This week Face Off sent
us a big Konichiwa from the land of the rising son. The remaining contestants hop on a plane and
fly off to Japan, how exciting! So,
because we all know how much we as a society like watching people’s vacation footage,
the first 10 minutes of the episode was dedicated to showing a shocked group
walking through the bustling streets of Tokyo pointing at every “weird” thing
they can find. Oh my god another
culture! Oh my god they have different
stuff here! Oh my god, wait… there’s
Hello Kitty… Okay yea, I’m bitter
because I want to go to Japan, I’ll admit it.
After I watch them get to live some of my dream, but I’m
not bitter, the group is lead to a tranquil temple setting that is right out of
a story book. Being greeted by a
performance of taiko drums they make their way to judge Mackenzie and special
guest judge Kazuhiro Tsuji. Mr. Tsuji is
an industry leader as far as special effects goes and is known for his work on Planet of the Apes, Looper and The Curious
Case of Benjamin Button. He has been
long since regarded as an industry standard and a credit to his craft… That’s
why he’s on season 6 right? So what’s on
the menu for the foundation challenge?
Oni! No we aren’t having a sushi lunch;
we are making traditional Japanese demon spirits. Known for their bright colors and use of hard
angles, horns, many eyes, teeth and just all around disproportioned features
the Oni have long since been regarded with both fear and wonder by the
Japanese. The challenge is to create an
Oni in a matter of 4 hours that embodies the ideas of an Oni mask.
What comes of the challenge? Well first I have to say it’s becoming
painfully obvious that Daren hates the human eye. He never wants his actor’s eyes to show in
any way, and he takes the liberty once again of trying to hide them with a
total of 4 eyes and an unpleasant sad mouth over biting with sever pointy
teeth. Corrine turns in another stunning
paint job, however even more so I want to take a moment to complement her on
her use of prosthetics to create the had angles in her demons face. The horn coming from the chin as well gave a
brilliant focal point in the facial construction. The others seem to find their way around the mediocre,
and in the end Daren clenches immunity in the win.
As for the spot light challenge, this week we dive into
the amazingly bright and bold world of Anime!
Yes, my heart skipped a beat.
But, wait, there’s more… It must be a representation of self and they
get to have help and advice from anime master Hidetka Tenjin when they sit down
to lunch at the @home café in amazing Akihbara.
Okay, back up… they get to go to Japan, fine. They get to do anime characters, cool. But, you are going to send them to the famous
Anime district to a cosplayer themed restaurant… I want to die. My dreams are literally mocking my through a
TV. The kawaii waitresses, the beautiful
fabrics, the adorkable bentos… I wanted to cry and barf rainbows of jealousy.
So now infused with plans to build their own images in
anime and clay the team sets to work.
First major issue, Chloe and Corrine seem to be making the same freaking
idea. Okay, true in anime the girls all
look very similar with the large eyes and strange proportions but goodness…
Next is the “what in the world” is Graham making? He wants to go with a half plant monster idea
but maybe less would be best. Then again
Niko’s uninspired simple design makes me wonder if these people have ever seen
an anime before in their lives. Oh wait
George’s riff on Dragon Ball Z totally lets me know he has. George struggles with his chosen armor
design, as Tyler builds a literal hair helmet… That looks surprisingly good on
Rashad, who is channeling square soft.
All in all there isn’t too much sculpting drama going on in this
episode, maybe they left Japan with a lot of Zen.
In last looks, it is George and Graham who are panicking
to put together their master pieces and all I can say, is that as an anime fan,
this is so not looking good at all!
Reveal stage:
Chloe: I’m sorry I thought this was an anime competition,
what she created could be considered reminiscent of perhaps a cheap themed sex
doll. She clearly does not have the
talent to stay but, for some god awful reason keeps slipping through the
cracks. Speaking of cracks, you can see
every seam in that face, the eyes look ugly and awkward. The nose is almost pinched out of nowhere and
the hair is ridiculous. If you are going
to do the wild hair that an anime girl requires, then take the time to do it
right or do not do it at all. Even her props look cheap, just somewhat
altogether like she gave up, which makes me question why she is still in the competition
at all.
Corrine: Where Chloe absolutely failed, Corrine puts
up a cohesive beautiful character. She
is smooth, bright and reminiscent of the kawaii personality of an anime girl
character. The hair is bright and ratted
high but smooth on the outside, the eyes are reflective and the lashes give her
depth. The enlarged bosom and tight fit
to the waist gives an amazing nod to the unreal quality of anime (that I do not
embrace but admit that it’s there). Even
her accessories give her a playful element that embraces and embodies the joy
of the medium. Yeah!
Daren: Now he has immunity, what does he do with
it?! Blows your mind, that’s what! He has gone with a fish man creation complete
with koi swimming around the characters head.
The district realism in the initial face blew me away, I felt like I was
really looking at a fish. The only not I
had was at first I wanted more color in the face, however I think it would have
detracted from the detailed scale and paint jobs on the swimming koi. All in all it was truly amazing, I’m thinking
that when he’s on… he’s on, but Daren needs to find consistency.
George: This was an armored nightmare attempt at a
Dragon Ball Z knock off. There’s no
other way to put that, I mean you can see all the strokes of paint and cracks
where he needed more time. Not good this
week, not good at all.
Graham: This is a hot mess straight out of FLCL and
not in a good way. There really isn’t a
lot good going on but, I do give credit for a great fabrication of the goggles
on this mad scientist, half plant nightmare.
Graham has an amazing talent for the weird, but on this challenge he
needed to reign it in just a little bit.
Niko: Niko went safe, small and kind of really
boring. It had really tall wacky hair,
and high cheek bones… yeah I just made an “eh” noise and shrugged my shoulders…
I’m sorry.
Rashad: It’s like cloud fucked a clown and stole the
gun blade. Yes I went there. The extreme colors of red and yellow in the
hair makes it so bizarre that you almost miss the angular face and weird accessories. Good enough to pass dude.
Tyler: Oh my little bundle of energy with plastic
hair. This way middle of the road at
best. The hockey glasses that look
almost cut out of paper seem to detract a bit from the awful hair, but we all
get there eventually. It makes me
sad. Still he does look like an anime
character brought to life, even if he has 4 arms.
As for the judge’s selections, this is one of those
episodes where I can see where the judges are coming from but I still think its
crap. They decide that as far as top
looks are concerned it’s all about Daren and Corrine. Not to surprise there, both creatures were
beautiful makeups. What really did upset
me was that Chloe escaped the bottom.
Every week she exposes her jugular in just how untalented she really is
and it’s like the judges just do not see it.
Instead they pick George’s rough armor and George’s hot house hodgepodge
as the bottom two.
Now both were justifiably bad, however I think Chloe’s
fuck doll was worse. Still the judges
decide it is Graham who will be cut from tonight’s challenge. A disappointed Graham seems to want to collapse
until he is told he is going to be this season’s “save.” Thank god for the new rules right?! Good for you Graham, we will see you next
week in what appears to be a mad scientist challenge… wait that doesn’t bode
well for little Graham.
The Gallery
The Gallery
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