you who are aquainted close enough to the Zetsuai/Bronze series may know, that it resulted out of Minami Ozaki's doujinshi series named Dokusen Yoku, featuring Hyuga and Wakashimazu, the Touho champions from the famous soccer series Captain Tsubasa. Takuto still resembles Hyuga in almost every aspect. And Wakashimazu revolved from a goalie to a rockstar and had his hair bleached.
So the day had to come for me to do Wakashimazu!


- Gilbert Beilschmidt aka Prussia of Axis Powers Hetalia:
[link]
I know, everyone does Hetalia right now. The reason I want to do this is an old and dear friend of mine (who's currently down under and I haven't talked to her for a year) having asked me if I'd want to do him. She's totally into Hetalia right now, showed me the show (5 minutes episodes are short enough for my attention spanXD) and I found it to be awfully funny. So this is for you, Katsu! Everytime we talk, I wonder why we don't get to do that more often.
And because Gilbo is made of awesome, he's surely awesome fun to be! I'm looking forward to it very much!
It's even more fun because I'm from Bavaria and the bavarians have a sort of descended aversion for the Prussians - Saupreißen! XDD Gilbo, beware of the bavarians, they've got your beer!!


- Sephiroth of Dissidia:
[link]
You saw this coming, didn't you? Sure you did.
What's there to say? It's fucking Sephiroth! With inlayed gems on his shoulderplates! How can I not do this?!



I hope there's something among them you'd like to see. Thanks for your all-time support, guys!!!

Today I’d like to show you some wonderful people whose works deserve your attention. I hope, some of them are to your liking.

I’m not into featuring people at random, so I picked some whom I want to tell you about.
Please enjoy their works!

COSPLAYERS


My younger sister, very talented in many ways, an extremely good actor and a not so freakish cosplayer as myself. She doesn’t do as many costumes as I do, but those she does are always great.
You may also know her as the actor of Marluxia and Xemnas from the Kingdom Hearts Musicals.





My sister’s girlfriend, my biggest support in work for the shows, talented actor, dancer and choreographer and one of the most important people in my life. And of course a cosplyer as well!





She was the one who started this because she asked me to feature her. And who could decline such a request by you!





She’s just such a great and wonderful friend and fun to be with! Hugs





It’s amazing how it happens that I always find you liking the same things I do!!^__^




AND


The only photographer I’m featuring here. She’s taking absolutely great pictures and I’m really sad that we get to do this only once or twice per year. Germany sometimes really is too big!






Of course there are so many more who deserve to be featured! I just picked these for the first (and only people who don’t get so many pageviews already), but I’m sure a second feature will follow.

Please be sure to check by! Everyone of these guys is fantastic in their own way!

I lately somehow got the impression that a rant on this is necessary.
I cosplay a lot. I’ve explained before that I still don’t really see myself as a cosplayer. In the fandom I’m an actor in first place, a director, a stage worker. Cosplay is the pastime for my pastime. My shows and my beloved musicals come first. Cosplay fills the gaps in between.

But here on DA, I represent me as a cosplayer. So I will talk as one now.


Sometimes I do cosplays in a slightly different way than the reference would be. Sometimes things are altered, some things look off and some things are really not perfect.

First of all, you have to understand that I do and did cosplays that were really dear and important to me and some that weren’t. Some I did just for the fun of the moment, some I did for friends, some are just old. I mind the ones dear to me more. The difference between me and a cosplayer who keeps his money tighter is probably that I don’t just do the ones I really really want. And of course, I mind the ‘rest’ not as much; that’s natural and understandable, I’d guess.


To me, cosplay starts when wearing the outfit, not when sewing it. I’m perfectly content with wearing the shit and having fun. I don’t have some kind of ‘I made that myself-honor’- feeling. My feeling of honour in cosplay (which is: what is important to me as a cosplayer and what I demand of myself) is having good photos, special photos, fitting locations, new ideas, something that carries the atmosphere. To do difficult characters, characters I love. Sexy characters. I love to do sexy cosplay. Ah, yes.

To me, a good cosplayer is someone who looks good and who manages to look like the character. The costume doesn’t always necessarily need to be exact to the last tiny detail for that. Of course, it’s the cherry on top. But not the essence.
Maybe you say – how can one ever look like a character if the costume isn’t totally correct?
A character is a character. A person, of course with certain looks, but if he’d take his clothes of and different ones on (what happens seldom enough in anime ^_-), he’d still be who he is. That’s also the concept of Street Style cosplay to me: become a character by looking different and still like him. It’s a special challenge on its own. One I enjoy a lot.

I’m my own definition of a cosplayer and I have my own goals and things I don’t find to be that important. It doesn’t mean that I don’t care about a cosplay. I do, a lot. I especially like to pimp them a bit, to give them more accessoires or glitter or whatever than they actually have. I want them to look cool. I’m picky with fabrics and materials, I’d rather pay more than take something less beautiful. But I don’t let it ruin my day if some tiny thing doesn’t turn out the way I imagined (as long as it’s something not too noticeable and big). And if someone does something for me who can do it better than me, I’m glad to accept it. I’m not sewing all my costumes myself, and I’m not ashamed to tell – everytime I’m wearing a costume I didn’t sew myself, I’m noting it in the artist comment (I don't buy ebay shit or something. The help I get is the precious one of my talented friends.). I don’t want praise for something I didn’t do. But I do a lot. I’m a very active cosplayer, sometimes I’m doing two outfits a month without a show or convention ahead, just like that. There’s no way to be too painstaking with that. Because I’ve got a life. A very full one, I’d like to mention. I don’t want to spend it sewing all the time.
But at the same time, I don’t want to dispense with something.

And also, I alter things because I believe it to look better in the end.
Example – some of you may have noticed that I changed Kuja’s ‘skirt’ in the front. It’s not that I didn’t look properly or that I was too lazy. I did it the right way at first and found it to look ugly. And I like it falling loosely, like a piece of cloth accidentially stuffed into the leather strips like that, it’s sexy. I liked it better. I did it that way.

I can be very very picky with details. When it comes to cosplaying Nanjo Koji, for example, but he’s not popular enough for most of you to understand what I mean.

I mind my costumes a lot. But I interprete them my own way. A reference is the raw material I make something out of. We all do, and our results are different. We all find different challenges, different things important to us, things we want to convey, reasons why we picked this very character to become us.

I hope I made my way of thinking on this topic clear enough. This is a great pastime, to all of us.

What is important about cosplay to you? What makes a good cosplayer? I’m sure this is a very long discussion. My personal view on it was already long enough^_-