Osaka -- Visual Kei Summer

Good evening, minna-sama~ and I apologize for the long gap since we last spoke, as it were. The title takes inspiration from 'Osaka -- Tiger Summer', a location level in Sengoku Basara 3; this is part of the reason I've not been allotting myself time to post. That, and the weather has finally taken a definitive turn into the hot, with a side of humid with all the off and on rain we've been having, so I've been going to my old stand-by, graphic t-shirts and whatever pants I feel like [I don't wear shorts].


But, as luck would have it, today, I had the day off from work. And the mother person suggested [read, forced me to] that I go to SAM's Club along with the bank to take care of some transferring of funds. What the hell, I might as well have more of a reason to get dressed than running up less than a mile or so to cut a check. But since it is still ungodly humid, today was definitely a day for some light Visual-Kei wear.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night shirt: Hot Topic
Black and white suspenders: Hot Topic
Wallet chain: Hot Topic [damn... what the hell...?]
Platforms: Demonia via Otakon

A long time ago~ in a world where I cared even less about things than I do now [odd. very odd, considering], I wore T-shirts at naseum. Then along came my sense of humor, and fanaticism with video games and anime. Thus, my T-shirt collection expanded into the graphic T land. Now anytime I can't wear the things I would prefer, including enladen Visual Kei things, I will wear a graphic T. Because everyone needs to know I'm a Jenova's Witness, from the Church of the One-Winged Angel of the Latter Day Summons. So, along with the magnificent makes-me-want-to-touch-myself Castlevania shirt, I paired it with my stand by V-Kei pants which I modified from a regular pair of black pants.



Just to mix things up, I also added two boot straps from my Undertaker cosplay to the bottom of the pant legs. Up close they look great in my opinion, but they are probably very subtle from afar. So in the future I might add more, and wear different shoes, or, instead of decking out my "leg" half, when it gets to be that season again, I may instead put them around my arms. I had meant to wear my 'gang leader' arm band, but I didn't think about it until after I had already gotten back; besides, I would've had to pin it to the t-shirt sleeve, since it's too loose to stay up on my arm, unless I perpetually flex. My hair is univentful because of the humidity; left to it's own devices, it would've been a flyaway mess from all the windows-down, sunroof open driving I did.


Alternately, as I've been going along, I've been thinking how the bootstraps around the leg might look with the Aeon pants [the eyelet heavy ones]. Definitely, I think I need both more wallet chains [or chain link belts in general] and some other colored suspenders. Fingerless gloves would be fun, HT has some in silver that look great.


I got some new musics--notably some songs by Lisa Komine--to keep me preoccupied between... everything, nghh... oh well. It'll be eventful from here on out, everyone~ I hope I can help keep your summers entertaining. Coming up, hopefully along with some more V-kei, will be the adventures of handmade cosplay. If you are a veteran homemade cosplayer, I welcome all wisdom~


"Lonliness fighting back again, seems to be like it never ends. Give us hope through the love of peaceful shine on me~"


Eternally yours,
Il Ruinante Isaak
p.s. While I was out, I bought Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy. If I don't post for another month, even with my best intentions not to have that happen, Dissidia 012 is the reason why.

Blog Music II

Good morning, minna-sama~ I still seem to be low on sleep [ah, if only I had more mana...! say what?], but that's alright, because things are finally coming to a close, and the summer is looking good. I'll be very busy, but I know it will be much more enjoyable. I hope you all are looking forward to nicer summer days too~

As for this, you may or may not have noticed [again, it depends on if you turn your speakers on or the volume up or if your Adobe reader is working, etc.] that I have changed the music for this Aristokei Core. In light of our spectacular concert, I had planned to change it for a day or two from 'No Turning Back' to 'Objection!' from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, since we were playing an extended version of this piece. In the future, I may change it to this for a stretch anyway, because it's quite catchy and enjoyable. However, with all that happened leading up to, and over the weekend, it escaped me. However, to mark the end of the semester, I decided for a change anyway.

Thus, I moved on to a theme that I've had up on a tab for probably two months now, and when Yoshimaru decides to break again, I will probably go back and put it up on it's own tab once more. I'm talking about a track from the Castlevania: Lament of Innocence OST.

Leon Belmont ranks up there as one of the sexiest of his clan. [unfortunately, he is Lawfully Stupid, and has the worst Good Job Breaking It, Hero moment, in that he aided in the ascension of Dracula. But he's blond~ look at him~]

Currently, 'House of Sacred Remains' is what I have up now. It has quickly become one of my favorites out of the whole two disc soundtrack, along with two or three others that I might circulate directly after this. The into might seem a little dull, or grainy even, but when you listen to the rest of it, there is undeniably a gorgeous meld of choral, organ, and synth. I find that when I listen to it again in a loop, the begnning actually does very nice job of setting the tone for the rest of the theme. It never returns to it, but now that you know how the rest sounds, it draws the ear deeper. Speculation and opinion, of course.

Thumbs up? Thumbs down? Want to know where to find it? I've been looking myself, and I think my good old friend Blue Laguna may have the entire two disc collection. If you prefer, you can always find it on Youtube, as I did to get it to play on here in the first place.

"You have become a cursed being and I will never forgive you. This whip and my kinsmen will destroy you someday. From this day on, the Belmont clan will hunt the night!"

That's all for now~ I hope you'll all enjoy it for the while. [heh, classic...!]

Eternally yours,
Il Ruinante Isaak

Rainbow Magic

Good afternoon, minna-sama~ and please do try to overlook the title. One might think I would give pause and try to gather my... hours of sleep before I try to post, but, not only has it been a bit too long between posts, I have Crowning Music of Awesome playing in the background. This would be the Main Trailer music for Dissidia 012 brought to you by Square-Enix [if the link does not go directly to the page where all the characters will pop up, click on the ENTER rectangle towards the bottom]. This music has quite literally gotten me through final papers, so I feel a post should be simple. I don't know if that explains why the title is... off. To-ni-kaku...

On Saturday, Gamer Symphony Orchestra had it's 5th Anniversary concert~! It went splendidly, and soon recordings will be up on our homepage, here. After our victory dinner, I sat around and waited for the Satanic Mechanics [not affiliated with Satan or car repair] to show up and help them with their shadowcasting of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. As a rule, it's widely accepted to dress up. This ranges from anything to a speedo, to full on bush camoflouge that military persons use. Anything goes. To an extent. A really, really, wide extent. Usually, there may be a cast theme for fandom and Time Warping; this show's theme was rainbows. I didn't get that memo, so I decided to keep it somewhat simple and go demonic priest.

And what priest would be complete without simply divine footwear to accompany it? The dubbed 'Undertaker Boots'.

Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera to the show, and by the time I got home I was too tired to take a picture [I had been up all night and into the morning]. I changed out of my clothes for Mother's Day breakfast at nine AM, and had the thought when I got back I'd change back just for the picture. But I was still too tired. Gomen, minna-sama, please put up with my lazy pic. *Weep.* If it makes things any better, this demonic priest had rainbow eyeshadow done, for keeping to the theme.

There was some purple in it to make it a good and complete rainbow, but it started to spread into a clown-blotch rather than a nice layer, so before I ordered something at McDonalds I wiped that part off. I was also wearing my black mask as well [unfortunately, when I breathe it fogs up my glasses unless I put them really low, so once the show was over I took that off]. I didn't have time to straighten my hair and put my Undertaker wig on, so I tied the o-natural curly goodness back [makes it easier to get the mask on].

On the aforementioned mention of the wig though, I have been planning to get a long blong wig, and trim it a little to make it accurate unto Bishop from DOGS Bullets&Carnage. Paired with the outfit above, and the Crow, I am quite excited to picture everything coming together for my Bishop cosplay. For kicks, I may make a white scarf rather than use the grey one, but who knows? I may accidentally forget [no really, I might]. Bishop would probably be in place of Akabane this year, unless that jacket decides to go and make itself in a random burst of [my own] energy. It would save me some space packing, since the 'cossak' comes out of Undertaker's cosplay [the part you can't actually see]. The entire cosplay would then only be the cost of the wig, and a pair of dollar store black lens glasses [blind priest is blind]. Excitement abound. I'm not sure you can tell though by the periods. Haha.

Music is so addictive~ maybe I should arrange this so we can play it next semester. Twould be so amazing... we continue to get better and better as our numbers increase, so I'm sure that soon GSO's repitoire will be limitless.

Ever tried a really amazing and crazy make-up job that came out surprisingly well? Do you have Rocky Horror where you are [pffft, what?]? Any otaku have plans for their cosplay this summer at the big conventions? Show us what you've got in mind~

"Even if I am no longer worthy of bearing the title, I will protect you until the end. That is my utmost duty."
Eternally yours,
Il Ruinante Isaak
p.s. who do you main as? I LOVE Warrior of Light.

Culturally Exploding [from the heat of summer, hello there.]

Good evening, minna-sama, I hope you all have had a good weekend. Saturday was beautiful, and I had a long event [and teaser concert for Gamer Symphony Orchestra~!], so by the time I got home that evening, I hadn't the energy to post for the event that happened last Tuesday. Late~! Forgive me everyone. If you will, here are some pictures for that event from that day, which include a couple of new things I experimented with~. Please enjoy.

Twas a very good event, too, used in part to promote our club, Jingu Bridge, but also be apart of the student showcase on campus. It was--title drop--a Cultural Explosion, so we hired ourselves out, as it were, and performed a para para dance in styles of Japanese street fashion, and then participated in the fashion show halfway through. While I think the weather that day would've been best suited for dressing up in Visual Kei, let's just say, among other things, looking a torn up mess at work may not have gone over well [and that is a maybe, as my workplace is surprisingly lenient]. But I'm temperature retardent. Wearing layers in 80 degrees is quite alright. ]

Here we are all together [power of paint to protect the innocent], in our sub-styles; left to right is seifuku, banba [our own Toriberry], yours truly, and Classic Lolita.

Today's focal piece, my lacy rose tie. I bought it at Otakon 07, and it has never once gone a day without a compliment. It's got a zipper collar, so to put it on all I have to do is zip it up or down. This picture seems to make it look bigger than it actually is. Although maybe it doesn't look that big to you. [The crucifix on top is Trinity Blood merchandise.]







I got a chance to put my hair back in a big bow like I've been meaning to do. The weather that day was definitely better suited for that, no less. It seems a little messy, but those are just my bangs from the front that you see on the sides. Those I'm not sure how well they worked, but I think I'll have to try a couple more times to see if anything can be done. The first picture shows them before they accidentally got a little wet, and thus a bit curly. Tucked behind my ears didn't look too bad though. [Also, I will probably get a wider ribbon just for this sort of thing. I think the big bow and ponytail is perfect Aristo hair styling, especially for the summer. Classical, in a way.]



And, last but not least~ the full length shots. If you click on each to see them larger, they are unfortunately a bit blurry [it seems the one sharper picture I took I accidentally deleted and didn't notice until I took them off the memory card; serves me right for not wearing my glasses through that process], please bear with me. I didn't wear my Demonia boots with this either, and I feel the shorter but simpler ones worked better for the appearance that I wasn't dressing for a show [ironic that I was], and come across to me as a bit more Aristo than Ouji. I will try this out again with the 'Undertaker' boots to see if they work the same.

Now that the summer months are rolling in, I'm going to adjust some, hopefully into Visual-Kei, but equally so I hope I can mix things up with the wardrobe I have--and hope to increase--to make Aristo work in the summer. Or working on cosplay projects may consume me and make me lazy when it comes to getting dressed each morning. I don't know.

Ever been in a student showcase with a cultural group? Or maybe been in a talent show of another sort, or even walked the runway? What do you like to see best in a talent show of your peers? How did you dress? Was what you wore even important [haha]?

Into the beautiful future, where we may all come together to be our own person, as we are one people.

Eternally yours,

Il Ruinante Isaak

p.s. Knowing that this would be a picture heavy post, I switched to blogger's new formatting toolbar thing-jabber in hopes of easing the formatting trouble I've been having lately. With all the grief it gave me, I'm almost ready to go back to the old one. But I think I've got it now. Maybe.