cosplay @ ax - all that it's cracked up to be?

Despite the clear insanity that would have to come from wearing any costume in the hot Southern CA July sun, let alone a complete coverage black costume, Loy, our public relations man opted to go all out at the largest mass gathering of anime fans on this side of the pacific.

Take a seat and read his tale.

Cosplay has fascinated me since the beginning of my "otaku" livelihood. It's like halloween in the middle of the winter, summer, etc. A fan gets to show his/her "fandom" by transforming into their favorite character. I believed that dressing up, making costumes, and all that jazz would be so much fun.

Boy, I could not have been more wrong. It was a lot of work.

I've always had the idea in my head of trying cosplaying myself, though I've never acted upon it. I was always lazy. I talked about it with my girlfriend, and she really wanted to dress up this year. That gave me the extra boost of confidence I felt I needed to initiate my plan.

First off, it took me awhile to figure out who to cosplay as. It had to be a couple so that my girlfriend and I could be cute together. I immediately thought of Kamui and Kotori. What can I say, I love X. ^_^;; That idea fell through, though. I don't quite remember why. I can almost guarantee that it didn't happen because of me. I love X and I would want everything to be perfect for the day I cosplay from X.

With X out of the question, I needed to think of another cute couple out there; one that wasn't so new and clichéd. While browsing through the dealer hall at PMX, D-kun had pointed out a Miyu figurine out to me, knowing I was also a huge fan of Vampire Princess Miyu. It was then I realized "Hey! Larva and Miyu! They're a cute couple! And they are not really done much, being way too many years old!" This idea got my approval due to my thought pattern that Larva's costume was easy.

Again, boy was I wrong.

I had to find the right shade and material of black that would match the material of Miyu's costume. To find this perfect material, my girlfriend and I went shopping at the local fabric stores. I got bored of shopping at these stores. It was no fun and I kept getting shocked due to the fabric. I was surrounded by all these old ladies that scared me for some reason. They all gave us strange looks, as if we didn't belong in such a store. This started my fading will to cosplay. It was annoying. I really wanted to cosplay. I didn't let them get to me and just kept minding my own business. I was not going to let them intimidate me. I found the material and left as fast as I can.

Loy and Jennifer, pictured on right, as Larva & Miyu from "Vampire Princess Miyu", with Alyssa, left, dressed as Reiha, also from "Vampire Princess Miyu"

Now, I came to another problem. I couldn't sew even if my life depended on it. There was one time I had tried; I accidentally sewed my finger to the cloth. That was traumatizing. I never wanted to sew again. My girlfriend doesn't know how to sew either. So we were in a rut. Luckily, her mom had a friend that was a seamstress. We commissioned her to construct our costumes. It probably would have been easier on our wallets if we sewed them on our own. Well, maybe, maybe not. After all, we have no experience in making costumes. So lots of trial and error would have taken place making deeper dents in our wallets.

While our costumes were being constructed, I started feeling lazy. I just wanted to give up and forget about cosplay. My girlfriend would not let that happen, especially with all the money and time that was already invested into this project.

We started trying to acquire accessories for our costumes such as Larva's mask and nails and Miyu's hair accessories. Larva's mask was done with trial and error. We tried putting clay on my face so it would be a perfect fit. That plan went sour almost immediately. I ended up just buying a pre-built mask, and my girlfriend put the clay on the mask to give it the effect that it was only clay and not plastic. By this time, it was three days before AX and my work schedule was hectic. Stress galore! I felt my girlfriend had done so much already for my costume, I offered to paint the mask.

That went bad as well.

Let me just say the world is grateful that I am working on a business degree and NOT an art degree. "They teach you how to color within the lines in elementary school." I guess I must've been absent that day. My girlfriend had to paint the mask as well. I felt bad; she pretty much made my entire costume while I sat around playing Zelda. I am so useless. ^_^;;

Fast forward. AX had begun. It was time to show off our costumes.

Not many people recognized Larva and Miyu. One person thought we were cosplaying from Spirited Away. One crazy lady from the tupperware convention had me scare her children. I think I was more scared of her than their kids were scared of me. It was hot the day we chose to cosplay, and my sweat melted the glue that was holding the ribbon to the mask, twice!

It was then I vowed to the anime community that I will never cosplay again. If I do, I will allot hours within the year when I only work on the costume and nothing else. Procrastinating does not work here (Does it really work anywhere?). The end-product will show how much time and effort was put into the costumes. Did I have fun? Yes. Would I do it again? Probably not. It just isn't for me.

I applaud all you cosplayers out there for I now have experienced the hard work and effort that goes into the costumes. I also now know how it feels to be glomped (for the record, it scared me)!

Keep cosplaying! It gives me something to take pictures about! I thank all of you once more! All you cosplayers make it look so easy. Stop lying to me! ^_^;;

See you space cowboy. Ja!

—loy