Face Off Season 6, Episode 8
With eight artists remaining, the group goes to Tokyo to face their next challenge. They get to experience a little bit of the culture as they make their way to a temple where they hear that the next challenge is the oni. They are entities from the spirit world that can boast extra fingers, toes, etc. To up the tension, they added guest judge, Kazuhiro Tsuji, well known in the industry.
Each artist approaches the challenge differently. Rashaad thinks of a samurai’s last spiritual battle, while Tyler is going for a creature that catches and drowns people. Daran will be using the architecture and surroundings to influence his creation. Graham wants to make a very dehumanized character, like a statue that’s come to life. Corinne will be pulling from the local culture, and George’s creature feeds on the sorrow of its victims.
Kazu chose Daran as the winner of today’s challenge. The spotlight challenge for the group will be for them to create a hyper stylized anime character, but they must also be an alter ego of each artist. For this, they will be sent to Akihabara, the anime capital of the world, where they will be working with Hidetaka Tenjin. Chloe in particular is super excited about being there. Corinne has trouble translating anime to life, but she wants to create a Halloween inspired character. Rashaad has an alter ego of a Robin Hood character and Tenjin suggests making his weapons big, bigger than life, much like anime elements. Daran has a water theme and needs to incorporate waves. This is sounding like a real challenge!
Back in the US, Niko pulls from his real life martial arts experience to make a samurai who is normal by day and warrior by night. Chloe’s character is named Solstice, and is appropriately a soul-sucking vigilante. This is a meaningful character for her considering she was born on the summer solstice. George’s character will have an armor suit for flying. Tyler is making a hyper-flexing multi-tasker for his alter ego, so it will require him making multiple arms for his character. Corinne starts getting nervous when she realizes that Chloe’s character is shaping up to look very similar to hers. On a humorous note, Niko’s head sculpture has hair like his, only much, much taller. Kid N Play anyone? Rashaad puts on Tyler’s cap/hair and mocks a game show host, quite nice, I must admit. He might have a job idea in hand if monster making doesn’t pan out. By the end of the second day, George still has half of his suit to make and he’s worried about running out of time.
On application day, I gotta say that Corinne’s mask is quite terrifying with the large, glassy eyes, and Daran’s koi mask is amazing. George is still working with his suit, which isn’t looking up to par. Chloe, in a rush, slams into Graham as they come around a corner, and her lip gets cut, adding to her stress.
It’s eliminations and George is still applying the elements of his suit, and I agree with him, it looks sloppy. He’s particularly disappointed because he was making his character in honor of his wife, who is a big fan of anime. Graham’s airbrush broke and Chloe isn’t happy with her paint job. At the reveal, I stand by being totally freaked out by the girl anime characters. Daran’s is pretty awesome with the water/fish theme. Rashaad’s character’s face is partially hidden by some rogue curls. Niko’s is just meh. Tyler’s cracked me up because it looked like him, in anime form, of course. Too funny. George’s was almost painful to look at. There were drip marks on the armor and is seemed as if it would fall off if the model moved too much. Graham’s had me laughing and thinking of the Toxic Avenger due to its plant-like left side. It was honestly a mess, though.
The judges loved Daran’s character, no surprise there. It was a beautiful piece. The details in the fish alone were gorgeous. Graham’s mad scientist/Swamp Thing/Toxic Avenger wasn’t received well. The judges felt like Corinne’s Halloween character was very representative of anime. George’s creation was really pulled apart.
Daran won the challenge and he deserved it, hands down. Graham was voted to go home, but wait a minute, the judges are using a special immunity they had to keep Graham here for another week. He was obviously shocked and pleased. This immunity had never been used before, so there’s definite motivation to kick ass next week, Graham.
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