The best Japanese cosplayers from day two of Winter Comiket 2018【Photos】

http://bit.ly/2QhDdxI Oona McGee

Cosplayers bare their flesh on a cold winter’s day for the bi-annual convention.

After snapping some photos of the beautiful cosplayers from day one of Winter Comiket, our Japanese-language reporter Tasuku Egawa headed back to brave the cold again on day two of the event.

As it turns out, though, Tasuku ended up being a lot warmer than many of the cosplayers who had gathered on the grounds outside the Tokyo Big Sight venue, as some of the skimpy costumes on display left some cosplayers with visible goosebumps on their skin.

Still, these are the lengths that dedicated cosplayers will go to for their art, and to honour that dedication, Tasuku has delivered a collection of some of the best cosplayers from the second day of this year’s Winter Comiket. Let’s take a look at them below!

▼ Tomoya Nagase from the Orico Card commercial | Cosplayer: @hitsuzendesu

▼ The Orico Card commercial:

▼ Complete with Nagase’s signature on the back!

▼ Bohemian Rhapsody: Queen

▼ These boys kept warm in black jackets, and while it looked pretty humorous in real life, darkening the image after the photo was taken gave it a really cool effect.

The bodybuilding trio from NHK workout show Minna no Kinniku Taisou (“Bodybuilding for Everyone”) | Cosplayers: @yomimate (Kota Kobayashi) @ASCEUSAKO (Shinji Takeda） @Billy_Blue_8 (Tatsumasa Murasame). The man in the middle really is Kobayashi himself, who works as a lawyer and is also an avid cosplayer.

▼ Cloud Strife and Loz from Final Fantasy VII Advent Children | Cosplayers: @buhibuhibuukunn (Cloud) @muscles_yosuke (Loz)

▼ Koyanskaya from Fate/Grand Order | Cosplayer: @rerecos813

▼ Gilgamesh from the Fate series | Cosplayer: @sirubamodoki

▼ Violet Evergarden from Violet Evergarden | Cosplayer: @so1ra1ta1no

▼ Emo Moegi from Kiratto Pri☆Chan | Cosplayer: @TakeCat_orz

▼ You Watanabe and Ruby Kurosawa from Love Live! Sunshine!! | Cosplayers: @2525pepper, @UmiPepper

▼ Original female version of Reaper from Overwatch | Cosplayer: @rinyanpassan

▼ Ryuko Matoi from Kill la Kill | Cosplayer: @TapiKo3

▼ Jeanne d’Arc from the Fate series | Cosplayer: @wooper8looper

▼ Buriburizaemon and Action Kamen from Crayon Shinchan

▼ Da Vinci-chan from Fate/Grand Order | Cosplayer: @shiyuneko

▼ Kaname Chidori from Full Metal Panic | Cosplayer: @Tanya_JP

▼ 2B from Nier: Automata | Cosplayer: @yukiran_kaguwa

▼ Hatsune Miku from Snow Miku 2019 | Cosplayer: @chocolateJ0520

▼ Red Riding Hood Mechanic from Identity V | Cosplayer: @lv_dorothy

▼ Tashkent from Kantai Collection | Cosplayer: @runrun_sigerun

From robots to NHK bodybuilders and anime heroes and heroines, day two was filled with the most creative ideas we’ve seen yet from this year’s Comiket.

With Tasuku on the scene again today for the final day of the fair, we’ll be back soon with more gems from his ever-growing photo collection!

Photos © SoraNews24  

This ridiculously huge backpack turned our reporter into a great big baby【Photos】

http://bit.ly/2R1ZJQE Casey Baseel

Look, Seiji, we’ll give you one piggyback ride, but we are not changing your diper.

Living in Tokyo means taking public transportation to get where you’re going, and that means carrying a bag. Some guys opt for single-shoulder messenger bags, but our Japanese-language reporter Seiji prefers a good old two-strap backpack, and his was starting to get worn out.

So he went on Amazon and started browsing the bag section, where he came across one that looked like just what he wanted. It was a little lighter in color than his old bag, but more or less the same sort of functional, understated style that Seiji likes. The only drawback was that at 25,920 yen (US$230), it was pretty pricey, but Seiji figured it was OK to splurge a little since he uses the same bag every day, whether he’s going to the office or out for fun on his day off.

So Seiji put in his order for a Backpacker’s Closet, as manufacturer CWF calls the model, and the very next day the Amazon delivery guy knocked on the door. Seiji was a little surprised to see him holding a large box in both arms, but it wouldn’t be the first time Amazon Japan had gone overboard with its packaging (or the second), so Seiji figured that maybe they’d just shipped his new backpack with a bunch of bubble wrap around it or something.

Once he had his bag out of the box, Seiji was pretty satisfied with the design, which, again, is pretty similar to that of his old bag.

But there’s one very big difference…

…because the Backpacker’s Closet is a very big bag.

After taking another look at the bag’s product page on Amazon, Seiji noticed that it lists the product’s dimensions as 100 centimeters (3.3 feet) in length by 68 centimeters (2.2 feet) in width.

The holding capacity is also a ridiculous 180 liters (47.6 gallons). However, that’s far too great a volume for Seiji to fill up with the stuff he carries around with him when he’s out and about. Whatever could he put in the bag to fill it up?

Himself, of course! Though the Backpacker’s Closet is indeed designed to be used as an extra-extra-extra-large backpack, Seiji says it also makes for a pretty nice, and very surreal, sleeping bag. “It’s a little stuffy, but it’s also warm, cozy, and relaxing” he assured us as we all gave him strange looks.

▼ This isn’t going to do anything to change Seiji’s girlfriend’s mom’s opinion that he’s a “weird” dude.

But while Seiji was happy, the rest of us were getting annoyed, seeing as how we now essentially had a head of Seiji cabbage sprouting from the middle of the floor of the SoraNews24 office. For the sake of those of us who had actual work to do, fellow writer P.K. Sanjun decided to take action.

Hoisting the bag up by its shoulder straps, he carried Seiji away from the center of the office, so that the rest of us could actually get across the room without having to step over Seiji. Seiji, meanwhile, was ecstatic.

“This is so much fun!” he called out. “It’s like riding inside a fluffy cloud…Wait, no! It’s just like when you’re a baby, and your mom straps you to her back as she goes about her business during the day. Ahhh…I can feel my sense of innocence and wonder coming back.”

At the same time as Seiji’s youthful joy was being rekindled, however, P.K. was feeling like an old man with a hernia, and so he cut the ride short, setting Seiji down as soon as he got to a corner of the office where Seiji wouldn’t be in the way anymore.

The bag’s shoulder straps held up impressively well during our unorthodox quality test, but we’re not sure they’d be able to sustain continued use like this, so no one else has picked up Seiji since P.K. put him down. We’re just hoping that he comes out of the sack and starts using his own legs again before the rest of us leave and the office shuts down for the New Year’s holiday.

Amazon screen capture: Amazon Japan
All other photos ©SoraNews24

Nine injured in Tokyo after man drives car into pedestrians on Takeshita Street in Harajuku

http://instagr.am/p/BsD8wZ-lOTD/media/?size=l Oona McGee

Police are investigating whether this was an act of terror in retaliation for the execution of Aum Shinrikyo cult members last year.

A 21-year-old man was arrested this morning after driving a vehicle down one of Tokyo’s busiest thoroughfares, injuring nine people shortly after midnight on New Year’s Day.

According to police, the man drove the lightweight kei vehicle into Takeshita Street in Harajuku at 12:10 a.m., ploughing into pedestrians as he drove the wrong way up the one-way road. After driving approximately 130 metres (426 feet) from the Meiji Dori entrance to the street, the vehicle crashed into the side of a building.

Following the collision, the perpetrator abandoned the vehicle, punching a nearby young man in the face before fleeing the scene on foot.

▼ Emergency services arrived within minutes.

近所の竹下通りで8人跳ねられたらしい…新年早々怖い。あと15分通るのが遅かったら跳ねられてたかもと思うと恐怖… https://t.co/QHLoAuyyVP

—
takuyarchitec (@wamitak) December 31, 2018

竹下通り ひき逃げ事件で閉鎖 明治神宮で並んでるときから ちらほら聞こえてたけど 帰り道通りかかったら救急車がいっぱい😱 東郷神社寄って駅側にきた時の様子 https://t.co/Yo0kTvYgfb

—
みら＠ﾄﾘｱｲ+遥か6ロンド (@Miraalamode) December 31, 2018

▼ Police cordoned off the famous entrance to Takeshita Street opposite Harajuku Station.

竹下通り正面。テレ朝の人が写真撮るのにどいてくれたw https://t.co/Imexf6FfeJ

—
たかめが (@tkmgtkmg) December 31, 2018

After a 20-minute search, the suspect was located by police several hundred metres away in Yoyogi Park and immediately arrested. Authorities say the perpetrator, Kazuhiro Kusakabe, is now being held on suspicion of attempted murder.

A total of eight people – two in their teens, three in their twenties, two in their thirties, and one in his fifties – all sustained non-life-threatening injuries in the attack, while one man in his teens remains unconscious and in critical condition in hospital. Police say the victims were all male.

竹下通り事件発生犯人逃走 https://t.co/zw0LVbeNpB

—
しょー (@cheekyholic) December 31, 2018

During questioning, Kusakabe claimed he wanted to kill “teenage male university students” by running them down in a vehicle. He also said he drove from Osaka in a rental car, and his motivation for ramming into the pedestrians was to kill them.

▼ News reports from the scene showed the vehicle and some of the damage it caused.

The abandoned car in Takeshita Street, which had Osaka number plates, also contained a 100-litre (26-gallon) jerrycan filled with 20 litres of kerosene, which Kusakabe planned to use in order to set fire to the vehicle after the attack, according to investigators.

Kusakabe claimed his actions were “retribution for the death penalty”. Police are currently continuing their investigations into the details behind the incident, including whether the mention of the death penalty was in relation to recent hangings or the hanging of Aum Shinrikyo cult members last year.

Takeshita Street is a five-metre wide road that stretches for approximately 350 metres, lined on both sides with multi-storey buildings and stores usually frequented by teenagers, young people and international tourists. At the time of the incident, the thoroughfare was closed to vehicles as there was more foot traffic than usual for that time of the evening, due to New Year’s celebrations at Meiji Jingu shrine and Tōgō Shrine nearby.

Source: Mainichi Shimbun
Featured image: Instagram/daichan1969