Anime Starter Pack

If you would like to get into the wonderful world of anime but you’re not sure where to start, this starter pack should get you going.

• “Parasyte the Maxim“: I can’t even begin to say just how amazing this anime is. It has action, sci-fi, romance, drama, and horror all wrapped up into a 24-episode drama. It features a high school boy, Shinichi Izumi, who gets infected with a parasite, Migi. Together they must fight others who want to kill them and take over the human race, while attempting to live a normal high school life with Migi driving Izumi to lose his humanity. This anime gets a bit philosophical, so watch out for continuing thoughts on what it means to be human.

• “Soul Eater“: This is the turn-off-your-brain and watch awesome action scenes type anime. It combines action, comedy and gore in a fun way. It’s a high school group of teams where one partner wields a weapon, and the other partner transforms into the weapon their partner is using to catch souls. While it is not the most intellectual anime on this list, it’s a fun time watching people get beat up by an out-of-the-ordinary weapons. The humor from the anime comes from the different personality clashes between user and weapon. The small hint of gore sets the whole anime up for an easy to follow action-packed Netflix marathon.

• “HunterxHunter”: I know most anime lists will have this as one of their top must-watch choices, and it deserves all the praise. I haven’t “marathoned” through an anime as quickly as I did with HunterxHunter. HunterxHunter follows a young boy named Gon on his journey to find his father and win his admiration through several arcs in the series. The characters are likable, and you care about their struggles, including the villains. I went through so many emotional ups and downs while “marathoning” this show. This was all because much character development was in this story. Emotions get real with action-packed feels throughout the whole series.

• “Shin-Chan”: It is a comedy anime with crude humor and animation. It follows a six-year-old boy named Shinnosuke “Shin” Nohara, and his family, around “Shin’s” mischievous adventures. What I love about this anime is that it doesn’t take itself seriously ;it knows what it is and just has fun with it. You won’t see beautiful scenes, but you will see rough animation and some hilarious dialogue between an adult and child who simply does not care.

• “Wolf Children”: This is the tear-jerker of the pack. After I was done watching this movie, I still thought about it and the emotions that came with it. We meet a young woman, Hana, who falls in love with a wolf man and then makes a family. The death of the father leaves her alone to raise her wolf children in a normal society. The animation is whimsical and crisp. The characters are well-developed; we can feel the struggle of both mother and children as they face the loss of a father and a place in society.

I do this every time!

Anime Pick of the Week: Shokugeki no Soma (Food Wars)

This anime takes a whole new meaning to the phrase “I’m having a food organism.”

The anime pick of the week is Food Wars, available on Crunchyroll.  It stars a high school freshman, Sōma Yukihira, who tries to graduate a prestigious cooking school in order to surpass his father’s well known cooking.

The most delicious anime of spring season.

If you love food, humor and fan service this anime will satisfy all your needs. It is a well animated show with vibrant colors and delicious scenes filled with all the emotions food can give you. For a foodie like me this even inspired me to cook a meal instead of just eating it.

Check it out on a full stomach because it will surely make you hungry and come back for more.

Anime Cosplay at Wondercon 2015

Being an anime fan, I constantly find myself thinking, “I wish I could live a day in the life of one of those characters.” Through cosplay I found a way to make that a reality.

Cosplay is a way for fans to show their love and support for their favorite anime shows. These characters move people so much they want to embody them. It is a way for fans like myself to live vicariously through these characters.

Cosplay of Goku and Gohan

While at Wondercon this past weekend I got to enjoy cosplays of a variety of anime characters.  From the young to the old and everything in between, cosplay has made all of us into our favorite characters. The father and son duo dress as Goku and Gohan from Dragon Ball Z made quite an impression on me since the little boy was annoyed of taking pictures all day.

Little girl dressed as Misty, trying to catch them all.

The cosplays at this convention ranged from being complex and intricate to simple and low key. Yet all the characters were recognized by someone wanting to take a real life photo with their favorite anime character. This four-year-old girl might not have known she was Misty from Pokemon, but man did she catch all our hearts with the simple little cosplay outfit her parents put together for her.

Cosplay is not only an escape from bored dull life of being a full time college student or an adult with 40 hour work week or both, it is a way to travel into a different world of sorts. It is a chance to become someone else and live in their shoes for however long a convention is.

An epic meet up between two unlikely characters.

Even cosplayers geek out over each other. Vegeta, from Dragon Ball Z, and Dr, Rockso the Rock and Roll Clown from Metalocalypse were amazed by each others cosplay. While posing for pictures cosplayers put on a mini show for us, using trademark battle poses or catchphrases. Rockso screamed out his signature “I’m Rockso the Rock and Roll Clown, I do cocaine!” and Vegeta shouting “It’s over 9,000!”

The sword is the most impressive weighing bout 8 pounds.

The girl above is Ruby Rose from RWBY. She designed this whole costume by herself. The only material she needed help was with her lovely sword. Her costume is a combination of everyday wear and a few key fabric or shop pieces in order to recreate the look.

For those who do not have a crafty side to them they will buy the costume, which is ok, but those who make the costumes are given more admiration from their peers. It a sense of accomplishment. You are the first to have a costume of that character, or variation of it that no one has ever seen.

So long as you are part of the community, any try is always rewarded with fans still admiring your love for the show.

Cosplay of Mr. Burns from the Simpsons

Mario beating the level to get his power up.

(from left to right) Bender, Zoidberg, and Fry from Futurama

Dr. Nefarious from Ratchet and Clank video game.

Mighty Morphan Power Ranger figures

Eren, (top right), Armin (top left), Levi (bottom), figures from Attack on Titian

Godzilla battle

Baymax cosplay from Big Hero 6

As always Wondercon  never disappoints with its endless sea of cosplay, not only from anime but video games, comics, TV shows, and movie cosplay as well.