because we love toasted ass

H/L: Getting into the cosplay groove
Byline: MM
Date of publication: 29/12/2007

I THOUGHT I'd met my knight in shining armor, but after he took off his headgear, I realised that he was a man in his late thirties, with a chubby face and thinning hair.

This is not meant to insult, mind you, but more of a sneak preview of what cosplay entails - that anybody could be anybody as long it is what the heart desires with results that will shock even those you are closest to. Take for example, the lovely blonde cosplayer wearing a unique costume that bespoke volumes of regality and noble bearing: She is a character from console-playing game Tales of the Abyss, the proud Natalia Luzu Kimlasca-Lanvaldear... or so you thought. Take another guess, for Nadia is actually a guy in costume.



For the uninitiated, the idea of cosplay sounds almost scary. Some may liken it to a freak activity for freaks. There may be a grain of truth in this.

After all, one would have to be mad enough to dare wearing a Sailor Moon outfit out in public. But for those who adore this wacky subculture, it's all about bringing your biggest childhood (and for others, adult) fantasies to life.

And bring to life many of them did, like the quartet of girlfriends who were cosplaying as the heroines from Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon (PSSM).

"PSSM has always been a childhood favourite of ours and it had been a sort of secret dream that one day, we, too, could become just as beautiful and heroic as the Sailor Scouts. Today, we're living that dream and it's been great," said the gang's leader Nor Hashimah, 20, a cosplayer of six years.

At this year's most anticipated ACG (animation, comics and games) event, Comic Fiesta 2007, she cosplayed the Soldier of Water and Intellect, Sailor Mercury. Nor Hashimah's costume is based on the version from the final arc of the series, the Shadow Galactica arc. The event was held at Berjaya Times Square Kuala Lumpur on Dec 15 and 16.

Her childhood friends from Bangi, Nur Aina, Nur Asyikin and Nur Dinni, are dressed up as Eternal Sailor Moon, Sailor Pluto and Sailor Mars, respectively.

When asked on why there were only four instead of nine people in the group, Nor Hashimah said as theirs was a last minute plan, the other friends in the group were not able to have their costumes done in team for the event. The four of them took one month to get their costumes ready and even then, they were missing the elbow-length gloves which are part of the costume. On a side note, the Sailor Team is actually made up of the five Inner Soldiers and four Outer Soldiers which added up make up all the planetary bodies in the solar system.

"People wonder why we settled for the Shadow Galactica arc instead of going for the first arc, the Dark Kingdom arc, and this is because nobody else in Malaysia has cosplayed any of the series' characters from the last arc. (The writer happens to be the first in the country to cosplay Sailor Mars, with the costume being from the first arc by the way.) We also loved how there is a uniformity between the costumes of all the characters. In the previous arcs, each character had accessories which
were exclusive to only herself," said Nor Hashimah.

Next on the list are Yau Ju Anne, 18, and Marina Shukry, 20, who were cosplaying Esther Blanchett (White Queen version) and Seth Nightlord from the anime series Trinity Blood.

Their elaborate costumes, reminiscent of the Victorian era, had cost them RM800 and RM900 respectively.

Both are not newcomers to the cosplay scene: Yau has been cosplaying for three years and has cosplayed Tifa Lockheart (Final Fantasy VII), Miyu (Vampire Princess Miyu) and Karin Koenig (Shadow Hearts: Covenant) while Marina, a diehard fan of Trinity Blood, has four costumes belonging to two characters from the series, Abel Nightroad and three versions for Seth Nightlord due to her absolute love for the character.

However, these were only a few out of the many that had come proudly in their costumes, to the delight of the crowd upon identifying the characters cosplayed. Although still on a somewhat small scale, there is no doubt that this is a fastrising subculture what with the many new faces coming onboard to embrace this passion for role-playing and dressing up.


What makes an inspiring cosplay?

CERTAINLY not when you're wearing a rush job which clearly shows that it is. You know, a rush job.

While not everyone can work miracles on a sewing machine, it does help a lot when you make the effort to find yourself a good tailor. Not an idea that will bode well with those with lean wallets though as an elaborate costume will have you forking out a crazy sum like RM500 for something that you'll wear like what? Once, or twice, a year?

There are also those who have no imagination, coming to such events as Gothic Lolitas, which isn't much challenge as far as cosplay goes. Just put on something black with layers of lace, tie a frilly apron round your waist and then plonk a mini crown on your mass of curls. Oh, and don't forget the platform Mary Janes and the knee-high beribboned socks. Or what about the kind of cosplay where the character is wearing clothes so normal that you cannot distinguish whether the person is cosplaying or not? That's quite uninspiring, too.

However, an inspiring cosplay does not come entirely from good tailoring. Just like buying the right shade of foundation to match your skin tone, choosing the right character to portray is just as important so it is quite unfortunate when there are those who choose to cosplay a particular character because of whatever hype that is attached to that particular anime/manga/ game the character originates from at the moment.

That is why cosplayers who are able to give me an in-depth description of the character and elaborate what makes the character special to him/her get my seal of approval instead of those who tell me that, "I like this character but I don't know why. He/she looks cool, I think", because you know that with the amount of passion the cosplayer has for that certain character, he/she will do a better job portraying him/her because the character has been studied so well, it becomes like a second
persona. Like how actors `become' their characters, the same should go for cosplayers.

But then you argue, what of people who are too obese to cosplay Sailor Moon but go ahead with it anyway? No matter how good an actress she is, she'll never be as close to the real thing. Well, my dears, that's another story for another day and didn't your mother teach you not to discriminate the horizontally-challenged people?