Man Crush Monday: Edward Elric

by Gaby

For this "Man Crush Monday" I am choosing Edward Elric. Back when the original airing of Fullmetal Alchemist was on, I totes wanted to put myself in the show and be Edward's personal mechanic myself, haha!  With his high optimistic attitude and go get 'em outlook on life, he was one of many people's favorite character.  Of course we loved when he was called  shrimp because then his adorable little temper would arise and it was just something hilariously adorable.



In the series Fullmetal Alchemist, if you haven't seen it, Edward and his brother Alphonse like to dabble in alchemy. Until one day their mother dies, the brothers are so heartbroken that they believe that they can bring her back using alchemy. However, something goes horribly wrong and Alphonse ends up losing his body, as "equivalent exchange" Edward pays the price of an arm and a leg and he was able to bond his brothers soul to a suit of armor.

Determined to find a way to get their bodies back to normal, Edward decides that he wants to enlist in the military and becomes the youngest state alchemist being able to pass the test at only the age of 12.

His endless determination to right the wrongs, his loyalty to himself and his brother, and just the overall good that comes out of Edward is why fan girls just adore him. Who couldn't adore an adorable pipsqueak with a heart of gold?

Nerdy Geek Fashion Show!

by Gaby


So today I was at an event at a store called Roll2Play in Coppell, Tx.  I had never been to Coppell, but it was pretty nice.  The store istelf was typical of a "nerd store" as some have come to call it, with lots of board games, card games, tournaments, miniature figures, and dice. Lots and lots of dice.
The cosplay contest was small with only about 6 participants, some where in a group, so even though there were more people standing up they were only going to judge as if there were only 6 contestants.

I made a five minute video of the cosplay and fashion show happenings, you will have to excuse my poor video, I had a problem with aspect ratios not matching up so the video might look a bit weird. I am still learning on my new video editing software so I wasn't successfull exporting the video in the best form either,  but low and behold I somehow got the video published on the ToriHato channel on YouTube, enjoy!

Anime Valentine Cards

by Gaby

So Happy Valentines Day to everyone! Hope you are having a good time whether alone, with friends,  or with your Valentine.   I have found a few fun cards that anyone is welcome to share today or for future use.  Of course anime Valentine cards can go anywhere from adorably sweet to of course some people's creations of borderline risque innuendos.   So here they are and enjoy!

Valentines Day. No Date? No Problem!

by Gaby

If you are amongst the many who will be dateless on Valentines day, have no fear because here I have your Otaku guide to survive your lonely valentines day!!!!

1. Sure everyone says its lonely to be alone, but you don't have to be alone! You have all your anime and your awesome otaku stuff!   I know some people have a collection of awesome plushies or really cool collectibles!

2. Use this time to binge watch on something awesome!  Or if you are still depressed watch an anime with a character that is so strange you will want to laugh.   I recommend if you haven't seen WATAMOTE this is a good time to watch it.  You'll that being a unique individual is pretty neat. Heck give yourself some hickeys so that when you see someone the next day you can be all like..."yeah I had some action."

Yes this is a scene from the anime WATAMOTE...she actually does this.

3. Eat Candy!!!!  Hey go to the store and try to look cool, buy the delicious candy yummies, or heck order yourself some and act surprised whent he delivery person shows up at your door.  Gotta love yourself right?  Try melting chocolate bars and making your own fun confections! It'll be fun!

All in all don't be sad if you don't have a date for Valentines day! remember its just another day, except its been overly marketed to sell chocolate and stuff.   Pretty soon you can go and shop for sales at 50% off! 
If you are still melancholy about being dateless and think you are forever alone, don't be sad, there are other that think the same.  Love finds people when they least except it, so get that out of your mind and just enjoy life! Be the best you, you can be! If you don't love yourself, how do you expect someone else to love you?

Stay happy and sweet! Happy Valentines Day!

Kevin Reynolds Performs Routine as Spike

By: Jenny

Everyone has a passion for something. Whether it's cooking, drawing, or sports, we always find a way to blend those hobbies with other things that make us feel awesome. What better way to show off your love for Japanese pop culture than during a competition?

Canadian figure skater Kevin Reynolds performed a short program in the 2016 Canadian National Figure Skating Championships this weekend. What makes his performance unique is that he skated to Yoko Kanno's "Tank!" while cosplaying as Spike Spiegel.

Kevin was born on July 23, 1990 and has started skating at the age of four. He is the 2013 Four Continents champion, 2010 Four Continents bronze medalist, and a four time Canadian national medalist. In this year's competition he scored 77.65 and was placed in third. Despite his fall during the triple Axel it was an amazing performance.

"Tank!" is not the first anime based routine that he has performed in the past. He has also skated to music from Legend of Zelda and Chrono Trigger.

ERASED - Episode 1 First look review

by Gaby

Boku Dake Ga Inai Machi, known as, Erased in English, is a newly released thriller anime with sci-fi elements.  I had heard about it so I decided to go ahead and check out the first episode when I was told there would be time travel involved.

How this starts is we meet our front character Satoru Fujinuma, a 29 year old part timer living on his own, however, he has a weird special ability.  He randomly has weird flashbacks that basically let him re-do a part of life he just lived. He doesn't know when or how far he will jump back to so he is always looking out for details to make sure that something doesn't seem odd.
One day he is on a pizza delivery on the work motorcycle and he skips back about a minute back in time in order to avoid a little boy getting run over by a truck, in this chaos he ends up in the hospital with some minor injuries. 
Satoru's mom pays him a visit and decides to stay with him for a while.  While his mom is there with him, we learn that there is a part of his past as a child that has to do with an abduction of a little girl that Satoru feels guilty about, he feels that he could have helped the little girl and its his fault she was abducted.
While Satoru and his mom are at a supermarket, he has a flashback to a few minutes back and he can't figure out why he flashed so he asks his mom if she feels strange or if she notices anything weird, his mom says that he would say things like that in the past before too, just then his mom notices a guy walking with a little girl towards a creepy van, the creeper suddenly connects eyes with the mom and decides not to abduct the little girl. Mom can't get this out of mind so she does some digging around the next day and connects the dots that this guy might be the same creeper from before. She goes to Satoru's apartment to wait for him, and when she thinks Satoru got home....it wasn't him...the creeper had followed her home.

Just watch it! I'm serious it is a really good anime, its suspenseful, it has a good sci-fi element, and the character seems legit. 

Another thing that totally got me hooked was that as the ending credits rolled, I heard the wonderful sounds of one of my favorite Japanese bands, Asian Kung-Fu Generation with their song RE: RE:.

I will definitively be watching more of this when I can, right now the first episode is available subtitled on Funimation.

Check it out!

First Blog of 2016! New Year Resolutions!

by Gaby

It is 2016,  yay we survived to see another year! Time for resolutions and planning all out all the conventions to go to this year!  To me 2015 was a rollercoaster of a year, lots of good anime that year, of course the top of the charts was One Punch Man, even the people I introduced that show to really ended up liking it!

Here are 10 new things Otaku can learn or look forward to this year...think of it as a new years resolutions type of thing if you want!

1. List out all the new anime you are expecting and make plans to watch them!

2. Plan out and start budgeting for what conventions to go to this year, lets try to at least go to half of the ones we really really want to go to!  Or if you are really on a budget...try at least one major con and 2 or 3 smaller one day cons. ^_^

3. Start building your cosplay! Or at least start planning it and shopping for it!

4. Learn a new otaku trade! Whether its learning to make video games, learning Japanese, or even just learning how to properly use chopsticks or make tea!

5.  Learn to make a traditional Japanese food or sushi...or any food in my case...yes I am a horrible cook.

6. Get the courage to do that one thing at the convention that you were too scared to last year, for example, if you were too shy to participate in a contest or a group event.

7. Meet at least 1 other Otaku every month! Or if you are really not very social one new Otaku friend this year!!!

8.  Learn a new anime opening or ending song with lyrics and everything by memory!!!

9. Try learning a new Japanese phrase at least once per month! and by the end of the year you will at least know 12 phrases!

10. Don't be afraid to try new things! Like a new food, a new store, or a new restaurant!

Why One Punch Man is Great!

by Gaby

 

One Punch Man has become a really big hit in Japan and so I decided to check it out. Watching the first episode I could already see this anime was certainly different than your usual hero anime.
Where in most stories the hero struggles with their opponent for sometimes multiple episodes, One Punch Man answers the question, "What if the hero was too strong?"

Saitama was an unemployed salary man when he saved a big chinned kid from a lobster monster, from that moment on he decided to train to become a hero, he trained so hard that his hair fell out and became so strong that now has ability to defeat anyone with just one punch.  However, he wishes there was more thrill in it, so he's a bit bored with just finishing opponents off in one punch.

The series isn't all just seriousness, there is a lot of comedy in this anime, how some of these monsters get defeated, or they surrender, and they best not ramble, Saitama likes things summarized in 20 words or less! 

If you haven't started watching One Punch Man, then do so! It's currently the #1 anime in Japan and every day gaining more audience.  Watch the greatness of Saitama and his follower Genos as they register to become recognized heroes, fight genetically enhanced creatures, and still make it on time for the Saturday sale at the supermarket!  Here are some screenshots to get you a little familiar with the show.

Knocks out opponents with just one punch

That was too easy...as usual

Genos, a cyborg hero, wants to be Saitama's disciple.

No time for games, this hero has shopping to do!!!

#OnePunchMan #Saitama #Genos #AnimeReview #pleaseanime

Anime North Texas 2015: Aftermath

by Gaby

This year Anime North Texas was at a new location at the historic Hilton Fort Worth in Downtown Fort Worth, TX.  It was actually a really good turnout with over 100% growth since last year, I believe the final numbers showed over 2,000 registered guests for the convention, which is pretty good considering this is newer three day convention.

The panel selection was so, so, from what I saw it was pretty decent.  There were at least 3 specific panels you could go to throughout the day, small but full dealers room, artist area, and even a maid cafe.

I actually volunteered in the maid cafe and I gotta say it was really great! The deal for the maid cafe was pretty swell too, $10 got you a bowl or your choice of ramen, a canned drink (green tea, milk tea, or Japanese coffee), and a pastry for dessert! Plus you got to hang out with the maids, play games, enjoy dances, and socialize!

I didn't get to take too many pictures since I was out volunteering with the maids, but this being my first time volunteering at a convention was pretty good!  The only thing is that if you do volunteer at cons, you really have to be there because you want to volunteer, not because you want a free badge.  The majority of my day was taken up by my actual event that I was volunteering for, so I didn't get to roam around the convention during the day at all.  However I did enjoy it because it was fun getting to hang out with a bunch of people at the maid cafe!

Here are a few pictures from ANT2015.

Cosplay for Fun!

by Gaby

In the nerdy fandom community there are people known as cosplayers. They dress up, act like the character, sometimes play out scenes or say lines that the character would say. 
This weekend I was at a local convention and it reminded me how great even a small convention can be when you have cosplayers getting together and being really awesome at it.

A few general tips on cosplaying while I am on the subject of cosplay.

1. Yes you can be creative with your cosplay that is perfectly fine, it is fun to do crossplays (crossover cosplay), gender benders, or anything new that hasn't been done before.

2. Whether you are actually trying to be the character or just dressing up, have fun! People don't approach someone who looks angry or like they aren't enjoying themselves, you want to have fun! Cosplay! Play is about fun!

3. Haters gonna hate but don't let them bother you.  There will always be that one person or group of people who say, oh they didn't do a good job cosplaying because they are too overweight, or they aren't the right ethnicity, this is not what having fun in cosplay is about.  Be comfortable in your skin and wear what you want to wear, be who you want to be! No one is 100% accurate, I mean come on its just a fictional character the whole world doesn't depend on what race Sailor Moon is or how thin or large you are to portray a certain character. 

Well now that I got that out o the way lets move to some pictures I took over the weekend at the G33K3 convention that was held in McKinney Texas Friday and Saturday December 4-5, 2015.

Darth Vader and company

Jenny and I cosplay, Fluttershy and Tina Belcher

Chewbacca

Donattello and Raphael

Speed Racer

Female Loki