With the death of SOPA and PIPA, ACTA is running amok. (ACTA is SOPA and PIPA on Steroids.) Fortunately Light is here to save the day. Found this on 9GAG and decided to share. What do you think? Heh.

This video explains what is ACTA

For more information on ACTA: (ACTA is SOPA and PIPA on Steroids)

*Updated: Though ACTA has been signed, it can be repelled. Join the petition here.

The popularity of cosplay seems to have reached a worldwide level. With the success of Otaku House Cosplay Idol 2011 involving more 10,000 cosplayers from around the world it can be safely said that indeed that is a reality. Cosplayers gain popularity and attention but in some cases in their own countries they are regarded as weirdos and without a social life.

Contrary however tho those stereotyping cosplayers, the people at the back of every costume are people who for all you know have an extraordinary background.

Cosplayers Should become Causeplayers!

The power of a cosplayer does not only rely on the elegance of his costume or his/her ability to win competitions but also his ability to connect his real life and cosplay. In a world situation where social problems exist in multitude, isn’t it time that cosplayers also become causeplayers? The attention and fame could in many ways effectively be used to invite young people to take action and make a difference in their communities and even the world.

In the Philippines way back October 9, 2010 during the birthday of Naruto, a group of friends decided to create a group which will just do that. So, Naruto Cosplayers PH (NCPH) was born out of a desire to create a cosplay community which will not only enjoin cosplayers but also reach out to others and make a difference… this is causeplay.

Cosplay to Make a Difference.

Since then, from a group of four people Naruto Cosplayers PH (NCPH) is joined by more than a hundred active members and about a thousand signed-up in its dabatabase. They have expand their cosplay into a creed to reach out to the society. Among their project includes: People Power, Cosplay Power and Photoshoot for a Cause.

Otaku I Care 1 : Cosplay for Children’s Cancer
Otaku I Care 2 : Prayer for Japan: A Prayer for fast recovery
Otaku I Care 3 : Schools Supplies Distribution
Otaku I Care 4 : Feeding Program, River Warriors for Sagip Pasig Movement
Otaku I Care 5: Reach Out to the Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS), and assisting PUP Otaku Urule with a gift giving for children with cancer at the UP-PGH.

“Our purpose is not to be well-known, we just want to inspire other cosplayers to do the same to their community starting when they are young,” says John Dwight D’Angelo, one of the core members of Naruto Cosplayers PH.

Inspired by Naruto

Will they mind if other groups also do cosplay for a cause, “Certainly no. It would be a great development if more cosplayers help out. In doing good there is no such thing as competition, the more people do it, the better it is,” says Edwin Romo, President of the group.

Naruto Cosplayers (PH *NCPH) is said to be inspired by the anime and characteristics of Naruto tat is why they started what they are doing. You can check them out at www.facebook.com/NarutoCosplayersPH.

Indeed cosplaying can be an exciting experience and what more if it can inspire you to reach out.

* This article is submitted by an external blogger who is not affiliated to Otaku House. The author’s views and opinons are entirely his/her own. To contribute articles or cover events for Otaku House, email us at iwanttoblog[@]otakuhouse.com.

Another successful event by the Mindanao Cable Television, The MCTV Movie Mania 2012 opened the doors to cosplayers who are interested in movie characters other than the common anime cosplay. Famous movie characters such as Cruella De Vil and the Baroness were present on the event. Other characters who graced the event were Neytiri of Avatar, Katara of The Last Airbender and Cloud Strife of Final Fantasy VII.

Familiar faces were present in the event but we also saw new faces like Cloud Strife for example. According to him, he had to bleach his own hair just to achieve Cloud’s look. What dedication!

The Mania started at 10:00 am, January 28 in the Grand Astoria Hotel Celebrity Hall. The hall was packed with cosplayers and congoers alike. Good thing the organizers provided chairs inside so we did not stood for a very long time, waiting for our turn in the catwalk.

Cosplay catwalk of Baby Doll

The catwalk was the highlight of the event where the cosplayer can act out the character based on how they see him or her from the movie. Some brought weapons with them to successfully portray their chosen character. Baby Doll here brought a samurai sword and a silver gun, just like the Baby Doll had from the movie Sucker Punch.

First batch of Movie Cosplayers

View next page to see more photos of MCTV Movie Mania

Red clouds, to a Naruto fan, would mean the illustrious missing nins from the Five Shinobi Countries who are out to get the Jinchurikis like the main star Naruto Uzumaki. In the recently concluded Cosplay Idol, if there were a lot of Narutos, there were a lot of the Akatsuki members present in each album. For this list, I will show you the most voted Akatsuki members that has hailed the spotlight in the recently concluded Otaku House Cosplay Idol.

Deidara of Iwagakure – Amy Lee Jin (Puerto Rico)

The Mad Bomber Deidara is known for his explosive art and for this cosplayer, it is truly art! I love the expression (he looks like he wont cause any trouble), the hand (how on earth did you do that!) and the whole package. I wish I could see your character with the whole Akatsuki clothing. That would rock.

Sasori of Sunagakure – Uchi Awaseru (Malaysia)

The Red Sand Sasori is known for his deadly puppets and inept knowledge of poisons, while adding it to his collection. His human puppets are also one of his masterpieces. This cosplay here is good, Sasori looks way young considering the background he got. I love the pose and the expression here. Intriguing background you got here!

Check out this low priced Akatsuki Cloak

Kisame Hoshigaki of Kirigakure – Michael Jan Silva (Philippines)

The Jinchurikii but not a real one graces our list and heck, the Samehada looks like its ready to eat someone! I love the fact that he’s standing on water, good take on Kisame’s affinity and back to the Samehada… wicked!

Itachi Uchiha of Konohagakure – Liknaru Uzumaki (Ecuador)

The Prodigy of the Uchiha Clan and at the same time, its slayer and martyr. This photo may be simple but it a little mystery. The background seems to even blend with the Akatsuki Colors which is a nice touch. Excellent take!

Hidan of Yugakure – Jace (USA)

The Jashinist and the guy who loves to say “All Hail Jashin-sama” is in this list too though sadly, his Ritual mode is one of the favorites in this list. I have to say the battle for the votes for this character is quite close but this cosplayer’s take is perfect! Its like seeing Hidan fighting Shikamaru already with the location. Do try and work on a fight scene shoot for this character!

View Photos of the sexy Konan and ring leader Tobi next!

We as fans of Slam Dunk is living in Otaku paradise after a dosage of this crazily awesome video. This is a frame by frame replication of the Slam Dunk (or Shohoku, depending on your location) intro video recreated by students of the National Taiwan University of Arts. Awesomeness has arrived!

This is spoof making brought on to the next level so drop your comments below and let us know what you think!

Which reminds me, SOPA will cease the creation of such videos. If you want to speak out against SOPA but aren’t sure what to do, check out a guide by TNW here.

The first Cosplayers Around the World feature in 2012 brings us up close and personal to Svetlana Quindt of Germany. A finalist in the Otaku House Cosplay Idol 2011 Europe category, Svetlana’s cosplay craftmanship is heralded as being in a class of her own! View some of her favorite works in her gallery in this article and find out the source of her cosplay passion!

Biography

Full Name : Svetlana Quindt
Age : 25
Country / state you are born in : Germany / Usbekistan
Citizenship : German
Date of Birth : 8th February 1986
Zodiac Sign : Aquarius
Height : 1,74 cm

Magneto or Charles? : Charles X Xavier
Spiderman or Superman? : Spiderman, Spiderman, does whatever a spider can!
iPhone or Android? : iPhone
Mac or Windows? : Windows

More about Svetlana Quindt

1. At what age did you start cosplaying and how long have you been cosplaying?

I started with the age of 17 and are creating costumes for 8 years now. I hope I will have the chance to keep this awesome hobby for many further years.

2. What inspired you to start cosplaying?

At first it was just because everyone else did it. I wanted to visit my very first convention and just liked the idea to become a fictional character myself. But there was no real love or passion and I almost wanted to stop afterwards. Some years and conventions later a friend of mine, Selina Bauemler and I started to play World of Warcraft and just fell in love with this amazing game. And we got the same idea: To create our very first Druid costume. This was the start of my real ‘cosplay career’.

View more amazing photos from Svetlana Quindt on the next page!

After looking at this trailer for the newest installment of the Naruto Shippuden game for Xbox and Play Station 3, I REALLY can’t wait. The graphics look awesome and you can virtually use any character in the Naruto Universe. You can even choose to use the young Naruto to fight the older Naruto! (How cool is that?)

If you watched the entire trailer, you’ll see that Sucky Sasuke is being used as a trash dummy in most of the scenes by the creators. Why is that? -grins-

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations is slated to be out in Feb 23 2012 in Japan and March 13 2012 in USA. You have 1 month to master all that Jutsu with your PS3 / Xbox controller before I trash your a$$. Naturally, you get to use Sasuke.

More information on this game below.

COMCOM is a Pop Culture convention that involves Video Games, Comics, Anime/Manga, Design and Fashion. Last year, COMCOM welcomed over 6,000 visitors in one day. Besides their many events, tournaments and exposition, Cosplay COMCOM also hosted an Individual Cosplay Contest. You guys MUST see the cosplayers from this con! After viewing the jaw-dropping quality of their contestants, we at Otaku House feel that we MUST sponsor them for COMCOM 2012! Photos below.

The quality of cosplayers at COMCOM is amazing!

Highlights of Cosplay COMCOM 2012

Cosplay COMCOM 2012 will see:

- Special Guest Ejen Chuang (Cosplay in America autor) as a Panelist and Cosplay Judge.
- Calssara (Renown International Cosplayer) as Virtual Guest hosting a Livestream Panel and Judge of her own Cosplay Category “Calssara’s Favorite!”
- Otaku House sponsoring amazing prizes for the Cosplay winners!
- A Secret Guest of Honor to be reveal soon.

Date and Time

Don’t miss COMCOM on March 31th at Camino Real, Tijuana, Baja California México. Check out the COMCOM 2012 website!

By very very popular demand, the Otaku House Cosplay Idol Showcase 2012 will feature the Duet Edition!

What is the “Duet Edition”, you ask? Simply put, each cosplay photo in this showcase should feature 2 cosplayers instead of 1, 3, 4, 5 etc. And we’re really excited to see the lyrical portrayals in this Duet Showcase!

Cosplayers may submit up to 2 photos of themselves, but both photos must be with different cosplayers. Click here for the full details to join the Cosplay Idol Duet Showcase.

The Duet Showcase will be segregated into the following categories:
- North America
- Europe
- Asia
- Latin America
- Pacific (Australia, New Zealand)

This showcase is just for fun and not a contest.

And if you still want to share your solo photo, well, hold on to it first, for the Cosplay Idol 2012 solo contest will be released soon, and you can join the epic contest then!

Meanwhile check out the awesome Duet Cosplays on our facebook at www.facebook.com/otakuhouse.

Photo above :
Cosplayers : xXBRStarXx and xXtaichoXxomni
Characters : Black Rock Shooter & White Rock Shooter (Male Version) Black Rock Shooter Series
Country : Sydney, Australia
Photo credits : Alan

*Look for them in the Pacific album in the Showcase!

Hakodate of Japan is home to the World’s Top 3 Night Skyline View, after Hong Kong and Naples. Or so the Hakodate local guide impressed upon me.

The night view of Hakodate is so achingly beautiful it was nicknamed the “Million Dollar View”, inspired from the glittering lights from the port which looked like a million sparkling diamonds scattered onto a velvet canvas. This signature view can be seen from Mt Hakodate.

Alas, this poor lizard had no luck. I had only 1 day to spare at Hakodate, and as I attempted to mount the cable cars to Mt Hakodate, a fog settled, so thick that it seemed the cable cars appears from Harry Potter-esque magic from above the clouds.

Nevertheless, I’ve brought us some photos of the pretty port town below and scroll on to see the infamous “million dollar view”!

Hakodate is a pretty westernized town by Japanese standards as the port was once one of Japan’s main ports for foreign use. The row of conservation harbour warehouses by the bay made me believe for a minute that I was in the USA.

US style mailboxes

Buy Seafood from Vending Machines?? Click page 2 for more pictures!