There be Pirates Afoot

We had a bunch of fun with the Ninjas the last time we posted. We are now on to the PIRATES!

Avast Ye Maties and climb aboard for a water filled adventure. We are of course going to talk about the sensation known as One Piece. Everything in this series is over the top. The characters, scenery, wildlife, just plan all of it. I think this is what adds to the fun of the series. Similar to Naruto, we will have a male character that is pushing the envelope on all levels. Alas however, I am getting ahead of myself, so let’s start at the beginning.

We start off with the execution of Gold Roger aka The King of Pirates. He makes it know that he has a treasure called ‘One Piece’ that is out at the Grand Line. This treasure, with this death, is now up for grabs and starts what is known as the ‘Great Pirate Era’.

Lets now introduce you to a young boy (Monkey D. Luffy) who is sitting in a bar/restaurant listing to pirate tales by ‘Red-Haired Shanks’. What Shanks doesn’t realize however is that Luffy is ‘eating’ his treasure, a Devil Fruit (like all boys, he has a bottomless stomach). As it turns out, this is the Gum Gum Fruit and Luffy’s body is now as bendable as rubber. Sounds great huh, but the ill side effect is that anyone who eats these fruits, can’t swim. Must be great being a pirate with amazing powers, but can’t swim – oops.  After a battle in town, Shanks gives Luffy his hat and thus is born ‘Straw Hat Luffy’.

With each adventure, a new shipmate (friend) is found. His original crew starts off  with (in order met) Zoro (3-Blade Sword man), Nami (sexy Thief and Navigator), Usopp (tells tall tales, but great with a slingshot), Sanji (their chef who is a skirt chaser) and to round out the crew Chopper (a anthropomorphic Reindeer Doctor). If you think this is a rag-tag team, wait until you meet the rest of the crew. It is always a fun adventure full of hi-jinks and danger, but they manage to get through it. I swear that Luffy dies like 50 times in this series with all the crap that is thrown at him.

Now let’s expand on the Devil Fruit and the other Pirates of the show. This may be a mixed bag however as most of the Pirates have eaten the Devil Fruit. There are actually 3 types of fruit. These fruits types are Paramecia Fruit (alters the body in some fashion), Zoan Fruit (allows you to change into an animal) or Logia Fruit (you can actually become an element). I am not sure if the fruit is labeled what it does before you eat it, but I am not sure I would be able to take the chance on eating one.

Some of my favorite Pirates are Buggy, Ace and Hody Jones. Buggy is a clown pirate that ate the Chop Chop Fruit. He can literally chop his body into pieces and each part acts as an extension of his body. Now Ace (who is Luffy’s older brother) ate the Flare Flare Fruit. He has the ability to make and control fire with his body. As for Hody Jones, well he is just a plain old Fishman – with a really big mouth and razor sharp teeth. Just as unique as each pirate is, there ships and flags also reflect their personalities. Some are just the size of rafts that the Blackbeard Pirated use to ones that are huge like Moby Dick which the Whitebeards Pirates use that can swim under water.

By the way, who is policing these guys? That would be the World Government and their Navy. These guys are more like the Keystone Cops than anything else, but do have a few heavy weights like Smoker (ate the Smoke Smoke Fruit). They popup here and there to cause issues, but end up just being an annoyance more than anything.

This is an extremely fun read or show to watch for anyone who has a funny bone. My son has been enjoying both and even drew a One Piece scene on his Math Test (boat and crew). For a fun time and an extremely wild adventure to boot, this is one series that you have to catch up on. Not wanting to take my work on this, well for the record, the Manga series has been breaking publication records in Japan. Volume 57 of the series sold 2,305,594 copies alone.

One Piece also has a great variety of merchandise that is as vast as the seas. There is so much that you will fill your Treasure Chest to the brink of exploding. If you want to get you and your crew setup in the pirate gear, then check out the fine selection at Miccostumes.

Here is a hint of our next post: We see several Sailors who are happy playing with the Planets.

More Than Cosplay

Usually people tell me Japanese cosplay best , I just simple skip the words, ” No, cosplay is for everyone, not Japs only ”

But this photo tell more some evidences ….

girls-manga007

girls-manga006

Team Haberkorn – How A Fan Club Was Born

2011 was a great year for Anime Cons in the Midwest. We attended two here in Ohio, ColossalCon 2011 and MatsuriCon 2011. Both were a lot of fun and we saw some awesome Cosplay.

MatsuriCon 2011
Storm Trooper - MatsuriCon 2011
Gluttony - ColossalCon 2011
Excalibur - ColossalCon 2011

As great as the con visits were for us this year, something else happened that was even more awesome. My daughter and I are big fans of Todd Haberkorn, American Voice-Actor who has starred in lead roles such as Natsu from Fairy Tail, Death the Kid from Soul Eater and Allen Walker in D Gray Man (you should consider these as some GREAT cosplay, by the way).

We had the opportunity to meet Todd at ColossalCon this year and after the convention I began talking to him via email discussing an idea for a new Fan Club and website for him. In short order Todd assembled a team including myself, Suzette Hullette (Fan Club President) and Kristen Tanakatsubo (Social Media Expert). In 6 weeks we developed and opened up the fan club and website.

www.teamhaberkorn.com

The site has a host of features for members, now, including a weekly to bi-weekly podcast called the ToddCast, featuring Todd. Each episode is packed with Todd’s rants, social media musings, interests and more. Todd also includes, for his members, a monthly contest called Korntests where you can win DVD collections, ringtones and now Mic Costumes and wigs!

Todd’s accomplishments as a voice-actor extend beyond the Anime world and now into the video game arena and acting gigs including Scream of the Banshee, a Sy-Fy TV original movie.

Todd’s commitment to his fans is second to none. He does a lot for his fans and animal charities. He recently supported the Acadiana Humane Society by producing a calendar starring several other Voice-Actors in Anime that he sold on his website and is giving the proceeds to the shelter.

Todd is planning live recording panels for his podcast in 2012 and is planning to record an album for his fans. He has already recorded one live podcast session which is available at his website now.

Team Haberkorn’s website is sponsored by several retailers including Mic Costumes! Todd has even been known to cosplay as his own characters – like Ling from Full Metal Alchemist!

Join us for our next blog entry right here at Mic Costumes when we discuss Anime Club Rivalries. We will walk you through the Tribute Video Wars between Todd Haberkorn and Vic Mignogna. These videos are fun to watch and you get a good sense for the light-hearted and fan favorite video productions from these two popular voice-actors.