Ningin’s own NYAF cosplay contest had participants that came from anime, manga, video-games and original concepts. Our 2nd runner up Mimo Moore represents a part of this subculture facet takes it origins from Music. J-rock, Goth Rock, and Visual Kei inspire  cosplay participants like Mimo to embrace the genres style and create amazing looks. Mimo Moore’s own creativity for the unique utilizes talent and imagination to form dramatic androgynous beauty.

Q: Was this your first time cosplaying?
A: No, but this was my first anime con and I loved it!

Q: What are some of the things that first inspired you to cosplay?
A: I’m actually very new to the world of cosplaying and didn’t know it even existed until I stumbled upon it a few months ago while surfing the net.  Obviously anime was a huge inspiration, but what really convinced me to give it a try were some great photos I had seen on the net of “professional cosplayers.”  They pretty much looked like models with a themed shoot, and I’m not new to the world of modeling.  I’ve been a professional model for about 5 years now, and versatility has always been my strong point.  Cosplaying seemed like a fun, creative way of combining all of my talents, skill, and experience without making it seem like a “job”, I truly enjoy it.

Q: How does cosplay relate to your career as a model?
A: The two are amazingly intertwined.  I’ve made some drastic changes when it comes to modeling in the past few months. I modeled almost exclusively within the American hip hop industry and now I’ve been doing mostly Visual Kei.  It’s two completely different worlds and lifestyles, but I can relate to both of them.
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Tags: anime, cosplay, mimo moore, new york anime festival

aXL99 (Jessie Lam)

At NYAF 2008, I had the pleasure of meeting many artists in the artist alley. I myself am an artist so it was definitely exciting to see all the different works of art on sale and on display. I must say, I was very impressed. If I wasn’t so strapped for cash, I would’ve bought some prints (if the T.M.Revolution booth wasn’t there)! Some of these artists appear at more anime conventions than NYAF, of course. At AnimeNext 2008, I remember seeing quite a few of these artists in the artist alley. It’s amazing to see the talent in action as many artists tend to take commissions right on the spot and draw right in front of you. There were people who made pins, prints, hats, plushies and more. The amount of different mediums used (such as digital, colored pencils, markers) was amazing. Each artist put their own twist onto their favorite anime/manga characters and sold away!

Although each of these artists may be different, all of them gather at anime conventions yearly to draw for a common interest. I personally had the pleasure to briefly interview a few of the artists. As I interviewed these artists, I realized I can relate in so many ways! Even though the artists were asked such similar questions, their own personality shows. In a way, it clears who the person is “behind the mask” so to speak.
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Tags: anime, Art, manga, new york anime festival

Voting for the Cosplay Photoshoot Contest is official closed as of 12PM today. It’s been a long week and we’re happy to finally announce the winner! We’ve gone through over 500 contest entries and chosen 50 finalists which is now down to the top three.

Again, the top three will be interviewed by our Ningin Bloggers while the overall best cosplayer voted by the users will receive two super exclusive tickets to the private premiere of the Megaman Movie and to Comic Con in February 2009.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the contest. So now without further ado, the contest winners are….
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Tags: anime, cosplay, cosplay photoshoot contest, manga, new york anime festival, winner

The world of Asian Media is small and you can find fans everywhere, even where you least expect it. 4 months ago I would have never thought that I would be dancing along side Ichigo Pantsu, a group of girls ready to boogy to just about anything. Lara and I had met this group at AnimeNext this year, competing against them in the masqurade. Both our routines involved dancing but, in the end IchiP! kinda kicked our butts with neater costumes and sharper moves. However this time around at NY Anime Festival, we met again as better friends with a common interest in dance. On the last day of the con, IchiP! had a dance workshop where they taught a very popular para para called “Night of Fire” by Hinoi Team. It was so much fun to learn from these energetic teachers. We later had an interview with the three girls Erica (IchiRi), Michele (IchiRu), and Venus (IchiRe). Unfortunately, the 4th member Laura (IchiRa) couldn’t attened because we all know she’s having the greatest time ever studying abroad in Japan. The girls were extremely nice and were willing to dance with us in the end!

Click here to see that dance!

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Tags: asian media, dance, erica, ichi-p, ichigo pantsu, michele, new york anime festival, nyaf, tell me, venus

New York Anime Festival 2008 has made it as my 9th con. I had some mixed feelings about before but, overall, my experience was pretty good. Friday, Lara and I had arrived to the con a little before 3PM and found Hoc, Lan, Mia, and David at the Ningin booth which, was conveniently located next to the T.M.Revolution booth. Some pictures of cosplayers had already been taken and Lan had requested that we run around and get free stuff for them. My goodness, there was a lot of free stuff like bookmarks, manga, stickers and such. Half way through, the free bags were getting extremely heavy (especially for me since I had to carry two of them). We had also started pointing cosplayers in the direction of the booth for the contest.
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Tags: anime, cosplay, dance, fam, ichi-p, manga, new york anime festival

Thank you to those that entered the Ningin-NY Anime Festival Cosplay Photo Contest. We were amazed by your costumes and enthusiasm. Galleries from all three days of New York Anime Festival are online now. We divided the galleries by Day 1 (Friday), Day 2, and Day 3 to make it a bit easier for you to find yourself. Don’t forget to check out other photos from the event.

We’ve gone through over 500 contest entries and chosen 50 finalists. It was quite a debate about who should make the top 50. We gave preference to those that made their own outfits and those that posed well. Well that’s done and now it’s time for you to vote for the winners! Voting will be open until 12pm (EST), Sunday, October 5, 2008 for all registered Ningin users. Each Ningin user can vote for one favorite costume so make sure you check them all out before voting! The winners will be announced 12pm (EST), Monday, October 6, 2008.

The top three cosplayers will be profiled and interviewed by our Ningin bloggers. The overall best cosplayer will also receive two super exclusive tickets to the private premiere of the Megaman Movie and two tickets to Comic Con next February.

Good luck and thank you for stopping by the Ningin.com booth at the New York Anime Festival!
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Tags: comic con, contest, cosplay, gallery, megaman movie, new york anime festival, ningin, nyaf, photoshoot, prizes, winner

Wow. I can’t believe Lan and I took over 500 cosplayer portraits in three crazy days. This was our first anime convention and I don’t think any of us expected such an enthusiastic turnout. In case you didn’t meet our team, we had our bloggers Mia Lerda, Lara Visconti and Jessica Dawson meeting and greeting, Lan Nguyen and myself on photographer duty, and Hoc Poeng as master of ceremonies at the Ningin.com booth. Bloggers Andrew Lim and Stephen Chen were able to make brief appearances on Saturday (btw, that was a day of anime insanity!).

Special thank you’s to our NYAF booth neighbors T.M. Revolution (TMR and Abingdon Boys School management Koichi and Michiyo), Japan Society (who stopped by many times to check out our Cosplay Photo Shoot), Lady Heather’s Fashions (enjoyable harassment by gothic Sujia, and yes, we know it’s not cosplay), New York-Tokyo (film fest planners Taeko and Steve), Pierrot (Keiko from the Naturo producing team), MSS-New York (video producer Takuro), The NEO Show (hosted by Angie), the Yaoi boys (thanks for a paddling), Ichi-P (a special Wonder Girls dance off at the Ningin booth) and NYAF head honcho Peter Tatara who found a moment to stop by and meet us!
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Tags: abingdon boys school, cosplay, ichi-p, Japan Society, Naturo, new york anime festival, nyaf, photography, pierrot, Tatara, TMR, tokyo, yaoi

It makes me so sad to write this as it is the last day of the New York Anime Festival. It was my very first time at an anime convention and it was an overall great experience. I can’t wait to attend another.

Recapping on today, it was easier than the previous 2 days as it was more relaxed (thank God) which left a lot of room to socialize with fellow attendees. I met a lot of new people in addition to running into friends from the anime community. I want to give a shout out to “Saka”, our booth neighbor TM Revolution, John and Jayelle from Otakuden, Zlade from Anime Meetup, Ichi-P and old friends from Cosplay Day at Kinokuniya; it was great meeting you guys.

About the Cosplay Photoshoot Contest, we did take a ton of photos again which are all uploaded to the galleries. I want to thank all the participants; you guys are amazing and I wish you luck! Details of the contest voting and winner will be posted later. Also, I will be posting coverage later on about individual cosplayers.

So, I hope you guys enjoyed yourself as much as I did. Here’s some photos from Day 3:

View Full Galleries: NYAF 2008 - Cosplay Photoshoot Contest Day 1 - Cosplay Photoshoot Contest Day 2 - Cosplay Photoshoot Contest Day 3
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Tags: anime, anime meetup, convention, cosplay, cosplay day, cosplay photoshoot contest, ichi-p, jacob javits, kinokuniya, manga, new york anime festival, ningin, otakuden, saka

Ohayo! New York Anime Festival is coming to an end as we start day 3, but let’s recap on day 2. Even before the doors were officially open, the Javits center was packed with cosplayers; it was pretty intense to see so many people there. As such, we were able to take way more photos for our Cosplay Photoshoot Contest. There were a lot of memorable cosplayers as everyone seems to bring their A-game. It’s amazing to think that some of these cosplays are put together by hand! We also met some of the artists and other exhibitionists. They were all really friendly and had some interesting merchandise. The day was a lot of fun but I’m going to let these pictures speak for themselves.

View the entire gallery: NYAF 2008 - Cosplay Photoshoot Contest Day 1 - Cosplay Photoshoot Contest Day 2
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Tags: anime, contest, convention, cosplay, fun, jacob javits center, manga, new york, new york anime festival, ningin, photoshoot

At this point, I’ve all but given up on reasonable amounts of sleep. It is for the weak after all.

On to the important stuff. According to what I’ve been told, Day 2 of NYAF is the busiest of all the NYAF days. I’ve also been told that Day 1 is just industry/media day yet I found myself consistently occupied shooting cosplayers the entire time I was there. So if Day 1 is “slow” then we might be woefully understaffed with only 8 people from the Ningin crew. There’s so many stories, so many different things we can cover. The doors open to the public at 10am, but we’ll probably be there at 8:30am giving us a chance to talk to the other exhibitionist there and making new partners/friends.

Also, if anyone is interested in contributing a story, then come find us at booth 138. We’re very happily right next to the T.M. Revolution booth. Let us know that you’re a fan of Ningin and we just might give you free t-shirts or some other free stuff (while supplies last).


Here are some noteworthy cosplayers from Day 1, taken from our NYAF Day 1 Gallery.
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Tags: anime, cosplay, event, festival, new york anime festival, ningin, nyaf, tm revolution