Spiral Cats. How and why. Here is the simple answer.

The famed cosplay group burst onto the scene a few years ago, and with their picture perfect costumes, professional quality photos, and that subtle charm called allure, people began to take notice online, which coincided with Spiral Cats' initial goal of raising awareness of the skill of Korean cosplayers. Later, they were invited to represent South Korean cosplay at the international level. By then, their reputation as the cream of the crop was sealed. Now, game companies offer them promotional jobs during gaming events, meaning Spiral Cats has turned its cosplay into its business.

Just who are these people?

In short, I agree with the rest of their fans that they are a group of extraordinary young women, on a mission to reap the heart-crystals of human beings to power their magic ritual to awaken The Ultimate Cosplay. A little bit of internet browsing will illuminate that truth when someone posts new pictures by Spiral Cats, eyes glow and they are revered like the messengers of the gods of ancient Egypt, a distant stranger to us all. As I said, it's a simple answer.

There is also a more complex one. Let us for the moment assume it's possible that the members of Spiral Cats are not super-dimensional beings whose sorcery have enabled them to sail to success, but are in fact people. Therefore, the foundation of Spiral Cats' ability to connect with the hearts of their fans must be found in ordinary things, like work schedules, hobbies, and their personal dreams.

In writing about connecting with people, it seems appropriate to start with the subject of names first. "To Spiral Cats," I translated, "my name is Chi Lee, and I'm from Kotaku, an American game and culture site." Was Spiral Cats interested in doing an interview? A few days passed, and then I received an email from someone named Oh Go-eun. She introduced herself as the team leader of Spiral Cats. "Send me the questions," and at the bottom of the email, a custom signature linking to Tasha's blog. I sensed courteous reluctance. I sent Tasha my questions anyway.

You, dear reader, may know that Kotaku has a readership of millions of people. As far as internet publications go in the English speaking world, Kotaku is a not insignificant name. What does any of that matter to Koreans? Not a jot. For all that Tasha knew, I might as well have been asking her for help accessing the money I inherited from my cousin, the Nigerian prince. I was hoping the quality of my questions would be persuasive enough to substitute credentials. You know, I had questions like "What do you enjoy cooking?" and "If you were a cat, what breed would you be?" It's a valid question, that. I was born in the Year of the Tiger, so I imagined I had a strong affinity with cats [Panthera tigris is a solitary animal].

A week went by, then two weeks. No response. I reasoned that I had to prove to Tasha that I wasn't the cousin of a Nigerian prince. In order to do that, I sent another email. I wrote that I wasn't interested in conducting a simple question/answer interview, since I was better than that. I declared my supreme confidence in my ability to write an engaging article about Spiral Cats. Finally, I linked her to two of my writing samples from Kotaku.

Haven't you ever noticed the change in the degree of pride in a person who is talking about his own field of expertise, no matter how modest the person is? And you feel as if you've seen that person's true nature? I flattered myself that it was my arrogance and narcissism that convinced Tasha that I was a real writer, because when I checked my inbox on a Tuesday morning, March 13, there it was. This level of reasoning is possible for Chi Lee. What do you think, everyone? That ordinary morning suddenly became very colorful as I read through the email.

Tasha's writing style is direct, and she answers questions in a clear, practiced manner. Tasha must have answered these same questions countless times. I started with "Can you introduce yourself?" and the ilk. The four regular members of Spiral Cats are Tasha (Oh Go-eun), Miyuko (Kang Yun-jin), Ren (Lee Da-yeong), and Tomia (Kim Jung-hoon). The team photographer is Sinme (Kim Tae-sik). When asked how they all knew each other, Tasha replied "Ren, Sinme, and I have known each other for 10 years. Tomia and Miyuko joined our team later." I asked about the group name, and she said "Some of us used to be in game development, and one of our projects was called Spiral Cats." The name stuck. While Ren continues to work as a game developer, Tasha and Sinme quit game development to focus on their cosplay work. Tomia and Miyuko are still students. Before 2010, the Spiral Cats members did cosplay for fun, but now, all of them model for game companies as a professional cosplay group.

That done, I finally got to the more specific questions, and the first few were about the individual team members. I didn't know if they were doing this interview by themselves or as a group, but I was fishing for variety. My first question in this category was the cat question, which was my sly attempt to Sailor Moon-ify them. I asked "Do any of you own cats? Do any of you have allergies to cats? What kind of cat are you? Which one of you is the fluffy kitten and which one is the tiger? How does this individual personality come across in your cosplay and your photos?" As you can see, I was going to write part of the article around the cat motif, cleverly weaving in their history, positive cultural significance, negative social connotations.

"Our team members love cats. 'Cats are better than dogs' is what we think in general." That's a super ultra great delicious wonderful A+ ego-killing counter maneuver. I fancied a little anime cat smile behind that reply. :3

With my tail between my legs, I read on. I was pleased to find that I had remembered to ask some easy, normal questions, such as favorite games, anime, and hobbies. Tasha wrote "All of our team members are deeply engrossed in League of Legends. We all love One Piece!. Who doesn't? Individually speaking, I like The Five Star Stories, Miyuko likes Natsume's Book of Friends, Ren likes the Macross series, and Tomia is a fan of Ito Junji [horror manga artist]. Not counting cosplay, our individual hobbies include jogging and exercise [Tasha], knitting [Miyuko], drive [Ren], and gaming [Tomia]."

I see. Tasha and Ren gave similar answers about anime/manga, but so did Miyuko and Tomia. Natsume's Book of Friends and Ito Junji's work both go straight to the heart. One warms the heart; the other brings a chill. Also, I would say Ren is too young to start on the stereotype of Asians golfing for business, so I'm going to assume she means driving cars when she says "drive." All that was written was the Koreanized "deu-ra-yi-beu." In parentheses at the end of that section, Tasha wrote "Tomia is an Aion maniac." No problem there, we're all gaming maniacs at Kotaku.

They humored me with the cooking question. "We have confidence cooking these foods: Tasha – curry rice; Miyuko – miyeok guk; Ren – spaghetti; Tomia – kimchi fried rice." If you'll excuse this Hideo Kojima-style aside, miyeok guk is a traditional seaweed soup that people make for birthdays. It is not only nutritious and delicious, but it is also pleasantly alliterative and nearly homophonic with "Miyuko." Incidentally, Spiral Cats is having a birthday celebration event for Miyuko in April over at Facebook with a design competition.

"What is the secret to your success?"

"We've been doing this for six to twelve years. I think it was all that experience that paid off. I believe that we can project our love for the character that we cosplay through our pictures. However, just because we love our characters and work doesn't necessarily result in pictures that everyone can appreciate. You must analyze and understand the character to be able to justify your own interpretation." I learned that the Spiral Cats members spend more time in meetings planning out their cosplay than the time it takes to make their costumes.

The members of Spiral Cats work hard to show that cosplay culture can be wonderfully bright. 'This is for kids, this is for losers, this is for otaku.' They're aware of the negative social prejudices attached to cosplay. "What about your family? What do your parents think about cosplay?"

"At first, they resisted strongly, but they support us," Tasha emphasized, "All of our parents support what we do."

"Is Spiral Cats a family? Tell me about how you work as a team."

"Our bonds are as strong as any family. When we pick a character, we ask who will be that character, who will do support; fabric, patterns, props, and wig colors, we decide on everything together. I believe that the best results come from listening to each others' opinions and through discussions." Tasha wrote that Spiral Cats did interviews as a team.

What did their futures look like?

Tasha: Since I'm working in the field of cosplay, I want to be the best there is. I want to see that Spiral Cats rises to the top.

Miyuko: I'm saving up to start a maid cafe business, but right now, I'm focusing on cosplay because Spiral Cats has gained popular recognition.

Ren: I want to succeed at both game development and cosplay : ) Cosplay gives me the boost I need whenever work tires me out.

Tomia: Currently, I'm enrolled in college for costume design. I want to be a fashion designer, and my experience with Spiral Cats gives me lots of ideas.

Their future is bright; cat worship is in vogue. It looks like Tasha and Tomia are especially focused on The Ultimate Cosplay, but everyone in the team seems to have the drive to succeed.

Spiral Cats had been accommodating on this little fishing trip. They kindly took this time to answer my questions, and they showed a bit of their true natures without arrogance or conceit. From where I'm sitting, that's a good magic trick to learn. Specific images correlating to these four people come to mind, do they not? You may start to feel you've met these these girls before somewhere, as family, or friends, or strangers on the street. Yui Makino expressed it beautifully when she sang "this is the miracle of our encounters" in Aria the Natural.

Okay, dear readers. I hope you enjoyed that, but the ship is about to row out into the vast ocean. Come now, wave your hands...

Wait, I squint. What's this post script?

"Hello. I apologize for the lateness of the reply." My eyes widened. "We've been so busy with promotional stuff ㅠ_ㅠ that I was only able to collect these answers and send them today. If you need me to clarify anything, let me know." There was a custom signature linking to Tasha's blog.

Spiral Cats proves that narcissism fails. ORZ

Spiral Cats homepage

The new adults only MMORPG by Korean developer LivePlex is called Queens Blade, sans apostrophe. That's how it's printed in the upper left hand corner of the game's homepage, which reads "The Queens Blade is registered trademark of LivePlex." The game has nothing to do with the Queen's Blade you may know, but it's going to make some people very rich all the same.

The first closed beta test (CBT) of the MMORPG from February this year had 20,000 people test the game, which is still less than half of the 57,000 people who applied. The second CBT will run from April 16 to April 22, and LivePlex will select a total of 30,000 people to test this time. Everyone from the first testing phase must reapply if they want to play in the second test.

The game features scantily clad women in two factions fighting each other in a war to determine the fate of the land. You can only play as a female character. LivePlex seems to have foreseen the grumbling of the minority of male gamers who have a problem with playing as women in games and added a gameplay mechanic, where you can turn into a giant mecha temporarily once you hit a certain level. All bases are covered except for the name.

Queen's Blade with the apostrophe is a series of "game books" by Hobby Japan featuring scantily clad women fighting each other in a tournament to become the queen, the most beautiful and most powerful person in the land. There was an anime, manga, light novel, and a couple video games. There were a ton of figures, and there was enough money to go around for a second season of the anime in 2009, and then a six episode OVA which ran from late 2010 to early 2011.

Okay, so I would hazard a guess and say that the title of this MMORPG drew in quite a few unsuspecting people into the first CBT. Of course, in order to test the game, you have to register at the main website, and the pictures they use clearly show an aesthetic very different from apostrophe Queen's Blade, so there is no trickery here. I would say that even if some of these testers knew the game had no relation to do with the original Queen's Blade, they were still drawn to the game because of curiosity.

To demonstrate, the same naming tactics work in movies. After I watched the megahit romantic comedy My Sassy Girl, I noticed that I was curious about the synopsis of romantic comedies whenever that movie emulated My Sassy Girl's English title, using "My [Adjective] Girl," including My Scary Girl (2006, Korea), My Best Friend's Girl (2008, USA), My Amnesia Girl (2010, Phillipines), not to mention all of the movies that out right ripped off the original movie's story. I never watched those movies despite curiosity, but they must have done good business because in 2010, China saw the release of My Sassy Girl 2. Before you say anything, while that movie had different characters and setting, I understand that it was not only written by the same writers as the original Korean movie, but it also bombed horribly with critics.

One more example. I was browsing the internet for news about Korean dramas a few weeks back, and all of a sudden, I found this link to a new show called God of War, which is a historical action epic. The Korean title is Moo-sin, which means "military god," so I thought that these guys had a valid excuse to use that English title. Then, upon reading the article, I found that viewers were shocked by the graphic depictions of violence and sexuality. The show has nothing in common with the game, but the English title gave me pause, and in the back of my mind, I wanted to check it out. Furthermore, I was reminded of Dante's Inferno, the game. People on forums were indignant. 'Have these people no shame?' There were laments about the lack of creativity in the game industry. But then other people bought and played that game.

Queen's Blade fans, would you want to try this MMORPG if/when it is localized? Check out the somewhat NSFW link below for more information.

[Edit: It seems there are some people confused about this game. To clarify, this MMORPG has nothing to do with the anime.]

Information regarding second CBT for Queens Blade [Queens Blade]

Remember when people would complain about those horrible working conditions at Foxconn plants? How employees worked too much? Now, people—well, Foxconn workers—are complaining about something else: too little work.

According to China Business News (via TechInAsia), Foxconn workers on the iPad line are suddenly finding themselves twiddling their thumbs with loads of time off. And for workers, more time off means lower salaries. One worker told China Business News that he already had ten unpaid days off in March.

While the new iPad seems to be selling well in stores, iPad scalpers in China's gray market are reporting dismal sales, apparently. So hopefully sales will start going bananas real soon so workers can go back to pulling crazy hours and people can go back to moaning about how horrible Foxconn is?

新iPad销量平平：富士康工人放假 黄牛亏本 [Sina via TechInAsia]

Last I checked, Little King's Story was not a sexy game. It was a cute game. Now that Konami is handling the game, it seems different.

Have a look at these latest screens! The game, dubbed New Little King's Story, will be released on the PS Vita tomorrow and has touch-based controls. And ladies in skimpy outfits.

明日発売「王と魔王と7人の姫君たち ～新・王様物語～」 [4Gamer]

Make that, a fat man in skivvies. And black socks. Sure you would! Here a large man gets down to , a popular remix from a boss battle them in Tohou's maniac shooter Prefect Cherry Blossom.

日本のテクノダンスと紹介されていた、わら人形に五寸釘おじさん [Zaeega]

In the top picture, you can see a yellow rubber band running around the case of a Korean copy of Red Dead Redemption. That rubber band came free with a used copy of that game, and it holds together the disc case and a booklet in the back. That booklet is the Korean translation of the main game's script.

Korean gamers want to play the same triple-A titles that everybody else does, but unfortunately, nobody dubs in Korean. That means Koreans have to do a bit of reading with their foreign language games. For example, Final Fantasy XIII-2 has Japanese audio and Korean subtitles. It's pretty nice for people who are interested in hearing a game in its native tongue, while simultaneously providing the necessary translations on the television screen.

Other games give you a book to read. It must be uncomfortable having to follow the game's story while your eyes have to move back and forth between the screen and the book. It's better than nothing, right? I didn't need to use the book that came with Red Dead Redemption, but it was a neat oddity that I had never seen before.

Look at the last three pictures in the gallery. That's Metal Gear Solid 4 in my hand and the accompanying book. I didn't read it all the way, since I wasn't going to buy the game, but it seemed to be a script-game guide hybrid. I thought it was funny that the thickness of the MGS4 book was the same as the one that was packaged with the Ico and Shadow of the Colossus Collection. Somebody must have done some kind of amazing editing job that you might say MGS4 didn't deserve, but needed.

For the price of a little extra reading, either subtitles or booklet, I can definitely think of a few Japanese only games I wouldn't mind seeing make its way to the rest of the world. Any suggestions, Kotaku readers?

Usually when cosplayers pop up at events, they're just there to pose for photos. But at Romket, they're they to sell their cosplay discs and pose for pictures.

Visitors must pay a ¥2,500 for the standard entrance fee. Coplayers offer their ROM discs for purchase—much like they do at Comic Market if you've attended that. Some of the content is very much aimed at adults—you've been warned!

In the gallery above, there are photos from the most recent Romket as well as from past ones.

The next Romket is in Yokohama this summer. Check it out if you are in the area. More photos in the links below.

-コスプレ彼女　その3-, -コスプレ彼女-, -コスプレ彼女　その2-, -コスプレ彼女　その1-, -コスプレ彼女さん　その1- -コスプレ彼女さん　その2-, -コスプレ彼女さん　その3-, コスプレ彼女さん　その4-, -イベントの様子- [アサガヲBlog]

Yesterday, it was revealed that Hollywood acquired the rights to the 1970s Japanese manga Lone Wolf and Cub. Upon hearing this, my heart sank. There are already a series of wonderful Lone Wolf and Cub films starring Tomisaburo Wakayama, older brother of legendary Zatoichi actor Shintaro Katsu.

My heart sank because Hollywood, no doubt, is going to whitewash this project—just like it apparently tried to whitewash Akira—by putting a bunch of big name white actors in it, giving them Asian names—or just making them white all together. Don't you know? That's what Hollywood does! Don't you remember that Dragon Ball movie?

Hold on there. Not so fast. Not all Hollywood films are whitewash jobs. Some of them are anything but.

Here's a rundown of some of Hollywood's more enlightened ventures—movies that actually cast Japanese actors to play Japanese actors. Keep in mind that some of these movies might not pass the current generation's P.C. litmus test, but for their day, they were incredibly progressive.

And, yes, lots of the time, the Japanese actors were playing subservient females, soldiers, or gangsters—but not always.

Besides the above examples, there are many more examples of Hollywood films that are not whitewashed—even Kill Bill, which stars a white lady and sometimes feels like a pan-Asian buffet, isn't a whitewash job per se. Rather, a filmmaker enamored with Japanese film and culture made it.

So take heart! Maybe Lonewolf and Cub will be like that. Maybe Lone Wolf and Cub won't be a hatchet job. Justin Lin, who directed the Fast and the Furious flicks, is helming the project and the husband and wife team David and Janet Peoples are slated to write it. David Peoples co-wrote Blade Runner, penned Unforgiven, and wrote Twelve Monkeys with his wife. That should count for something, no?

---

Sayonara (1957) Japanese-born actress Miyoshi Umeki won an Oscar for her portrayal of Red Buttons' bride in Sayonara. Red Buttons also won an Academy Award. Ricardo Montalban of Fantasy Island and Star Trek II fame, however, wore make-up to play Japanese. Yeah.

The Crimson Kimono (1959) The Sam Fuller flick not only featured an interracial love triangle with U.S. born Asian actor (James Shigeta), but an Asian actor who didn't speak in broken English or with a thick accent—something that was quite a head of its time for Hollywood.

Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) When Hollywood decided to make a Pearl Harbor film, it enlisted both American and Japanese filmmakers to tell both sides of the story. Kinji Fukasaku directed the Japanese segments.

The Yakuza (1974) Sure, some parts of it seem very goofy today, but the flick featured Robert Mitchum and Ken Takakura—two of the coolest guys to ever grace the screen. It's from a Leonard Schrader script that was rewritten by Paul Schrader and Robert Towne of Chinatown fame. James Shigeta from The Crimson Kimono makes an appearance. Ken Takakura would return to Hollywood a decade later with Ridley Scott's Black Rain, which was set in Osaka (yet, oddly, none of the Yakuza spoke the Osaka dialect).

Mishima (1985) Produced by both Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas, Mishima was entirely in Japanese and featured a Japanese cast, but was directed by Paul Schrader, a Hollywood filmmaker. The movie, however, was banned in Japan, due to the backlash caused by the depiction of Mishima as a homosexual. Schrader considers it the best film he directed. So do I.

Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) Like Schrader before him, Clint Eastwood directed a Japanese cast in a Japanese language film. The movie starred boy band singer Kazunari Ninomiya and was incredibly well received in Japan, where audiences were moved by Eastwood's portrayal and refreshing lack of stereotypes.

Yesterday, it was revealed that Hollywood acquired the rights to the 1970s Japanese manga Lone Wolf and Cub. Upon hearing this, my heart sank. There are already a series of wonderful Lone Wolf and Cub films starring Tomisaburo Wakayama, older brother of legendary Zatoichi actor Shintaro Katsu.

My heart sank because Hollywood, no doubt, is going to whitewash this project—just like it apparently tried to whitewash Akira—by putting a bunch of big name white actors in it, giving them Asian names—or just making them white all together. Don't you know? That's what Hollywood does! Don't you remember that Dragon Ball movie?

Hold on there. Not so fast. Not all Hollywood films are whitewash jobs. Some of them are anything but.

Here's a rundown of some of Hollywood's more enlightened ventures—movies that actually cast Japanese actors to play Japanese roles. Keep in mind that some of these movies might not pass the current generation's P.C. litmus test, but for their day, they were incredibly progressive.

And, yes, lots of the time, the Japanese actors were playing subservient females, soldiers, or gangsters—but not always.

Besides the above examples, there are many more examples of Hollywood films that are not whitewashed—even Kill Bill, which stars a white lady and sometimes feels like a pan-Asian buffet, isn't a whitewash job per se. Rather, a filmmaker enamored with Japanese film and culture made it.

So take heart! Maybe Lonewolf and Cub will be like that. Maybe Lone Wolf and Cub won't be a hatchet job. Justin Lin, who directed the Fast and the Furious flicks, is helming the project and the husband and wife team David and Janet Peoples are slated to write it. David Peoples co-wrote Blade Runner, penned Unforgiven, and wrote Twelve Monkeys with his wife. That should count for something, no?

---

Sayonara (1957) Japanese-born actress Miyoshi Umeki won an Oscar for her portrayal of Red Buttons' bride in Sayonara. Red Buttons also won an Academy Award. Ricardo Montalban of Fantasy Island and Star Trek II fame, however, wore make-up to play Japanese. Yeah.

---

The Crimson Kimono (1959) The Sam Fuller flick not only featured an interracial love triangle with U.S. born Asian actor (James Shigeta), but an Asian actor who didn't speak in broken English or with a thick accent—something that was quite a head of its time for Hollywood.

---

Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) When Hollywood decided to make a Pearl Harbor film, it enlisted both American and Japanese filmmakers to tell both sides of the story. Kinji Fukasaku directed the Japanese segments.

---

The Yakuza (1974) Sure, some parts of it seem very goofy today, but the flick featured Robert Mitchum and Ken Takakura—two of the coolest guys to ever grace the screen. It's from a Leonard Schrader script that was rewritten by Paul Schrader and Robert Towne of Chinatown fame. James Shigeta from The Crimson Kimono makes an appearance. Ken Takakura would return to Hollywood a decade later with Ridley Scott's Black Rain, which was set in Osaka (yet, oddly, none of the Yakuza spoke the Osaka dialect).

---

Mishima (1985) Produced by both Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas, Mishima was entirely in Japanese and featured a Japanese cast, but was directed by Paul Schrader, a Hollywood filmmaker. The movie, however, was banned in Japan, due to the backlash caused by the depiction of Mishima as a homosexual. Schrader considers it the best film he directed. So do I.

---

Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) Like Schrader before him, Clint Eastwood directed a Japanese cast in a Japanese language film. The movie starred boy band singer Kazunari Ninomiya and was incredibly well received in Japan, where audiences were moved by Eastwood's portrayal and refreshing lack of stereotypes.

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