anime – Insider Irene

Hero’s and Villains, Oh My! Attending the VIP My Hero Academia Voice Actor Panel and Autograph Signing at Anime Los Angeles in Ontario, CA

Published on January 30, 2019January 29, 2019 by Insider Irene1 Comment

One of my favorite things to do at conventions is attend panels especially voice actor ones as I love learning about the audition process, and inspiration for characters. While I had the opportunity to see both the creator, voice actor for Deku and All Might at SDCC in 2019 (Post Here), Anime Los Angeles brought the full star studded My Hero Academia cast (!!!) for the weekended and included an autograph session for all attendees. The weekend was far from short of My Hero Academia cosplays (post here) and the voice actors who brought their character’s voices to life including Justin Briner (Izuku Midoriya), Clifford Chapin (Katsuki Bakugo), David Matranga (Shoto Todoroki), Colleen Clinkenbeard (Momo Yaoyorozu) , Eric Vale (Tomura Shigaraki), Morgan Berry (Thirteen), and Christopher Wehkamp (Shota Aizawa) all participated in both individual and group panels. I was lucky to snag a front row seat in the group panel and got selfies with my two favorite voice actors Coleen Clinkenbeard (Momo) and David Matranga (Shot Todoroki)! I had a great time seeing these voice actors and loved that I got to converse with them in this more intimate convention. A few of the voice actors even complimented my spikes and were really impressed with my cosplay. I’m planning to continue working on it and who knows maybe at AX Momo will have even more refined details 🙂

Do you watch My Hero Academia? Who’s your favorite hero?

XOXO,

Rockstar

“Gotta Catch ‘Em All” at Anime Los Angeles in Ontario, CA

Published on January 23, 2019January 23, 2019 by Insider Irene1 Comment

Geek conventions are a great place to buy merchandise, watch panels, and see amazing cosplay! But one thing that differentiates Anime Los Angeles (ALA) from the other nerd gatherings is ribbon trading, an activity where you complete a task or trivial and in exchange get a ribbon to add to your badge.

Anyone can participate in the ribbon trading and there are certain groups of individuals who work collectively to make the ribbon trading activity a scavenger hunt. One of the best groups is the Pokemon Group and this year they focused on Team Rocket Recruitment. Attendees would checkin at the “Pokemon Center” and be given a starter Pokemon (their first Pokemon ribbon). I started with Larvitar, a Rock/Ground Pokemon and needed to find other Gym Leaders (individuals with the Red and White Pokemon Button) to “battle” and collect more ribbons.

Once you collect at least 14 of the 18 Pokemon types, you can see “The Boss” and collect the last badge – Pokemon 2019 Champion! It’s a fun activity to take part-in and it’s makes for a really cool souvenir.

Who would be your starter Pokemon?

XOXO,

Rockstar

Debuting My New Hero Cosplay at the “My Hero Academia” Photo Shoot at Anime Los Angeles in Ontario, CA

Published on January 16, 2019January 16, 2019 by Insider Irene2 Comments

Over the weekend I attended Anime Los Angeles (ALA), a three day convention in Ontario, CA. While many conventions focus on celebrity guests appearances (Justice League SDCC post, Marvel SDCC post) or powerhouse media companies (VIZ Media @ Anime Expo Post), the cosplayers are the stars of this convention. Roughly 60% of attendees cosplayed and with My Hero Academia debuting a Season 4 later in 2019, there was an enormous hero and villian presence at ALA. I participated in one of the conventions largest cosplay meetup as Momo Yaoyorozu – Class 1A’s Vice President in her hero outfit (My Hero Casual Meetup post).

As one of the first conventions of the new year, many cosplayers use this convention to debut new outfits. Personally, I spent my winter break sewing my belt and styling my wig and was happy to share my finished project. There were well over 200 cosplayers at the meetup and while I knew there would be an abundance of Deku, Shoto, and Bakugos, I was most surprised by the number of attendees who dressed as Deku’s mom!

It’s always great to see others dress up as your favorite characters and I can appreciate the care and craftsmanship that goes behind the design.

Do you watch My Hero Academia? Who’s your favorite hero? Villian?

XOXO,

Rockstar

Heros and Villians Compete at the U.A. Sports Festival in Huntington Beach, CA

Published on November 14, 2018November 13, 2018 by Insider Irene1 Comment

I’m aware that conventions attract the biggest comic geeks such as Los Angeles Comic Con (Day 1, Day 2) etc, but the fandom for My Hero Academia is on a whole other level. At Anime Expo & SDCC fans waited hours to see the show’s creator. Suffice to say there will be a Season 4 and I’m sure many more seasons after that. There’s an arc in the earlier seasons where the first year students competed in various competitions called the U.A. Sports Festival and Cosplayers Undercovercottonswab and Libbubblescosplay hosted a similar competition at Huntington Beach!

U.A. Medals; U.A, Teachers and Sports Festival Hosts

It was a beautiful sunny day and this casual event was hosted right on the beach. Fans of the anime came from far and wide, some in cosplay and some in beach-gear to experience the U.A. Tournament. There were various mini competitions such as the limbo, and jump rope, but everyone was eagerly anticipating the relay-style race to the finish and the contenders were wait for it… heros versus villians!

I had a great time meeting others who also love this anime series and was proud of myself for styling my characters wig (2 hours and a whole can of hairspray later… lol). The things we do for characters we love.

Do you watch/read My Hero Academia? Who’s your favorite character? Momo Yaoyorozu’s mine

XOXO,

Rockstar

Enjoying Summer + Ultra Art Exhibit at Honey and Butter

Published on September 12, 2018August 29, 2018 by Insider IreneLeave a comment

My Hero Academia has taken the US by storm – so when Honey and Butter in Irvine hosted an art exhibit displaying local artists take on this hit show I was excited to see their creativity juices at work.

The macaroon store was also going to make macaroons of select characters, but I found out too late that it was only on the first day of their exhibit *cries* Regardless, there were some really great art pieces, which is a testament to our talented community.

There definitely a lot of Froppy artwork followed by Deku, Bakugo (no surprise), and Shoto. My favorite characters are Momo and Shoto and part of me is thinking about making some My Hero Artwork for myself perhaps with color pencils as my medium.

Who’s your favorite My Hero character?

XOXO,

Rockstar

Dragon Ball Z at SDCC – 3rd Anniversary Mobile Game Debut + Movie Promotion!

Published on August 8, 2018August 8, 2018 by Insider IreneLeave a comment

San Diego Comic Con is MASSIVE and I felt that I didn’t do the mecca nerd gathering justice by spending just a couple days. So, this year I allocated more time to dwell in the summer nerd capitol and tried to do as many of the outside convention stuff. (See Conan Taping LIVE here.)

Dragon Ball Z life-size and miniature figurines

On Wednesday my friends and I ventured behind the convention to checkout the Dragon Ball Z area and considering it was Preview Night I was surprised at how many people were already waiting in lines! But those lines were no match for the My Hero Academia panel line (check out post here). Nevertheless, the setup was most impressive and there was a ton to do and see for the ultimate Dragon Ball fan! * Note * this area was within the sectioned SDCC Badge area.

The main line was for dedicated to fans who wanted a Dragon Ball Z backpack and lanyard, among other goodies, whereas the side lines were for fans who wanted to try and win freebies such as a t-shirt or hat. There were also photo opportunities as well as figurine replicas re-enacting scenes from the series all to promote the third anniversary mobile game “Dragon Ball Dokkan Battle” – I tried it and it’s super hard, but practice makes perfect right? Lol

Dragon Ball Z will also be premiering a movie later this year. No word on which theaters, but I hope it’s “Over 9000” haha… If you can have a private viewing of an upcoming movie, what movie would you want to see?

XOXO,

Rockstar

Me, Myself and Irene – 2017 in Review

Published on December 31, 2017December 31, 2017 by Insider IreneLeave a comment

When I was first thinking about this post I thought to myself – man… I totally bombed the “will write a blog post every-week” goal, I “should” be making more money, I “should” be blah blah blah.. but as I looked through my rolo-dex of photos I realized that I had so many cool moments and while I didn’t meet all the goals I set out – I did achieve quite a bit and “should” remember those! This was definitely the year of “Me, Myself, and Irene” from my “Diary of a Beauty Queen’s Food and Travel Adventures (Instagram)” to opening up to my readers with my alias as @TheGeekyGuide (Instagram) to launching my College Consulting By Yu Youtube channel (website), I’m three people in one!

As @yurockstar I finished my term as Miss Taiwanese World Queen and passed the torch (blog entry), and visited so many cool restaurants – the Exchange Restaurant being my favorite this year! (blog entry) – and festivals as media including the LA Food and Wine Festival (blog entry 1; blog entry 2; blog entry 3) where I got to meet Tyler Florence and Brian Malarky. I also got to be a guest on Gordon Ramsay’s “The F Word” and critiqued the competitors dishes. 2017 was also the year when I got to visit San Diego Comic Con (blog entry) for the first time and hear Disney Legend Alan Menkin perform his classic hits at D23 (blog entry)! I also bought an annual pass to Six Flags Magic Mountain (blog entry) and convinced four of my friends to go on roller coasters with me. On a totally random note – I also won a mattress from an Instagram contest through yelp, woot!

To be honest, I was kind of a closet cosplayer and nervous about cosplaying one of my childhood idols. The live action Wonder Woman movie debuted earlier this year and I felt very conscientious about wearing a corset, let alone portray such an iconic character. I was selected as one of Game Spot’s Best DC Cosplay at SDCC and WonderCon, and featured on the LA Time’s “Why Cosplay as Wonder Woman” video. But more importantly, I loved when kids came up to me to ask for a photo opt – just to see them smile made me feel that that 2 hours it took to do my hair and make-up all the worthwhile.

I also debuted Chun Li this year and was invited to join a Street Fighter group! Everyone does such a great job in portraying their character, and they inspired me to revisit and brush-up on my martial arts and dance techniques. I also upgraded some of my Sailor Mars uniform and had a blast with various photoshoots with the Sailor Scouts and Tuxedo Mask! I’ve made so many awesome friends through cosplay and it’s always awesome to see familiar faces portraying different heros and villians.

@Yucollege/ College Consulting By Yu Video Thumbnails

And yes, if you can believe it this was also the year that I decided to share my counseling knowledge through youtube. It’s been on my heart for a while so I finally bit the bullet and launched the channel: College Consulting Youtube Channel (Instagram). I created 10 videos ranging from Survive a School Shooting to the Common App Tutorial, and boy you can definitely see improvements from video 1-10. There’s still much work to be done, and my goal next year is to do 40 more! Won’t you come and watch? (youtube link) 😉

I’ve learned that no matter what goal you’ve set yourself up for that if you didn’t meet it today, tomorrow is always a new day. My Resolution is to make each day count. What’s yours?

XOXO,
Rockstar

Sailor Moon Day – Autographs, Panel, and Photoshoot at Anime Expo!

Published on July 10, 2017July 9, 2017 by Insider Irene2 Comments

I decided to do a Moonie Monday post in place of my normal Miss Taiwan entries as I wanted to share some photos from my latest adventure as my cosplay alias – @thegeekyguide.

During this past July 4th weekend, I along with hundreds of anime geeks attended the largest Anime Convention in North America – AX, short for Anime Expo. This four day event was a haven from geeks galore as they had table top games, themed concerts, cosplay meetups and contests, panels and more! As a second time attendee and first time cosplaying at this convention, I was thrilled to experience this crazy world as a character from one of my favorite Anime TV shows – Sailor Moon!

The popularity of this convention had grown exponentially since my first visit, and many attendees dubbed it LineCon, as individuals waited hours to get their badge or attend panel. My friend and I knew that the Sailor Moon panel was going to be a big hit among con-goers, so we started to line-up at 9:30 for the 11:00am panel. Thankfully, this year they had a large tent so attendees didn’t burn in the blistering heat (that wasn’t the case the first year I attended).

After waiting patiently, we were escorted back into the hall and seated in the enormous 1000+ people space for the special two hour panel. It was great to see the diversity of fans in the room – men, women, and children of all ages filled the space. When the program started the MC introduced all the Sailor Scouts, informed us on new merchandise that were available for purchase at the convention, as well as updates on the franchise. One of the most exciting news was Hot Topic’s New Sailor Moon Collection that will launch during the holidays. I guess I’ll be getting some new Guardian Gear this Christmas!

Autographed Poster and Lucky Ticket Winner!

The MC also made an announcement that this year they changed their methodology in earning a free autograph signing session with the voice actors. In years past, people would line up the night before in the autograph line for a chance to get a spot, and this year the Viz Media Sailor Scout Helpers chose the ultimate fans – to which, I was one of them! Yay!!! FYI – a number of the fans selected were dressed up as a character, in case you’re interested in the future

Voice Actors (Left to Right, Top to Bottom): Photo 1 – Cristina Valenzuela (Sailor Mars); Photo 2 -Sandy Fox (Sailor Chibi Moon); Photo 3 – Lauren Landa (Sailor Neptune) and Erica Mendez (Sailor Uranus); Photo 4 – Stephanie Sheh (Sailor Moon)

After the panel, about 50 lucky ticket holders exited the panel and headed downstairs towards the autograph signing booth. I loved how they had the Viz Media Cosplayers stood behind the voice actors so we could visual for which character each voice actor portrayed. All the voice-actors were so nice and personable. What a great experience!

Inner Sailor Scouts – Mercury, Mars, Moon, Venus, and Jupiter

Soon afterwards, I rushed to the Sailor Moon Meetup where I got to do a photoshoot with other die hard Sailor Moon fans. By this time it was almost 5 and I was already exhausted, but what a day!

Do you like these cross-over posts with @thegeekyguide (Instagram, Facebook) and want me to do more? Let me know in the comments below.

XOXO,

Rockstar