Yoko Littner News

Warning! The following blog contains strong opinions orientated towards Gurren Lagann. Be prepared for a lot of angry/displeased Superevil.
 
Alright, I can admit that this is a must watch anime. Everybody's heard of it, most have watched it. I enjoyed it for the first 5 or so episodes but, frankly it's just not doing it. I'm sitting here with episode 7 or Gurren Lagann and I just can't muster up the strength to watch it. But I can admit that it's a good series. Good animation, art, character design, acting (both Japanese and English), fantastic soundtrack, and a decent attempt at humour. But I'm really just not into this series for three main reasons.

3. The "Humorous" Plot

 Okay, I laughed the first few episodes. Kamina made some humorous acts of stupidity, but after a while, I get bored. The comedy is the show is dry, overused and at some points tasteless. I don't see how the comedy enhances the plot. In fact, the comedy sends the plot train reeling off the tracks and into a ditch of dry, dry dirt. I'm sorry, but I need at least a little bit of character development, or some new adventures in this plot. Nothing is standing out to me, I'm not laughing, and I'm just not interested. The anime is simple, too. Far too simple for my tastes. Maybe I'm just too fond of movies such as The Prestige, Inception, Sherlock Holmes, and Shawshank Redemption, or maybe Gurren Lagann is far too simple minded for anybody really. But the simple humour isn't cutting it. Sure it's totally crazy because it doesn't take itself seriously, but maybe that's it's biggest flaw. Gurren Lagann doesn't take itself seriously so it dries out. It runs out of interesting and good jokes and wallows in a pit of unmoving, uninteresting, simple minded, sexist and demeaning excuses for humour.
 

2. Sexism Vs. Strong Women

 Alright, we've got Yoko. She's strong, independent, and demeaning to women.
"But Superevil! She kicks Kamina's ass when ever he's sexist."
I say, that's exactly what I hate. I can't stand it when the anime stereotype for strong women is the fact that they're able to violently abuse men when they make a move. Sure Yoko kicks ass so hard in other departments, but I'm also close to revolted when it comes to the fanservice. I can handle panty-shots. I can handle the occasional bouncing breast, but when boobs defy gravity every time she turns around the joke runs dry and eventually becomes offensive. I admit, it might have to do with the fact that I'm a straight woman, but it's getting to the point in the anime where the fanservice is no longer passable and it becomes offensive. I'm specifically hung up over the one episode where Kamina spends 20 minutes of the episode trying to sneak a peak at Yoko's boobs. All the women are degraded to objects, who can't even try to fight for themselves and have to wait for Kamina to save them........ after he gets a look at some tits. It's gotten to the point where Gurren Lagann is just offensive.
 

1. Kamina

 Sorry, but I can't stand him. Not one bit. It was okay during the beginning. His overly inflated ego was funny at times, and his stupidity was entertaining. But now, he's just obnoxious. It's painful to see how stupid he can act, I literally cringe at every mistake he makes. His ego has gotten to the point where every time I see his face I wish I could punch it, and his chauvinistic, rude, and plain obnoxious attitude is going to drive me around the bend. I don't really see why people like this character. Sure there are plenty of characters that you would hate if they were real, but you love them in the anime. Kamina is not one of those characters. Let's take my obsession with Claire Stanfield from Baccano! He's obnoxious, egotistical and insane. I would hate him in real life, but I love him in the anime. There are redeeming qualities and events through out the anime that make you love a character like that. Kamina has no redeeming qualities, and there's nothing he does in the anime that make him lovable. Every step he takes I find myself disliking this character even more and more.
 

So, that's why I don't like Gurren Lagann so far. It was good, at the start but my patience is running out. I'm not going to watch another episode unless I get convinced by you guys. I don't want any flame from this article. All I want to do is express my thoughts on an anime that I really don't like. I respect that a lot of people like this anime, but it's really not for me. The reasons stated above are personal. I'm willing to discuss my thoughts, but I don't want people hating on me for them.

I pretty much finished the wig to the best of my noob abilities. I really didn't know what I was doing half the time but I tried. It turned out... decent I guess. If you don't care about the methods and/or process, just look at the last two pictures and you'll see the finished wig.

Before I begin, I thought I'd show you how my (exciting!) wig stand looks like:

My dad gave me a large "nail," two pieces of spare wood, and a PVC pipe that the nail fits in. I just suckerfalconpunched that nail and place the PVC pipe around it and BAM instant wig stand.

Let's start with the normal cutting stuff:

So from my previous wig-related blog entry, you can see where I sectioned off the wig and how I tried to figure out Yoko's bangs. Despite knowing in my head what I wanted, I ended up not following the sections I clipped perfectly. I followed the sections initially but I had to move parts of sections around and add more hair from one area to another. The cut pieces (first picture) can be used as wefts if I want to add something to the wig but for now they're just sitting in a sandwich bag.

What methods I FAILED:

There's a couple of methods I looked up online but they don't exactly work for Yoko's bangs (or I just plain suck). The first method I tried (look at first and second picture) was using hair rollers and pins to curl up the bangs in their respective sections. This didn't work because the pins ended up creasing the wig's fibers and it didn't really curl enough because I didn't put enough hairspray. I had to use a hair straightener (set on low) to remove the creases. That was not fun. I also had to rinse off all the hairspray because it hardened the wig fibers a bit.
My second method was to let the rollers hold by themselves and put a bit more hairspray (pictures 2-6). I didn't use the pins to hold them down this time so I could avoid the creases. This method didn't work either because It ended up not curling at all. I rinsed the wig a couple times (like seen in the fifth picture) and ended up with something that resembles the last picture.
There's a couple other methods I tried but I can't remember at the top of my head. I might have blocked them from memory. I also don't have picture to job my memory so OH WELL.

I was getting mad at myself for being crappy at wig styling. Well everyone has to start somewhere I guess but still.

The method that worked for me:

Working with the wig was getting me agitated. I decided to look at several different angles I could find of Yoko's hair instead of focusing on how other cosplayers did their wigs. Her hair does inconsistent things in the anime after re-watching a couple episodes so I decided to screw it and make it spikyish.
So I sectioned each part of her bangs in the first three pictures. After getting the base of each "spike," I started shaving parts of the wig fibers that are below each bang to make it a bit thinner when it reaches the pointy part of each spike. It also makes the bang look fuller from the top. I then used a hair curler (on super duper low so it doesn't melt the wig) to make it curl a little bit.

After deciding where bangs go, I started putting pins around each spike's ends (as you can see in the last two pictures). I would hairspray the sucker enough to be hard. I left the hairspray to dry and eventually starting moving bangs into the position I wanted them to be in. After deciding exactly where I want things, I repinned each of the hardened bangs to place and hairsprayed like crazy again.

This method wasn't full proof. Before pinning the ends of bangs, I tried just hairspraying each bang. That didn't really work because while it was wet, the hair that makes up each bang would spread apart. I also had to make sure I hairsprayed the bottom of each bang without making it stick to the mannequin head. That was annoying. I learned that using a water spraybottle helps loosen any mistake I did even if the bang was hard.

And here's the end result:

The ponytail wig needs to be combed a bit more but other than that, I'm pretty satisfied with the wig for my first time styling. I have no idea how to make her side bang "poofy" out of her head (the one with her skull pin) so I decided I'll just leave the side bang against the hair. Ignore the pins I left on the head... I forgot to remove them when I took the pics.

If you're wondering why I'm not wearing it, I left my wig caps at a friend's house and I haven't bothered her about it yet so just wait a while. =) If you are curious, the ponytail reaches roughly my bum. In my next Yoko cosplay update, I'll have a picture of myself actually wearing parts of the cosplay.

On my to do list:

• hammer in studs on my belt
• make that long glove she wears on her left arm
• order my boots and paint them
• fix up my random accessories

Pimpin' Ain't Easy: I "guest-starred" on the podcast run by Moonstorm and Lunarmoth. I talk about some cosplay stuff at the end of the ending theme so if you care to listen, check out the podcast right here.



tl;dr: My first attempt at wig styling was... okay. I may have failed a couple methods but I found my own and it worked out fairly well.

Previous Yoko Cosplay Blog Entries:
Update 1
Update 1.5
Update 2
Yoko Wig, Part 1

So I got my wigs in the mail recently and I have started to mess around with them. This is the first time I'm dealing with styling a wig since other my other cosplays didn't have wigs that needed major styling. You can follow my triumph (or downfall) of my process right here on the Vice. So let's begin with a few pictures.


This is the Femme Fatale Wig from Amphigory. I should have taken a picture of the backside but it slipped my mind. Anyway, it's rather curly at the ends of the wig so I had to straighten it. I found a tutorial online from Katie Bair's website where it shows you step by step how to straighten a wig out.

I boiled some water to roughly 180 degrees Fahrenheit and here's how it looks all wet and icky:

Holy tequito Batman it works!

Amazingly, it is super duper straight now. It took forever to dry though... even when I left it outside.

Now here's where I ran into a bit of a conundrum. As I've said, I never styled a wig before so I was trying to figure out what sections of wig fiber goes to which bang. Yoko has bangs and random pieces of hair all over the place.

From my circled diagram (fear my awesome Photoshop skills):

There are five main sections I have to deal with. There's two long parts that are symmetrical on her head (they're kinda like sideburns but... not). Then there's two side bangs where one floats to the side miraculously (where the skull pin is) while the other floofs up. The last bang is the one in the middle.

So after staring at my wig for God knows how long, I've sectioned them off with hair ties and clips:

It looks quite funky since it isn't styled yet but I kinda know what I'm doing (I think... and hope).

As for my other wig (Punky XL) I ordered:


I started straightening it a bit more since it was folded from delivery. Instead of using Katie's method, I used Catherine Jone's method. It turned out good because it took out all of the random creases that were on the wig. I will be using a large hair clip to attach this wig as a ponytail. When I fake ponytailed it to my real hair, it reaches roughly my bum so I'm happy about the length of it.


And now I fear my pair of scissors because I will now start styling my bangs... It's the moment of truth and I will make my first wig cut today. Wish me luck.


In non-wig news, I got a new computer. Here's a picture:

I'm still not used to the monitor being so huge.


Previous Yoko Cosplay Blog Entries:
Update 1
Update 1.5
Update 2

I like to procrastinate on my paper about A Clockwork Orange (by Anthony Burgess) so I decided to do another cosplay update blog!
I finally took some more cosplay shots of random things I've worked on. I also finally ordered my wigs... yes plural. My Yoko wig will have a removable ponytail and instead of buying wefts, I decided I'll use another wig to have a fuller effect.

Anyway, on to the pictures! I will eventually have shots where you can see me where stuff but for now these will do.

Here are pics of my scarf/neck warmer:
On the right, you can see my template. I used a spare newspaper to figure out how big the stripes should be. The white fleece was sewn between the large piece of material so the scarf can be a bit more fluffier.

Here's my "work in progress" shorts:

They are really ugly right now because well... it's in progress obviously. I need to add the waistband, shorten the pair a bit more, and hem the bottom. It's still a bit bigger than I am so I need to take it in a bit more.

I also took a picture of my current workstation:

It's quite messy... I usually work in my room but I like having a large table so I'm working on my stuff downstairs for now.

I have also tried the eyebrow tutorial I posted on Gia's wig related blog. The tutorial teaches you how to make your eyebrows a different color using washable glue and acrylic paint.
Here are the results:
Excuse my acne... I'm just a bit stressed from school is all. Anyway, I think the results are fairly fine when it comes to far away shots like the picture on the right. The picture on the left is a closeup to show off all the flaws of the paint job. I did it fairly quickly though so it could just be my lazy self not doing a proper job. I also didn't paint some parts of my eyebrow because those are parts I would plan to either get done at a salon place or to cover up with makeup (I wouldn't wanna waste my cosplay makeup* on a test run...). Overall, I'm impressed by this ghetto method.

*I don't own makeup I use everyday. I own makeup I only use for cosplaying purposes. I'm not joking either... I hate makeup. I want to scratch makeup on my face whenever I am forced to use it. I'm not allergic... it's just annoying to have stuff on your face.

Stuff that's remaining:

• Wig styling
• Boots
• Fixing shorts and bikini top
• Working out more to tone the stomach haha
• Practicing the technique for eyebrow coloring so it looks better
• Optional by Fanime: her gun (if I don't finish it by Fanime, it'll get done for Anime Expo)
• Make her belt. I bought studs and belt material so I gotta hammer those suckers onto the band.
  

I think that's all. There's probably more but here's a tentative list of things that I can think up off the top of my head. It's 1 AM after posting this blog entry so I probably missed something.

Previous Yoko Cosplay Blog Entries:
Update 1
Update 1.5

Yay for minimal cosplay progress. -_- I'm getting there... slowly that's why it's progress number 1.5 rather than 2. I'm in no rush since I have plenty of time for this cosplay (Fanime is during Memorial Day weekend in May) but still. You know the drill, click the image to see it zoomed.

So here's what I have so far:

So this is my newly spray painted bangle thingies. Those bloody yellow half-balls are so annoying. When I colored the flat side of them, the paint was not dry enough apparently and grabbed some of the newspaper print. That was annoying because it would not peel off so I had to add even MORE yellow paint... that was not cool. The black paint on the bangles turned out spiffy though. Random fact: Most stores sell plain, black bangles for 7 USD! That's insane for just ONE bangle... I've looked for cheaper in store but I said screw it and bought it on Ebay.


I bought some bamboo chopsticks that came in a set. I didn't want to hang them on strings to spray paint them evenly so I just stuck them into a styrofoam circle thing I found in my house. You can see it deteriorated from the paint.
Here's what I have of the bikini so far. My sewing machine ate one of them pretty badly but it isn't noticeable unless you really stare at it so I'm okay with it. I'm waiting for my bikini straps to flatten out since I can't just buy vinyl bias tape (or I haven't found them anywhere...) so I'll add those once they get flattened. You can see the vast improvement from the template in my previous blog post versus this one right here. =) Well it's obvious that a template is just a template but still.

Okay mini-rant time!
Despite living in California, it's cold. Annoyingly cold. I know I know I shouldn't complain because CA actually has awesome weather but it makes me want to work less on my cosplay. For one thing, it's too cold to try on the cosplay stuff I make (hello Yoko, she wears barely ANYTHING) so I'm feelingGUH whenever I have to try anything on right now.

Tiny rant is tiny. I think I'll work on Yoko's scarf while the weather is icky and cold. I bought plain fabric though... I'm not sure if I should just buy fleece or stick with the plain fabric. I may make both we'll see. I should also order my wig and boots soon so I can get started on those. I found the perfect boots but they're... fifty bucks. Bye bye money~~~

I'm finally getting some type of progress done. Woot! If you wanna see any of these pictures zoomed in, just click on the picture itself and it'll go to my Flickr page. Each picture has it's own mini-description on the Flickr page if you wanna read more about each picture.

First up, I'd like to show you all what has happened to my floor because of this cosplay:


Next, the box thingy in the back of Yoko's gun... I keep forgetting what it's called but whatever:

It's actually covered already but this is a semi-old picture. I just wanted to take a picture of the insides because it looks so weird.

Here are the ugly bangles I bought on Ebay that will eventually be spray painted black:


These are the tiny half-balls (haha half-balls XD) that will be attached to the bangles after I spray paint everything:

I baked them in the oven since it's clay. That's why it's on wax paper and a metal tin thing.

I actually made a template for my bikini top and it works:

Fear the ghettoness of my template. =P

As for non-related Yoko progress, I recently bought a blind figure box and got Mikuru wearing her Gekisou outfit:

She's so adorable. =3

well I have no pictures of any of the stuff I've actually made for this cosplay but in the mail, I recently received my orange safety glasses (hence the "Un-Progress" in the title. =P nothing major here)

So this is how it looks like:

They're quite big... but they match the anime glasses pretty well. (You can kinda see the hair pin I made for the cosplay too~ Don't worry, I'm getting a wig for this cosplay. =P)

I was trying to find the best pair by matching this:

The only other pairs I can find are yellow in color so this is the best pair I could find.

I'll be working on my gun this weekend again. <3