Why Cosplay?

Hey there beautiful dandelions! How is your day? I thought of something to share with many of you, and that is "Why Cosplay".

Since Cosplay is getting more and more attention in Malaysia, many of you already understand what cosplay is and where it came from, but I'm just going to briefly explain what Cosplay is. The word "Cosplay"derive from 2 words; Costume & Role play, thus "Cos-play".

Cosplay did start in L.A California (nope, not Japan) and it traveled all the way to Asia and now it has became a big subculture in many Asian countries.

To me, Cosplay is an important part of my life. Why? It is simply because it is my biggest hobby! I enjoy Cosplay because it gives me an outlet to channel my creativity and show what I can produce with my ideas to the public.

Cosplay is not just wearing a piece of clothing, slap on a wig, put on some makeup and you're done! No, it's not like that. We chose to Cosplay certain characters because we relate to the character or we love the character very much that we would want to bring it to life and enjoy Cosplay Events with other Convention goers.

To choose a character to cosplay will be the hardest, or in some situations the easiest. It varies for each individual, take my Jenova and Dragon Nest Archer for an example.

Left: Jenova   Right: Archer from Dragon Nest

Why I am giving you this example is because when I was recruited to join in a group cosplay I was asked to cosplay as Jenova by my boyfriend. I don't know who Jenova was because I've never played Final Fantasy 7 (FF7) before, so I had to do lots of research, asked many questions and find out how do I get her costume and on that very day I debuted this cosplay I was one of the rare ones in Malaysia! I felt proud that there are some people feared me and some even bow down to me. I came to love cosplaying as Jenova. 


Archer from Dragon Nest on the other hand is a character that I love very much, I play Dragon Nest SEA and I play as a Sniper class. This character is very elegant and poise yet strong and brave, plus points - she's an elf! So I made the costume from scratch, of course not the boots and the wig! I am very proud of my prop for this character, I made a "Dangerous Desire Longbow" 

 From this

To this!

Please excuse my face over here, my make up was off on this day and parts of my costume were left at home.. T^T but check out my bow~

I am very proud of this cosplay! I do plan to do many versions of her costume and continue cosplaying as Archer from Dragon Nest.

Choosing a character is important, only if you love your character then only you will do your best in portraying it and also making the costume/props. All you need is creative thinking to get the costume and props done. =) Try not to cosplay a character you do not love /like, because that would result in a bad character portrayal and you may not have as much fun as you should have.

The other extra effort you need to put in is you gotta research about the poses your character makes, sometimes in animes and games they do some striking poses, those are some ideas you can put to use when you're posing for pictures! But for situations like when you have no idea how a particular character poses, don't just whack it, do you research! What's so difficult? You have your best friend here to help you, Google!

If your make up skill isn't good, do not fear! There are many youtube videos you can look up for to help you, or you can ask one of your fellow cosplay friends, I'm sure someone will be willing to help!

I know many of you will think of this as a joke especially the newer cosplayers cause they think cosplay is a serious deal, have fun in events! Enjoy yourselves as much as you can, go walk around and make some friends. Don't just stand in a corner and expect people to come over to only take a few pictures of you. Cosplay isn't all about pictures! Don't matter if nobody takes your pictures, as long as by the end of the day you met new people and made new friends.

Do not be scared to come out of your boxes and let your creativity flow~ Use your spare time to think of what and when you should start on your next costume or who to cosplay, because when you make your own costume, you save a lot of money. I personally can't sew in the beginning but I self taught and asked my sister for advice and also to teach me, now I can use the sewing machine all on my own and also helped my loved ones sew their costume too!

Try before you give up! If it's not your cup of tea then feel free...

Cheers!



Comments

  1. You are an amazing cosplayer..I wish I had your dedication waifuu!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. My friend is a cosplayer too, if you come across Vivien Yee. Haha anyway I always impressed by how dedicated all the cosplayer and how far they can go just for cosplaying certain character!

    ReplyDelete
  3. You're good in cosplay!~ I dunno anything about cosplay still... It's amazing to see cosplayer though~

    ReplyDelete
  4. I always love seeing people in their cosplay costume but thinking of doing it myself, I'll pass! You guys are so gool!

    ReplyDelete
  5. wow... I do admire all those cosplay people with their costume... i am afraid I do not have the looks or talent to carry it off...huhuh

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wow !! I like seeing people cosplay ..you have a great potential to do it.. I like the weapon that you DIY yourself..great to see this ..maybe next time i wanna try it too..

    ReplyDelete
  7. WOW! not bad. I think it takes talent to be able to cosplay T.T

    ReplyDelete
  8. Nice cosplay costume and props, I really admire your creativity :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Cosplay is very popular nowadays. you look amazing

    ReplyDelete
  10. I admire the gut and all the effort of cosplayer put in. Its so inspiring. You all rocks!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment