Archival time/space-jump complete. Reverting to normal-space environment. All passengers please prepare for gravitational insertion.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Holiday weekend approaching as it is, numerous people in the HR department with rubber-stamping and pen-pushing responsibilities are out of town and thus, I may go into the weekend without a formal start date for my new job (I was
supposed to start this coming Monday). The darkest, most wadded-up and sodden-with-doom corner of my brain continues to put out speculative press releases to the rest of my head suggesting, "There's a problem with the funding. They're not going to be able to fill the position." The sane, calm, 99% moiety of my brain shrugs that off like a dirty street preacher handing out insane leaflets; ignoring it but still slightly shaken by the mere contact.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
TJ and I are all atwitter about
Sitacon, coming up this October up in Utica. We've started to feel we should take our otakuosity to the next level and go in costume. We're not sure, as first-timers, that we actually will want to compete for an award in the cosplay competition. Part of it will depend on whether we go as a "pair"; that is, as two characters from the same series. The issues to consider are:
1.) Ease of costumery. Some characters, particularly those from video games, have really outlandish, complicated costumes and hair. We're eager to avoid both dyes and wigs so that rules out a number of things. We're also trying to avoid heavy-duty sewing; we'd both prefer to buy second-hand garments and modify them rather than make anything from scratch. We're also trying to avoid outlandish, labor-intensive props like, say,
Cloud's ginormous sword.
2.) Equivalent familiarity. It's considered bad form to cosplay a character you're not, on some level, familiar with. I have watched a lot more anime than TJ and so finding pairs of characters we both like from series or films we have both watched strongly circumscribes our choices.
3.) Age plausibility. Anime heroes and heroines tend toward the young side. Like, younger than 20, most often (though with some notable exceptions). TJ and I are reasonably athletic, well-preserved people and so can probably cosplay all but the most truly
moei characters. But the question is which ones do we truly feel comfortable playing.
4.) Visual recognition. There are a bunch of character pairs we can think of that fit the bill for points 1 through 3 but which simply aren't very interesting to look at and wouldn't make for very splashy cosplay. We could easily go as
Keitaro and Mutsumi from
Love Hina, but it's not at all clear to us that people would even recognize that we were cosplaying.
With these criteria in mind, the best choice for us, as I've mentioned earlier, are Talho and Holland from
Eureka 7. Holland and Talho are actually approximately the same age and appearance as us, have similar enough hair as not to require much work, and have simple, straightforward costumes.
Well, maybe not. Talho starts off the series with a rather, um,
provocative get-up. She later decides it's time to become a little more mature in deed, speech and appearance and so switches to
a somewhat more conservative outfit. Sort of something Counselor Troi might go for. Trouble is, it's not the more popular costume for cosplayers; people seem to prefer
the earlier-model Talho instead. So TJ is having to sort of make this up as she goes along.
For me, I would just need
a specific color-scheme jacket, a yellow cravat and some boots that look like those calf-height Converse All-Stars from the 80's.
It's early enough until Sitacon that we could still change characters if something appeals to us more. If I was willing to repurpose and paint a bunch of football pads and motorcycle helmets, we could go as
Atsushi and Mai (far right, far left respectively) from
Gunparade March. And, if I could convince TJ to actually watch
Origins, we could go as
Agito and Tula.
It's fun just to think about all this. It's like going from being a passive consumer-
otaku to, in a weird way, "giving back" to the
otaku community.
|
Permalink
