dormcat's cubicle, Blogger division

Three weeks have passed since the end of Taipei International Book Exhibition (TIBE) 2010. Due to some personal factors I haven't had my album organized and uploaded, and I feel terribly sorry to cosplayers and friends whom I promised to give photos to. This time I tried to use the built-in Flash direct linkage to my album at Yam, but it was buggy and could only display resized pictures using Internet Explorer, not with Firefox, forcing me to re-upload the title picture to Photobucket. For larger pictures (960 x 720 pixels) please click here . A cosplayer stole our attention: " yakiisis " (Naruto Uzumaki in the picture above) from the invited cosplay circle " 304 " which came all the way from Hangzhou. Her "Nobody Dance" (for the uninitiated: it came from Wonder Girls ) was not only well-memorized, but each beat was full of strength and speed, yet her body figure remained soft and flexible. Since she has "dancing" as a skill in her personal p...

The honored guest of the first day of Taipei International Book Exhibition was Kazuo Umezz (official transliteration; most sources spell his family name as "Umezu"). Unlike most shy mangaka, 73-years-old Umezz-sensei is well known for his love of stage performance and attention. In addition to have danced at the opening ceremony , Umezz-sensei added two additional dances before his autograph session started! The first dance had strong Middle Eastern feel, and Umezz-sensei had long white robes to fit in the theme. At the moment I felt deja vu of his outfit but couldn't name it, only to have realized the likeliness of this colonel . Finishing the first song was far from the end. Umezz-sensei took off the long white robes, revealing his trademark red and white striped shirt. Umezz-sensei said hello to his fans with yet another trademark of his, the gwashi gesture. Umezz-sensei dancing with the music of "Gwashi!! Makoto-chan," related to the 1980 animate...

More than three weeks have passed since the first wave of publicized guests of honor of Taipei International Book Exhibition (TIBE), and we've got some new updates: Kazuo Umezu, master of horror manga, will visit TIBE 2010 and hold an autograph session. d/books taipei has posted "Range Murata 2010 Combo Pack," thus confirming their role in inviting Murata. Coincidentally, Mardock Scramble , a novel by Tow Ubukata and was planned to be animated with Murata's character designs four years ago and meant to be the 15th anniversary of GONZO , later canceled abruptly in December 2006, was miraculously resurrected as a theatrical movie . I wonder if Murata still taking parts in the new movie edition. Update: Line art of a "China-dress girl" illustrated by Murata exclusively for TIBE 2010. Mighty Media has licensed Pandora Heart and CANAAN but didn't bother to announce at their own official website. Rather, their related merchandises are on sale now. ...

GNN , Central Daily , and Mighty Media's own official website have all announced the first round of guests of honors of Comic and Animation Hall, Taipei International Book Exhibition (TIBE) 2010 yesterday afternoon. Four names have been announced: Range Murata (conceptual character designer of Last Exile ), Miho Obana (mangaka of Kodocha ), Rie Kugimiya (Shana of Shakugan no Shana ), and Junko Takeuchi (Naruto Uzumaki of Naruto ). Details of autograph eligibility can be read by clicking respective links. Mighty always play big at TIBE (as opposed to Comic Exhibitions in summers); they indeed invest a lot on three guests of honor, all are key figures of their most popular titles, notably merchandise of Shakugan no Shana (life-size pillows in particular). Patients of Kugimiya syndrome are already "burning" right now. On the other hand, Range Murata, who had visited Taiwan three years ago, have little connection with Mighty this year, unless Mighty is looking forward a...

A small collection of cosplayers and other event photographs of Taipei International Book Exhibition (TIBE) 2009 can be found here . Unlike Fancy Frontier, Petit Fancy, or CWT, there were very few cosplayers at TIBE. While the quality of cosplaying contests was very high, the atmosphere just couldn't compare to dōjin events.