This Week I am stepping outside the pages of comics books for our bad costume and pay a visit to the land of Anime and Manga. Below I present to you the Witchblade!
Now I will admit to actually liking this anime series, however I have to point out the Armor that comprises this outfit does NOTHING to protect any vital areas from harm. This lack of protection however doesn't seem to leave her at much of a disadvantage considering the majority of her opponents are similarly attired! This outfit could be good if it did more to be the armor that it pretends to be but as it sits now all I know is that I wouldn't want to be wearing anything like this on a cold night !
You know that Witchblade was originally a comic book with the design take from it. I think the Witchblade gauntlet is supposedly sentient and parries direct attacks or gives the wielder immunity.
http://graphicpolicy.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/tc_witchblade_9_puzzle_uncut.jpg
Quite so, Haxxx5! It’s armor! It’s weaponry! It’s a fashion accessory! It’s everything BUT a floor wax or dessert topping! 😉
As such, the wearer is pretty much always armored anywhere the scriptwriter wants her to be!
It’s one of the charms of the comic that they actually have a REASON why the heroine is always going around in Brass lingierie!
Sorry, guys, but this kind of thing, like with Storm, does not constitute BAD costume design, merely SILLY costume design…
I’ve never read Witchblade, because I had always dismissed it as a “Spanker” comic, like Vampirella and Lady Death, so I don’t know the story behind the costume. All I ever really knew about it was that at the time it came out, I was working in a comic shop, and we had one hot girl who worked there, and Witchblade was her favorite comic. She kept telling me that she was going to make a costume, but if she did, I never got to see it. 🙁
Ah, the traditional “but it’s magic armour” excuse for sending warrior maidens out to fight in a bikini. If that. Cool gloves and boots, though, the definition of killer heels….
On the subject of female armour (and the lack of), this is quite funny… http://www.themarysue.com/female-body-armor/
Going with WillyPete on this one. Putting a little too much emphasis on functionality over form. The costume is silly but that doesn’t make it a “bad” costume. The real protection is in the suit’s magic. Though it does look like she could poke her own eye out with that epaulet!
Not a Witchblade fan (or most anime), but I’ll give this an “eh” on a scale of “meh” to “whatever.”
Like most Top Cow heroines*, I hate the fact that her costume is just a cheap excuse for showing of skin. The “magic armor” is a clever explanation, but still, I find it quite silly, if only that, yes, she would get cold.
* Given that they specialized in big-busted, scantigly clad heroines, I wonder how much of that name was a bad pun from the creators
I first came about Witch Blade when the short lived TV show was on. I tried to find more out about her and came across the anime of her and that turned me against her. Reason why, over twenty years ago I was in the Navy and spent some time in Okinawa, Japan. I went off base with some friends and we ended up in a arcade with some cool games in it. While playing some of the games I liked I noticed a few young Japanese boys play on a few games and not leaving them and they just kept putting money in like crazy. So it got me to wondering what type of game it was, thinking it had to be a really good one for them to be spending all that time on it. Being 6’4″ I could easily see over them so I walked up to take a look. It was a game that had anime girls on it that you could strip. Yes you played the game to get them naked. That turned me off anime for a very long time. I tried to get in to it because one of my sons like to watch and read it, but I still struggled with it because of the skimpy clothing they had the girls wearing. To this day I don’t care much for it.
The comicbook version is OK, this version I have issues with, ctnot because of impracticallity, but because the blades on the feet are totally szunessisary, and her are too small.
I have to say that this IS a bad costume, because for armor it doesn’t work, for a costume, it doesn’t work~you can’t walk around in it. And who want to make out with a porcupine?
Have to agree with you. I think SOME people are thinking with the wrong “HEAD” lol!
This kind of “costuming” is what prompted me NOT to read a number of popular comics in the 90’s.
On a more constructive note, one wonders if these “Bad costume” finds should be the basis for re-design contests? I remember that I got pretty solid results out of re-working Nuclear Man…..
Skimpy aromr isn’t meant to be protective. it is meant to be distractive. While you are admiring her curvacious form, she is cutting her heart out. I think it is hot, but maybe it is because I have a thing for red heads.
I think not an easy thing to compare a manga style comic or anime for a classical style superhero comic.
BTW the animes and mangas are targeting specific audiences. Very important thing to what genres have a manga or an anime. If witchblade genre is seinen then that means for me to in the anime is violence, nudity, agressivity. That type of mangas target the 18 – 30 year old male audiences.
I can’t see this anime and can’t read the comic. But this picture made my taste so i think i will see this anime for the near future.
I check this picture with my animefan eyes and i think this cloth is cool, made the character so supernatural.
And this “looks anything but this is especially an armor” clothing is very popular for the mangas, and korean mmo’s. (Lineage2)
Yes! Finally we have the heroines speaking out against stupid armor that’s only there to turn them into sex toys! Now, I have no problems with chainmail brassiers provided they have actual armor (ya know, stuff that keeps things from getting shot, stabbed, hacked away, etc.) covering the rest. I also approve of magic armor, in general, but again only if if covers. (I mean, if a little bit of the stuff can deflect projectiles, sharpen reflexes, and so on you might as well just make a bracelet or necklace out of it and wear more ordinary clothing underneath.)
A redesign challenge does sound pretty good though…
Bad. Bad bandwagon manga look. Bad costume. Bad comic.
Bad all over.