#but only cosplaying from shit people have never heard of will not get you exposure

[kiyye]

do you have any tips for beginner cosplayers trying to gain exposure ?

oH JEEZ i may not have the best advice for this because i don’t put a whole lot of effort into advertising/exposure for my stuff. i just kinda like,,,, make it.

but anyways!!!! when i first started my cosplay instagram, I gained a lot of exposure through doing those cosplay contest things??? like you know the ones where people have a post for each character and you can get all your friends to go vote for you??? I love love love those because they often have like under 1k or even under 100 categories, and that can be sO SO helpful when trying to get urself out there. Usually it’s just nomination-by-vote, so enlist a friend to go comment your name. Or vote for yourself!

However. Thats pretty instagram specific??? I don’t think there’s a comparable phenomenon on tumblr. I’m also not sure how often people do those in fandoms other than the homestuck fandom. So here’s some more cross-platform advice:

1. USE TAGS!!! dont be afraid to use them holy shit. Obviously don’t tag your cosplay, like, “cooking photography” or something that doesn’t relate to the content of the post. But I tag all my cosplay on insta with “photography” and “transguy” and some other vague things in addition to all the obligatory tags of the characters name/ the fandom. there is literally no shame in adding a bunch of tags to ur shit. same thing goes for tumblr!!!!! there used to be this thing where??? your post would only show up in the tagged pages of the first five tags you used??? I’m not sure if that still exists but I always put the most important tags first.

2. Idk how to explain this but you can get a lot of momentum from like,,, riding the hype waves??? Like cosplaying things that are popular and current, producing content at a rapid rate, and tagging it appropriately, thus allowing it to get to the “most popular” sections of very very busy tags. For example, I managed to put together a davepeta cosplay like a week after the character was introduced and get nice looking professional photos of it up within the next week. I got a lot of activity coming in from the davepeta tags, because people were checking up on what stuff had been made for this brand new character. Same thing with my mettaton, which I did makeup tests for during the peak of Original Undertale Hype. 

LET ME STRESS. this is not me saying “only cosplay popular shit.” in the long term, it is way more fulfilling to just cosplay things youre really interested in regardless of hype. that also helps u build an actual Audience, because people will defs be more interested in Unique content that you put heart into, rather than you just churning out cosplays of every new anime character. You may even get people interested in new media if you cosplay something they haven’t heard of! I got a whole bunch of messages from people who started listening to TAZ because they saw my taako cosplay!!!! WHICH IS SO COOL so please cosplay whATEVER YOU WANT and also dont get discouraged if a cosplay of an oc or a less popular show or somethin get less likes!!! in the end, cosplaying popular stuff = a Lot of people go :D. cosplaying underappreciated, niche stuff = a few select people go 8′’’DDDD !!! :DD !!! 8DDD !! 8D !!!!!! and their whole day is made.

but yeah try watching a show that u hear is popular and cosplaying ur fav character. it can be very rewarding in terms of exposure.

3. Do collab stuff!!! Even if it’s just you and a friend, even if that friend doesn’t have a cosplay account for you to get traction from. Its just nice for people to go on your account and see that you’re involved with other people. Idk much about the less-than-5k cosplay culture on tumblr, but if you use instagram DO A BUNCH OF S4Ss!!!!!!!!!!!!! and if people do those on tumblr, do them on here too. also like comment on a bunch of posts! be passionate!!!! be FRIENDLY!!!! i try really hard to seem friendly because i am actually a very friendly person, and idk exactly how to explain/teach how to do that, but like. be friendly. be positive about the things u love.

THATS ALL, I HOPE IT CAN HELP YOU!!!!!!!!!! also like if you (ANY OF YOU) ever need a shoutout just message me on here!!! i can reblog ur shit!!!!! i gotchu!!! and i can do shoutouts on my story on insta too :DDDDDD

[wrestlingisfake]

Wrestle Kingdom 15 day 2 preview

TBD vs. Jay White - White is challenging for the IWGP heavyweight title and IWGP intercontinental title, against the winner of Tetsuya Naito vs. Kota Ibushi from last night.  In fact several of the matches on this card are major spoilers for yesterday’s show, so I guess the whole thing needs to go under the cut.

Kota Ibushi vs. Jay White - Ibushi defeated Tetsuya Naito last night to become the 73rd IWGP heavyweight champion and the 27th IWGP intercontinental champion.  White is using his “IWGP double championship right to challenge” contract to receive this title shot.  If White wins, Ibushi’s 24 hours as double champion would be the shortest reign in the history of either championship.

Ibushi was devastated when he was knocked out of the Double Gold Dash last year, and moreso when he lost to White in the consolation match.  Ibushi and White met again during the G1 Climax, where Jay beat him again.  Ibushi nevertheless won the G1 Climax to earn the “right to challenge” contract.  However, the contract is defended like a championship, and Ibushi put it on the line against White...who beat him again.  White then elected to take January 4 off and schedule his title match with Naito for January 5.  However, Naito decided to spend the 4th defending the title against Ibushi.  The upshot is that Ibushi has finally achieved his dream, but he must immediately put it all on the line against his nemesis, who isn’t exhausted from working last night.

Frankly, I’m not sure why they set this up where the 1/4 main event sets up who gets to wrestle White, like he’s the biggest star in this thing.  I suppose maybe the idea is that he’s unavoidable so that you’ll worry until the very end that he could ruin everything. Maybe that psychology connects with the Japanese audience.  It doesn’t with me.  I’d rather just see the best and/or biggest match close the second show, and White vs. Ibushi isn’t it.  Their match at Wrestle Kingdom 14 last year was so dull that I lost interest for about 20 minutes.  Jay will go for the same cheap heat spots he always goes for, and Ibushi will randomly no-sell or oversell each of them, depending on whether he wants to be Ultra Instinct Shaggy or Ricky Morton at any given moment.

I suppose White-Ibushi matches have been fun, sometimes.  I really liked the G1 Climax 2019 final.  But personally I was over this feud months ago.  I really hope they’ve come up with some new material, or this is going to be a long slog for me.  I’m picking Ibushi to win, because I really don’t think they’ll book White to win just to troll the Tokyo Dome.  But the bigger problem is, I wouldn’t care if they did.

Taiji Ishimori vs. Hiromu Takahashi - Ishimori is defending the IWGP junior heavyweight championship.  Hiromu defeated El Phantasmo last night to earn this title shot.  Ishimori won the title from Takahashi on August 29, although they met again in the Best of the Super Jr. tournament on November 15, where Hiromu won.  So this is the rubber match.

This match should be good to great, but it feels inevitable that Takahashi will regain the title.  That’s not all bad, since he’s a big star and I’m a fan, but the match would mean more if Ishimori had been built up bigger.  I suppose the pandemic made that difficult, since there were enough shows (or junior heavyweights) for Taiji to really burn through other top contenders.

I guess I’ll just try to get in the mindset of enjoying Hiromu’s coronation, instead of hoping for a match that could go either way.  Then, on the off chance Ishimori actually wins, I’ll be properly shocked.  But I’m not betting on that happening.

EVIL vs. SANADA - Welp, it had to happen--after Evil turned on Los Ingobernables de Japon and joined Bullet Club, it was only a matter of time before his tag team partner Sanada finally got a hold of him and...wait.  I’m looking at my notes for the Evil-Sanada match from October 17.  I’m frankly not sure why Sanada suddenly got mad at Evil two months after winning that match.  I’m pretty sure they just ran out of ideas for each guy.  Well, the October bout wasn’t as emotionally charged as I wanted anyway, so I’ll take a delayed grudge match if I can get it.

I believe Kevin Kelly commented recently that a win for Sanada here moves him closer to the main event title picture, but a loss sends him tumbling back down. I’d agree with that assessment.  Along the same lines, a win for Evil suggests a renewed push for him, whereas a loss would signal that they’re putting him on the back burner for a while.  I don’t expect either guy to headline the really big shows, but even on the lesser shows, only the winner of this match makes sense chasing the heavyweight and intercontinental titles.

I’d be in favor of these two brawling all around the ringside area (as much as safety procedures allow) and getting it out of their system.  Blow this feud off quickly, so we can get on with new business--Sanada working his way up the ladder, and Evil plotting against his rivals within Bullet Club.  I’m picking Sanada to win.

Shingo Takagi vs. Jeff Cobb - Takagi is defending the NEVER title.  Cobb beat Shingo in their last singles encounter in September, but Takagi wasn’t champion yet.  So Cobb had to beat him again in a tag match in December to set up this match.  Of course, in the meantime, Cobb turned heel by joining Will Ospreay’s new stable, the Empire.

You could always count on either of these guys to have a great clubberin’ battle, but Cobb’s heel turn should add a vicious new edge to this matchup.  We should get a strong showcase of what to expect from Evil Jeff Cobb, above and beyond what he demonstrated in World Tag League.  Accordingly, I think he basically has to win the title.  There just isn’t anything so important that it’s worth keeping the belt on Takagi; the most interesting thing he could do right now is chase Cobb.  So this is another “feels like a foregone conclusion” match on a card full of them.  At least this one should be fairly different from the others.

El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Master Wato & Ryusuke Taguchi - Despy and Kanemaru are defending the IWGP junior heavyweight tag team titles.  Wato and Taguchi each managed to beat Despy in one-on-one matches during Best of the Super Jr., so I guess they figured they’d make a go of it as a team.

If you’d told me a year ago that a Young Lion would come back from excursion with a bunch of fancy vignettes, and it was all to build to this match, past-me would never have dreamed that the new guy would be the dimmest star of this group.  But as it happens, Desperado had an epic star-making performance in BOSJ, Taguchi is a comedy institution in the promotion, and Kanemaru is at least a champion.  Wato just hasn’t been booked like a hot new star, and the whole idea of having guys like Taguchi and Hiroyoshi Tenzan coach him just makes him look weaker.  You get the feeling this match is designed to help him recover from all that, except that I have no confidence he’ll actually win the big one in the Tokyo Dome.  If he loses here, he’s basically Captain New Japan Mark II.

What’s worse for Wato is that I’m not even sure it’s a good idea for him to finally win the big one, not at Desperado’s expense.  The drama of the BOSJ final took me from “Oh, that one guy who looks like Skeletor cosplaying El Kabong” to “holy shit El Desperado isn’t fucking around.”  They need to run with that, and maybe dropping the tag title is step one.  But dropping it to Master Wato?  I guess Wato could pin Kanemaru, but still.

To me the best finish for everyone involved is if the champs retain and Wato flips out and turns on Taguchi.  But that sort of thing is awfully swerve-y for New Japan, and it’s smarter not to assume it’ll happen every time it’d be a little convenient.  So I guess we’ll see what they’ve got.  But I feel safe predicting the champs retain and Wato doesn’t get over as a babyface.

Toru Yano vs. Bad Luck Fale vs. Chase Owens vs. BUSHI - This is a four-way match to decide who gets first possession of the provisional KOPW 2021 trophy. Whoever holds the trophy at the end of the year will be the official King of Pro Wrestling in 2021, or something.  Yano won the title for 2020, but it’s a new year so we have a new title.  The participants here were the final four of last night’s New Japan Ranbo gauntlet match.  I gather that the first man to score a fall over any other opponent wins.

This is a pretty oddball lineup so I would imagine this match will just be a lot of shenanigans.  All four guys will cheat to win, but Owens and Fale will work together to double-team cheat, so they can be bigger heels than the other two.

Yano originally won the KOPW 2020 trophy in a four-way like this one, by stealing a pin over Kazuchika Okada of all people.  So I would think that makes him a heavy favorite to win here.  The only question is if the bookers think it’d be funnier for his tricks to backfire when dealing with the massive, extremely irritated Fale.  I think I’d rather see Fale defending the trophy for six months, to be honest, but my gut says Yano will win again.

AZM & Saya Kamitani & Utami Hayashishita vs. Natsupo & Himeka & Maika - This is one of two women’s matches to provide exposure to STARDOM, the women’s promotion owned by New Japan’s parent company.  In Japan it’s seems to be considered normal for promotions to be all-male or all-female, and for fans to only want to see one or the other on a given event.  So I get the impression some New Japan fans have a problem with running Stardom matches on a NJPW show, although I certainly don’t see why.  In any case, TV and streaming rights mean that Western fans probably won’t actually see this match; I’m not even sure it will be televised.  And I unfortunately know nothing baout Stardom, so it’s kind of pointless for me to comment on performers I’ve never heard of in a match I’ll probably never get to see.

Tam Nakano & Mayu Iwatani vs. Syuri & Giulia - Another women’s match to showcase Stardom.  In this case I at least recognize Iwatani’s name from some ROH shows a couple of years ago, but that’s about it.  I’m all for getting women’s wrestling some more exposure anywhere you can do it, but unfortunately these matches are aimed at the live audience in the Tokyo Dome, and won’t do much good raising my awareness.

[askcosplayaphcanada-archived]

INCREDIBLY Difficult Tagging Game

@ask-mr-biscuit you’re like the only one who really tags me in silly stuff like this, thank you! ;A;

//RULES 1. Post the rules 2. Answer questions by person that tagged u 3. Write 11 questions of your own 4. Tag 11 people.

1. Heard of the trolley problem? What is your personal choice to that problem?

I have not heard of it, so I’m unsure how I’d make a personal choice on the matter. Is it the issue of what people call a trolley? Like a shopping kart or a buggie? I don’t know I’m sorry! 

2. Would you rather be poor and have a job you enjoyed or be rich with a job you hated?

Question: can I choose to get rich with the job I hated, and then quit that job for a better one? Because right now I feel like I could suffer however long if it meant helping me get back up on my feet financially, ahh...

3. What’s worse for you, being completely unrecognised after death or completely hated and remembered?

I think...being unrecognised after death....it’s a fate so many of us will share, but it’s also a desire to just...leave some kind of mark on this Earth to show, hey, I was here! However, doing something that would make me remembered but hated sounds extreme, and I’d like to try to make things better, not worse. 

4. What type of media would you abolish if you had to, and why? (Examples are radio, TV, print, etc.)

BUT WHY THOUGH. They’re all needed- they’re all linked together. Print gave birth to radio, and radio to TV, ect- Media grows upon itself, getting rid of any of them would be horrible! ;A; Augh.....I guess....If I’m forced to choose....TV. 

5. Choose a time period to live in!! :D

Ah.....I guess...maybe just a little earlier. Like maybe I could have been a baby boomer like my Mom was, born in 1961. Live through the hippie age, where minimum wage was still a living wage, a gallon of gas was like 20 cents, I could have lived through the weirdness that was the 80′s...Maybe I could have gotten more of a head start on life before the economy went to shit....I don’t know. 

6. Not a difficult one, but… What’s up with all that England hate in the fandom?

IS THERE? I DON’T KNOW??? Why would people hate him???? England is precious and must be protected, he deserves all the love and hugs and HNNGGG I’m seriously curious as to why people would hate on England though. Granted, everyone is entitled to like or dislike characters (I’ve read rants from people saying they hate APH Canada too and it just confused me because?????????) but ahh....AAHHHH THEY’RE ALL PRECIOUS?????? I....I can’t really think of any one character in Hetalia I actually hate??? Now, there are certain fandom portrayals of characters I HATE WITH A PASSION but that’s a different subject matter....

7. If you were to follow a religion or philosophy, (or if you’re already in one, pick another) what would you chose? What parts of that religion spoke to you?

Er....well...I grew up Christian, but I’m not really as in to it as I used to be. Could I choose just to go back to that? I’m not really familiar enough with other religions or philosophies to be comfortable enough with choosing one. 

As for Christianity, I believe in the love thy neighbour aspects. I wish it was more like that, spreading love and acceptance....however, I stopped going to church years ago for personal reasons, and whenever a family member tried to drag me back, I found myself disagreeing with nearly every word that comes out of a preacher’s mouth.  I digress. I can’t continuously go to a place that spews nothing but hatred for anything non-Christian and holds themselves prideful for “being right”.  Ugh. 

(And I know it’s not like that everywhere, but....I’ve given up looking for anything good here. My personal religion now is just that, personal.) 

8. If you could get cybernetics to enhance your natural human capabilities, would you?

It depends. I...wouldn’t say no to having a better memory. Or perhaps getting 20/20 vision again.

9. Would you kill yourself to save 1,000,000 people? If yes, how about 100,000?Then 10,000? If yes, what’s the lowest number?

I would like believe that I would, but the truth is, I’m a terrible coward. So honestly, the answer is, I don’t know. I would have to actually be there in that position in order to make that kind of high stakes decision. 

10. If you really could change your appearance to whatever you wanted, would you?

Who wouldn’t? I wish purple eye colour was a legit thing. And...hrm...I’d like to have a masculine chest. It’d be heckin’ awesome to walk around without a shirt on and it not be labeled indecent exposure. 

11. After analyzing the costs, would you really want to be famous? Like, tabloid level?

Tabloids are intrusive and eeeuguuuhh. I like my peace thanks. However, I still think it’d be cool to be at least a little well-known.

My Questions!

1. What is one thing that makes you irrationally angry?

2. If you could stop one thing from happening without consequence, what would it be?

3. Is it better to see paradise and lose it, or to have never seen paradise at all? Explain?

4. Would you rather be able to fly or breathe under water?

5. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

6. What skill would you like to learn if you had the chance?

7. If you have to live for a year on only one food, what food would you choose?

8. If you met your favourite character face to face, what would you tell them?

9. Do you have any plans ready for the impending zombie apocalypse? ;D

10. If you could have one exotic pet, what would it be?

11. How would you define happiness? 

I’ll Tag: @ask-aph-cosplay-america, @ask-cosplay-femalespain, @askaphgreatbritain, @grandparomeaskblog, @queensolaria, @ask-2p-southitaly, @ask-2pcanadacosplay, @ask-2p-jones, @canadas-googlesearchhistory, @sincerely--alex, and  @ghostie-ghost-the-ghost

Please don’t feel pressured to do this Munday meme, this is only if you want to. ;w;”