May London MCM Expo 2013 : The Stalls

So your walking around MCM London Expo and looking for some unique merchandise to spend your hard earned cash on. There are plenty of them so where do you start? We had the same problem, stalls are littered throughout the convention, many with tempting deals and some with hand-crafted items. Our journey was fruitful, we found some of the best stalls at MCM Expo and have culminated them here for your perusal.

Costume Box

We met a lovely lady called Sarah who was selling a selection of intricately made top hats and steam punk attire. She also added that she ran a delightful website for cosplayers who bought or sold with NO middle man, aka no commision if you sold something.

Basically you sell your new, second-hand, vintage, antique and retro costumes, clothes, accessories, fabric, props, jewellery, haberdashery, millinery, lace and lots more.

Talk to other members in the forums and get costume making help from costume Makers, Jewellery Makers, Skilled Crafts People, Photographers, Designers and Stylists. Find or publicise events, shows, competitions, performances, classes and workshops.

http://www.costume-box.co.uk/

All their ads are FREE during 2013 (Use the ‘Contact Us’ tab and they will reply with a Coupon Code for unlimited free ads).

Kawaii Cactus

Next an independent kawaii stall of course, this one even has the criteria in the name! Kactus Kawaii is a UK based online shop, devoted to bringing you super cute goods inspired by Japanese cultures and fashions! All of their products are handmade with love and care and put together here in the UK. Kactus kawaii search around the world to find the cutest and highest quality pieces and fabrics to use. All of the metal based jewellery (rings, earrings, bracelet and necklace chains etc) are always gold or silver plated, and nickel free!

Kactus Kawaii was founded, developed and run by Kelly Bailey, so if you ever have any queries or suggestions you can leave her a message on Facebook: www.facebook.com/KactusKawaii

Also if you are a UK resident, spend over £30 and the recorded postage is completely FREE!

Electric Sheep

“Neon, pastel and glitter are my two favourite things for making pretty hair bows, earrings and super cute fluffy boots ,
Stand out from the flock!”

This is the mantra of Electric sheep, following rave style neon colours and kitch skulls adorning their jewelry !

Specialising in accessories for: Gothic lolita, nu-rave, visual kei, alternative, mori etc

Whatever your fashion movement there will be something unique to fit into your attire. http://neonglittervixen.tumblr.com/ http://www.etsy.com/shop/neonvixen

ME being interviewed whilst playing the Deadpool game at MCM expo

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Asian Kung Fu Generation at O2 Academy Islington

Since the arrival of Big Bang, Kyari in the UK even classic indie rockers Asian Kung Fu Generation came to town. For £18 (per ticket, standing only) Asian Kung Fu Generation performed to a packed out O2 Islington Academy venue. The Queue spanned from the door, to outside the mall, to the street. If you were one of the lucky go-ers then you will shout "Naruto" with pride.

ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION, is a Japanese alternative rock band formed in Yokohama, Japan, in 1996. Formed with the members band Masafumi Gotō (vocalist), Kensuke Kita (guitarist, Takahiro Yamada (bassist), and Kiyoshi Ijichi (drummer). The band's musical style is influenced by seminal Western punk and alternative rock acts in conjunction with their own local Japanese indie rock background. As a result, their songs maintain a balance of various aspects of the genres, most typically expressing fast-paced tempos and prominent, hard-edged guitar riffs as well as rhythmic flow and emotional lyrics.

Despite the indie nature of their music, the band has enjoyed worldwide commercial success in addition to critical acclaim. They have done songs for anime such as: Naruto, Bleach, Fullmetal Alchemist and many more. They have even featured in Nintendo and Konami musical games.

The venue itself was intimate which was perfect. You felt so close to the stage and band. If you had queued early to get a good spot near the front then eating would of been an essential. Casually strolling in McDonalds you would have bumped into the band themselves having a quick burger before the show with their entourage.

The gig started promptly at 6:30 with a mixture of hits from all their albums with a lot of otakus pleasers, it had a great vibe - everyone was head bopping and foot taping on the second floor, looking from the balcony to the stage. A great addition was a TV screen for the 2nd floor s if you wanted to rest on the sofas you could still watch the show.

Then a great keepsake of the event was to use the 02 Academy Islington photobooth, where you could get photos with your friends to remember the event. It was an event where you would bump into your anime community friends and catch up. You also had access to two bars, upstairs and down with the usual refreshments including jelly shots for just £1.

For more adventures into anime, cosplay, gaming and events follow me on Facebook and twitter. 

^_^ Aisha Anime

The 5th Teracotta FIlm Festival 2013: Tera-cotta all nighter

BELENGGU

I'd never been to a horror film festival and Teracotta put on great films. Fortunate for me I enter alot of twitter competitions and I had won tickets for this particular all nighter - in my favourite genre.

Armed with snacks and cola, I was ready to stay up all night and enjoy some great horrors from the far east, which included: countdown, zomvideo, henge, belenggu, and the ghost story of yotsuya.

The night kicked off with Countdown, a Thai horror released 2012.

“ONE NIGHT, THREE FRIENDS AND JESUS….WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?”

It's New Year’s Eve in New York City goes wrong for three flat-mates when their drug dealer, Jesus, crashes their party and fucks them up. Royally.

Three guilty kids mixed with drugs equals a lot of mental torture and beating in this movie. Without ruining the plot, basically they are reborn and face the consequences of there actions willingly after surviving a night with Jesus.

Zomvideo a Japanese black comedy from 2011.

I say Black comedy because you couldnt really take this low budget parody seriously but who knows I could be wrong. Aiko is a new employee of a film production company. At work whilst looking for footage she discovers an old videotape made by their company entitled “A Guide to Surviving from Zombies”. It is an instructional video that will teach them how to kill zombies using office supplies.  Hilariously a zombie apocalypse is ensuing whilst she watches the video with a co worker and she uses her new knowledge tot he test.

Henge

The unnerving Henge, a Japanese horror/sci fi film from 2012

This ultra low budget, multi faceted movie has won acclaim from a number of international genre festivals, not my favourite. A young couple are plagued by a monstrous illness that threatens to tear their relationship apart.Yoshiaki morphs in to a bloodthirsty monster every night and eats people, after much therapy and help nothing can control him and he turns in a HENGE beast. Lol see what I did there?

The film I had been waiting for BELENGGU, Indonesian horror from 2012.


A film to rival the talents of David Lynch, this film sent you in a world of confusion, never knowing what is real and manipulated reality. Visions of violent murders, a giant knife throwing rabbit and a mysterious femme-fatale. Elang is haunted by images of bizarre murders involving a killer with a rabbit costume. His efforts to solve the mystery and save the lives of those he thinks are in danger have trapped him in a downward spiral and so he himself becomes a suspect.

I fell asleep through this one, the ghost story of Yotsuya, a Japanese horror from 1959.

A classic retrospective presentation of an old Japanese Macbeth-like folk tale (I am told). Sadly my eyes could not hold out for this film but here's the summary from Teracotta's website:

This masterpiece of shock stars AMACHI Shigeru as a low-ranking samurai who poisons his trusting wife, so he can make a more advantageous match. But his plans are disrupted when her ghost returns for revenge. WAKASUGI Katsuko plays an unforgettable character as the horrifying ghost of AMACHI’s wife.

The film is amongst some of the most faithful of many screen adaptations made since the silent era of a kabuki play by TSURUYA Nanboku, first staged in 1825.

The ‘regular gangster film for the first half that flips into a horror film in the second half’ structure of the film is one that is mimicked by the likes of FROM DUSK TILL DAWN.

A really nice evening at the Prince Charles Cinema, for more great film festivals by Teracotta go here:

http://terracottafestival.com/

May London MCM Expo 2013: The Games

London MCM Expo is a hub for a wide variety of events, including anime, manga, small press, cosplay, film and gaming. In this article we will be focusing on the latter and mentioning the others in future articles. Exploring all the gaming MCM Expo has to offer, we have broken down some of the most prominent games at the con with our opinions.

 

Time & Eternity

Release: 28/06/13

I came across this beautiful Japanese role-playing games, mixing 2D sprite animation with 3D backgrounds. All the 2D characters are hand drawn by famous Japanese artist Vofan (Bakemonogatari), with Animation studio Satelight (Macross Frontier) and Yuzo Koshiro is responsible for the game’s music.

From the playable gameplay we find that Toki, the main protagonist in action, goes back in time to prevent the assination of her husband to be Zack, who is later revealed as not dead but his soul has been transported into a dragon’s body. If you’re interested so far, Toki has an added pro of having two souls in one body and changes persona to Towa who has different fighting proficiency and hair colour.

From the fighting sequences, the 2D to 3D animations blends in seamlessly and looks brilliant. The high-quality animation blends in very well with its background. Be weary how friendly you get with the ladies, it will affect your ending, and with four possible endings you have a lot of gameplay to get through.

Deadpool the Game

Release: 28/06/13

As we all know the majority of London MCM Expo is about queuing, I spent best of an hour to get to play the demo of the Deadpool game. All Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom fans would be excited about this title as it is dedicated purely to the sarcastic and highly entertaining Deadpool superhero. His hobbies include eating chimichangas, shooting guns, teleporting and women.

The playable demo is an hour long but because of the queues I got to enjoy the game for 15mins, this included watching the begging intro sequence, tutorial and general frolics in the game. The playability is like Tomb Raider, except if you mess up you can teleport back to the last platform you were on.

If you get stuck at any point Deadpool commentates and gives you hints of where to go next and what moves you should be using. Being a ps3 player, it took me a while to adjust to the free view movement and camera. Great animation for all the cut scenes and the voice acting is spot on as they kept the same cast from UMVC3.

Game & Wario Wii U

Release: 28/06/13

Luckily getting to play a few of the mini games that Game & Wario on the Wii U was a treat. You first take photos of the players on the Wii U pad and then edit it creatively with the options given. Personally I loved the mustache stamp, it even recognises the facial expressions and fits the ‘tache correctly.

One game we played called ‘Fruit’ was a strategy game where you choose one player to be the fruit thief. Then he goes into a world and starts stealing fruit, the other players need to watch the screen and guess who the thief’s avatar is. But wait, the virtual environment has lots of people walking around, distractions too. Use man holes to move around and fool the other players. Subtly steal the fruit without being noticed.  A mini game not for the impatient! Timing is crucial.

The second Mii game was a interactive version of Pictionary, where you get a ridiculously hard american words like ‘adhesive tape’ and scramble to draw it. Who ever figures it out needs to shout out. Using the awesome Wii U pad, you can keep track of the score.

Eyri’s Action

Behind the Persona 4 Arena section where people battled the experts to win a free copy of the game, courtesy of Zen United, I came across the Rice Digital stall who were showcasing a few indie Japanese doushin games. Before I carry on, these are normal games, no hentai involved. The whole point of Rice Digital is to promote doushin as a non-taboo game series. They had mostly fighting games in their catalogue, alongside a beat em up and JRPG ’99 Spirits’ just recently released.

Eyri’s adventure was a hard platform game, which is very aggravating to play because it is so difficult. Rice Digital put up a challenge if you completed the first level you could win all the games on their back catalogue.

Bonus: Tales of Xillia demo was playable and if you came to the stall at the right time the creater of the tales series, Hideo Baba!