The Mike Abundo Effect

Otacool 2 Cover Cosplayers Revealed

Mike Abundo — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 10:33:09 +0000

When top otaku culture blogger Danny Choo needed cosplayers for his upcoming photobook, Otacool 2: Worldwide Cosplayers, he didn’t seek them out in the traditional way. He didn’t set up geographically limited auditions or prohibitively expensive photoshoots. He didn’t fly in cosplayers from around the world or conduct time-consuming local contests in various countries. No, he didn’t indulge in any such offline prefiltering.

Being a tech industry veteran who’s worked with the likes of Microsoft and Amazon, Danny did something smarter, something more scalable, something more disintermediated, something that completely bypassed geographic cosplay cliques. He leveraged the Internet for crowdsourcing.

Danny made a public call for cosplayers to post photo entries on his hobby site, Figure.fm. Thanks to Danny’s considerable fame within his niche, hundreds of entries piled up in a matter of weeks. Some of the world’s top cosplayers even contributed to the blogger’s book project.

Twenty-four lucky cosplayers even get their headshots on the cover. Most unsurprising of all is the cover appearance of Filipina cosplay queen Alodia Gosiengfiao, whose toy collection graced the pages of Danny’s previous photobook, Otacool: Worldwide Otaku Rooms. As expected, top Western cosplayers like Francesca Dani and Yaya Han also made the cover.

Popular Japanese cosplayer Kaname, who served as a judge at last year’s Regional Cosplay Championship, lends his Final Fantasy VII Cloud cosplay to the cover mix. Topping off the prestigious list is Danny himself, whose Tokyo Dance Trooper antics have been featured by CNN.

Note that the application period for Otacool 2 started less than a month ago. In fact, it’s still ongoing: cosplayers who want to appear on the inside pages have until Valentine’s Day to submit entries.

Congratulations to Danny on his incredibly efficient approach to this photobook project. To rally so many players from around the world in so little time is truly a triumph of niche online crowdsourcing.

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The iPad is a Giant iPhone

Mike Abundo — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:54:36 +0000

By now, you’ve already heard about Apple’s new tablet device, the iPad. You know it’ll run the iPhone OS, it’ll have a 9.7 inch multitouch LCD screen, it’ll have a ten-hour battery life, and it’ll cost $499 up. Like the iPhone, it’ll be locked into the iTunes app store, and it won’t support Adobe Flash. Unlike the iPhone, it has no camera. You can check out Apple’s iPad product page for the rest of the specs.

As I watched Apple CEO Steve Jobs reveal the iPad yesterday, I felt like I was watching a parody video straight out of College Humor. He used words like “magical” and “revolutionary” to announce something that, stripped of such hyperbole, looks patently ridiculous: a giant iPhone. What’s more, this larger device actually lacks the camera of its smaller twin.

A Giant Leap Backwards

Steve hails the iPad as Apple’s most advanced technology ever. That’s funny; you’d think deminiaturizing a cellphone and taking away one of its biggest features would actually constitute a technological step backwards. For all intents and purposes, the iPhone 3G may as well be the iPad Nano.

Steve also boasts that 43 million iPhone owners will already know how to use the iPad. What he doesn’t address is why iPhone owners would want to buy a second cellular data plan for what is essentially a second, bigger iPhone. Sure, people get separate data plans for their laptops, but that’s because laptops are more flexible than cellphones. The iPad has all the restrictions of the iPhone, without the convenience or the camera.

As if this giant iPhone weren’t illogical enough, it uses an exotic micro SIM. iPhones use regular SIMs. Why a larger device would require a smaller SIM simply eludes common sense.

An Insult to Your Intelligence

The first official advertisement for the iPad itself sounds like a parody. The opening line would be a joke if it weren’t so insulting to your intelligence: “When something exceeds your ability to understand how it works, it sort of becomes magical.” Oh look, we can now browse the Web on a big screen! That far exceeds my puny ability to understand how things work! What a magical concept!

The iPad could easily have become so much more than a giant iPhone. It could have bundled a slim, multitouch version of Mac OS X. It could have been hailed as a really cool Mac tablet. The fact that Apple chose to put the iPhone OS on the iPad hints at something far more sinister than a mere lack of creativity.

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Alodia to Serve at Ozine Maid Cafe

Mike Abundo — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 14:30:00 +0000

“The greatest among you will be your servant.” — Matthew 23:11.

Maid cafes are a particularly popular class of cosplay restaurants, where waitresses dressed in fanciful maid costumes soothe the hyperactive minds of otaku patrons. Through a combination of endearingly deferential customer service and aesthetically pleasing service outfits, these establishments provide a unique kind of mental wellness for tired geeks.

The world could clearly use this cutesy sort of soothing: since the first maid cafe sprung up in Akihabara in 2001, the phenomenon has spread as far afield as China and the United States.

Permanent maid cafes have yet to rise in the Philippines, but temporary maid cafes have emerged at Philippine anime events. The Ozine Maid Cafe this weekend, an activity at Otaku Expo 2010, ups the ante with a special guest maid: Filipina cosplay queen Alodia Gosiengfiao.

If you’re in Manila this weekend, kick back and relax while being served by fantasy maids at Megatrade Hall 2, SM Megamall, Ortigas Center, Pasig City. Alodia herself will serve patrons from 12:00nn to 3:00pm Sunday, GMT+8.

One of the maids on the roster, Filipina gamer-cosplayer Charmaine Akari, has previously been featured on this blog. If you get her as your maid, have her smile like Konata Koizumi from the anime Lucky Star. Charmaine’s rendition is not only incredibly accurate, it’s absolutely adorable. :3

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Philippine Online Video Site Holds Auditions

Mike Abundo — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 14:30:10 +0000

Wanna be Web-famous in the Philippines? Manila-based online video production company Flippish is looking for new talent.

YouTube has been huge in the Philippines for years, and one of the biggest stars on YouTube is Filipina. Filipinos clearly love online video, and Flippish hopes to tap into that passion by offering content uniquely tailored to Filipino tastes.

If you think you’ve got what it takes to build the next Revision3 in Southeast Asia, if you’re up to the challenge of engaging audiences through a new medium in an emerging market, come to 1101 Pacific Center Building, San Miguel Avenue, Ortigas Center, Pasig City, Metro Manila, Philippines from 10am to 5pm on February 5, 2010 (GMT+8).

Flippish is a young startup targeting consumers in a developing nation, so don’t expect to make a million bucks like Leo Laporte. As you can see from the video above, Flippish star Kring Elenzano is seriously overworked. She could use some help.

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Top Cosplayers Vie for Otacool 2 Cover Spots

Mike Abundo — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 13:37:51 +0000

UPDATE: Yaya Han, the third cosplayer in this post, makes it clear in a comment that her application was not motivated by competitive spirit:

No one is competing for the cover. We are just submitting because we love cosplay and this seems like a great book to be a part of because it allows cosplayers from all over the world to submit.

No one was surprised to see Filipina cosplay princess Alodia Gosiengfiao apply for inclusion on the cover of Otacool 2: Worldwide Cosplayers, the upcoming cosplay photobook from Japan-based otaku culture blogger Danny Choo. After all, Alodia’s toy collection was featured in the previous photobook, Otacool: Worldwide Otaku Rooms.

What surprised me, however, were applications from two other very famous cosplayers — neither of whom were involved in the first Otacool project, and neither of whom live in Asia.

Italian cosplayer Francesca Dani won the World Cosplay Summit in 2005. A twelve-year veteran of the cosplay industry, Francesca was among the first cosplayers in the world to directly monetize her passion, by charging subscription fees for premium content on her web site.

US-based Chinese cosplayer Yaya Han is famous for her exquisite costumes, elaborate skits, and musical performances. This ten-year career cosplayer is often a guest of honor at anime-themed events.

With big names from around the world throwing their hats (and costumes) into the ring, Otacool 2 is shaping up to become the hottest thing in the global cosplay scene. It’s certainly a testament to the power of disintermediation, self-selection, and crowdsourcing that one blogger’s book project could attract direct contributions from top talent across three continents, all in a matter of weeks.

The submission process involves no talent scouts, no go-sees, no local contests, no committee meetings, no inefficient prefilters of any kind — just online postings by enterprising individuals. It’s the sort collaboration case study you’d read in the bestselling business book Wikinomics.

If you’re a cosplayer, click here for the application requirements. You’ll be publicly posting your application on Danny Choo’s hobby site Figure.fm. Even if you don’t make the cover of Otacool 2, you’ll be putting your work in front of Danny’s many, many readers. Submissions will be open until mid-February, so start digging up your best cosplay photos.

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Lego Universe First Official Trailer and CES 2010 Screenshots

Mike Abundo — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 13:20:37 +0000

I loved playing with Lego toys as a kid, but even I don’t remember my favorite childhood building blocks being this action-packed. Check out the first official trailer for the upcoming (and long-delayed) Lego MMOG from developer NetDevil: Lego Universe.

As you can see from the reflection effects in the following screenshots shown at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Lego Universe is going for a look that’s both cutesy and glossy all at once.

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IDG Interviews Alodia

Mike Abundo — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 21:45:55 +0000

Since you’re reading a tech blog, you probably already know that International Data Group (IDG) is a leading trendspotter in the technology industry. From research to media to events to investments, all of IDG’s businesses revolve around successful trendspotting.

The whole thing started when a UNIVAC executive complained about the lack of market research on the then-nascent computer industry. Yes, that UNIVAC, America’s first commercially available computer. IDG has been playing the trendspotting game since 1964.

Someone at IDG Japan has spotted one particularly interesting trend, a trend uniquely enabled by the connective power of the Internet: the meteoritic rise of Filipina cosplayer Alodia Gosiengfiao. Akibatteru, an IDG-produced Web show, recently caught up with Alodia and her sister Ashley during their performance at Anime Festival Asia 2009 in Singapore. They even threw in a peek at Alodia’s room back home, toys and all, as it appears in the photobook Otacool: Worldwide Otaku Rooms.

It’s one thing when Animax says you’re popular. It’s another thing when International Data Group says you’re popular.

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Alodia and Ashley Interviewed at Anime Festival Asia

Mike Abundo — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 12:39:38 +0000

Online interview show Why You Do What You Do recently caught up with Filipina cosplayers Alodia and Ashley Gosiengfiao during their performance at Anime Festival Asia 2009 in Singapore.

Cosplay is a niche performance art, and the best way to address niches is on the Internet. The Gosiengfiao sisters clearly understand that, as they talk about sharing their art online. For a twenty-one-year-old fresh graduate who happens to be one of the most influential women in the Philippines, Alodia certainly dishes out solid career advice: do what you love.

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Guild Wars 2: The Races of Tyria

Mike Abundo — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:13:26 +0000

Ever since the Eye of the North expansion introduced allies from different species, interracial cooperation has been a strong theme in the story of the MMORPG Guild Wars. That theme gets even stronger in the upcoming Guild Wars 2. The gameworld of Tyria now features five playable races — two of whom have been at war with each other for centuries — forming an uneasy alliance against a common threat.

As we saw in the first Guild Wars 2 trailer, the environments in the game are as humongous as they are gorgeous. In this second trailer from game publisher ArenaNet, we see that race relations in the game will be equally interesting. Representative characters from each of the five races tout the strengths of their respective species: the stalwart humans, the ferocious Charr, the bold Norn, the brilliant Asura, and the mystical Sylvari.

Digital media geeks might recognize some of the voices in this new Guild Wars 2 trailer. Troy Baker, best known for his role as Sol Badguy in the fighting game Guilty Gear 2: Overture, takes up the sword once more as the human knight Logan Thackeray. Steven Blum, who redefined the Charr with his role as Pyre Fireceshot in Guild Wars: Eye of the North, brings back that growling ferocity as Charr tribune Rytlock Brimstone. Jocelyn Blue, who voiced the GDF tooltip in the first-person shooter Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, takes on the tougher and meatier role of the Norn hunter Eir Stegalkin. Kari Wahlgren, who played the tough teen war orphan Gwen in Guild Wars: Eye of the North, takes a more willowy tone as the Sylvari Firstborn Caithe.

Lending star power to the ensemble is online video star Felicia Day. Hardcore gamer Felicia first sparked her online video career as creator and star of The Guild, a Web series about a misfit group of MMORPG players. She helped take online video to the mainstream as Penny in Joss Whedon’s Emmy Award-winning iTunes comedy series Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, starring opposite Hollywood actor Neil Patrick Harris. That combination of gamer cred and celebrity shine makes Felicia the perfect choice to play the comically snarky Asuran golemancer Zojja.

You have got to love how the Guild Wars franchise puts its own unique spin on fantasy race cliches. The Charr are Mongol tigers, the Norn are giant vikings, the Asura are techie rat-gnomes, and the Sylvari are elves with chlorophyll.

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Japanese Cosplayer Kaname Speaks Out on Regional Cosplay Championship 2009

Mike Abundo — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:15:55 +0000

Renowned Japanese cosplayer Kaname, one of the judges at the Anime Festival Asia Regional Cosplay Championship 2009, candidly shares his thoughts on the event. Apparently, his favorite costumes and performance came from Filipina cosplayers Alodia and Ashley Gosiengfiao.

The sisters’ interpretation of a fight scene from the anime Witchblade impressed Kaname so much that he gave them perfect scores across the board. In fact, their portrayal led him to discover the anime itself.

Now Kaname, an international anime market influencer, is suddenly a Witchblade fan — all thanks to Alodia and Ashley. Witness the power of cosplay as media consumer evangelism.

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