Pronouns: She/her Facebook Instagram Tik Tok Website I adore Saengdao_Cosplay. She is such a fun and creative person to be around. Not only does she have amazing cosplay content, she also makes amazing art. She is not afraid to speak up for what she believes and is an inspiration to me.
What are your favorite characters to cosplay and why?
Marvel- Mantis: she was the first MCU character I fully resonated with and when I finally bit the bullet to get her cosplay she pushed me into a world of cosplay I never knew before. She brought me so many opportunities, new friends, and many fans. Disney-Mulan: Growing up I had no representation to feel I belonged. When Mulan was shown to me I finally felt like character that looked like me where on the screen. Her bravery and strength made me want to be a strong figure for others. Every time I’m in Mulan I’m showing other Asian/Asian American youths that we are seen. ATLA-Toph Beifong: Much like with Mantis I resonate with Toph, I often feel unseen and like I am navigating my life blindly. The love for Toph in the show from the gang reminds me my inner circle loves me the same. Being in her cosplay helps remind me I may be small but I make a big difference to those who care about me. Toph also helped me feel beautiful even when outside forces made me think I was ugly and not feminine, cosplaying her and receiving large amounts of support made me feel more confident in myself. What are your hobbies outside of cosplay? Outside of cosplay I am a Graphic Designer. I do illustrations in freelance work and do photography for all types including cosplayers. I also do resin crafts on the side in my small business. If you could change one thing about the cosplay community, what would it be and why? I would like to remind the community that we cosplay for the love of series and characters, the popularity and trend of it is not what we do this for. Something we must repeat as new waves of cosplayers join our communities. What advice would you give to someone who wants to start cosplaying? My advice is to start out comfortably, you want to be happy in what you are wearing. It’s okay to feel uneasy about it, take it in steps. You can wear merch, do a cosplay with styled hair, to a full cosplay with props and wigs. Be cautious to ethic and cultural appropriation as best you can. And when in doubt, ask a cosplayer: we welcome questions and I personally don’t mind helping as for many cosplayers out there. Is there anything else (cosplay or otherwise) you'd like to add? Cosplay saved me at one of my darkest points. It is super strong and has been the most uplifting thing to me. I encourage those to cosplay to experience that joy it gave me and have advocated for cosplay ever since.
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Pronouns: She/Her/They/Them Facebook Instagram Shell is such a sweet person who brings positivity to the Colorado cosplay community. She always looks out for her friends and makes sure everyone is included. I love her cosplays and how she portrays characters. She's also a skilled in filming and it's been a pleasure working with her as a cosplayer and a filmer. ![]() What got you in to cosplaying? A friend of mine who was starting to get into watching anime told me about a convention happening in 2013 and wanted to go to it with a friend and I went with and that's really how it started, I feel in love with everything about cons and cosplay. I learned about cosplay from watching TV broadcasts of San Diego Comic Con about a year prior to that. What is your favorite part of cosplaying? Honestly hanging out with friends or meeting new friends, that's the part I always look forward to even if my cosplay isn't the best hanging out with friends honestly makes it better. What are your favorite characters to cosplay and why? My favorite characters that I have honestly cosplayed have to be Happy from Fairy Tail, Scarlett Witch, Perfuma from She-Ra and Hanamaru from Love Live Sunshine. Happy because it holds a very special place in my heart, it's the cosplay that I actually started to meet friends in, I was really shy and nervous to talk to a lot of cosplayers but then I went to a Fairy Tail shoot and it honestly was such a fun photoshoot and I started to open up more and because friends with a lot of Fairy Tail cosplayers at it and I'm still friends with a lot of them. Scarlett Witch is always a fun cosplay to do, I really love her character and I was so happy to finally get to cosplay as her, I feel really confident when ever I get to cosplay her, plus she's probably the most recognized cosplay I've done which is really cool. I really liked Perfuma in the She-Ra reboot and I cosplayed her for a mini She-Ra group and I felt really pretty as her and can't wait to bring her back. Hanamaru is my favorite character in Love Live and I knew from the first day after watching Love Live Sunshine that I wanted to cosplay her no matter what, I was just so happy to finish her for COAF 2017 and I'm happy I did because I started to meet some friends of mine and started to fall in love with idol animes and both mean a lot to me and I will always have a special spot for her. What are your hobbies outside of cosplay? I love to write scripts for videos that I hope to one day film. I also love theater and love helping with tech for shows. I also practice singing and dancing, which I'll be using for a cosplay group in the near future. ![]() What do you want to learn more about cosplay-wise? I want to get better at sewing and making props. I also would love to learn how to add lights to costumes, I have some ideas for cosplays that would look so cool with LEDs. If you could change one thing about the cosplay community, what would it be and why? One thing I would change about the community is for there to be less drama. The cosplay community has drama like many communities but in someways more drama that is harmful both mentally and physically. I've seen a lot of it and it makes honestly really sad because at the end of day the cosplay community should be a place where people should feel safe or like they belong, but it's starting to be less about that for some people it's starting to be about if you look how perfect someone looks in character while tearing someone else down. Not everyone is like that though, there's a lot of people who try to bring others up and make them feel like they belong which is amazing and I hope that starts to happen more in the future because we all need positive things in life. What advice would you give to someone who wants to start cosplaying? Cosplay who want no matter your size, skin color, height or whatever you'll look amazing in whatever cosplay you choose to do. Don't be to harsh on your self you'll grow and learn from your mistakes and that's all that matters. Also be true to yourself, people will love you if you are true to who you are. Also making friends while in cosplay is honestly one of the coolest things to do at cons, because a lot of the time the friends you meet while cosplaying will be there for you in the long run. ![]() What got me interested in cosplay? So to begin, I used to be super anti-social and pretty much stuck to myself and my video games at home. I realized this was really affecting my mental health so I decided to start watching anime again. I had not watched it since I was a teen and I had always enjoyed it. Well I got re-hooked on it instantly. Few months went by and I learned about Denver Comic Con. I looked into it a bit and learned about cosplay. I decided this would be a great opportunity to get out and do something. So, I ordered my first cosplay, Moka Akashiya from Rosario Vampire. I hit comic con and that was that. I have been cosplaying for around 6 years now. What is my favorite part of cosplaying? I love brining my favorite characters to life and making others smile. What is better than that!? What are my favorite characters to cosplay and why? I absolutely love cosplaying my android 18. I enjoy cosplaying her because her outfit is really one of my most comfortable cosplays. I enjoy her character in the anime and I love that she is a strong female character. I also enjoy cosplaying Pin-Up girl from The Strangers. It is a great horror movie if you have not watched it. I like cosplaying her because I like creepy things and she is creepy. I like the reacts I get in her cosplay when people are not expecting some random girl in a mask the be standing randomly somewhere with a large knife. :D What are my hobbies outside of cosplay? I enjoy photography and editing photos. I also play a bit of video games. I mostly enjoy MMORPG’s. My most recent game I finished was FF7 Remake and I plan to cosplay Aerith! My current MMORPG is Caravan Stories, its fun you should check it out! What do I want to learn more about cosplay wise? I would love to know how to sew my own cosplays. I have tried my hand at it a little but I want to be able to fabricate and entire cosplay myself! Wig styling! Would love to learn more about how to style wigs. If I could change one thing about the cosplay community, what would it be and why? I would change how toxic it is at times. I 100% feel cosplay is for everyone! People should be able to cosplay whatever characters they want, without prejudice! Including original characters or modified. What advice would I give to someone who wants to start cosplaying? Cosplay how you want and who you want. Ignore the haters, be you! Cosplay is about having fun. In closing, remember, cosplay is for EVERYONE. Be kind. Also remember cosplay is NOT consent! And most important of all, have fun! ![]() I started following Zero in instagram because of his wonderful What got you in to cosplaying? After attending the first fan gathering in my home town, I wanted to further be "part of it", thus I asked my grandmother (a master seamstress) to assist me in my first costume. What is your favorite part of cosplaying? There is this magic moment, when you put on the finished costume for the first time and seeing not only the parts, but the whole cosplay in its entirety. This moment, where everything perfectly falls into place, is the best reward you get when cosplaying. What are your favorite characters to cosplay and why? Choosing a costume is the easy part, actually. I have some criteria that have to be met for me to want to cosplay a character. First of all, the character, no matter what gender, need to have an interesting design. A plain school uniform, like for example Shigeo Kageyama, won't do, because its hard to be recognized as a certain character, rather than just a fan wearing a school uniform to blend in to the community. There are, however, exceptions to this. One being Kamui Shiro from X/1999, because his school uniform has a signature red trim. The second rule that has to be met is that I need to identify with the character. If we take Sephiroth for example, yes, his design is great, but I can not really identify with him. There are some characters I'm conflicted about, because I am uncertain if I can identify with them or not (Cloud Strife is just one of them). And the third rule is that I need to be comfortable cosplaying the character. While I definitely think that you can cosplay anything, regardless of your body type, height, gender or etnicity, I for myself decided that I won't cosplay anything meeting the first two criteria (yet). For now, I leave out characters that have a bared midriff section, such as Kim Possible or Haseo from .hack//G.U., because I have a slight belly. Bonus points, if the character is rarely done, for example Dark Mousy from D.N.Angel, or Kyoshi Warrior Sokka from Avatar. If all these criteria are met, the character is definitely on my to do list. What are your hobbies outside of cosplay? I'm a musician, I sing in a choir affiliated with the local theater, I own a webradio station for German anime fans, I am soon starting a youtube channel with cosplay content and song covers, and since July 2019, I am a licensed ham radio operator. What do you want to learn more about cosplay-wise? The next thing I definitely need to learn is armor and prop making. I bought some books but have yet to start. Especially with some costumes that have been added to my wish list lately (Jim Lake from "Trollhunters"), I desperately need to be able to make my own armor! If you could change one thing about the cosplay community, what would it be and why? I feel that some people get too much attention for all the wrong reasons. A good bad example in my opinion is Jessica Nigri. While she is a terrific cosplayer, she, in my opinion, relies too heavily on her bodily features. Her costumes are sometimes altered to highlight certain body parts, that shouldn't be the focal point for that particular costume, because it either doesn't fir the character or feels misplaced or unecessary alltogether. Her popularity led to some developments that deeply concern me, because underage cosplayers follow her example and dress inapropriately for their age. Many female cosplayers are led to think that "sex sells", and that, if they show enough of their body, they get famous. This thought is fueled by the more fan service oriented shows in the last couple of years, e.g. Kill la Kill, Gurren Lagann etc. In my opinion, this has also led to some unnecessary and unhealthy competitiveness among cosplayers on who is doing the "least clothes", to the point where characters are shown in bikinis that would never wear it due to several reasons (Elsa in a bikini...sure...because Arendelle's beaches are a tourist hot spot). I remember a convention in Germany I attended a couple of years ago. Naruto has just started to pick up some momentum in Germany, and "Road to Ninja", the Naruto AU story, was not even published. Still, there were some Hinatas running around in a bit more than a bra, some string vests, and hot pants (only recognizable due to the color scheme, the white contacts and the headbands). They were, of course, swarmed by photographers and weirdo perverts alike. I took a break outside (I was working as a reporter for my web radio on that con and had two minutes between interviews), and all of a sudden, a very accurate Hinata passed by me. She was ignored by many photographers, so I instead asked her for a photo. She was so happy and said that next to all these "pimped Hinatas", she felt like she didn't work hard enough to deserve any attention. Even though I am not affected directly, this direction that the cosplay scene (at least in Germany) is headed, has greatly diminished my desire to attend conventions to the point where I only cosplay for photoshootings. What advice would you give to someone who wants to start cosplaying? You should cosplay for yourself, not for others. If you like what you did, don't care about what other people say, don't let their comments get to you. I've seen too many cosplayers give up this wonderful hobby because of mean comments. Because I follow this advice myself now, I am above such things. ![]() I met Semetary Cosplay at Starfest in 2017. I was very new to the cosplay community, and he was very cool with letting me follow him around and even encouraged me to sign up for the cosplay contest with him. I didn't know what a great friendship would bloom from that con. His cosplays are phenomenal and he has a big heart. I am so glad to have met him! What got you in to cosplaying? My friend from middle school. He got me into Naruto, which was the first official anime I ever watched (I hadn't considered that Sailor Moon, Pokemon, etc. counted as anime at that time). He had told me that there was a convention coming into town that he really wanted me to go to with him. It was Nan Desu Kan back in 2006. I had obviously never attended a convention before, but I was like...why the heck not? He told me that I needed to dress up or else "I would stand out and look weird". Halloween has always been my favorite holiday, so I was absolutely about dressing up outside of one day a year, and I agreed to go. That was when I made my first cosplay, which was Kiba Inuzuka from Naruto. And I loved the convention so much that I've been attending cons and cosplaying ever since. What is your favorite part of cosplaying? I absolutely love getting into character. I think that's why I really enjoy photoshoots, because I get to act the part and have a lot of fun and really try to show off the character in their expression, stance, etc. I also love doing panels, because I tend to put on ridiculous accents and just...it's a blast. I know not everyone gets into character when they dress up, but it's my favorite part of all of it for me. Whether it be going as a princess and talking to children or just being a complete nerd with friends. It brings the show to life for me, and isn't that all what we want in some way? To live in that fantasy world? What are your favorite characters to cosplay and why? Ohhhhhh gosh. It super fluctuates depending on the month and what I'm currently obsessed with, let's be real. As far as overall goes, I'm going to say Yuri Plisetsky from Yuri on Ice!!! I'm terrible at a Russian accent, but I do it anyways, and I get to act all fussy and kind of aggressive which isn't like me at all so it's a fun face to put on, so to speak. Also, princesses! I will always love being princesses, especially in areas where there's kids around. One of my favorite moments was going to the zoo dressed as Ariel and there was a big yellow fish, and this little girl just crawled into my lap so we talked about Flounder and my friend snuck a photo and it's just...so precious. I love seeing their eyes light up and helping their dreams to come true! What are your hobbies outside of cosplay? Outside of cosplay, roleplaying is my biggest hobby. So really, the two go hand in hand, because again...it's all about writing as the character and really developing their personality and interacting as if you are them. I've been doing that since I was eleven, so. I also really love singing, even though I'm not fantastic at it. And I'm getting more into photography, and really liking it so far! What do you want to learn more about cosplay-wise? I'm going to go with armor-making. It's something I've never really done, other than one or two cosplays that have shoulder armor. I know about foam bending enough, but I've never actually worked with worbla because I'm a big baby and don't want to ruin something so expensive! I also haven't really had a character call out to me that has a lot of armor so I haven't had a reason to try, but I think getting into big builds would be fun one day. Most of my characters are pretty simplistic, and I like to keep it that way - ha! If you could change one thing about the cosplay community, what would it be and why? I only get one thing? Damn, haha! Well, if I could change one thing about the community, I think it would be the "popularity tiers". The reason a lot of us are cosplayers is because we were the nerds that weren't accepted in high school and whatnot. People thought we were strange or different for liking anime, and we were considered the outsiders. The cosplay community is meant to be a catch all of the 'strange and unusual' (ha, get my reference) where we have a place to feel accepted like we might not have felt before. It's crazy to me that within that group, we still have the 'cliques'. Like, it feels like Mean Girls, when they're trying to point out all the tables and which tables belong to which groups. There's the jocks, the mathletes, the theater kids, etc. That's exactly what it feels like. There's the 'popular crowd' that everyone wants to hang out with, take pictures with, is considered conventionally the most attractive in our community, etc. And I hate it. It shouldn't be that way. I get it, not everyone is going to get along because of personality differences, but that doesn't mean everyone shouldn't respect each other as equals and everyone shouldn't get equal opportunity. We're all just NERDS. What advice would you give to someone who wants to start cosplaying? I would tell all people that are aspiring to be cosplayers to remember why they're doing it. Remember what drew them to being curious about cosplay. Going back to that con in 2006 when I first cosplayed, I remember feeling like...this great magic, just being surrounded by all the characters I adore and meeting similar people. Now, it all feels like such a competition, and like everyone is comparing everyone to everyone (looks back at my last answer). I think just remember that you're doing it because it's a character you love and a hobby you enjoy, and not letting the politics of all of it get to you and ruin your experience over time. |
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Ham Sandwich What this?There's so many amazing cosplayers out there that deserve more love! This section highlights some of those cosplayers. ArchivesCategories |