A Word about Cosplay by My Outsourced Content Creator from the Philippines

Here’s a third post from Eloise, my outsourced content creator from the Philippines. Not only does she love to bake; she’s a huge fan of cosplay too.

Cosplay

I was recently invited to a cosplay event last month. I was so excited I asked a friend to help me make my costume. However, when the date of the event came, I was so buried with work I forgot to follow up and join. My costume wasn’t even finished and ready for photos as well. I was disheartened for some time although I know all will be well soon.

My love for cosplay came from being a fan of animes and Japanese mangas. I grew up watching those things on television. I and my brother would rather watch anime than the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers! I am aware of the Japanese influence that these animes had brought me. However, I am thankful for it. Animes are very different from fairy tales and other cartoon stuff that most kids today are being subjected to. In a fairy tale, the main character is being portrayed as beautiful, hardworking, great singers and can sometimes talk to animals because of the misery that they are into. They often get help from fairy godmothers to fight evil queens for beauty and a rightful place in a palace.

Anime characters are way better. They have attitude, super powers, weakness and a whole lot of friends that also has a painful story of their own. Anime characters are easy to relate to. This is mainly the reason why I got into cosplaying. Plus, cosplaying is cool. It really is! People will take notice of you not as you are but as the character you are playing. Of course people will know the real you eventually but the fact that you can be who you want to be is very nice especially for shy people. I was shy once. I often get a stage fright when I feel an imaginary limelight is pointed at me. Cosplaying helped me a lot in building up my confidence.

The characters I cosplay are those that I often relate to in life. I know they are not real. I have a sound sense of what’s a fantasy and what’s not. It’s just that there are certain characteristics in an anime character that people can relate to and say, “Hey, she’s just like me” and you cannot stop thinking about it. And as for me, to cosplay that character is to make me stop thinking too much about it or that I just like the character so much that I want to feel how it feels to be that person, even for just a few hours. Sometimes, I just get challenged by the intricate designs of the armor.

Making my costumes is not really easy, I tell you. I am not the type of person who knows and loves to sew clothes so making my costumes is double hard. Thankfully, I have a friend who’s so into dressmaking that she even makes me her living mannequin. Now all I have to do is find the best kinds of cloths for my suits and make the trinkets, necklace designs and do the makeup. The swords and other accessories have to be made by hand as well. Cosplaying must be as accurate to the anime. My recent cosplay character is Kallen Stadtfeld of Code Geass. I have a photo of her shown. If you’ve ever seen this Mecha-anime, you’d understand why she’s on my list. If not, try watching this anime and see if you like it.

I will be sharing with you the final costume me as the character Kallen Stadtfeld in the next few weeks. In the meantime, I’ll show you some photos of my friends doing cosplay.

Do you have any questions for Eloise or maybe some suggestions for future subjects she could write about or photograph for me? If so, say hi and leave a friendly comment. Thanks.