All posts for the month June, 2014

Cosplay Tips: Original Character Cosplay

Hello everyone and welcome back to Nerdy Shique Universe! So, convention season is pretty much upon us for the summer since we have so many going on around this time such as BelleCon, Anime Apex, and MetroCon in Tampa and we had Omni Expo and KnightroKon not too long ago here in Orlando, almost forgot about Florida Anime Experience as well! Then of course Anime Festival Orlando, Nerd Fest, and MythiCon later on this summer in Orlando as well! Besides the guests, events, and panels that go on at these things there is always my favorite thing and that is cosplay!

 

Costume play or cosplay for short has been around for the longest time since the 1930s all thanks to an American who brought it to a science fiction show. I know you guys may think it came from Japan but it really started in America and then got the term coined by the Japanese people forty years later! As a cosplayer since 2005, I have seen so many cosplays from anime such as Naruto, Sailor Moon, Full Moon wo Sagashite also happened, and video games such as Street Fighter, Super Mario, and of course, now .hack is starting to appear! But one interesting thing about cosplay that brings on the more artistic flare is of course making original characters and it brings on a new dimension and can be easier for some! Trust me, it made it easier for me after hearing the description of Helba’s costume from .hack! So, what is my advice for creating characters? Here it is!

 

  1. Use Your Imagination! Like how ScyFy ays it best, “Imagine Greater!” Your imagination is pretty much the window when it comes to creating characters and the story behind them! Whether it is a monster or demon in Dungeons and Dragons or a wizard in Harry Potter, creating that character can be endless since there are so many elements and looks you can do for that character!
  2. Put It On Paper! As in drawing it or writing it! As a fan fiction writer myself, I tend to write down my characters since I can’t really draw anymore and have to rely on imagery from my own head and have help when it comes to searching for those parts, which I will get to later! Still, writing or drawing your characters could help you in creating that costume you want to do for a convention, especially if it has an interesting costume to go with it such as dresses or something else! Plus, it can help you plan out in how to piece together the costume and if need to, buy fabric or commission someone you trust in giving that design of the costume to have made or at least looking for what you need!
  3. When Basing Off Anime or Video Games, Research Different Elements While Designing! I didn’t realize this when I was designing my .hack costume until now! Why? Because when it comes to doing a costume based on anime, manga, or video game with original characters, researching the different elements of what different classes wear, what kind of patterns or designs that each costume may have, for instance a Pokemon trainer has the Pokeball symbol somewhere on their clothing to indicate who they are! Even though I did take that a step further with gym leaders, since it seems that they have a different Pokebaleaders on the other hand, I will talk about that later! Anyways, another example is when I was talking with the rest of the members of the .hack vs. Sword Art group, I found out that the characters on the .hack side tend to have the different element waves on their clothes to show what they are, even some of their body markings tend to have some of the shapes from them and looked up the wave symbol for thunder since I am doing the Twin Blade class with my character. Another thing I didn’t know was that I am doing a R2 version of my character since trenchcoats don’t appear until G. U. which makes it more interesting! So, researching the elements of costumes would help very greatly!
  4. If You’re In A Group And Need Help With Something, Don’t Be Afraid To Ask! Reason why I am saying this is that usually with cosplay groups it is always great to have members to help you in getting what you need for the costume if you’re doing your OC for a group thing! There are times when certain members do have information since they are familiar with the series a bit more or at least can link you to that site if it’s a Wiki or a DeviantArt page! Plus, it could also lead you to places where you can commission someone or get it off of different sites such as Cosplay Magic, EBay, or even Amazon! With my case, on the other hand, I tend to ask for costume descriptions to help me out when it comes to my designs!
  5. Give Yourself Enough Time To Gather Parts! I know I might rant about this problem in the future posts but like many cosplays, you need to have time to build it before the convention! Trust me, I am still waiting on my weapon props to be made! Anyways! When it comes to time, there are instances where you can’t find everything at one place, shipping may take a while, or you might want to wait on sale, but keep your timing in mind since conventions do come up on you pretty fast! I bet you’re wondering, even though I have school/work, when can I start doing this within the time frames of which convention? Well, with Spring conventions, like MegaCon and ChaotiCon, I would say start gathering parts around October! That can also go the same with Winter ones as well such as Holiday Matsuri, Evil Con, and Sands of Anime! Reason being is because you know Christmas shopping pretty much starts after Thanksgiving and shipping is pretty crazy during that time until the start of January. Why I say January? Well, did have a case in the past where MegaCon was in February and didn’t get the part I needed until after the con! So, October is your best bet when you have not only Halloween stores opened up but also everything will be shipped on time! Summer Conventions, such as BelleCon, Omni, Knightro, Metro, and so many others, I would say start around March or April, but best time is around Spring Break for anyone who is in school because midterms would be the week after usually and some people do take breaks to slack off and cosplay hunting is pretty good around that time because people are donating their old winter stuff if there coats or jackets to be needed! Plus, it gives enough time to ship wigs, make props, and etc. especially with May conventions since they come pretty quickly! So, March is your best bet if it’s in May, unless if you want to start in February if you have money left from a Winter convention! Not only that, it does give you time to re-design if need to or return anything to some stores if there is a return policy in place!
  6. When Comissioning Someone to Make Something, Do It Early As Possible and It’s Someone You Trust! Speaking of time, commissioning someone to make something is also a timely thing too! Like most people, there are times when costume makers do have jobs and time to time other commissions and the best way of knowing about this is by contacting them as early as possible! There is also times when they do go to conventions which it may help knowing what convention you want the costume made for that one if you are going to the same one as they are or going to a different one in a different state that may be happening at the same time or the week after. Plus, it would be nice to let them know you want it in time for it or just a week or two before so in case of shipping it will get there on time! Another thing is to trust the one you are commissioning with, as in you know that they will get the job done and if you know the person for a long time and familiar with their work then go with them. If they recommend someone for a job they can’t do, it may sound rude, but ask your friend that knows the person they are sending to you about their work. As in, ask if they get jobs done on time, how long do they sometimes take, do a lot of people like them if they heard anything about this person, etc. because it will help knowing who they are and the question is if you want to go back to them if need be.
  7. If Need To, Go To More Than One Thrift Store! Thrift stores are very handy when it comes to finding the easy parts and also do alterations to them when need be and there are times when they can be a pain because there are people that donate that are in different sizes or tend to sell items a little bit pricier than others or carry items that you can’t find at one and need to go somewhere else for, so I say go to more than one if you need to! You can find pretty interesting clothing at some places than others and can find it cheaper at others if you’re lucky. For instance, with my Pokemon Ranger costume, I was able to find a very nice red and black vest at a Salvation Army for around $5 and it was the only location that I know of that carries vests and told a friend of mine from school that this location sells vests since she needed one but she did go to it and found a different vest at this particular location! As said, you can find pretty awesome stuff at a certain location, what about size? Well, as most people know there are times when sizes are an issue and I tend to have that with my curvy and muscular figure! There are times when you can go to one store that you have to go a size or two up, unless it is a suit type costume for your character, girls go to the guys side since it is easier to fit in guys clothing than girls. When I did my Anri cosplay, I had to go with a guys’ suit jacket and casual shirt since most of the blouses for women were in tiny and petite sizes. And certain Plato’s Closets do carry the bigger sizes for girls if you need to do that, if you have one I mean or something similar to one. I was able to find back up dresses for Metro at the Plato’s Closet near Fashion Square and same with the Anri skirt and did help Tobi’s wife with it. If you can fit in the sizes at certain places that you’ve been before, go back to find that item since you would know they carry your size for a long time.
  8. When Altering Certain Items, Give It An Interesting Spin! Remembered how I talked about the gym leaders in Pokemon? Well, there are times when I either make a character for that series or any other ones, I tend to give a nice spin for the alterations. It kind of shows who you are if you want to add a patch to something or a certain accessory to it, such as a chain, which I am doing my .hack costume with the coat! Back to the Pokemon thing, I decided with my gym leader character, Ike, who takes over Vermillion in my time skip as the newest gym leader, I thought why not have thunder energy patches to show the element he trains and uses? It worked out nicely in the end despite being asked if I was Lt. Surge! Still, alterations to something can be a nice thing to make your costume pop and be unique at the same time and also tells the people what series you are from if they are familiar with it. If you’re not from a particular something and just want to do your solo thing, go ahead!
  9. Craft Stores Are Your Best Friends! I know craft stores can be a little crazy but they do carry the items you need such as foam for weapons, felt for patches, and now wig heads, the Michael’s near me carry those things apparently, still these places are awesome to go to if you don’t want to spend a lot on certain things to create a part or prop! Plus, you can find a bit more items here that you can’t find anywhere else or if places sell out of it. If a craft store doesn’t have it in stock, there is always online with their website since shipping tends to take 2-10 days!
  10. If Time Runs Out, Improv Is Not A Bad Thing! If you seen Heroes of Cosplay, you remembered how Yaya Han didn’t like how the two girls who did the Dungeons and Dragons cosplays improvised the horns. I watched it and saw that they couldn’t make the horns on time and had to rely on costume shop horns and paint them! There are times when time slips by and rip the rug from underneath your feet in building OC or regular cosplay and can’t make a piece on time! So, improving something is not a bad thing, yeah it may not be professional to many but we have to do what we need to on the seconds we have left or one day even if it means we have to spray a wig or paint a store bought sword or gun to do so! Or even use duct tape for armor!

 

Well, that is it for these tips! If you want to see more cosplay tips, just comment below! What is next for Nerdy Shique Universe? Not sure as of now, but MetroCon is riding on fast and can’t wait what 2014 will hold for me! Til next time!

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by moonleopard85 on June 27, 2014  •  Permalink
Posted in anime, clothing, cosplay

Posted by moonleopard85 on June 27, 2014

https://nerdyshiqueuniverse.com/2014/06/27/cosplay-tips-original-character-cosplay/

May and June 2014 Favorites

Hello everyone and welcome back to Nerdy Shique Universe! I know I was going to put up the transcript of the Attack On Titan Q&A panel but I realized that it has really gross moments, well about the titans mostly. It doesn’t mean I can talk about it as a favorite though, which this is my favorites of May and June!

 

Omni Expo

 

Favorite Panel: Attack On Titan Q&A panel from that Saturday! Sorry again for not putting up the transcript but it is my favorite panel since it not only had Kyle Hebert, the voice of Mitsubi, and Matthew Mercer, the voice of Levi and still can read my interview with him here, but it was one of the funniest panels I attended this year so far! Plus, this panel got me into the anime a bit more since I catch it on Toonami when I can! I will be picking up Season 1 Part 1 if I can find it at Metro since that’s coming up in a few weeks. My favorite moments from this panel would have to be how Kyle and Matthew talked about auditioning for their parts from home, which Matthew almost missed the deadline and did it late night when his neighbors next door were having a party and when he was done screaming, the party was silent and probably calling the cops on him and he to go over to apologize and explain that it was an audition! Didn’t help that he had to yell “I’m going to kill you!” at the top of his lungs! And Kyle had to do his in his car so nobody would hear him and one of his neighbors did catch him once and thought he was an angry guy and even said how they put wooden floors in the apartments and he hears their footsteps all the time. And another moment was how Matthew talked about how a police car stopped outside his house while he was auditioning and kept hearing the intercom go off telling someone to come out. Hoping it wasn’t Gabriel Iglesias! (I know I’m horrible!) If you want to see what it was like, you can probably find it on YouTube since a lot of people video tape panels at conventions and post them! Whatever happens at the cons stays on YouTube!

 

Favorite Interview: Chris Patton’s interview! I know I interviewed Carrie Savage, Chris Sabat, Toni Darling, Cali Cosplay, and Team FourStar and now wishing I interviewed Grant George and his wife, Jessica, but had fun talking to them! There is always next time if they come back! But one interview that I did like the most, especially while transcribing, and that is with Chris Patton! I liked how I learned more about voice acting from him, especially how it was different between Sentai and Funimation in how they worked differently, come to think back on it, no wonder Gravion and certain parts of Sister Princess sounded a bit rushed in some of the lines. Anyways, I also did like what happened to him when he recorded for RahXephon with one huge belch. Anyone going into voice acting, wait a few minutes after chugging a Red Bull! I did surprise him with my copy of Gravion before his interview and how I was the only one who bidded on it on EBay! (It was true, a few seconds to go and no one went for it!) It was great to interview him since he hasn’t been back to Orlando since 2008 and hoping he does come back for other conventions since he is really nice and great to talk to!

 

Favorite Moment I Wish I Was There For: Matthew Mercer singing karaoke! OMG! I didn’t know this happened until I got back to the con Saturday morning! As you know I used my ride service all that weekend and left around 8:30 the latest Friday and needed my rest due to the cold I was suffering from and need to wake up early to meet my ride service again. Apparently that night, Matthew Mercer sang Tenacious D’s “Tribute Song” as Levi! If I posted the panel transcript I would put it in the link but I will put it here for you guys at the end so you can see how well he did! The story was that a girl was cosplaying as Levi and sang something earlier in the session and he witnessed the performance and he was like “Beautiful!” And then he went up and sang himself! I wished I was there for that if I didn’t have to leave or if Gondras was with me, knowing we would be there until like midnight or one in the morning. As said, I would post the link!

 

Favorite Voice Actor Moment: Grant George Remembering Me! I had to mention this since it was very surprising! I remembered how I first met Grant back at MythiCon Year 1 and I told him how our wedding is going to be Disgaea themed since he plays Axel, MidBoss aka Vires, and the Prinis! He did suggest that we should have a Prini ring bearer since he asked during his panel since we were planning to have a bride and groom Prini on top. I was in cosplay and for Omni I wasn’t going to be wearing any of my costumes since I still had to finish my Pokemon Ranger costume for this year’s MythiCon due to Eric Stuart as a guest and my .hack one is still being built, well need to just build the weapons since the jackets are finished (one for the masquerade and the other is the trenchcoat) and I didn’t have Lucy! So, you saw in my pics, I was wearing my blue ears and collar until Sunday when I had zombie ears! I figured he wouldn’t remember me from Mythic and well, he did recognize me! I did bring Gondras’ copies of D2 and 4 for him to sign! So, he and his wife were there and he even told his wife about the wedding! I know I may get comments, “Are you inviting them?” Anyways, it was great talking to the both of them and great that Grant did recognize me! Did have a bit of a “Do it again!” moment when he saw me unfold the cane after leaving Matthew Mercer’s table after my interview with him. I guess it is not hard to recognize a girl with slate grey and hazel eyes (sometimes they take on a cobalt look or in certain lighting I look like I have contacts on!). I hope they do come back to Omni or MythiCon could get them as guests in the future for another year!

 

Favorite Items from Dealer Room: 10th Doctor Sonic Screw Driver UV Pen and Dragon with Orb necklace! I didn’t really buy much at this convention since the dealer room was pretty small! I almost did buy Thor: The Dark World but the card machine Best Buy had was broken! I can just go back since I think I have rewards certificates to cash in but hey! I know Best Buy has it at least. I did get two interesting items while I was there. I picked up the 10th Doctor Sonic Screw Driver UV pen from the Books A Million stand since they are one of the other sponsors and they were selling items from Dr. Who and Mind Craft and some other items and since they had the Tartus there to take pictures with I decided to get this pen due to my David Tennet shirt, which you see him lean against the opening and arms crossed with his screw driver. I do like how it does the sound effects and it comes with black ink and UV ink cartridges! You can also get refills since it has a paper that comes with the package about that! I almost bought the build your own kit but I would have more use with the pen due to writing fan fiction! I did get Gondras the build your own kit, but went to Barnes and Noble for it! He is planning to do the 4th Doctor for Metro actually! And the other item I did get was a necklace of a dragon with an orb stone in its claws! This thing is made by Dragon Alley, which is a jewelry maker which makes not only dragon stuff but also nerd jewelry like the cross necklaces that Sam and Dean wear in Supernatural and the time traveling pendant from Harry Potter to name a few! I was tempted to get the time travel but if I want something from Harry Potter, it would probably be a necklace or a bracelet with the Hufflepuff crest! That house is my favorite out of the four and I just find the name funny. I did like the necklace that I got since it is not only silver but the stone was really nice in how it was made, plus the light just hits it nicely! I also did have a similar necklace years ago but it had dolphins wrapped around it and somehow I like necklaces like these for now on and somehow no one actually makes them until I found this! I did almost buy a ring of a dragon that wraps around and in my size, but didn’t want to spend too much, but I can go online or if I find them again as a dealer next year! I think they have Facebook by what I remembered from their business card, I may have to like them and see what else they made! I would give these guys a two thumbs up!

 

Clothing:

 

Pacific Rimtee of Gypsy Danger Petting Eva Unit 1! This was a shirt I wore to the first day of Omni Expo and if you have read my interviews with my pics you have seen it! I was happy to find this one and kind of sad since at first I was going to get a new Angry Prinis shirt because I bought it a size too small and I think I lost it and tried finding it all over Aardvark Tees’ Etsie store! As you know, I love Aardvark’s stuff and it’s been a while since I bought their stuff since I didn’t go to AFO last year, which is the convention they go to in Orlando. They did go to Holiday Matsuri back in 2012, but they should come to more Orlando conventions! Omni, Mythic, get these people! Why? 1. The shirts are very good quality and stain resistant and 2. they have very fun pop culture references! Especially the one I got! Since I couldn’t find the Angry Prinis shirt, I did find the one I have which is the “Prini Rights! DOOD!” shirt and I did shoot a message to Grant George telling where he can get it so he can have one after I wore mine on Omni Saturday! I did cruise over to the Kaiju section since I saw a Pacific Rimshirt of one of the Yagars handing the Iron Giant a bouquet of flowers at first, so I went to see what else they had and I found a few others but this one got me to go “Here is my money! Take it!” And it is the Gypsy Danger petting Eva Unit 1! It does make sense since Pacific Rim is the better version of Eva and Gondras thought with all the trailers that it was the live-action Eva movie that was supposed to be made and coming out but this did it better! Plus, Mako does look like Rei Ayanami if you look closely! Still! I love this shirt and will wear again! Even Ellyn McLain loved it since she is the voice of Gypsy Danger in the movie! And yes, I got the thing signed! I am still wanting to go back and get a shirt that Aardvark also has which is a double crossover of Dr. Who and Hitalia of the Daliks chasing England! Plus, now I have a Dalik necklace to wear with it! I can’t help it, they are awesome little villains!

 

Snacks

 

Chocolate coconut granola bars by Sunbelt: These have been a returning fave since I haven’t had them in years and was sad I couldn’t find them at WalMart until I found them again! I think they made these smaller since Sunbelt used to make bigger granola bars, I even remembered having the chocolate chip ones as my snack back in elementary school and they were wider back then! Now they are a bit smaller, pretty much a standard size granola bar except they stay put than the Quaker ones and they are creamy in taste! I love the dark chocolate and coconut ones the best because they don’t overpower the bar with too much coconut like most things do, even Glico does it with their chocolate and coconut Pocky and I am kind of picky with the taste of coconut since I prefer it sweet and with a hint of sweet milk to it! These make it sweet and it has a nice creamy taste while eating and leaves a nice aftertaste, plus both the chocolate and coconut balance each other out! I am not sure if I will have these during my Metro trip since they do melt if you leave them out and depending on how we will get our stuff into the hotel but I will have the chocolate chip ones and might get another box of one of the other flavors since Sunbelt does make good bars and you can find these with the big Little Debbie displays at WalMart!

 

Honey Roasted Cashews: I have to mention these! Besides the granola bars, I also had these to chomp on! I do love my sweet things and I tried finding honey roasted peanuts, but the WalMart I went to didn’t have them but I did find these and they are honey roasted cashews! I never tried these and thought I would try them since I love honey a lot and they are so good! They taste better than the peanuts in my opinion! I couldn’t stop eating them, I have to control myself a bit, but knowing with Metro right around the corner, I will have another can of these! I think Gondras or Tobi have to lock these away if I try eating the entire can in one sitting! Almost did at Omni!

 

Salted Caramel Apple Chips: I just got these on Saturday while needing to restock my honey at the Farmer’s Market near me! I found a stand right next to the honey stand a lady that made chips out of different fruits and vegetables, she makes ones out of cale, tomatoes, mangoes, and the ones I got were apple with salted caramel! I am a major salted caramel junkie and when I heard she had these I had to try them! I was in heaven! They are good and now want to buy my chips from her for now on! Hell, I want to go back and get the sweet potato ones since she makes those too! Great thing is that the crispiness comes from freezing them, which is neat and makes sense since they do become soft when they are warm and crispy when frozen. Plus, it’s better to freeze your fruits and veggies. They are $6 for a bag, not bad and plus they are homemade on top of it. They can be a bit addicting and they taste better than the apple chips I got from Smoothie King once. Will have to go back and get the sweet potato ones.

 

Beauty Faves:

 

            Playful Beauty 66 Piece Set Blockbuster by Ulta: Now onto the beauty faves and starting with that big Ulta Playful Beauty set I bought last month! I bought this after buying stuff as my grad gift to myself and it was a beauty steal during May as well! Normally it costs $24 but it was $16.99 during the steal and since I gone back to get the name of this thing since it is hard to remember, now it is two bucks less, which you can get it for $14.99! I bet you’re wondering, is it worth it? Yes! I’ve been using some of the eye shadows from this set and they are very pigmented and pretty easy to use! I also used one of the double ended liners which comes with the set and man it is also pigmented! If you haven’t read my haul post about this, it is a double decker make up case which includes a eye shadow pallet area on the top which you have all the shadows you tend to see in a huge pallet, which includes the neutrals, smoky, even the line of blues which I used one day and seems to stay on pretty well! And then the slot underneath, you get even more shadows but as their quads in neutral, smoky, and matte and then you have a top coat quad which are very glittery. Of course you get a powder, bronzer, and four blushes and two of the butter balms from the line in Jasmine and Rapunzel! Not bad for a price! I would suggest getting this if you are into playing around with make up or just need something to travel with, this is what you should get, especially for the price they have now, which is pretty much a steal! Ulta’s make up line is pretty nice for a store brand and doesn’t cost much, especially if you don’t want to spend too much on make up sets at department stores, which this thing at any of them would cost you around a $100 or more when this contains a $170 value of make up! Plus, it comes in a very convenient case! I would say get it for the price right now since they dropped it down again, who knows when it will be back to the original price in the coming months! Plus, if you are a member, you might have the newsletter with the coupon of $3.50 off a $10 purchase which will be good until Saturday! Get it while you can for this amazing price!

 

Wicked Dreams pallet by NYX: Yes, another NYX item since I have been NYX crazy and their make up is just amazing! This pallet is known as the Wicked Dreams pallet! It contains shimmery and matte shadows and range from neutrals to smoky to jewel tones and it is pretty good! I got this pallet before I got any of my Dream Catcher pallets and thought it would be nice to try it out but never used it until recently since I got it back in January or February from NYX Surplus on EBay, I know you can still get it from Ulta but decided to get it from EBay since I didn’t know at the time that they also accept PayPal! Hey, I can still get it if NYX didn’t discontinue it, which I hate how most companies do that with awesome broducts! Anyways, like a lot of the NYX eye shadows I own, they are also pigmented and easy to blend with some, I heard from some reviewers that it is hard to blend with some colors like the yellow one in the pallet but I had an easy time with blending the baby blue, the dark blue, green, and the gold to create an interesting ocean eye since it was summer, wanted to see how a quad look would look and turned out pretty well! Then I went dark and purple the next day with the plum, burgundy, and a pink to give a gothic smoky eye! You can tell I had fun doing that and man it made it crazy with my Black Heart lipstick I was wearing that day as well!Oh well, I may use a different lip product whenever I do that eye again. All in all, still affordable and still fun to use and pigmented like the shadows you get from NYX!

 

Cream Concealer in Light Medium by Almay: As you know I was bummed about how Almay discontinued my favorite concealer stick with the treatment gel a year ago, I ended up using all the sticks I had left from the line and finally got the newer liquid cream concealer that they made as a replacement for that in the Clear Complexion line and like the stick it does work! Well, minus the treatment of course, but it still conceals like the stick and I tend to use it before I put my foundation from the same area of the display and it is handier that way since I can blend it in with ht my beauty blender while going over with my foundation and blends well after putting my powder on top! I may have to get another one soon since it feels like it might be running out.

 

Grey slim pencil liner from NYX: Another NYX product and it is their slim liner pencil in grey, which I was happy to find finally to go with that smoky liner from Hot Topic’s Black Heart line! It goes well with a smoky look if it deals with a lot of greys and it does go well with black shadows as well, I may have to try it with the charcoal shadow I have from the old shadows that Black Heart had since they repackaged them and have less colors now.

 

Lux in Lavendar and Radiant Raspberry from the new Bleached Neons Collection by Maybelline: I know these are limited edition by what I heard but Maybelline released new Summer collections and they are the Bleached Neons collection. I only picked up two of the Lipnotic Elixirs from the collection and they are Lux in Lavendar and Radiant Raspberry! I love more of purpley type lip color and these two have that, Lux is slightly dark but it still gives off a light purple tone since they are almost a pastel by what I heard in videos and Radiant is kind of like Raspberry Sorbet from the old lip gloss line they had years ago, which I am sad that it was discontinued since I tend to use it with my Twilight balm stain from the Revlon Just Bitten line! Still, these are pretty neat and they do glide on easily like the regular Lipnotics, which I still have the purple one which I can’t name off the top of my head!

 

Fifth Avenue Fushia and Pink and Proper from Color Sensational by Maybelline: I was glad I got to get more Maybelline lip products since it was forever since I got anything from Color Sensational and I had stuck with NYX due to them coming to CVS and of course Revlon and Wet N Wild, I decided to pick up some new lipsticks and they are Pink and Proper, which is a basic pink, and Fifth Avenue Fushia, which is a nice bright Fushia! I still have my Sugared Honey lipstick, I don’t think it exists anymore but I did like the Color Sensational lipsticks since they feel comfy and they give a sweet smell and since they have changed up the colors, it was time to come back!

 

Gold Shatter polish by OPI: I finally got around to using one of my other O. P. I. polishes and it was one of the shatter polishes in gold! I graduated and since I remembered when my high school was strict in how you should look for commencement, I didn’t know if I could do anything to the cap or gown, which I found out the hard way at the ceremony that people put decals or painted things on their mortar boards of their caps! I did do something special with my nails and I painted them in black and used the gold shatter on top to go with the school colors! I did use it a second time by painting over Last Chance by Sinful Colors, which gave a nice jungle look to my nails! I love the shatter polishes by O. P. I., I may have to go back to EBay and get more since they aren’t made much anymore unless if they decide to sell them during Halloween since crackle polishes are well-known around that time! To me, it’s an anytime thing since you can do a lot of coats to get a nice look to the polish.

 

Fave Bag: Kuromi messenger bag! I had to mention a favorite bag and it is a messenger bag with my favorite Sanrio bunny, Kuromi! I wanted to get a messenger bag from Sanrio for the longest time and well with my last visit to the store it was kind of a drag since my dad was kind of whining about the prices and their Kuromi selection was meh! It’s like Sanrio is not making a lot of items of certain characters anymore such as Kerropi and Kuromi and just sticking to their major character, Hello Kitty!? So, since that was a trip that I want to forget, I decided to go on EBay and found a Kuromi messenger bag! I thought it would be nice and big so I could use during Metro in case if I have to carry everything besides my Braille Sense and recorder like last year when I first did press! Nope, it was the size of a purse, one of those purses that are 12 inches! It still worked out and I use it as an actual purse! Even the people at Lush the day I got it loved it! I did go back to EBay and found a big Hello Kitty one to use during Metro and what I like about them both is that they have a zipper for the main part like my Fruits Basket one like I was using before! I wish all messenger bags were like that because stuff can fall out easily if you don’t position it right! I love the zipper!

 

Other Non-Beauty:

 

Favorite Album: Comatose Comes Alive and the Regular Album by Skillet! I know I have been on a major Skillet binge lately and finally I have all the albums they actually released to the public and ITunes! I have both Comatose and the live version of it! What is the difference between them? Well, the Comes Alive album is not only of them performing in Chatanooga, but it also has them do a songs you don’t hear on other albums, well not sure if “Savior” and “Collide” are on earlier ones since according to ITunes their latest album, “Rise” is their 10th album! I guess they were a local band in their town before becoming big. Hey! Traverser and Soul Switch are the same here in Orlando! Anyways, you also get another recorded song on it and acoustic versions of some of the songs from Comatose like “Whispers In the Dark,” “Rebirthing,” and so many others! And the original is just the studio album, which I like a lot, “Comatose,” “Rebirthing,” and “Whispers In the Dark” are amazing songs but one song I really like and wished was done live on their Comes Alive album is “Looking for Angels,” which is pretty dark but like it says, people are searching for that one thing in their life during turmoil and what do they look for, an angel! Skillet, you need to perform this one!

 

Favorite Song: “Don’t Want to Be Here Anymore!” by Rise Against! ::gasp!:: Did Rise Against make a new song? Yes they did and it’s called “Don’t Want to Be Here Anymore!” This is the first single off their newest album coming out two days after Metro and it’s called “Black Market.” I love this song, it kind of goes with the rhythm of “Prayer of a Refugee” and a tinge of “Dancing for Rain” when you look at it! Still, it’s a good song and can’t wait for what else will be on the newest album by these guys July 15th! You can get this song on ITunes if you can’t wait like I did and plus it gets stuck in my head like now for mentioning it!

 

Favorite Book: Edge of Dawn and Shades of Midnight from The Midnight Breed Series! I finally finished all eleven books of The Midnight Breed Series that Lara Adrian has released! I have to wait until August for the newest one to come out and it’s called Crave The Night which deals with one of the First Gen Asassins that Dragos made earlier in the series like with book 9 if I remembered, forgot the name! But anyways! I am mentioning two and they are book 7, Shades of Midnight which is the story that deals with Caid meeting Alex and finds out that his twin brother, Seth, turned rogue due to his powers of speaking to animals and Edge of Dawn, which deals with an older Mira who finds out that the one she fell for, Kellen Archer, didn’t died but eheaded a rebel group! I did like some of the other stories that came after but they turned to other places which confused me, like the final book in the ten book bundle, which is Chase’s story with meeting Tavia Fairchild, who had gene splicing done to her in becoming a breed member. I thought, “What is she doing with this?” And when I read further, I was like, “Okay? Weird but Intriguing! Better than Meyer!” Why did I like these two the most out of the books from five to 11 is because with Caid’s story, I liked how he hid himself from Alex and led her on until how he found out she was a Breed Mate and how the Alaskan environment can lead to dangers and best for the Breed due to how the arctic time zone is different and let them out longer. It was sad with how he lost his twin brother, but it did say there are times when one of their own does go to the edge of bloodlust! If you read the first book, perfect example with Lucan Thorn since he and Teagan are the oldest out of them since they were born first gen vampires! With Edge of Dawn, on the other hand, it is the story right after the Breed gets noticed and becomes a part of society and now new enemies are showing up and they came from the past of the Ancient! You need to read books 8 and 10 to see what I am talking about and well the end of 7 to get what happens! Anyways, it was a very touching story and I did almost shed a tear, an actual one since I was close to it in books 3-7 and 9 pretty much! But this one shows a happy reunion turned sad and then happy again! I would suggest this series if you are around my age and need something to get away from sparkling vampires, which in my last faves, I said they are more like the ones from Buffy but more extreme and the damsals in distress have more voice and don’t act like Bella, hell, even Tavia and Rinata, from Nikolai’s story, are major badasses! Can’t wait what the next one will bring! I am in the middle of Skin Game! Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten my fave wizard from Chicago!

 

Favorite Convention Video: Todd Habercorn singing “Let It Go” from Frozen as Italy! I know we are all tired of that song “Let It Go!” Plus, Gondras gets ten times annoyed with it! So glad I don’t show him this video and that is of Todd Habercorn singing it but as his character, Italy, from Hitalia during BelleCon this year! I haven’t been to it but one of my friends on Facebook helped run it and sad to find out Todd was there! I still want to thank him in person somehow for Fairy Tail. Anyways! I heard about this video during Omni in the Sands of Anime room and even though this song gets drilled into everyone’s heads over and over over again, Todd doing it makes it funnier and as Italy! It makes it better that he does point some of the lyrics towards the character Germany. I am also linking this one, please don’t kill me for it because I don’t want to be in a body bag when I interviewing Dante Basco during Metro!

 

So, that’s my favorites for May and June! Sorry again about not putting up the Attack On Titan transcript because as I said there are some gross moments and it is best that you guys find the video of the thing! Hey, be glad that you get to read my interview with Matthew Mercer during Omni! What is next? Well, since I still have time! Will finally do my original character cosplay advice! And then there will be my Convention Impossible on MetroCon 2014 and interviews with Dante Basco, Richard Epcar, Troy Baker, and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn! Stay tuned for all of that!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie-EhjrnKBq (Matthew Mercer)

 

Todd Habercorn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCCaZK9gASs

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by moonleopard85 on June 26, 2014  •  Permalink
Posted in anime, beauty, Books, clothing, conventions, Favorites, snacks

Posted by moonleopard85 on June 26, 2014

https://nerdyshiqueuniverse.com/2014/06/26/may-and-june-2014-favorites/

Omni Expo: Interview With Chris Sabat

Hello everyone and welcome back to Nerdy Shique Universe! Now it’s time for the final interview! So, you have read my interview with Team FourStar when it came to their abridged work, all about Attack On Titan and storytelling with Matthew Mercer, fun stuff with Carrie Savage, Toni Darling and Cali Cosplay, and learned more about voice acting as a whole from Chris Patton, and now to see the director’s side with Chris Sabat!

 

You may remember Chris’ voice as Elfman in Fairy Tail, Piccolo and Vegeta in Dragonball Z and directed one of my all time fave anime series, Glass Fleet! This guy is really busy and learned that from Omni Expo on Saturday, which I had to wait til the last day to interview him, which was worth the wait! What did I ask him? Find out below!

 

Mari Blue Cat: You’ve been to several conventions all over the United Stateswhat has been your favorite thing about conventions?

Chris Sabat: My favorite things about conventions is getting to travel! I love to travel! I like going everywhere, I like meeting people, I like having stories to tell about places I’ve. I’ve been traveling since I was a kid and this is a nice way of kind of getting out of the house and go places for a while.

 

MBC: What has been the weirdest thing a fan has given you to sign or as a gift?

CS: Let’s see, one time someone has brought their baby to me and asked me to sign its butt and I declined because I don’t know what kind of damage ink would do to a child’s system. Let’s see, people have given me half-eaten food before.

MBC: Really?

CS: Yeah, it’s gross! Someone has brought me lunch meat before, I was like “What are you doing with that?” and he went “Going to eat that, duh!” People have brought me really strange stuff~! The thing I feel really worse about is when people bring me really bring me really, reall big stuff like a collage they made and there is no possible way I could fit it into my bag, they won’t let you give it back to them and you don’t know what to do with it so you find someone who really likes it and give it to them. Take a picture of it and remember it!

 

MBC: You’ve done directing and recorded voice work for a lot of characters, what’s the difference between directing and voice acting?

CS: Directing and voice acting are two different things, because directing is a lot of management, it’s your job to understand the whole story. It’s your job to know the context of everything because a good director will be able to give the actors all the information need to do and they do. As long as there is good casting, all you have to do is make sure the actors you cast are talented and they know what the show is about, after that is pretty easy.

MBC: I kind of witness that at your dubbing panel the past two times.

 

MBC: What has been your favorite series you have worked on in both voice acting and directing?

CS: For directing, I really enjoyed doing a series called Soltey Rei, which was really fun for me to direct. I love Dragonball Z because I love it as a series so much but I would say I have the most fun working like Panty and Stocking, that show is ridiculous!

MBC: I know! I’ve seen it in Japanese and it’s beyond ridiculous!

CS: Yeah, that show gives me an excuse to say the most disgusting things I’ve never say in real life! And also I love Sgt. Frog, I wish there are some more episodes of that show!

 

MBC: What is one character you would record as again?

CS: A character I would record as again would be Ayame in Fruits Basket because so many people ask me questions about what was it like to record him and it’s been so long, it’s been like 15 years since I’ve recorded it and it was like a few weeks of recording it. It’s been so long ago it is so hard to remember what it was like, so I would like to go back and record him again and see what it was like! I actually wouldn’t mind recording Yu Yu Hakusho again.

 

MBC: What was the funniest thing that ever happened in the booth?

CS: I have a bad memory for that kind of thing. We do have a lot of funny things. I like messing with Carrie Savage, which she is very sweet and very gullible. One time I had her come in and had a voice control mike and one time we had her come in and we had a pitch shifter on her and we went lower. She goes “Uh there is something with my voice!” I was like “What are you talking about Carrie?” “There’s something…is there a pitch shifter on or something?” I’m like “No, what are you talking about?” “No, I can hear it in my headphones! So weird!” “No you sound fine out here!” “There is something wrong with my voice!” “No, let’s move on!”

(Note: I couldn’t help laughing at this! Sorry Carrie if you’re out there!)

 

MBC: Are there any works that you can talk about that are new?

CS: Unfortunately all of the stuff I work on I can’t talk about! Not for a while! The stuff we’ve worked on since I last saw you like…a lot of stuff for Borderlands, Borderlands 2, we’re working on this one thing known as Borderlands 1.5 in the works!

(Which is one thing to ask Mr. Damian Clark at MythiCon about! Which according to Sabat, he acts like Handsome Jack in person! Can’t to see that!)

 

MBC: My last question is do you still like doing the dubbing panel at conventions?

CS: I love doing the dubbing panel! It is one of my favorite panels to do because I love recording, I love the recording process! I love everything about production and gives me a chance of talking about what I love!

 

Well, that is my interview with Mr. Sabat! Even though the wait was a pain since Saturday was really busy for him but hey, it was worth it and I got to check out Omni all three days despite my cold! Monday was the major recovery while spending the night with Gondras. Anyways, since Damian Clark is going to be at MythiCon and will be having press passes there, will he be a possible interview opportunity? Stay tune for updates on that! In the meantime, what is next? I did decide to transcribe the Attack On Titan Q&A panel with Matthew Mercer and Kyle Hebert so you guys can see what it’s all about and how the casting was done between the both of them since you seen me ask Matthew about that and this will go into detail about that! Stay tuned and also coming up, my May and June favorites for this year! I do have some beauty, some clothing, music, etc. So stay tuned for that as well!

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by moonleopard85 on June 25, 2014  •  Permalink
Posted in anime, conventions

Posted by moonleopard85 on June 25, 2014

https://nerdyshiqueuniverse.com/2014/06/25/omni-expo-interview-with-chris-sabat/

Omni Expo: Interview With Chris Patton!

Chris Patton and I at Omni Expo!

Chris Patton and me at Omni Expo!

Hello everyone and welcome back to Nerdy Shique Universe! Time for my second to last Omni Expo interview. My guest this time is the amazing Chris Patton! I know I mentioned how he cancelled his appearance at Omni and when I saw his name on the guest list a week later, I asked the convention and he asked to come back after cancelling what he was going to do that weekend. I was glad to interview him since it’s been six years since he came back to Orlando for a convention, which he was at Anime Festival Orlando back in 2008 with Monica Rial, which that is another guest who should return. Now onto what he does! You may know Patton for his role as Ayato in Rahxephon, Ikki in Air Gear, and of course Greed from FullMetal Alchemist! What did I ask him at Omni? Check it out!

 

Chris Patton: Hello!

Mari Blue Cat: ::laughs:: So, you have been at Anime Festival Orlando years ago…

CP: Yes!

MBC: So, how does it feel to be back in Orlando?

CP:I love being back in Orlando, especially for the warm weather and now I live in Maryland! This is nice and this is also my partner’s stomping ground. He couldn’t make it with me this time around and I feel like so close to him even though I am away from him right now and I’m also excited that Disney is doi8ng their 24 hour thing and we’re going to that tonight!

MBC: You mean that whole entire new ride!

CP: Yes, the Seven Dwarves Mine Train! Yes yes yes!

MBC: I heard about that!

CP: We’ll be heading to that, a big group of us! So I’m excited about that! I’m a big roller coaster dork and Orlando makes me excited about that! I’m so glad to be back in Orlando!

(Note: I went back to his table Sunday to ask about how he liked the ride and well he told me that he didn’t get a chance to ride it because the line wrapped around the entire park! It did get so much promotion that day, even a lady won passes that morning according to my driver that he heard over the radio. Plus, Chris had a three hour time limit at Disney with his group, but there is always next time since Disney will be here forever!)

 

MBC: You’ve been to so many conventions across the United States, what do you like the most about it?

CP: About conventions in general?

MBC: Yes!

CP: Probably just the fact that you get to see who appreciates your work, because as a voice actor, especially one who comes from the stage, you miss audiences. So you know you do most of your work alone and you go in and do what you know it is a good job and get directed and the engineer cleans up the mistakes you’ve made and that’s all and then you get paid blah, blah blah! You don’t necessarily get get to see people respond to your work and so it’s nice at conventions to meet your audience and that’s it, it’s simply that! I mean of course you get to travel and traveling is wonderful, it’s paid for it’s like free travel which is the wonderful bonus, that is what it is is you get to see the people that like your work when you’re behind the microphone.

 

MBC: What was the weirdest thing that someone has ever brought you as a gift or to get signed?

CP: Oh my gosh! That’s a great question! I’ve signed shoes!

MBC: ::laughs::

CP: I’ve signed a few 3DSes.

MBC: Really? There goes the value!

CP: Of course I’ve signed Yaoi paddles!

MBC: Ooohhh! I haven’t seen those in a forever!

CP: I know but the oddest thing I think I signed and I think a lot of male voice actors have stories of this, I did sign a breast one time! That is as far as weird stuff goes but I don’t think I got a weird gift but I can tell you the coolest gift I got!

MBC: All right!

CP: I one time got a Greed bobble head! Someone had made a bobble head of Greed and gave it to me and I still have it and it’s a wonderful thing! They put a lot of time into it and it was great and made me very happy! A Greed bobble head is the greatest gift I’ve ever gotten!

 

MBC: You have done series dubbed by ADV Films, which is now Sentei Works, and Funimation, how was the transition between both studios?

CP: There is a big difference between recording at Sentei and Funimation. One of the big differences is Funimation uses the beep system, which is what most people use, you know what it is…

MBC: Yeah, I remember going to Chris Sabat’s dubbing panels and it goes “Beep beep beep!”

CP: talk! Yeah! While ADV/Sentei they don’t do that! You just chase the audio, they basically just show you the clip you’re going to do and then you go and match the flap and there seems to be a change in the energy of the company. There seems to be a different source of energy or maybe work ethic or how things work in the company and that is all based on directors and it’s down to production…

MBC: How the script is written and flaps …

CP: Yeah! Different personalities and different people in Houston! The transition isn’t so jarring, especially there are times when you’re working for both! Kind of both at the same time and going back and forth and that is why I quit working at Funimation because I lived in Houston and the drive to Dallas is five hours!

MBC: Really!?

CP: Yeah and it was slaying me! So I just said “You know,” a lot of my friends are there and said, “I can’t do this anymore it was ruining me!” If I’d flown everytime it would be a45 minute flight but that gets expensive of course.

 

MBC: You have done so many characters in the past, which one was your favorite and which one would you record again?

CP: Oh man! My favorite character would be…even though I’ve been doing this for a long time and thought about it, I think my favorite would be a character named Fakir Fakir in a show called Princess Tutu!

MBC: Ohh yeahh! I remembered watching an episode of that!

CP: Oh yeah? I love that show! And the one I want to do again it would be Hajime in Ghost Stories because Hajime was so much fun! The way we did it and do it again would be modernized since we went off the cuff, we could do it with more modern references. I would love to do it again!

 

MBC: Have you ever thought about cosplaying as one of your characters?

CP: Oh God! I had people ask me to or dared me to! Some of these cosplayers look so good when they do it and they’re so good at what they do I figured “You know what, I leave the acting to me and and the cosplaying to them!” I would probably suck and look ridiculous!

 

MBC: What was the funniest thing you’ve ever done in the booth?

CP: Oh god! Probably this one time I was working on RahXephon, a show back in 2004, and I was the lead character Ayato and before my sessions I would drink a Red Bull and I just downed a Red Bull before this one session and the first cue in the session was a scream, it was a very loud scream! I was like “Yeah sure, whatever.” And the engineer hit record and I started to scream and then I felt this bubble come up in my guts and I belched so loud and so long and so disgustingly! And then when the belch was done, the engineer looked up at me and goes “Dude, you peeked the bass!” So, I’m half embarrassed by that and half proud of it! That is the funniest thing that ever happened to me!

MBC: Kind of like a blooper thing!

CP: Yes! I wished they could’ve kept it, that would’ve been hilarious!

 

MBC: Are there any new projects you can talk about?

CP: No! The thing is that I can talk about that is that there was a recent episode I done for Pokemon!

MBC: Really?

CP: I was a character named Sanpei in an episode that aired not too long ago!

MBC: Was it Black and White or XY?

CP: XY, I might be doing some more Pokemon pretty soon, not sure yet! But apart from that since I live in Maryland, I really am not doing a lot of anime but the only thing I know that I’m planning to visit Houston this summer and been in talk with Sentai in doing some work while I’m there! So we’ll see what the future holds! But right now I do audiobooks and commercials, stuff like that and an occasional video game, but no anime for right now but that will probably change!

 

Even though we ended the interview with talking about other works he has done such as Kids on the Slope, Another, which if you read my interview with the lovely Brittney Karbowski at the end of last year, she mentioned that as well which I may take a look into that! In the meantime, we will see what happens for Chris’ anime roles! I am still trying to find the first season of The World God Only Knows since MetroCon is coming up, I can try to find it there! And another question I did ask him, which was at the panel with him, Cara Edwards, and Kyle Hebert was something I didn’t realize until it came to me! I asked does he prefer recording as a villain or hero? What was his response?

 

“The villains tend to be more fun and more sort of fresh since I don’t get to play them as much because I mostly embrace the fact that I’m type cast as the seventeen to twenty-two year old pretty boys who are heroes and that is where my voice is than anywhere else and I’m totally cool with that! I love playing them because they’re the money roles because you record so much and you make bank on them as much as you can make on anime and they are the roles that tend to get you noticed for conventions and etc. Then you get thrown a villain like Greed or Asura and they blow up like crazy and not only that it’s a new road to travel, you get a new road to explore. It’s really hard for me to say, if I were to go in for a short, two hour gig, I’d rather go in and do a villain, it’s more fun. If I were to do a long haul thing, it is much easier on my voice to do a young dude who’s the hero of the show…long term hero and short term villain!”

 

That was his response to my question and the interview I’ve done with him! What is next? The final interview in my series of Omni Expo interviews, Chris Sabat! Til next time!

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by moonleopard85 on June 24, 2014  •  Permalink
Posted in anime, conventions

Posted by moonleopard85 on June 24, 2014

https://nerdyshiqueuniverse.com/2014/06/24/omni-expo-interview-with-chris-patton/

Omni Expo: Interviews with Carrie Savage, Toni Darling, and Cali Cosplay!

Hello everyone and welcome back to Nerdy Shique Universe! The interviews from Omni Expo continue on this blog and my next interviews are with two of the cosplay guests and this one I will be doing first and that is Carrie Savage! You may know her as the voices of both of the black and white Mokonas in Tsubasa Chronicle and XXXHoLiC and the voice of Miyu Furinji in Kenichi the Mightiest Disciple and if you are a Disgaea fan, she also voiced Volcanus aka Artina in D2 and 4! So, I was happy to interview her after a few years of her not returning to Orlando for another convention! A heads up, I didn’t get a pic with her since she wasn’t feeling okay Friday and was busy with people bringing stuff to sign and of course panel schedule! I did have a pic with Patton, which will be in the next interview! So, enjoy!

 

Mari Blue Cat: It’s been a while since you came back to Orlando, how does it feel to be back?

Carrie Savage: I love Florida! It’s my favorite state, weather wise humidity wise, I think “well California is great!” I always really love Florida and if hadn’t been for acting I would live here in a heartbeat!

MBC: Oh!

CS: I lived here briefly!

MBC: Oh really!

CS: Yeah, I did comedy briefly at Epcot Center.

MBC: Really!?

CS: Years ago! Been years ago! So it’s nice to be back! I love the weather!

 

MBC: How does it feel to meet more fans at the conventions?

CS: I love it! I love hearing people watching things and it’s really special when a fan tells you that something made a difference to them and that’s what I love the most, especially a show like Sgt. Frog, would make such a difference to someone who would say like “My parent passed away and it made me laugh through the difficult times.” Something like that. I really like meeting the people who watch this! The faces.

MBC: It’s like if someone comes up with Kenichi says something like “I like Miyu!”

CS: It’s kinda nice to know that is real when people are watching it and enjoying it! And also get to know who they are! I love people! And all the people who are artists, who are creative, even with cosplay! And fans who are really smart with computer stuff.

 

MBC: Have you seen anyone cosplay as any of your characters?

CS: Yes! That is awesome! I love seeing that! There has been some amazing costumes! I think at Anime Detour they had the characters where the artists drew it in the artists books so not how they look in the anime, but I have seen that too but the really fancy way the artists did it! I’ve seen a lot of Irises from Sakura Wars, I’ve been in the movie for that but I’ve seen some Pricillas. I think there have been Rankas. Not many Pippos but a lot of Monte Cristos. There have been a few Monte Cristos, a few video game characters, some Rimi, I think it’s Rimi from Vampire Knight. There were times when fans came up to me and said that they cosplayed as my character the day before and didn’t do it that day and I’m like “Oh no!”

 

MBC: What was the most interesting thing you’ve ever signed or funniest gift that someone brought you?

CS: Okay, do you know Ikkitosen?

MBC: Yes! I heard about it!

CS: Well, in the first season the clothes get ripped off to the point where the shirt’s still covering the important parts right?

MBC: Right!

CS: So the character’s not nude. So, this man was talking to Monica Rial and I and he was showing us his artbook and he had these amazing figurines and they were wrapped and not sure and they were half naked! Monica was snickering because she knows I was such a conditionary girl and it was hard for to me joke since there are things that happen in that show and so he made this present for me of an amazing figure of Waboku but with her shirt ripped off so her nipples would you know…

MBC: Ohhh! (Note: I felt myself blushing while she told me this! I even thought to my Sae figure from Burst Angel in her bikini!)

CS: It is hard to display in my office so I had to cover up.

MBC: Like put a smock over it!

CS: Yes! Yes yes!

MBC: I feel the same way because I sometimes I want to hide my Sae figure which is in the bikini and it was the only one I could find in the MegaCon dealer room!

CS: Yeah it’s crazy! It is such beautifully done work but I cannot have a naked girl there!

MBC: It’s like “Hey Carrie! Do you have that figure?” and you’re like “What figure!”

CS: But I’ve saved them all and have a storage room for them!

 

MBC: What was the most interesting convention moment you’ve ever had?

CS: I think the one with the gift was the most interesting since I can’t think of anything, there’s been so many you know? There’s a convention in Minnesota where the people that live around there they bring a pet to me everytime I go there and I carry my pet around, which is a parrot!

 

MBC: I know you’ve done video games and anime, how does it feel to go from one media to the next?

There is a lot of switching back and forth you get used to it! It’s very different! With anime you have to match the lip flaps and in a video game you don’t have that. Now it’s all digital with IPad, not like what it used to be with big books and your lines would be all together without anybody else’s lines in between and you have to go through it in different ways with each line which you don’t know what it is going on video games are done much faster, which you don’t have to match lip flap and it can be hard on your voice. It is also harder since it’s fast and you don’t know what’s happening!

 

MBC: Are there any new projects you can talk about?

CS: There’s been several video games, which can’t really talk about. We’re still recording Fairy Tail! Last Exile Season 2! There’s a lot I don’t know what to talk about!

MBC: Therre’s a lot of anime out there!

CS: There is a movie coming out though. I’m in New York a lot since I’m in school.

MBC: I need to ask you something, who do you play in Fairy Tail?

CS: Lisana!

MBC: I knew the voice sounded familiar!

(Note: I didn’t realize that my Gondras was working all weekend, I would’ve asked for a part of Fairy Tail to get signed, but always next time! This convention is still young! I still did bring Vampire Knight for her to sign which made it better!)

 

CS: There also had been a lot of video game expansion packs coming out lately!

 

Well, that’s my interview with Carrie Savage. I know it was a bit short but my Braille Sense also deleted the rest of my questions for her! I did save while typing them, which was odd! I will have to be careful when I do the ones for the people I will be interviewing at Metro, which will be announced after I post my interview with Chris Sabat! Right now, I had a very short interview with two of the cosplay guests! One of the convention owners saw me leaving the guest area since Chris Sabat left for the day that Friday and thought it would be interesting if I did an interview with two of the cosplay guests and did! It was just too short since they had to leave for a panel! This is what I got!

 

Mari Blue Cat: So, same your names for the tag!

Toni Darling: I’m Toni Darling!

Cali Dosplay: I’m Cali Cosplay!

MBC: So how long have you guys been cosplaying?

TD: The both of us have been cosplaying for two years actually!

CC: Yep!

 

MBC: So, it feels really fresh?

CC: It’s been really fast! You know I started doing this when my husband made me a Black Widow cosplay from Avengers and that came out two years ago and then got into it as like a hobby and was really into it and was like “Man! This is fun! I should get into this!” And then it just became this hugge thing on Facebook, people follow pictures on social media.

 

MBC: Even with ScyFy with Heroes of Cosplay!

TD: Yeah Heroes of Cosplay I think really…it was inevitable that Heroes of Cosplay happened and it was inevitable once cosplay became more mainstream. Everyone knows what cosplay is right now!

 

MBC: What do you cosplay as most? Anime? Video games? Comics?

TD: I guess it depends. I am trying to keep my portfolio diverse so I don’t have too much of one thing! But I think the majority of my stuff is…but if there is one thing I cosplayed the majority of is comic book characters! I do also have some anime and do some pop culture that is not really from an anime or a comic book book or game like Kill Bill, Betty Paige or even Marilyn Monroe, pop culture icons!

CC: I do mostly comic book characters and also done some horror stuff since I like the horror genre. I also done video game characters like Bayoneta. The costumes we mostly do is anime and video games!

TD: Yeah! I wish I can get more into the anime stuff! Attack on Titan man!

CC and MBC: Ohhh yeaahhh!

MBC: I interviewed Matthew Mercer an hour or so ago!

TD: There are a lot of Attack On Titan voice artists here!

MBC: Especially with the Japan Day Festival here, there was titan cosplayers and one even did the over the wall thing with a big bush!

TD: Attack On Titan is so good but the problem with that is there no real diverse costumes! I did see a female titan but that’s it!

CC: I did see a formal duo of Aaron and Mikasa ! It was awesome, very good take on it, white, flowing dress and white…

TD: That is very cool! I would like to see something like that! I love it when people get creative with generic characters. I was in Mexico a few weeks ago at a convention and the theme was steam punk and my favorite costume from that show was a steam punk Princess Leia.

MBC: Oooohh!

TD: Instead of hair she had brown leather head piece like balls with gears inside! And she had a steam punk corset with a white dress.

MBC: It looked like it took a lot of work!

TD: Yeah, it takes a lot to do a lot of leather work! It’s impressive!

CC: I want to get into that kind of work. I even did my Wonder Woman skirt!

TD: Is it?

CC: Yeah, I never done leather work before!

 

That is about it! I realized I should’ve gone to the panel they were doing but since I had a cold and started feeling crappy, I decided to hang with the conventions. There is always other cosplay panels and hoping I won’t be sick and feel like crashing, especially when I have to wake up early during Metro for one interview! Maybe I should announce that here!

 

So, who am I interviewing this year at Metro?

 

Dante Basco: I finally got my interview with him and glad that I get to!

Richard Epcar: Get to see more of his director’s side like Chris Sabat!

Troy Baker: Even though he is at AFO, I get to meet and interview him at Metro and see what is next in his career in video games and anime!

Mary Elizabeth McGlynn: Wanted to meet her for the longest time and glad that I get to! Plus, get to know what it’s like to record as a singer and a voice actress!

 

So, that is my Metro interview lineup! So, what is next for interviews from Omni Expo? Chris Patton!

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by moonleopard85 on June 17, 2014  •  Permalink
Posted in anime, conventions, cosplay, Gaming

Posted by moonleopard85 on June 17, 2014

https://nerdyshiqueuniverse.com/2014/06/17/omni-expo-interviews-with-carrie-savage-toni-darling-and-cali-cosplay/

Omni Expo: Interview With Matthew Mercer

Matthew Mercer and I are ready to face down some Titans

Matthew Mercer and I are ready to take down some Titans and zombies.

Hello everyone and welcome back to Nerdy Shique Universe! Time for another interview from Omni Expo and this time it’s from a name I haven’t heard of myself until this convention. Matthew Mercer is the name and is a Florida Boy himself! Being from the Palm Beach area, he has done voices for Resident Evil Game Series as Leon Kennedy and now in the newest anime to hit Toonami Attack On Titan as Levi! I was glad to interview him and this is how it went!

 

Mari Blue Cat: I know you came from Anime Boston to Omni Expo, how does it feel to be here in Orlando?

Matthew Mercer: For one thing, I am originally from Florida. I was born in West Palm Beach, more like the West Palm Beach area, it’s more of a homecoming to come back to my home state. Secondly, I’ve been a fan of first year conventions because they’re generally smaller and intimate and give time for the fans and gives the chance to enjoy hanging out with the people that brought you there. For larger events, it is more sterile and more separated and today’s been very chilly and usually the first day of the convention is very slow and it’s been fun to be able to hang with the people have met and get to have lounging conversation and hanging with the staff, so far it has been fun.

 

MBC: How does it feel to meet people who love your work and cosplay as your characters?

MM: ::laughs:: It is very flattering! It’s also for me also being fan of the genre I’m in. I grew up playing video games and watching anime so I am a fan. From going into a professional realm from that and connect with people that have the equally passionate interests that I do ::in a gruff voice:: when I was their age ::back into regular:: you can say!

MBC: Right!

MM: You know it’s exciting and it’s cool to know that I in some shape or form inspired people a little better that enjoyed my work, it’s fulfilling in them. It validation and it’s our money and income so we have to feel validated! So meet the people that do appreciate it and hearing that positive feedback is tremendous to us because it makes us feel that we’re doing something that’s worth to somebody and I had people tell me stories about anime and video game characters that we’ve done have helped them with hardship through their life for…help them change for the better in life and you realize that you know you say they’re cartoons too and video games, they’re disposable media, I completely disagree! I think they’re extremely important to people, there are lessons and there are and any kind of form of storytelling the reason is to learn from these stories is to not only feel for these characters but their experience teaches you something about life, teaches you about how to progress in your own life and to me it reminds me as actors we are storytellers at a certain extent and really cool to meet people who are into it and so inspired to create these costumes by taking these characters as their own and you feel like, you feel like you make a difference in their life.

MBC: Right! Now that Attack On Titan is becoming huge, you are seeing people as a titan or a human character!

MM: Exactly! Teaching people how to run away from big people!

MBC: ::laughs::

MM: Teaching them how to run from very big people is a very good lesson to teach!

 

MBC: Now that you’re appearing in anime, how does it feel to get the transition from anime to video games? Do you find it easier or…

MM: It’s different! It’s definitely more technical. My very first things I recorded were anime, started in that technical realm and then and pushed forward into video games as a career and then recently pushed back into anime. For video games and western animation, it’s definitely more of a free form for an actor give any performance you like; take time it’s really guided by you. For anime, because the animation is already created it’s more technical process, it’s more stringent, you have to work and as an actor you have to interpret the characters and the scene and do the normal process of building a character and then pair it, pinch it, and squeeze it into this preexisting performance piece and to me I find it to be a pretty interesting challenge. It’s a cool different way of challenging yourself as an actor, just working within those confines and deliver an enthralling performance of a character, which I enjoy thoroughly! I enjoy them all for different reasons, for anime the difficulty and technical aspects I have a lot of fun!

MBC: For some people it’s the flaps! Flap matching is pretty hard!

MM: It’s pretty difficult, if you’re lucky to have a director there to interpret some of the dialogue on the fly, when you’re recording and you’re realize that some translated dialogue doesn’t fit, it’s too long, it’s too short,…

MBC: Or fit with the cultural context!

MM: Exactly! Where most Americana won’t understand it to interpret it where the joke is still there, even if the even it it’s changed a little bit and some people get frustrated! It’s different from the track, the original Japanese but we have to kind of do that for the nature of American audience to do our best to keep it in the original idea, so it’s done with love and appreciation you know, there is no disregard for the original media, we’re doing our best to translate it!

 

MBC: Do you prefer recording video games or anime more?

MM: It’s hard to choose a preference! I love them both for different reasons. Most of my work is video game based and I was a hardcore video gamer growing up anyways, that has a special place in my heart! Especially since I had the opportunity to work on video game franchises I loved growing up, being a part of Street Fighter, being a part of Mortal Kombat, being a part of the Final Fantasy series, being a part of Star Ocean, all these things I loved…you know ThunderCats, these are all things I grew up around so its my upbringing with video games tend to lean toward that way for nostalgic purposes. But I also grew up on anime too, especially with all the new anime coming out it’s great, Attack On Titan, Kill La Kill, the new Hellsing…there is so much new things coming out that is gearing towards this cinematic intensity. While I lean towards video games which is where my work is in, I love anime for different reasons. I kind of research anime myself for my love of anime for these projects as well!

 

MBC: What was the first anime you’ve ever seen?

MM: Ever seen?

MBC: Yeah!

MM: Probably Unico! That’s old school! A tiny little unicorn with the red hair and the stuffy horn! I watched that as a little kid! Kimba the White Lion as well, I was four! Really acknowledging anime, Dragonball Z in Japanese with Korean subtitles, which my friend would get them at a bootleg Korean store and tells me what happens when the episode is over! ::laughs::

 

MBC: How did you get the role as Levi on Attack On Titan?

MM: The auditions came through Mike McFarland, the director, who I worked with him on one other project at Funimation and that was the FullMetal Alchemist movie, The Sacred Star of Milos and so that was fun and haven’t worked with them for a few years and it’s difficult to work with them when living in Los Angeles unless you have a history with them!

MBC: Yeah, it’s hard for Todd Haberkorn as well since he moved out to Los Angeles recently or a year ago according to the commentaries. (Fairy Tail commentaries, Todd mentioned that he moved out there and same with Cheramie Leigh as a note!)

MM: Yeah, Todd’s awesome! Mike contacted me and said “Hey! I have a new project I’m working on Attack On Titan, I want you to read for it!” He gave me a few characters to read on. I I heard of the series but haven’t watched it yet.

MBC: Oh! That was going to be my next question but you can continue!

MM: No worries! I never watched the series but heard about it! A lot of my friends who weren’t even anime fans have came up to me at parties and events and went “Have you watched this series Attack On Titan?” I was like, “Okay there is something to this series apparently!” After I auditioned for some of the characters, I decided to go back and actually start watching a few episodes of the series since everyone saw it on NetFlix and Hulu, and I was watching some episodes and eight or nine hours later I’ve marathoned the entire first season of the series on my couch and was like “This is AMAZING!” So I got really invested in it so I already read for the characters and I was already double excited at the possibility of being a part of it and when Mike McFarland called me up and wanted to cast me as Levi, I was like “Okay, no cool! That would be great! We will set up a schedule! All right! See you later man!” I hung up and pulled over in my car and sat in my car and fist pumping the air and going “Yeahaha! I am so awesome! I am so excited about this!” So that is how I got in!

 

Have you seen Team FourStar’s abridged version of Attack On Titan, well episode 1?

MM: I have actually, it’s been sent to me!

MBC: Oh really?

MM: ::laughing:: It’s totally awesome! All of their abridged stuff is fantastic!

MBC: Yeah!

MM: I’ve seen most of all their stuff they’ve done, the original Dragonball Abridged, all their series are great! I went back and watched their Attack On Titan Abridged and now going back after hanging out with them at this convention and go back to get caught up with that!

 

MBC: Are there any new projects you can talk about without any violation?

MM: That is the good question! I have a bunch of NDAs I’m excited about but over the summer there will be more announcements! There will be a lot of new video games and new anime projects coming out and would love to talk about but can’t!

MBC: You have to keep it shut!

MM: Yep! It’s so frustrating! They announced so much but can’t talk about!

Girl Volunteer: They did announce some things!

MM: They did announce the cast but I can’t talk about it but I have friends that are like “I am so excited about this game!” And I’m like ::says in nervous tone:: “Yeah me toooo!”

MBC: It’s like “I can’t say anything!”

MM: Exactly! So frustrating! I can say that Atlas announced that they are doing more Persona 4 stuff! They’re doing the new Arena release and there are Persona 3 tie-ins in it. I am working on that which I am so excited about! Other than that, there are more video games coming out at the end of the year so look out for those! For my fans out there, keep tabs on my Facebook and Twitter for more announcements when they are announce-able!

 

That is my interview with Matthew Mercer! So, if you are on Facebook and Twitter, follow him! I will like so many people out there! The good news is if you haven’t gone to Omni Expo and haven’t gotten to meet Matthew, you get your chance next year since Omni did announce their guest list for 2015 and he won’t be alone! Along with him from Attack On Titan, Trina Nishimura, Josh Grell, and Mike McFarland, which I am happy that he will finally return to Orlando in 2015! Will there be any interviews? Well, wait and see!

 

What is next up on the interview block? Carrie Savage is next! I may also include a very short interview I did with two of the cosplay guests since I feel my interview with Carrie was short as well! So, stay tuned for those! And

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by moonleopard85 on June 10, 2014  •  Permalink
Posted in anime, conventions, Gaming

Posted by moonleopard85 on June 10, 2014

https://nerdyshiqueuniverse.com/2014/06/10/omni-expo-interview-with-matthew-mercer/

Omni Expo: Interview With TeamFourStar!

(Left to right): Me, Takahata, Lani, and Kaiser

(Left to right): Me, Takahata, Lani, and Kaiser

Hello everyone and welcome back to Nerdy Shique Universe! So, during Omni Expo I held interviews with some of the guests and one of them happened to be some of the funniest guys on the ‘net and they are known for making abridged versions of DBZ, Hellsing Ultimate, and now Attack On Titan. They also had favorite phrases made famous such as “God dammit Nappa!” and the “Krillin Owned Count” popular! Who are they? Why they are TeamFourStar! How was the interview? Read below to find out! BTW, I will do my best in knowing who was who, Lanipator, Takahata101, and KaiserNeko were the ones as guests!

 

Mari Blue Cat: So, you have been to conventions all over the United States, how does it feel to be at one of the many here in Orlando?

 

Takahata101: We’re sweating our Dragonballs off!

KaiserNeko: you were waiting for that at the beginning of the panel to use that one! Honestly, this is great! I love this venue, this is the best venue that I think we’ve ever been at for a convention! It’s beautiful and got to come in early and soak by the pool and enjoy myself. I love the layout here and it seems like it will get very lively out here!

MBC: Wait until tomorrow!

Kaiser: Last time we were in Florida was Tampa and it gives us a different side of Florida and it’s great to see our South Western Fans…

Taka: South Eastern!

Kaiser: Our South Eastern Fans!

Taka: Actually with meeting other fans, we get to meet our fans from ChaotiCon!

 

MBC: How does it feel to go to conventions and meeting fans that enjoy your work?

 

Kaiser: It’s great! Honestly, it never gets less overwhelming because you go to these places and be face to face with those people who leave those comments on YouTube and be like “Ho hoho! You were the one who said that!”

Taka: Actually, it’s kind of one of the reasons that I still like…I still love doing the show for a lot of reasons but getting to meet our fans like meeting them face to face knowing that you’re making them laugh and entertaining them, that is is the most fulfilling thing. I absolutely love meeting fans is one of the best parts of the job!

 

MBC: Since DBZ Abridged has been getting big and bigger, ave you thought it would get this big?

 

Taka: No!

Kaiser: God no! When we first started, we were living far apart from each other, we still do, but we were thinking “yeah this would be a fun project to do.” We got 10 20 thousand subscribers, yeah this would be great and then we started getting invited to cons and thinking in the beginning we won’t be able to meet each other and this is a fun project to do while we figure out our future and six years later…

Taka: Yeah…

Kaiser: This has slowly become our future and where we are like these guys are going to be groomsmen at my wedding! I’m curious! How many subscribers have we invited to our first con?

 

Taka: 200!

Kaiser: 200,000 really?

Lanipator: It was around 250,000 and that was by the end of season 1!

Kaiser: I don’t think we didn’t have 250, 000 by then. I think we had about over a hundred thousand.

Taka: Yeah…maybe a hundred thousand by then. We used to joke about going to cons, it was funny it would be unlikely!

Lani: Remember back in the day when I had like 45 thousand subscribers that was a lot to us!

Kaiser: Remember when (LittleKuriboh) with 70 thousand was one of the top 25 YouTubers! And now we have 1.2 million subscribers!

(Note: It was hard to tell Kaiser and Lanipator apart since we had to do the interview at their dealer room table, so I am doing the best I can!)

 

MBC: Are you still recording and scripting the entire thing?

 

All Three: Yep!

Taka: Same process! Never deviated from it!

Kaiser: We never change the process but we have to change the hours to fit each other’s schedule but the process has stayed the same!

Lani: And we’ve been branching out to more things and planning to branch out since we built a stable basis and starting to springing up more pillars.

Kaiser: Yeah considering DBZ like we have such a finite amount it is never seemed to be limited to the amount and now that we’re looking at Cell and then we’re looking at Boo which is a very long arc!

Lani: There’s a lot to be cut!

Kaiser: We have a finite amount of show now, we are at the stage of our “career” where we’re looking at more options to expand upon our brand.

 

MBC: Even though this is supposed to be a later question, are there any other series you want to abridge?

 

Kaiser: Not specifically, we’re looking at doing other things besides abridging in the future. Although there are some options I won’t get far into that may be similar to what we do now.

Lani: We like to follow the same format of serial comedy that is episodic and the best formats to invest in a lot of new characters. It gets to the point where like in Philadelphia where the plot can be a cup and someone stole a cup and it can be an hour episode in finding that cup and can be the funniest episode…

Kaiser: I am waiting for that episode of Bar Rescue…

Lani: It would be the greatest episode because they can’t rescue that bar!

 

MBC: Have watched any of the past episodes and wish you could change?

 

Lani: All the time! First and foremost to see how far we’ve come. Especially you Kaiser, you go back and be like “This is what I used to do! Oh God!” My editing has gotten better over time I still don’t think I’m where I need to be…

Kaiser: So is your humbleness!

Lani: As I said, I still think I’m not where I need to be! I think we are improving as time is going on and if you don’t look back and look at the process and don’t think you could’ve done better then something wrong with it.

Kaiser: There is also the fact of looking back saying “Oh wow we did that really good!” not necessarily in a mastubatory sense but in the sense of “Wow, we’re proud of how that came out and should do more of that.”

Taka: If you can’t be proud of your accomplishments you’ve made, then you’re not going…if you’re not proud then you won’t have that confidence to continue break boundaries.

Kaiser: It’s like when we look at YouTube comments, big channels say don’t look at the comments it would break you down!

MBC: Right!

Kaiser: But the only way of knowing what your audience likes is by looking at it. Granted you are going to get…it has gotten to the point where every video we make is either the best or worst, because what we do is so subjective in terms of our fanbase.

Lani: It’s humor….

Kaiser: Humor is the most subjective things there is!

Lani: People think Boo is not funny but to 25 thousand people he is!

 

MBC: Since you guys do Hellsing Ultimate Abridged and Attack On Titan Abridged, how did those come about?

 

Lani: Hellsing came around when I was watching a movie and wanted to work on it and I kept on coming up with jokes! People kept saying that we can’t make Hellsing funny. You can make anything hilarious when you spend a lot of tiiiimmmeee on it!

Kaiser: And with the right mind of course!

Lani: So to speak as well and have a KaiserNeko!

Taka: You can buy them in the stores!

Lani: People ask me “Why not do the episode with a KaiserNeko so it would be much easier?”

Kaiser: What happened to did it break down?

Taka: We’re a timed commitment and we break the furniture!

Lani and MBC: ::laughter::

Lani: About Attack On Titan, it was a love for a really fun fun series!

 

MBC: I heard, is it true that it is on hiatus?

 

Lani: Yep it is on hiatus but in the meantime we will be tackling other projects!

MBC: That’s good!

Kaiser: Something that the fans would love as much!

 

MBC: I know that you worked with Linkara for an April Fool’s joke with an episode of Gundam, how fun was that?

 

Lani: It was okay, he handed us a script and I recorded a little video for him in the end!

Taka: ::does an impersonation of Linkara:: Takahata101, do you want to be in my abridged series? ::goes on as himself:: Who would’ve guessed that you would come to me, now kiss my ring and we will get it done!

Kaiser(?): ::in Godfather voice:: You missed the day of my daughter’s wedding and you ask for a favor.

Taka: Yes I do! ::Linkara voice:: Yes! ::proceeds as himself:: The funny thing is that was the second time I was asked to do the voice of Nolen Bright in a Gundam series! The fun part actually I was the only serious character in the entire thing who was completely no nonsense! So I was like “Okay, are you sure the performance is good? I didn’t overplay him?” We actually did another video with him at Midwest Expo which was another fun video and he is fun to record with and that was for his Lady Death review!

Lani: I don’t remember what it was, I remember recording it!

 

I did have one more question and it was based on the celebrities they had appear in their stuff, such as Kyle Hebert as Santa Claus in Christmas Tree of Might and Jessica Cavillo as Rip Van Winkle in Hellsing Ultimate Abridged but didn’t get much of a question from what I listened to but hey it was enjoyable to know that Jessica Cavillo is in Attack On Titan and any old Pokemon fans, she did the voice of Prima according to the Orange Island episodes, but we all know it is Lorelei!

 

Well, that is it for this interview! It wasn’t easy transcribing since there were more than one person, but hey the others except one is one on one! So, stay tuned for my interview with Matthew Mercer up next!

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by moonleopard85 on June 4, 2014  •  Permalink
Posted in anime, conventions, Uncategorized

Posted by moonleopard85 on June 4, 2014

https://nerdyshiqueuniverse.com/2014/06/04/omni-expo-interview-with-team-four-star/