It’s almost time for the EPAC07!!!

Eh? You don’t know what this spectacularly awesome event is? I shall enlighten you then. EPAC07 is short for El Paso Anime Convention 2007. Yes that’s right, our area has it’s own anime con, and in response to the great turn out and success that the con has received since its inception in 2005 this year’s con will be extended and made into a 3 day event and will run from June 22nd to the 24th.

Yes, three days of rabid otaku Joana. Can you stand the excitement? I know I can’t!!

I want to cosplay this year but I’m not sure if I’ll sign up for the masquerade. I’m really not that good at making costumes and I have no delusions of even standing a chance of looking half way decent standing next to those that have real talent in replicating character’s costumes. I’ve thought about who I’d like to go as though and the only person who I really would love to go as is none other than Sabaku no Temari of Naruto. Specifically I want to go dressed as Temari after the time jump which means I want to dress as the Jounin version of Temari in Naruto Shippuuden.

To your right is the best image I could find of Temari in her Jounin outfit. It gives you a full frontal shot and then there are side views as well to give you an idea of how it should be created and function. I can make the fighting kimono easy, no problem there. The waistband and the holster straps for her fan will also be fairly easy to make as well. And the fishnets? Puh-lease, I’ll just need to visit Hot Topic to make those. It’s the shoes she wears and her tessen (battle fan) that will pose the most difficult for me. The forehead protector you can find anywhere to buy if you really want, but those shoes. Oi vey, they’re like the halfbreed offspring of sandals and combat boots!

I found Liz’s Naruto sandal making tutorial which, thankfully, provides some special notes on making Suna (Sand Village which is where Temari hails from) sandals which differ from those worn by Konoha shinobi. While it is accurate and damn helpful and it does look better than most versions I’ve seen I’m still left in a bit of a quandary. She provides a picture of Kankurou (another Suna shinobi and Temari’s brother) on her Sand village sandals note page but as you can see in that picture and other pictures of Suna shinobi on the net, Temari’s sandals that she wears as a Jounin are quite a bit different. They remind me, in a sense, of the sandal/heels variation that some kunoichi of Konoha (Tsunade and Shizne for example) wear but unlike those very ladyish variations, Temari’s look much more practical and easy to move in.

S till though, the tutorial does give me a great place to start with I’ll just have to figure out how to take what I learned from the tutorial and apply it to Temari’s shoes. That fan though, I don’t know what to do about it. I’m tempted to attempt making it but I’ve never been able to fold and make small fans so I’m not sure how I’ll manage that one. I could always opt to make a replica that does not unfold and keep it holstered to my back but that seems wrong somehow. And to go without the fan? Um, did Zorro go without his sword? I think not. I know some places online that sell her fan and I’m tempted to go that route. We’ll see though.