For Halloween in Second Life: An Awesome Japanese Folklore-Inspired Mesh Avatar

Iris Ophelia's ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

I say this every year, but Halloween is my favorite holiday. October's only just begun, but I'm already chomping at the bit to plan the perfect costume. It is the holiday for fashionistas, but in Second Life (where you can wear or be anything you want, any day of the year) it can be a challenge to get the most extreme avatar in time.

The ideal costume for me is a little weird, a little cute, and a lot different from the norm, exactly like this mesh avatar from Bakemonoya (hat-tip to Azure Electricteeth). Though it was released last year, it might just be the perfect SL costume for me (and for you, too). Here's why:

Bakemonoya has tons of crazy costume and avatars if you're looking to shock and impress your friends this month. Designer Conjoh Kohime offers everything from mermaids to realistic dog and cheetah avatars, naga tails, and even giant animated crawling hands. This avatar, Hitotsume, is by far my favorite, though. if you're curious what exactly she is wand where she came from, hitotsume are essentially Japanese cyclopses... Although they usually look like bald little boys and not adorable little girls.

At L$300 for a full mesh avatar you might not expect much, but the avatar comes with 3 different kimono, 3 different obi sashes, and a HUD that lets you pick from a ton of different eye colours, animations, mouths, and hands. The one thing it doesn't come with is hair, but I'm glad it doesn't.Picking your own details like hairstyles and accessories is the easiest way to add a personal touch to complete avatars like this one. The avatar itself is shorter than a standard human avatar, but with a much larger head, so you'll need hair that you can resize, which means if you've abandoned sculptie hairstyles altogether, you'll need to wear an unrigged mesh 'do to get the right fit. I picked out a medium-length choppy style from Dura for my costume -- it may not be mesh, but it's an ideal style for a creepy-cute little monster girl.

If you love this avatar as much as I do, you can snag one for yourself on the SL Marketplace, or check out everything that Bakemonoya has to offer in world. [Teleport to Bakemonoya in GORLEN BAY]

Tweet

Iris Ophelia (Janine Hawkins IRL) has been featured in the New York Times and has spoken about SL-based design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan and with pop culture/fashion maven Johanna Blakley.

Comments

[GoSpeed Racer]

Mike Wazowski!

[Harper Ganesvoort]

If the avatar was yellow, you could call it a Minion!

[Melissa Yeuxdoux]

How cute! I've read that hitotsume have a long tongue... does this mesh avatar have one?

[Tatum Lisle]

Avatar is cool and innovative. Thanks for sharing! And I don't mind innovation when it comes to the English language either, but seems a shame to use "chomping" when the original (correct?) version of the phrase is, I think, the only instance of "champing" in the current vernacular. It's sad to lose lovely, unique words.