Gurren Lagann: I Believe In Me

"Listen, Simon, never forget. Just believe in yourself! Not in the Simon that I believe in, not in the Kamina that you believe in, have faith in the Simon... that believes in you!"

Jin (me) as Commander Simon
photographed by Shiro Ang
and thanks also to Sihan for assisting
and to Miguel and Dom for goofing around with us and looking for nice areas
additional color edit and layout by me


This photo is from our trip to Singapore last November, when my friends and I flew over to attend Anime Festival Asia '11 (and also just to go on a little vacation). Shiro and I planned to do a shoot before heading to the convention. He's one of the first cosplay photographers I followed and I was very excited for a chance to collaborate with him.

The cosplay I chose for our shoot is one of my favorites — the older version of Simon from the second season of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (which also happens to be one of my favorite anime series in the history of forever). I hadn't had a proper shoot for this costume before then, and ever since I watched TTGL I thought Singapore would be an excellent location to simulate the look of Kamina City. We had the shoot at the hotel I stayed at (The Marina Mandarin), whose architecture and interiors I had been admiring since we had arrived.

I liked how Shiro would often ask me about my character and about what sort of emotion I wanted to portray as he took pictures. For this shot, I said I wanted to look as though Simon was taking a moment to look back at everything they had all been through, and all that was made possible just by the simple act of him finding this tiny core drill.

In a similar sense, I found myself taking in the fact that I was in different country having a blast with some of my best friends in the world meeting so many wonderful people. And just a year ago it seemed only a tiny flicker of a possibility, but we made it happen.

That's just the tip of the iceberg! I've got many more pictures and much more of our little adventures to tell. I've been behind on my journal posts, but at least I've been updating my gallery relatively frequently so far! Please stay tuned!

Other places online where you can find me:
Jin (behindinfinity) on Facebook
behindinfinity on Tumblr
@skybluedays on Twitter