SyFy's Heroes of Cosplay

[jmgrice]

I remember taking an English or Literature class when I was young, and analyzing "Hamlet" in depth. We discussed the motivations of Hamlet and the other characters. Why did he wait until the end of the play to confront his uncle? Why didn't he do something about it immediately, instead of agonizing over it for the whole play? As the discussion stretched longer and longer, I eventually came to the conclusion that the reason Hamlet did what he did was because it made for a more interesting story, and not because Hamlet was a "real" person with complex subconscious motivations. He waited because that's how he was written by Shakespeare, and if he hadn't, the play would have been over in 20 minutes. Simple as that.

I get a similar feeling when I see in-depth discussions about reality shows. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy "Heroes Of Cosplay." It ain't Shakepeare, but I find it entertaining. Those of you who enjoy it, I'm glad you are so emotionally invested in the stories and characters you see. And sometimes dissecting a show is part of being a fan.

Sometimes questions don't have answers. Sometimes the only answer to "Why did she say that," or "why isn't she nicer" or "why didn't she credit him" is simply "because that's what happened in the episode," or "because otherwise nothing would have happened, and that might not be very interesting."

Of course, sometimes there are answers. For example:



The short answer is, the Lulu we made for Katsucon last year was a piece of crap held together by glue and wishes, that barely survived long enough for the skit she did. We were trying to actually make it well, for the first episode. When it looked like we weren't going to get the outfit done in time, we might have fallen back on the Katsucon outfit it still existed, but that thing had been discarded long ago (though we saved a few elements that were worth keeping, like the jewelry and accessories).

BTW, despite the rumors, Yaya does actually make her own costumes. I've seen it myself when I've been over to their house. At most, Brian (her bf) will do a coat of spray paint or some minor touch-ups. But he's mostly way too busy making the products they sell at the 2 - 3 dozen conventions they go to each year. They make all that stuff in-house, so he barely even has any time to work on his own projects (he's building a Keaton batmobile), let alone work on her costumes.

I think people watching reality shows need to always bear in mind that theyre mainly chopped and changed for entertainment. responses arent even necessarily to what it shows. They can be taken from elsewhere in the show. Its part of what reality tv is unfortunately. I would imagine the people in the shows are aware but restricted from saying too much. Be it contract or in fear of p****ng off the wrong people.

Shame about LuLu. FFX was the last in the series I got to play almost constently from start to finish outside school. Then life happened. Kids. Job etc. Cant just go racking up 60 hrs a week on gaming anymore. I barely get 6!

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Xparent BlueTapatalk 2

 

[Kord Industries]

I actually thought the cat costumes were hilarious, maybe not the right thing to put on stage for an anime-focused con, but Holly's face was priceless throughout.

Oh, I didn't mean to imply that they were poorly done or that they necessarily looked "bad". In the interest of absolute fairness, they were parodying costumes that I think look stupid in the first place.

But it was a terrible choice for the event for a number of reasons. One being that Matsuri seemed to be the biggest "production" of any of the events they've participated in so far, and those were easily the least impressive or even really interesting costumes they've done. And then the fact that they've been talking SO MUCH promotional talk about Crabcat and how they wanted to use this event to show themselves off to a new audience and get some exposure, and didn't seem to even try to walk the walk with the concept or the execution. And last, like you said, poor choice for an anime con. I don't see the line of logic that connects anime to internet cat memes or (especially) musicals.

I get a similar feeling when I see in-depth discussions about reality shows. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy "Heroes Of Cosplay." It ain't Shakepeare, but I find it entertaining. Those of you who enjoy it, I'm glad you are so emotionally invested in the stories and characters you see. And sometimes dissecting a show is part of being a fan.

Sometimes questions don't have answers. Sometimes the only answer to "Why did she say that," or "why isn't she nicer" or "why didn't she credit him" is simply "because that's what happened in the episode," or "because otherwise nothing would have happened, and that might not be very interesting."

Bolded is pretty much where all of this starts and ends. We watch the show because the subject matter is tangential to our interests, and we talk about it because it's something we all share in common. For better or worse, we're talking about it the same way we might've talked about LOST or BSG or Breaking Bad. I gotta say, though, that while I don't think the "he/she said/did this/that in order to move the plot along" logic necessarily translates here, that's probably the most mature way to handle all the perspectiveless, speculative chatter that spins out of being part of a show like this.

I guess what I'm trying to say is: You seem like a classy motherf***er, Jinyo.

 

[Ozymandius]

Soooo... is anyone else laughing their ass off at the irony of a bunch of ego-driven, snarky, drama-queens talking smack about the ego-driven, snarky, drama-queens on TV? It's like watching the Real Housewives watching Jersey Shore. :lol

 

[Kim]

Kord Industries: I think we agree on that. It was a silly costume at a bad time. I actually laughed out loud when they first showed the finished makeup, while I was watching alone in the living room, that is a rare thing. I think all the promotional talk was hammed up for the show. Just like how they probably told Monika to mention the potential Blizzard gig every two seconds, even when it was wildly unrelated to what was going on.

 

[Kord Industries]

Soooo... is anyone else laughing their ass off at the irony of a bunch of ego-driven, snarky, drama-queens talking smack about the ego-driven, snarky, drama-queens on TV? It's like watching the Real Housewives watching Jersey Shore. :lol

Welcome to the fray. Seems like you'll fit right in. ;D

 

[Astrokid248]

The short answer is, the Lulu we made for Katsucon last year was a piece of crap held together by glue and wishes, that barely survived long enough for the skit she did. We were trying to actually make it well, for the first episode. When it looked like we weren't going to get the outfit done in time, we might have fallen back on the Katsucon outfit it still existed, but that thing had been discarded long ago (though we saved a few elements that were worth keeping, like the jewelry and accessories).

Thanks for the answer. I had a feeling it was a similar situation but I didn't want to talk out my rear, if you know what I mean. (BTW, your DragonCon costume was absolutely hilarious.)


My opinion is that they should not have displaced other people not paid by them just to make the show. I'm okay with scripting, fake barfing, false deadlines and bad editing, but when they begin hurting people they aren't paying, there's a serious problem.

 

[SuperFLY]

'wow..' is all i can say to that..

 

[Solo4114]

Why does this stuff even bear the "reality" moniker? It's anything but. It doesn't even sound like it's "unscripted" so much as "at least 40% ad-libbed."

 

[p51]

It clearly is scripted, like most 'reality' shows are. Once you embrace that, they're easier to watch (or so I'm told, I normally can't stand reality shows)

I did find it ANNOYING that Holly and Jessica kept calling it "Pacific Rim Viral Video" Uhhh you just filmed it, it isn't viral yet and might not GO Viral, even if it was Del Toro behind it. JUST SAYING...

Yeah, that drove me nuts at the time, too. But that's a label people put on stuff like that anymore.

A pal of mine at work saw the show and as he isn't a costuming fan at all, he really asked a good question:
"When the fans become stars, who remains in the audience? It's like the old question of 'If everyone is in the prade, who's left on the sidewalk to watch it'?"

 

[.:MirrorminD:.]

I didn't get the chance to go to Matsuri this year, but I've finally found someone who was backstage at the contest to tell me what happened. I'll put what she said in spoiler tags in case no one cares to read it.

Spoiler

Here is a run-down of what happened to my friends at Anime Matsuri:

• My two friends were both qualifiers for the final round of prelims for World Cosplay Summit. When they got to judging, the people running the contest were talking about how Heroes of Cosplay wanted to ‘plant’ a skit in the competition and have the judges ‘let’ them win for the sake of the show. Keep in mind that this contest received its qualifiers very early in advance (September 14th of last year, to be exact) through separate prelims that took place in different conventions/dates across the country.
  The judges of course said no and the crew was threw a fit about it.
• The girls who did the Fushigi Yugi skit actually STOLE their skit from the World Cosplay Summit 2010 USA representatives (look up ‘Anime Matsuri 2013 Fushigi Yugi’ on YouTube and then search ‘World Cosplay Summit 2010 Fushigi Yugi’ for comparison). It has a lot of the same movements, props and actions, albeit condensed and to different music.
  The best part about this is, one of the 2010 USA reps. was a masquerade judge. Remember Rynn? She was the one who performed the original WCS skit with her friend Sumikins (who was also at the convention with her) and the HoC girls performed almost an exact copy of it right in front of them.
  They were not docked points because of her headdress breaking. They were disqualified because their skit was completely stolen.
• Due to unexpected fog machines during the contest, two of my friends started having asthma problems backstage. They headed back to the green room to get their inhalers, only to find that the Heroes of Cosplay crew locked themselves inside. Upon knocking at the door, they were screamed at by a camera man and told to keep quiet. One of my friends was on the verge of passing out, so my other friend ran to get security.
  It turns out, they took everything inside the green-room (bags/purses, even props and backdrops from WCS performances) and dumped them into an unsupervised hallway where things were rummaged through and stolen. Of course, they only learned this almost an HOUR after getting security because the crew refused to cooperate.
• SyFy offered to provide a cash prize of $1,800 to the cosplay contest. Anime Matsuri people happily agreed, though they were shocked to discovered that the crew expected the money to go to one of their planted skits (the Cats girls or the Fushigi Yugi girls). Again, the judges said no. Two of my friends actually won Best in Show (they were not even shown in the episode) and did not know it came with a cash prize. They were over the moon excited…until they found out that they wouldn’t be receiving the money until AFTER the convention.
  Six months pass. No word from Anime Matsuri about the money. They made a big post about it to Tumblr, tagging the show and SyFy and hoping that they can spread the word. Anime Matsuri sees the post and had to give them their cash prize out of the CONVENTION FUNDING because SyFy refused to pay people who weren’t the cast.
• Becky was interviewing people backstage as they came off. Did you notice how they only showed the interview with the Fushigi Yugi girls? This was because every time a group was interviewed and they were asked what they were cosplaying, the crew would get annoyed and say things like, “Yeah, nobody is going to know what that is.”
  They tried interviewing my friends after they won Best in Show and cut them off right as they said what they were from, then just left.
• The throwing up during the Cats skit was fake. She started fake barfing into the garbage cans and when people rushed to help her or bring her water, the crew screamed at them and told them to go away. One girl got in their faces and ignored them, only to have one of the girls say, “It’s okay, I’m actually alright.”
  Notice how everyone seems to be ignoring her while she’s throwing up in line? That’s not people being rude; it’s the crew scaring them away from helping her to make them look bad.

My opinion is that they should not have displaced other people not paid by them just to make the show. I'm okay with scripting, fake barfing, false deadlines and bad editing, but when they begin hurting people they aren't paying, there's a serious problem.

Wow I knew about part of that but not everything, thats incredible. Also keep in mind, I know some asked way earlier. I wouldn't expect to see any of the forum members on the show commenting here (I know Jinyo did) or giving their true feelings on the show not unless its 100% diplomatic because of their contracts.

I feel really bad for Victoria because every Tuesday night you can see the panic attacks unfold on her facebook pages as the show airs :/

 

[TheNickFox]

It's drama-driven schlock...and you know what, sometimes that's okay to enjoy.

That said I would love if they replaced this show with "Buildin' Time With Jinyo!"

-Nick

 

[.:MirrorminD:.]

It's drama-driven schlock...and you know what, sometimes that's okay to enjoy.

-Nick

I agree sometimes "it's ok" if you don't know the people, but I don't agree when it's people you know personally and they edit the **** out of them to make them look bad or say something out of context. Then to not be able to defend themselves without the risk of getting sued by the network. Oh sure, that's EXACTLY what they signed up for. lol


Although +1 for "Buildin' Time With Jinyo!"

 

[spacebat]

My Hero of Cosplay is Jinyo.

My heroes are the husbands/boyfriends excluding greasy steampunk guy... but including his girlfriend.

Poor Jinyo. Especially Yaya's boyfriend... stuck selling cat ears and tiny hats behind a table at a con... that man is willing to sacrifice his dignity and pride for his woman... that's a real hero.

Still enjoying the show. I have maintained relatively low expectations of it being anything but entertaining and it has been.

 

[Kord Industries]

I didn't get the chance to go to Matsuri this year, but I've finally found someone who was backstage at the contest to tell me what happened. I'll put what she said in spoiler tags in case no one cares to read it.

Spoiler

Here is a run-down of what happened to my friends at Anime Matsuri:

• My two friends were both qualifiers for the final round of prelims for World Cosplay Summit. When they got to judging, the people running the contest were talking about how Heroes of Cosplay wanted to ‘plant’ a skit in the competition and have the judges ‘let’ them win for the sake of the show. Keep in mind that this contest received its qualifiers very early in advance (September 14th of last year, to be exact) through separate prelims that took place in different conventions/dates across the country.
  The judges of course said no and the crew was threw a fit about it.
• The girls who did the Fushigi Yugi skit actually STOLE their skit from the World Cosplay Summit 2010 USA representatives (look up ‘Anime Matsuri 2013 Fushigi Yugi’ on YouTube and then search ‘World Cosplay Summit 2010 Fushigi Yugi’ for comparison). It has a lot of the same movements, props and actions, albeit condensed and to different music.
  The best part about this is, one of the 2010 USA reps. was a masquerade judge. Remember Rynn? She was the one who performed the original WCS skit with her friend Sumikins (who was also at the convention with her) and the HoC girls performed almost an exact copy of it right in front of them.
  They were not docked points because of her headdress breaking. They were disqualified because their skit was completely stolen.
• Due to unexpected fog machines during the contest, two of my friends started having asthma problems backstage. They headed back to the green room to get their inhalers, only to find that the Heroes of Cosplay crew locked themselves inside. Upon knocking at the door, they were screamed at by a camera man and told to keep quiet. One of my friends was on the verge of passing out, so my other friend ran to get security.
  It turns out, they took everything inside the green-room (bags/purses, even props and backdrops from WCS performances) and dumped them into an unsupervised hallway where things were rummaged through and stolen. Of course, they only learned this almost an HOUR after getting security because the crew refused to cooperate.
• SyFy offered to provide a cash prize of $1,800 to the cosplay contest. Anime Matsuri people happily agreed, though they were shocked to discovered that the crew expected the money to go to one of their planted skits (the Cats girls or the Fushigi Yugi girls). Again, the judges said no. Two of my friends actually won Best in Show (they were not even shown in the episode) and did not know it came with a cash prize. They were over the moon excited…until they found out that they wouldn’t be receiving the money until AFTER the convention.
  Six months pass. No word from Anime Matsuri about the money. They made a big post about it to Tumblr, tagging the show and SyFy and hoping that they can spread the word. Anime Matsuri sees the post and had to give them their cash prize out of the CONVENTION FUNDING because SyFy refused to pay people who weren’t the cast.
• Becky was interviewing people backstage as they came off. Did you notice how they only showed the interview with the Fushigi Yugi girls? This was because every time a group was interviewed and they were asked what they were cosplaying, the crew would get annoyed and say things like, “Yeah, nobody is going to know what that is.”
  They tried interviewing my friends after they won Best in Show and cut them off right as they said what they were from, then just left.
• The throwing up during the Cats skit was fake. She started fake barfing into the garbage cans and when people rushed to help her or bring her water, the crew screamed at them and told them to go away. One girl got in their faces and ignored them, only to have one of the girls say, “It’s okay, I’m actually alright.”
  Notice how everyone seems to be ignoring her while she’s throwing up in line? That’s not people being rude; it’s the crew scaring them away from helping her to make them look bad.

My opinion is that they should not have displaced other people not paid by them just to make the show. I'm okay with scripting, fake barfing, false deadlines and bad editing, but when they begin hurting people they aren't paying, there's a serious problem.

WOW. That's heinous. Also makes me feel naive as ****. I guess because I've never watched anything that could qualify as "reality television" I've always kind of written off the whole "they edit the show to create x narrative" as a half-truth people on these types of shows speak in an effort to polish the turds they've laid.

Nice reality check.

 

[p51]

I wasn't the least bit surprised at all to read Astrokid248's relating what really happened back stage. I've known people who've done, "American Pickers" and they have confirmed that they NEVER roll up to people who don't know they're coming. They drive specifically to everywhere they go, with prior knowledge of the property owner who was advised what 'character' they need to play... So why should this show be any different?

That said I would love if they replaced this show with "Buildin' Time With Jinyo!"

I don't know, I was quite unimpressed with the BSG BDU top he was wearing in the last episode. Something so easy to get right if you take your time, and he didn't do that great a job with it...

 

[Kenpo451]

At this point I just like to watch for the costume contest at the end. I realized at the end of the first episode that this wasn't really about making the costumes (which I was hoping for) but about silly forced drama between people that occasionally run into each other.

I agree, "Buildin' Time With Jinyo" instead!

 

[Scareb]

I knew that the throwing up was fake before it was mentioned. Dead give away was the guy standing next to the garbage can. No person on earth is so busy watching something that they don't notice a person puking their guts up in the can they're standing next to and doesn't A) Immediately move away from said garbage can to avoid getting puked on/smelling puke or B) offers to see if they're alright. Also the really crappy puking sound byte the edited in didn't help.

I'd love it if people from every con this show has been at could find this thread and chime in with what really went down.

I still don't like That uppity 21 year old though.

 

[jmgrice]

I was origionally suspicious when she put it to allergy. And I couldnt see her coming up with a rash nor taking the wig off on the lead up. I think one snippit had it off but she could have just chucked it on last minute. I just didnt 'get' the kats thing at all lol. Id like the show more if it just recorded all of the contest. Looks like some awesome costume you dont see much of.

While they may not be able to defend themselves. They do sign up for it. Unfortunately its the price of fame. We should do a kickstart to fund our own show. Lol

J

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Xparent BlueTapatalk 2

 

[NormanF]

Instead of speculating, you could also google it... because it is pretty legit, officially endorsed by Warner Brothers and featuring del Toro himself. The Kaiju, whose suit was worn by del Toro, is even called Crabcat. Close to 7k youtube comments, 31k likes, 1.1 million views, not crazy numbers, but surely a good effort.

Pacific Rim: Training Day - Pacific Rim Wiki

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iw8XQ3vdW_4

Thank you! I liked it. The girl with the red hair certainly seemed to be enjoying herself.

Thanks for the answer. I had a feeling it was a similar situation but I didn't want to talk out my rear, if you know what I mean. (BTW, your DragonCon costume was absolutely hilarious.)

I didn't get the chance to go to Matsuri this year, but I've finally found someone who was backstage at the contest to tell me what happened. I'll put what she said in spoiler tags in case no one cares to read it.

Spoiler

Here is a run-down of what happened to my friends at Anime Matsuri:

• My two friends were both qualifiers for the final round of prelims for World Cosplay Summit. When they got to judging, the people running the contest were talking about how Heroes of Cosplay wanted to ‘plant’ a skit in the competition and have the judges ‘let’ them win for the sake of the show. Keep in mind that this contest received its qualifiers very early in advance (September 14th of last year, to be exact) through separate prelims that took place in different conventions/dates across the country.
  The judges of course said no and the crew was threw a fit about it.
• The girls who did the Fushigi Yugi skit actually STOLE their skit from the World Cosplay Summit 2010 USA representatives (look up ‘Anime Matsuri 2013 Fushigi Yugi’ on YouTube and then search ‘World Cosplay Summit 2010 Fushigi Yugi’ for comparison). It has a lot of the same movements, props and actions, albeit condensed and to different music.
  The best part about this is, one of the 2010 USA reps. was a masquerade judge. Remember Rynn? She was the one who performed the original WCS skit with her friend Sumikins (who was also at the convention with her) and the HoC girls performed almost an exact copy of it right in front of them.
  They were not docked points because of her headdress breaking. They were disqualified because their skit was completely stolen.
• Due to unexpected fog machines during the contest, two of my friends started having asthma problems backstage. They headed back to the green room to get their inhalers, only to find that the Heroes of Cosplay crew locked themselves inside. Upon knocking at the door, they were screamed at by a camera man and told to keep quiet. One of my friends was on the verge of passing out, so my other friend ran to get security.
  It turns out, they took everything inside the green-room (bags/purses, even props and backdrops from WCS performances) and dumped them into an unsupervised hallway where things were rummaged through and stolen. Of course, they only learned this almost an HOUR after getting security because the crew refused to cooperate.
• SyFy offered to provide a cash prize of $1,800 to the cosplay contest. Anime Matsuri people happily agreed, though they were shocked to discovered that the crew expected the money to go to one of their planted skits (the Cats girls or the Fushigi Yugi girls). Again, the judges said no. Two of my friends actually won Best in Show (they were not even shown in the episode) and did not know it came with a cash prize. They were over the moon excited…until they found out that they wouldn’t be receiving the money until AFTER the convention.
  Six months pass. No word from Anime Matsuri about the money. They made a big post about it to Tumblr, tagging the show and SyFy and hoping that they can spread the word. Anime Matsuri sees the post and had to give them their cash prize out of the CONVENTION FUNDING because SyFy refused to pay people who weren’t the cast.
• Becky was interviewing people backstage as they came off. Did you notice how they only showed the interview with the Fushigi Yugi girls? This was because every time a group was interviewed and they were asked what they were cosplaying, the crew would get annoyed and say things like, “Yeah, nobody is going to know what that is.”
  They tried interviewing my friends after they won Best in Show and cut them off right as they said what they were from, then just left.
• The throwing up during the Cats skit was fake. She started fake barfing into the garbage cans and when people rushed to help her or bring her water, the crew screamed at them and told them to go away. One girl got in their faces and ignored them, only to have one of the girls say, “It’s okay, I’m actually alright.”
  Notice how everyone seems to be ignoring her while she’s throwing up in line? That’s not people being rude; it’s the crew scaring them away from helping her to make them look bad.

My opinion is that they should not have displaced other people not paid by them just to make the show. I'm okay with scripting, fake barfing, false deadlines and bad editing, but when they begin hurting people they aren't paying, there's a serious problem.

Why am I not surprised? I knew they were doing a lot of creative editing, but screwing people over like that is really too much. As for the dance routine, it looked like about every other dance I've ever seen with those streamer things.

I've noticed this show is better since I got over the idea that they might actually show some construction techniques. There is still one or two things that annoy me per episode, but it's a lot better. I actually feel sorry for most of the "cast" as I'm sure this is not what they signed on for. Note to self: regardless of the money do not be on any "reality" shows.

 

[Ozymandius]

WOW. That's heinous. Also makes me feel naive as ****...

Sucks when you find out that you just got played, don't it? :lol


Don't feel bad though. The producers rely on that naivete to make the show work. We assume that labels mean something and that when a show is called "Reality" that it must be documenting real events. You're not supposed to realize that the "Reality" is underpaid, amateur actors ad-libbing the script and playing the roles they were assigned (a 21 yr old uber-bitch comes to mind).

And that was the whole point of my little drive by point-and-laugh earlier. The nasty, snarky comments and attitudes on the show are all faked. The nasty, snarky comments on here are real and are being directed at real people, many of whom are on this forum.

Oh, and I worked FX on a ScyFy "Reality" show once. Trust me, there is a reason that "reality" is in quotation marks.