A realm for cosplay fans and cosplayers alike. Get cosplay advice, help and suggestions here as well as show off your cosplay. Get your costumes critiqued as well as see Japan86 make a complete fool of herself being dressed up in interesting attire.
NOTE: If you wish to help with this WORLD please send a private message to Japan86 and she will get back to you. And if you are a Cosplayer, She would LOVE to have you as a guest poster as well. The cosplay section of TheOtaku may be gone but let's not let it's glory be forgotten.
Stats:
Character: Haruhi Fujioka
Series: Ouran High School Host Club
For: AnimeCentral '07
Price: $40
Completion Time: Since everything was bought, minutes?
This was my third cosplay and my second for a convention, so I was 15 years old and a sophomore in high school. My friend Waffuru and I teamed up as a duo, with her going as my "client" in a poofy yellow dress. She ended up getting more attention than me, since the male uniform is way easier to do. But I actually looked like Haruhi (vaguely), so we went that way.
Components:
- Blazer
- White blouse that buttoned at the neck
- Tie
- Black pants
- Dress shoes
- Ouran patch
This is a really simple costume, but the odd color of the blazer and the necessity of the patch makes it not-so-closet cosplay. Luckily for me, I already had most of the components. The white blouse is the same one I used for my Azumanga Daioh costume, so there was a great recycler. The pants I already had as well as the shoes (I used the pair I had for marching band, which made nifty clicky noises on hard surfaces).
For the blazer, I turned to eBay, because of the lack of sewing abilities available to me. I got lucky and snagged the one I did - for twenty bucks no less. It's a Liz Claiborne jacket and from the last decade, so upon arrival, I had to go in and remove the shoulder pads. That wasn't hard - just cut open the jacket lining, take out the padding, and sew it back up.
Then the tie. The Ouran tie is tricky because it has that purple stripe. Me, I saw it as a highlight color, but official ties have a purple ribbon sewed on. I balked at the concept of purchasing one (anywhere from $20-$30), so instead I just purchased a black one for about ten dollars. It came in handy when I needed a tie for work - and another costume.
Finally, the patch is one I bought from somebody on a LiveJournal Ouran cosplay community. Her design was the one I liked best and that didn't look hideous. That cost about seven dollars.
In retrospect, I can't really pull of Haruhi. I'm just too European.
'ello 'ello! I'm Katana, here to slowly give the blow-by-blow of the various cosplays I've done. Back in the old days of theOtaku, we had an actual Cosplay site. That was taken down. And uh...never put back up. Boo.
Anyways, I'm here to give my random tidbits and maybe helpful assistance when it comes to cosplay. I'm not an anal cosplayer - in other words, I won't berate you for a costume that isn't on the mark, because I know it's really hard to pull off some costumes. However, it is possible to get a good-looking product with limited means. You just have to be creative.
Stats:
Character: Stuffed Animal Cafe Waitress
Series: Azumanga Daioh
For: Halloween '04
Price: Around $20
Completion Time: In total, about a day, spread out over two months
This is my first ever cosplay, when I was 13 years old and in the eighth grade. Two of my friends agreed to do a cosplay with me and, with that, we started planning in August to be stuffed animal cafe waitresses from our favorite series, Azumanga Daioh.
Components:
- White blouse that buttoned at the neck (for the bow)
- Bow
- Orange skirt
- Yellow apron
- Hat
In this instance, the shoes really weren't important, nor was the red trim on the blouse. Lucky for us, we had the blouses, but also had to keep using them for other purposes, so modding them was out of the question. I'd also recommend leaving them in their original state, because I ended up using the same shirt for another costume.
The biggest ordeal came from making the hats. We were basically on our own back then, though nowadays I've seen plenty of cat-eared hats around that you can probably find a pattern someplace. Unfortunately, some mis-trials ended up with us running out felt, but the hat-maker of our trio added some pink felt for the brim. (This is where being non-anal comes in handy.)
This is the end result, sans nametag (and GAAAH I forgot the bow!):
(I've only grown about three inches since eighth grade, so the costume still fits. Lawl on me.)
Notice the hat. It sucks. XD But I love it. Not only that, but the comments we got from school, from trick-or-treating, and from the school-sponsered Halloween dance were awesome.
Despite the fact that we were young and with no experience, our spread-out skills (my friends can sew but I, um, cannot, so I did the research and made our nametags) were what helped us in the end. My advice: Don't be afraid to try.
Hello! I've been a guest poster on this world for so long and never posted... so I guess I will now haha ;; Um these are the cosplays that I have done so far (minus one or two because of the 4 picture limit)
My first ever cosplay - Battle Royale. I was 16 o.o; You can't see it in the picture, but the skirt was a PAIN to make. I will never enjoy sewing pleated clothing. D:
My personal favorite - Okita from Gintama! I wore this to AX07. I spent a lot of time on the details for the jacket, so I'm glad it turned out well haha. :) Oh and the sleep mask was hand embroidered by the way! (Also a pain.)
The kindergarten uniform I got off of some site for pretty cheap (haha). I thought it was really cute~ ^^;;
Finally, my latest cosplay was Ryoma from Prince of Tennis. My boyfriend cosplayed too as Momo. *shot*
Cosplay plans:
Pokemon Season 1 Group (this will take all of my time because no one in my group knows how to sew -_-)
- Pikachu (me) - pretty much just don't die in the fleece kigurumi.... haha. Maybe find good shoes to wear to the con because my feet always hurt... T.T
- Ash (Richard) - have to sew the shirt/jacket and the gloves... already bought the tshirt, hat, pokeball... not sure what I'm gonna do about his hair... haha. Main problem is making the shirt look good. I think I'm going to have to do that same kinda lining job that we did with the Okita jacket.... not fun. D:
- James (James) - gonna go thrift shopping with him sometime and buy materials. Mostly I have to alter the top part and put the R on. He's also buying a light purple wig, which I think will be very amusing when I see him wear it. XD
- Jesse (Norma) - pretty much the same task as James. Not sure about hair either.
- Meowth (Norma's relative) - I think we're gonna go gijinka style for Meowth... not sure how much sewing that will require me to do, but hopefully not too much T.T
- Others: I'm hoping my driving instructor will be Brock, in which case we'll probably just have him go thrift shopping with us. Not sure if we'll have anyone else, but a Misty would be cool just so we could get everyone. I still think we need a Prof Oak. lol. Also, Michael mentioned wanting to be Wobbafet but that's not 1st season. Thinking of making an exception though.
Wishlist:
Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro: Neuro and Yako
Gintama: Gintoki
Azumanga Daioh: student? haha
Tales of the Abyss: Natalia
Harukanaru toki no naka de: Inori
Rozen Maiden: Shinku and Souseiseki
Ragnarok Online: Taekwon girl and Soul linker
Hetalia: Switzerland
Cooking Mama: Mama *shot*
Anyway I never quite know what to cosplay (my sewing isn't so good either haha) so yeah... any suggestions for me??
I decided to put rikku aside for now and work on something a little less daunting.
Ninja! Since I am not the biggest fan of Naruto ( I actually do not care for it all except for some characters like Hinata) I decided to do an original cosplay. SEXY NINJA!
I have yet to figure out the top so please disregard the t-shirt. I also need to clean my mirror apparently so please ignore that as well. Anyways, I bought the scarf and arm warmers at Hot Topic and I bought the head band at Suncoast. What do you guys think? I still need to buy a lot of red satin for a sash around my neck. The satin will be tied around and the ends draping down in back. I plan to use the left over satin for accents throughout the costume. So besides buying the satin, I also need to purchase fishnet footless tights that have the same design as the arm warmers. Shoes is a different story altogether. Here is the picture.
