That Geek Thing

Kyahri: interview with League of Legends and Teen Titans cosplayer

May 31, 2015

by thatmediathing with No Comment Cosplay Cosplay Interviews

“I love Halloween,” says Kyahri (aka Sarah Rose Gunn) when asked about dressing up. “That’s like the best day of the year. Well, it used to be but not anymore, because everyday is like Halloween for me.”

Hailing from Scotland, Kyahri’s interest in cosplay started in 2010 after a friend persuaded her to attend a cosplay meet. She later turned to making her own costumes and has since gained recognition for cosplaying as the wild and crazy Jinx from League of Legends.

My interview with Kyahri was conducted at May’s MCM London Comic Con, where she appeared to be morally supportive towards fellow cosplayers and equally happy, yet modest, about her own achievements. She also revealed that one of the costumes she wore at the convention, Raven from Teen Titans, was put together cheaply in just one day with leftover material. During our time we talked about motivation to work on costumes, budgeting and wanting to be Jinx.

Who are you cosplaying as this weekend?

Raven from Teen Titans, Popstar Ahri from League of Legends, and Jinx from League of Legends.

You mention Ahri, which was one of the first costumes you made.

It was the very first costume that I made by myself, the classic Ahri.

I understand you’ve made some adjustments to this since you first attempted it. What have you changed?

I’ve made new tails for this and they’re bigger. They’re pink, so they’re different! I’ve made them a different way because I wasn’t really happy with the way I made my first costume.

You put up a video showing how you put the tails together for Popstar Ahri. Could we potentially see more videos like this which would help others thinking of cosplaying the same character?

Yeah, I want to make more videos like that. I just haven’t really made anything that’s worth documenting. Hopefully the next cosplay I make will be one I can [make a video for].

How did you end up getting into cosplay? I understand you were persuaded to go along to a cosplay event?

I used to watch anime when I was younger and never really thought anything of it. It was in 2010 and my friend said, ‘We should go to this meet. I really want to go and see these people who dress up as anime characters.’ I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t want to go.’ But we went, it was really fun and it just took off from there.

It was in Glasgow in my hometown. People used to meet up, we’d dress up in character, walk around and act really stupid. It’s kind of embarrassing now, but it was really fun at the time.

I used to only be into anime and buying costumes, but a couple of years later I started playing games and I got more into cosplaying. Then I thought, ‘Oh, I really want to go to one of these conventions.’ The first MCM one I went to was May 2013; that was when I made Ahri.

You say you’ve always been into dressing up and making stuff. Do you happen to recall a particular turning point that you feel got you to where you are now?

(Pauses) Probably when I got my first sewing machine a couple of years ago. I didn’t know how to thread, didn’t know how to do anything. I was like, ‘I really want to learn how to do this.’ I started studying fashion so I could learn how to make clothes. It’s making me more optimistic about stuff that I want to make and I want to try harder now.

So you were initially buying costumes online…

Yeah.

Then you wanted to take this to the next level?

Yeah. What’s the point of paying all this money just to wear it? I’d rather show something that I’m proud of, like, ‘I made this. Look at me’ (laughs). And every time you make something it gets better, so you can see how you’ve progressed. If you looked at my first costume and [compared it] to my stuff now, you’d be like, ‘Well, that was really bad back then’ (laughs).

I don’t think a cosplayer is ever going to be satisfied with their work. There’s always something you can improve. Even if someone else can’t see it, you’re like, ‘Nah, I can do that better.’ There’s a lot of trial and error as well when it comes to cosplay. Because you might not know how to do something, then you’ll try it… and it works! Then you’re like, ‘Well, I learnt something new today!’

I would ask what your favourite cosplay is, but I take it that it’s Jinx from League of Legends?

(Hesitates)

Unless that’s changed recently?

Well… Jinx and Ahri kind of tie. I can’t really decide between them, I love them both so much. I’ve done more Jinx cosplay, but that’s probably just because it’s easier. But I do like Ahri more to be honest. People know me for Jinx.

So I imagine one day it would be Jinx and the next day it would be Ahri?

That’s why I’m doing Ahri and Jinx this weekend, because they’re my favourites. The only thing I had [definitely] decided on [for this weekend] was Ahri, so I guess that means Ahri is probably my favourite (laughs).

They’re both from League of Legends. What is it about these characters/cosplays that you like so much?

The thing I like about Ahri is that she’s a fox and she has tails. My favourite Pokémon is Ninetails, and it just looks like her so much. Also I used to be a Naruto fangirl, I was really into Naruto and he’s kind of like what Ahri is.

I like Jinx because of her personality. She’s crazy, she’s got blue hair, she’s someone I’d want to be like. I want to be like her (laughs). People say that I act like Jinx when I’m in costume. I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s really weird. Because I’m not like Jinx at all in real life.’

You say you wish you were like Jinx. Is there a bit of wish fulfilment there as soon as you put the costume on?

I think once you put a costume on, you can feel like a different person. That’s the thing I like about cosplay. I feel like I am Jinx and I get more confident and I actually transfer that confidence into my real life as well… just not as crazy.

You’ve done lots of variations of Jinx. Is there a particular favourite?

Battle Bunny Jinx is my favourite. That was just something random I put together, because there’s a character in League of Legends called Riven who’s got a Battle Bunny skin. I was like, ‘Oh, I’d really like to cosplay her.’ But I kind of wanted to cosplay Jinx. So I thought, ‘I could put them together.’ After I made it, people were like, “Ah, that’s really cool,’ and they started making their own versions of different characters. So I started a trend, which is cool! I think tomorrow you’ll see another one walking about. So I’m like, ‘Yeah, I started that!’

Because you’re mostly known for cosplaying Jinx, how do you tend to react when people leave comments, saying you are “the best Jinx cosplayer” they have ever seen?

I take it as a compliment, but sometimes, deep down, I don’t think I am. I know people who I think are better. As long as people aren’t dissing another cosplayer against me then I don’t really mind. But if someone said, ‘Oh, you’re so much better than this cosplayer,’ I’d be like, ‘Don’t say that. That’s really rude.’ I wouldn’t want someone to say to me, ‘Oh, you’re not as good as that Jinx cosplayer.’ It’s not a situation anyone wants to be in.

It’s kind of like bullying in a way. You can spend ages on a costume and think it’s amazing, then someone could say, ‘Oh it’s not that good. That cosplayer is so much better.’ Then you’ll be really upset.

You’re thinking about how the other person feels?

Yeah. You have to think about stuff like that when you cosplay. Some people are just like, (adopts diva persona) ‘I’m the best, I know I’m the best, that person is crap,’ and you’re just thinking, ‘Oh my God’ (laughs).

You’ve said that you don’t actually have motivation to work on costumes.

I usually get motivation when I have to do something else that’s university or work related. I’m like, ‘Oh, I think I might work on my costumes,’ and I get really pumped to make my costumes.

I’m a really lazy person. If I’m lying in the house and I have nothing to do, I’m just like, ‘Nah….’ I usually end up rushing everything in the last few weeks like most cosplayers, because [I say], ‘I’ll do it later.’

So is it the looming deadline of a convention that causes you to work on your cosplay?

Yeah. I want to be organised. When it comes to a couple of weeks before a convention, you’re like, ‘Oh my God, I need to do this.’ So that gives you motivation to make it, because you want to have it in time.

So were you like that in the last two weeks before this convention?

Yeah, I completely remade my Ahri jacket because I didn’t like it. My Raven cosplay, I only decided I was cosplaying that a couple of days ago and I made it in one day. You panic more and then you make things really fast. You can ask any cosplayer. It stresses you out, but you get it done. It’s kind of like any work. I like to think that cosplay is fun though, because it’s fun when you get to wear it, but you still think, ‘Ugh… I need to do that.’ So… you need motivation.

Is that going to change in the future, before your next convention?

Hopefully, because I want to start making bigger and better things, so I would need to start things more in advance. Because I did time my Ahri tails. I thought, ‘Okay, I’ll make them in advance.’ So I got them ready, but I kind of gave up halfway through and I ended up rushing that as well. I need to find something to give myself more motivation, to keep going. Eventually I’ll be able to get it all organised… hopefully.

You’ve said that you usually spend more money than you should when working on cosplay. Do you try to budget or is it just a case of spending till satisfied?

When I used to have a job, I used to spend what I wanted because I’d get more money next week, but I don’t have a job now, so it’s kind of more budgeting. I still buy my fabric from fabric stores, but now I buy them on eBay because it’s so much cheaper. You can buy samples online and sometimes they’re free.

For Raven, I was using stuff I had lying around the house. I was like, ‘Nah, I’m not spending money on this costume.’ So I only spent a tenner on that costume.

I think I’m getting smarter with where I buy things from and how I buy things. If you waste so much money on something, you just think, ‘Why did I do that?’ You regret it. My first Ahri costume I spent so much money on that, and I’ve just thrown it in the bin because it’s so bad. I haven’t thrown the tails in the bin; I’ve still got the tails.

Okay, I’m curious, how much did you spend?

The costume didn’t cost that much. But the tails, I used some really expensive faux fur for some reason. It was like £100 for them. I kind of regret spending that much money, because I only ended up spending £30 on my new Ahri tails. I could have got it for so much cheaper if I wasn’t so naïve back then, thinking ‘I’ll just buy this one because it’s pretty.’ But it’s cheaper if you get it online.

What would be your number one dream cosplay to create?

This changes a lot. I think it would probably be Morgana or Nami from League of Legends, because they’ve got wings and tails and I think it would be amazing to make something like that. But I don’t know how to do that. If I made wings I’d want them to be huge, but I could never transport them anywhere.

I want to do it one day, but I have enough trouble getting tails down. I need to shrink my tails so I can manage them in my suitcase. I could never shrink my wings.

You said earlier that cosplaying has helped you with your own confidence. Would you say that it has allowed you to do things you wouldn’t have found yourself doing a few years ago?

Definitely. I used to be really shy… I still am quite shy, but I can go up to people and have a conversation with them. I’ve made so many friends through cosplay. Most of my friends live in England. But I can go up to anyone in the convention and just talk to them. It’s really good. It gives you that confidence in real life.

I feel like, to do cosplay, you can’t be really shy. If you want [people to] take pictures of you, you [have to] want to be in front of the camera, and it gives you more confidence to do that. I love being in front of the camera. But in real life, if someone asked me to be in a movie, I’d probably say no, because I don’t like acting. But being with my friends and having fun just makes it so much easier. So yeah, cosplay really helps.

How does it feel for you when you’re here at MCM and people ask you for a photo and talk to you about your character and costume?

It’s amazing, I love it! I’d be so disappointed if I came to a convention and no one wanted to talk to me about my costume or take a photo. On Saturday I hope I get a lot, because I’ve worked hard on [my Popstar Ahri] costume and I want it to be noticed. I didn’t work hard on Raven so I don’t mind if I don’t get noticed for that (laughs).

Thank you to Kyahri for taking the time out for the interview. You can also follow her on her Facebook page (Kyahri Cosplayer).

Photo of Kyahri cosplaying as Popstar Ahri by Harriett Greene (Manga Girl Photography).

Thank you also to Papercube for arrangement and photos. You can check out his work on his Facebook page.

MCM London Comic Con panel: "Who Runs the World? Girls!"

May 29, 2015

by thatmediathing with No Comment Events

A fantastic line up of women swept onto Theatre B at MCM London Comic Con on Sunday afternoon for the last panel of the day, titled “Who Run the World? Girls!”. The seats were packed, the aisles crammed, and some punters snuck closer to sit on the floor in front of the stage when they had nowhere else to go.

In order of appearance, came Merrin Dungey and Victoria Smurfit from Once Upon a Time, Felicia Day (The Guild, Supernatural), Willa Holland (Arrow), Renée Felice Smith (NCIS:LA), Emily Wickersham (NCIS), Annie Wersching (The Vampire Diaries), Jadyn Wong (Scorpion) and Rila Fukushima (Arrow).

These women have fought and waited many years to get roles that are more than ‘some guy’s little sister’, or the ‘black best friend’, or the ‘love interest’. Now they’ve started to see a change, in TV shows especially, as they star in shows as women characters who can carry their own plot line rather than propping up male protagonists.

Felicia Day expressed that even male side-characters tend to be more developed than female ones, so when she watches a show, she defines a strong female character by asking, ‘Can this woman carry the weight of the show?’. She further explained, “I think that, when we say ‘strong women character’, it becomes a cliché sometimes because you think of a girl in leather pants just kicking a man in the face. But I think we’ve gone so much past that now. If you really ask what people mean, I think, my interpretation is that it’s a woman character who you can understand her emotional point of view, and can imagine her carrying the whole piece, no matter if she’s the lead, or the second, third, or fourth lead.”

“If you look at entertainment, frequently you will see other men characters in a movie or a TV show with the ability to carry a show because they’re so fully realised emotionally, but frequently, especially if a woman is a love interest, you don’t understand who she is, she just moves with the plot to enable the man character to do what he needs to do. I think that’s what is very exciting to see, especially on genre shows, where you can see any one of the women on this panel carrying the show, because their characters are very strong, and to me that’s what strength is.” The audience clapped hard for a few seconds at this great description.

Despite progress being made in female representation, however, there’s still resistance to women having more vocal and prominent roles, especially when marketing these products. The panel was asked if they had encountered this kind of resistance from higher-ups in the industry, and Annie Wersching, who voices Tess in The Last of Us, said, “I remember with The Last of Us there was an issue where the higher-ups didn’t want Ellie to also be on the cover of the game, they wanted it just to be Joel, just the guy, and Neil Druckmann, the director, and Naughty Dog fought for her to be there because she’s just as much the main character as Joel. So, I think it also takes the right people to make the doors open when some narrow-minded people at the top don’t always want that, but I thought that was crazy that they didn’t want her on the front.”

On a lighter note, a member of the audience asked if there was a Marvel or DC superhero they wanted to play. Merrin Dungey said a version of Batman. Willa Holland said a female Flash. Renée Felice Smith said, “Well, this isn’t Marvel or DC, but I’m a big fan of Neil Gaiman. I’d love to play Death. I think it’s a story that has to be told, and cinematically it could be really beautiful and really visual.”

Next, someone pointed out that Emily Wickersham’s character on NCIS has an obsession with sitting on tables, and was this a choice of hers or if it was a habit Emily had before the show? “When I came in and I first auditioned for the role,” Emily began, “it wasn’t written in the script for this scene in the squad room. I was leaning up against the desk, and I guess I just, I didn’t really think about it beforehand, I just hopped up on the desk. Didn’t really think about it during the scene. After I got the part of Bishop they were like, ‘Oh, by the way, loved what you did. Also, a new addition to your character that we’re gonna continue with is we’re gonna put you on surfaces. You’ll do a lot of your work on surfaces—decks, floors, file cabinets—so, I guess they liked it.”

This question extended to the rest of the panel, and Renée told a tale about how she got one show part because she had a bloody knee. “I had fallen outside—I’m a terrible klutz—and I fell on the gravel. I came in, I got a bandaid and put in on my knee, and when I came in and they’re like, ‘Oh, that’s her, that’s the girl, she would fall and have a bloody knee!’ So, that—that’s it.” Her dry tone of voice as she said this sent laughter ripping across the audience.

After a question to do with which Salvador brother does Annie Wersching prefer working with, the panel host asked, since the panel all work with a lot of “great looking men”, do they find that a lot of the questions they get are about the men? “The most frequent question I get asked,” said Willa, “is how is it working with Stephen Amell, and how hard is it playing his sister and not being attracted to him? I’m not attracted to him, guys! He’s my brother, not in real life but on TV. There’s nothing there. But I get asked that all the time, ‘Is it hard—do you want to touch his abs?’”

Merrin Dungey and Victoria Smurfit, on the other hand, most often get asked what it’s like working with Lana Parrilla, who plays Regina Mills in Once Upon a Time. “It’s probably the only show I’ve done where the question is about a woman, and I really actually love that,” said Victoria, “because you do get asked a lot, ‘What was it like doing a bed scene with Phil le Blanc?’ So it’s really nice to be always asked, ‘What’s Lana like? What’s Lana like?’ And, for the record, she’s magic.” The audience aww’d at how sincere Victoria and Merrin’s admiration was for Lana Parrilla.

The next question to the panel asked what advice would they give to young women wanting to go into acting and other male dominated jobs. Renée answered first, saying that it’s important to embrace your idiosyncrasies. She felt that one of the reasons she’s been employed is because she sounds different and she looks a certain way. “I think that’s a good thing—letting your differences define you. Embrace yourself , be comfortable with yourself, and don’t be afraid to be yourself. I guess that would be my advice.”

Merrin sternly added, “Get a thick skin, because not everyone is going to like you, and it doesn’t matter. You have to love yourself, you have to trust yourself, and you have to be brave. Something happened not too long ago where I was CC’d into an email that I wasn’t supposed to see. I read some stuff about myself that I didn’t want to hear—that somebody had an opinion about me—and I had to go back and work with this person. You have to have a thick skin, particularly as a woman, because we have this thing about wanting to be liked and to people please. That is not going to help you get the job, or to get the job done.” Her frankness caused another round of applause and the panel nodded in agreement.

Things turned to social media as the panel was asked what it was like to receive direct reactions to their characters online. After a few glances up and down the table, Felicia Day inched closer to her microphone. “I’m very lucky to be mostly on the internet with my work,” she said, “which sometimes can be disheartening, but 99 percent of the time it’s very encouraging. When I hear from people with Charlie from Supernatural, she’s a geek who’s a lesbian, but she’s not defined by those traits. She is a human being, she’s fully fleshed out. We’ve seen an amazing journey for her, and she happens to be these other things.”

“I think, especially on TV, we see people in categories like, ‘best friend’ or ‘love interest’ or ‘evil person’, and all the characters on this panel seem to be more nuanced. I think that’s where you see people respond and be inspired to either be who they want to be, or follow a path they never would have followed before. That really is what the most beautiful thing is about being an artist—whether an actor, or a painter, or a writer—you’re affecting change in other people.”

This eventually led to someone asking how the women on the panel dealt with frustration when working in the field of acting. Victoria leant to the mic and said, “Wine,” to everyone’s amusement. When no one else elaborated, the host asked, “Is that it? Anything other than wine? Is that a panel of wine-os?”

Laughing, Renée elaborated, “I think I would just say talk about it, like with anything else in your life, when something starts to bubble up and you feel the rage burn inside of you, talk about it. I had a situation on set very early on where a camera person kind of scolded me in a way that, I felt, he wouldn’t scold anyone else on the show, but because I was brand new and I looked like I was a sixteen year old little homeless child, he felt that he could throw his weight around with me. So, from day one I had to be really straight forward and say, ‘Hey, please talk to me as you would talk to everybody else. I’m trying to do the best job I can and the only way I can do that is if I’m respecting you, then please respect me.’ And so, I think, just being vocal and getting it out there, rather than pushing it down is the healthiest way to deal with it.”

On the flip side, Merrin added to this, “I think that’s true, but I also think that you have to stand up for yourself and have your boundaries.” She referred back to the unkind email she’d read and said that there was no way to talk about it with the person involved. She just had to go in and get it over with. “Some things you can’t always work out, because some people have a higher position and they don’t want to hear about it, or whatever. It’s called a job for a reason. Sometimes you just need to go and be great, do your job to the best of your ability, be on time, be kind and polite—because you didn’t win the lottery, you just got a great job—so respect everybody. Just go do your job.”

The panel rounded off by talking about what motivates them to get up in the morning and go do their job—for Willa it’s the passion she receives from her fans, for Annie it’s to make her mother proud, and for Merrin it’s to provide for her kids and to be an inspiration to them.

After forty-five minutes of great questions and answers, the women walked off stage to a thunderous round of applause and much cheering. If you haven’t seen any of their shows, hop to it! They’re involved in fantastic stories right now that are part of, what many are calling, the “Golden Era” of TV.

MCM London Comic Con guests reveal their favourite cosplays and more

May 28, 2015

by thatmediathing with No Comment Cosplay Cosplay Interviews

Having recently been unveiled on the MyM Buzz Facebook page, we are now pleased to announce that our latest video from MCM London Comic Con is also available on our YouTube channel.

This video features the convention guests talking about their favourite aspects of the event, as well as their favourite cosplays seen during the weekend. Featured guests include: John Noble (Fringe & Sleepy Hollow), Felicia Day (Supernatural, The Guild, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Geek And Sundry), Jessica Nigri (Cosplay Idol), Iain De Caestecker (Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., The Fades), Nick Blood (Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), Renee Felice Smith and Barrett Foa (NCIS: Los Angeles), Emily Wickersham (NCIS), Ali Hillis and Mark Meer (Mass Effect), and Tyler James Williams (The Walking Dead, Criminal Minds, Everybody Hates Chris).

Click play below to watch the video. You can also see more videos and photos from the weekend on the MCM Buzz YouTube channel and in our Facebook photo galleries.

Videographers – Jordan Bragg and Jacob Cooper.

Audio/Video Editor – Jacob Cooper.

Crew provided by Southampton Solent University and Jack Tindall.

Interview with MCM London Comic Con's Anime Guest of Honour: Hidetaka Tenjin

May 28, 2015

by thatmediathing with No Comment Features Interviews

At MCM London Comic Con May 2015 we were lucky enough to get an interview with the Anime Guest of Honour, Hidetaka Tenjin. He has worked as an artist for Hellsing Ultimate, the Macross franchise and Gundam Evolve. Check out our chat with Hidetaka Tenjin down below.

How are you doing, how are you finding London?

Hidetaka Tenjin: It’s great! I love the architecture and the people walking around.

How did you first get into art?

Hidetaka Tenjin: I wanted to be all sorts of things. I wanted to be a pilot, I wanted to make robots, but in the end art is just where I settled.

You specify in mechanical, and sci-fi illustrations, how did you get to that point?

Hidetaka Tenjin: As a child I loved mecha, sci-fi, anything enormous, so I naturally started drawing those kind of things. I’m from the generation where we had Star Wars and Star Trek in the States, and those influence a sci-fi boom in Japanese anime as well.

I understand you majored in mechanical control systems. Did that inform your artwork?

Hidetaka Tenjin: Of course, I want to draw mecha that can actually move. Anime designs tend to be all over the place, but I like making them look like they could actually work in real life.

Some of your most popular work include the Macross franchise, Gundam and Hellsing Ultimate. Explain what you loved about all of these?

Hidetaka Tenjin: With Gundam it’s so huge and there’s so many people involved, especially with the box art for the model kits, there’s a huge tradition behind them. Being allowed to draw the box art for all of those was a big honour for me.

With Hellsing I was involved with the mecha design, and I really don’t like horror or gore. But it was set in London, and I did loads of research in to London and now I am here which is really great. Although I do feel that I need to apologise to the people of London for that kind of story.

Because Hellsing was obviously so different, what was the biggest challenge?

Hidetaka Tenjin: To be honest, it was part of my London research. It was really difficult to find out about the police in London. I tried to find out what the officers from Scotland Yard would wear, what shape the helmets were, what jackets they would have. It was really difficult to find that information online. Although yesterday I actually saw real life police officers for the first time. It was very exciting.

You do cover, and box art, explain how you feel creating them?

Hidetaka Tenjin: It’s really good fun, because it’s like drawing my own art.

Are there any games, anime or manga that you really enjoy?

Hidetaka Tenjin: Sidonia, Knights of Sidonia, and I am looking really forward to the new Star Wars.

What’s next for you in the future?

Hidetaka Tenjin: My next interview (laughs). Just kidding, I am working on the new Macross TV series right now. Also I am continuing to draw the box art for the series Star Wars model kit for Bandai that looks like it’s going to carry on for a while.

MCM London Comic Con May 2015 In a Nutshell video

May 28, 2015

by thatmediathing with No Comment Events

Over the weekend at MCM London Comic Con, one of the talented MCM video team members, Josh McCullough was once again let loose with his camera to catch some of the highlights from the event at the ExCeL centre.

The ‘In a Nutshell’ video includes a look at areas of the event, such as the stalls, VidFest, Esports and Fringe Stage. There is also the likes of Hello Kitty, some of the video games (Farming Simulator 15 anyone?), cosplayers, My Little Pony plushies, maneki-nekos and even a guitar playing Titan?!

Intrigued? Well click play below to watch the video. You can also catch up on all of our video content from the event on our YouTube Channel.

K-pop intro to Boys Republic + European Tour Greeting

May 28, 2015

by thatmediathing with No Comment Music News

As K-pop fans might have heard, rookie K-pop boy group Boys Republic will be touring Europe on their “The Royal Tour” from 3rd – 12th July 2015. Stopping off in Paris, London, Amsterdam, Koln, Berlin, Krakow, Budapest, and Wien. Tickets are already on sale and are selling like hot cakes, so be sure to act fast as only the last few are left!

Under Universal Music, members Wonjun, Sunwoo, Minsu, Sungjoon, and Suwoong spent two long years vigorously training in Dance, Music, Vocals, Culture, and Language, coming together as Boys Republic in June 2013.

Their first release was Party Rock which set the stage for a very successful future and proved that although they are a boy group amongst many in Korea, they were completely unique in terms of musical style and promotional activities for their era. The song peaked at #1 in the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand. Whilst debuting the members also became part of the much loved show Rookie King: Boys Republic which showed the daily life of the group in a diary form, whilst getting the members to do quests.

In October 2013 the group made their second appearance in the charts with the release of You Are Special. The song features some heavy vocals and club music, which mellows at the chorus. The month also saw members voted and invited to close the U.O.X music festival in Malaysia. They also became the ambassadors alongside K-pop boy group VIXX for the charity campaign Eye Camp Expedition, joining volunteers in Vietnam to help the visually impaired.

Video Game was released early in 2014 with the caption “Childish boys growing up to be superheroes.” The music style was unique, along with the beautifully choreographed video, which allowed a connection between the K-pop world and the electronic side of Korea that the country is known for (E-sport MMORPG’s such as League Of Legends, Starcraft and Dota are a huge part of Korea). August 2014 saw them take part in MTV’s World Stage Live In Malaysia, performing in front of 15,000 people.

In November 2014, the music video for their last track, The Real One, had the concept of Modern Vs Classic, with the Victorian era portraying elegance, whilst the modern day suits conveyed sophistication. Keeping in trend yet tipping their hat to a retro style, Boys Republic brought a fresh new stance to music once again, going off in a completely new direction from the hip-hop scene that was sweeping Korea. The month also saw the group’s Japanese promotions start, as they performed in front of 1,000 enthusiastic fans at Tower Records Shibuya store.

So there you have it, a brief introduction to the rookie K-pop boy group Boys Republic. It is pretty exciting to have another K-pop group come to Europe, let alone the UK – so please be sure to show your full support.

Check out Boys Republic’s Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Don’t forget to pop along to B7klan‘s Facebook, Twitter and website for up to date news and to buy your tickets. Also, you can view Boys Republic’s greeting video to European fans below.

Sources: B7Klan

MCM Buzz Stop Motion Cosplay video MCM London Comic Con May 2015

May 25, 2015

by thatmediathing with No Comment Events

May’s MCM London Comic Con of 2015 saw thousands of cosplayers descend upon the ExCeL centre and the Southampton Solent Video Team have produced a stop-motion cosplay video showcasing a compilation of the stunning cosplay around the event.

Click play below and who knows… maybe you can spot yourself in the video? Let us know by leaving a comment.

Still want more? Visit our YouTube page where you can see more highlights from the weekend. Plus you can visit the MyM Buzz Facebook page and take a look at the photo albums where you will find plenty of pictures from the event.

Videographers – Jan Tagle and Jordan Bragg

Editor- Louis Arrigoni

Crew provided by Southampton Solent University and Jack Tindall.

Gideon Emery Interview at MCM London Comic Con

May 24, 2015

by thatmediathing with No Comment Events

Gideon Emery returned to MCM London Comic Con this weekend for the first time in a few years. Despite trying to pace himself for the intensity of the event, he warned those of us in the press room that his voice was already worn out, probably from the two-hour meet-and-greet he’d just done with his many dedicated fans.

The request Gideon most frequently gets is to repeat his favourite phrase from the parts he’s played, but he said it’s one of the most difficult questions for him because when he finishes a project “it’s gone” from his mind and he’s “onto the next one – not in terms of the experience, but the script is forgotten, and sometimes I feel like I’m letting people down because I can’t remember”.

As an actor with quite a portfolio in both voice acting and TV, he expressed how he used to get frustrated with always getting cast as villains in TV. He doesn’t want to be pigeon-holed, he wants to show and experience a range of characters. However, while his TV career tends to be sinister, he often gets cast as ambiguously heroic figures in video games, such as Balthier in Final Fantasy XII and Fenris in Dragon Age II. He hopes that at some point casting directors might realise “Ah, if he can be this type of character just with his voice, maybe he can be like that outside of voice acting…”

Speaking of Balthier and Fenris, Gideon went on the say that a number of directors have told him to, “think of Balthier’s voice and think of Fenris’s voice and make something in between,” – an odd request, he feels, since both voices are practically his normal, everyday voice. This is partly why Balthier is one of his favourite characters: as well as being his first major role, the part didn’t require adjustments in terms of accent and tone.

He confessed a love of dubbing projects, which not all voice actors enjoy because of how difficult it can be to lip-sync English phrases with Japanese mouth movements. “I guess that’s maybe from doing ADR, or camera work of my own, but it’s kind of fun for me to try and match a phrase with mouth flaps.”

With a kind last word to those of us gathered around the table, the session was over all too soon, and Gideon was swept away to recover his voice and no doubt prepare for Saturday’s panels and MyM stand signings with Alix Wilton Regan, who plays the lady Inquisitor from Dragon Age: Inquistion.

Felicia Day has fans laughing at MCM London Comic Con panel

May 24, 2015

by thatmediathing with No Comment Events

Fans went wild as Felicia Day emerged from the wings, beaming at the enthusiastic turn-out. She waved and waved before curtsying to the right, then bowing to the left, and finishing with a little pirouette. “Thank you very much,” she said, “I’m so happy to be here. It’s been fantastic to meet so many people with accents, very exotic, even, from Wales! Those who are Welsh, the voice, it’s lovely. Very nice.”

Not long before her arrival, the panel host had been giving away freebies. At the mention of this, Felicia brought up her yet-to-be-released book, called You’re Never Weird On the Internet (Almost), due for release on August 11th, as she expressed how much she loves getting free books from publishers – free anything, in fact. “Even if you don’t know what it is, you want it. I’m allergic to all this stuff, give it to me!” Luckily, she’s come to the right place for free stuff, especially since fans tend to give her gifts at cons – she now has a storage unit to keep it all in, and she promised that she keeps everything.

This led to being asked what the most awkward gift is that she’s received. She replied, “Somebody gave me a little sculpture of myself made entirely of their hair.” The audience didn’t know whether to laugh or recoil, but mostly they laughed. “I did not keep that one,” Felicia added.

Questions opened up to the audience after that and tabletop games were brought up right away, much to Felicia’s excitement, as she expressed an addiction to them. “I love inviting people over to play, eating loads of pizza, and screaming at people when they get grease on my pieces. Wash your hands! Do not touch my pieces with your greasy, greasy, greasy hands! I’m weird that way,” she joked. “The only thing I would request is if there could be a tabletop focused on stealing things from people, because I love to steal things in video games. Pick-pocketing, opening people’s cabinets, taking their urns and chests of gold. So, killing people, stealing things, let’s have a board game focused on that.” Not a bad idea, who doesn’t love the satisfaction of stealing everything right from under a city guard’s nose in Skyrim?

Someone brought up a current show that Felicia features in and she may or may not have died in recently (spoilers!), which led to bringing up the long list of shows she’s been killed in, and continued to be a running joke throughout the panel. “Well, spoiler alert, I seem to be dead!” she said about the show in question. “I wanna say that I didn’t ask to be killed off, but I have been killed by the best of them. Joss Whedon’s killed me,” she said, “he also shot me in the kneecaps, I’ve been killed on so many shows, so apparently I’m very killable. I don’t know if I just look good as a corpse.” Despite her short life-expectancy, of the shows she has worked on, being in productions like Supernatural and Buffy the Vampire Slayer have meant the most to her because the fandom and the crew felt like family. The community around these shows have existed in a way that goes beyond the source material. “Being part of these long running shows means they come with a fandom, and it’s like being part of a family, which makes everything I do feel less like a job.”

A nervous young girl confessed that she saw Felicia in the street the other day, but she’d felt too scared to approach her. As she turned a notebook over and over in her hands, the girl asked if she could give Felicia fan art. “Yes, please do! Come on down!” Felicia cried. The young girl hurried down the aisle, jumped onto the stage and tore a picture from her notebook. “Oh my God, it’s beautiful! Did you do just draw my face?” Felicia asked. “It’s a beautiful picture of me, thank you! My drawings are like a five year old’s, I can’t tell you what it means to me when people who are artistically gifted give these things to me.”

Next was some insight into Felicia’s “first venture into geekdom” and how she grew to love the community she’s become such a prominent figure of. “I was homeschooled, I never went to school, and there’s a lot of funny stories in my book about not understanding how people work in the world, but because my parents were very science based and loved art, and science fiction and fantasy, they wanted me to do whatever I wanted in my life – they were always my influence. I had no idea that it wasn’t cool for girls to like video games, or read fan fiction, or write science fiction, or create dragons out of Lego, so I just embraced it from a young age because it was cool to me. Later in life, when I was exposed to other people, it wasn’t as easy for me to confidently say ‘I like these things’, like in Hollywood. Hollywood likes to – especially with women – shape you to be a certain way. So I had to learn to embrace what I love, rather than bend to what other people thought I should love.”

When asked for her favourite gag-reel moments on Supernatural, Felicia brought up a scene from season 10 where her character, Charlie Bradbury, has to down a shot. Apparently she’d never done a shot before that moment for fear of throwing the drink over her face. Pulling a melodramatic, ‘I’m badass’ face, she tried to show how seriously she’d approached actor Jensen Ackles (Dean Winchester). She grabbed the shot glass, threw it back…and threw the drink all over her face. But the camera was rolling! She had to keep going, even with liquid dripping down her chin and onto her leather. Felicia pulled her sinister face again, to emphasise how ridiculous the moment was. “Jensen is one of the best actors I’ve ever met,” she said, “he can turn it on and off – he’ll be in character like boom! In that moment, I’ve never seen him break before, but he was watching me and he’s like…” Here, Felicia made one of her eyes twitch madly, the corner of her mouth fighting not to smile, the other side of her face keeping up the stoic deadpan. “After they said cut, he threw up his hands – what the hell?!”

After that, she shared many stories about how she had learnt to deal with anxiety, especially as someone often in the public eye. Her main advice to people who struggle with it and who want to go into performing of any kind, was to put yourself out there as often as possible, because the only way it gets easier is to do it multiple times. To learn to do it for “your own enjoyment and the joy of giving what you have to other people”, since the main reason we suffer from things like stage fright “is because we’re worried what other people will think of us,” she explained.

Throughout the panel, she frequently emphasised how important she felt it was for people to follow through with their passion and to share it with the world. The internet has enabled us to connect in hundreds of ways, to share what we create, and to keep getting better at our passion. We’re more enabled than ever before to produce our own content. Don’t let self-doubt, or other people’s opinions of what you ‘should be doing’ steer you away from the path you feel is calling you. Her final statement on the panel came back to this point as she enthused, “The door is open for you to say what you want to say, in a way only you can say it. Let your flag fly, because whatever makes you happy is wonderful.”

Felicia expressed her thanks for the many questions and hopes to come back to MCM London Comic Con again. She’s dreading the shipping fee for all the free books she’s accumulated, however! Catch her on Sunday from 12:00 until 13:00 on the showroom floor for the chance to have a photo taken together. If you missed the panel, you can watch it for yourself on our YouTube channel, and don’t forget to check out the roundtable interview we had afterwards.

Batmobile Reveal at MCM London Comic Con

May 22, 2015

by thatmediathing with No Comment Events

Right now, on the MCM London Comic Con show room floor, you can find the Batmobile replica looking like it’s been plucked straight from the Batman: Arkham Knight trilogy, and it’s the only one in the world, lovingly crafted by West Coast Customs.

With roughly 34-inch rear tyres, custom built to the finest detail, the Batmobile is no longer a dream but a mighty metal machine you can almost touch, and it only costs…well, a hell of lot, they don’t want to confirm the price, but on that ominous note we advocate no touching!

It took six months to make and was first revealed at E3 in 2014. At Comic Con this morning it was unveiled in ‘battlemode’, the cannons raised and red lights glowing behind the grill. Catwoman peeled back the layers of black cloth one by one for the press teams eager to capture every moment.

The Batmobile cannot, unfortunately, be driven – this version is just for show – but the fact it exists is cool enough. It’s almost 7 foot at its tallest point, lights ebb behind the windscreen, and the exhaust pipe could probably fit a watermelon inside.

Batman: Arkham Knight is available from June 23rd. You can pre-order the game this weekend, while you’re staring at the batmobile, and if you tweet a picture of the batmobile with #WarnerBrosMCM or @WB_Games_UK, you could win a PS4!

Header photo by Willow Wood. Additional photographs by Stuart Claw.