So what is cosplay? It’s a portmanteau of “costume” and “role play”, originating in early Sci-Fi conventions, taken to Japan, and then exported back around the world. I like to think of it as performing a specific character without having to go through the audition process…

Anyway, people do cosplay for many reasons, and in the end, it’s because we find it fun in some way shape or form.

I cosplay because I enjoy bringing both the costuming and performance aspect together into one.  This post is going to be a bit longer than usual-I’m going to write about why I started cosplaying.    All following dialogue paraphrased from memory.

Once upon a time, I was watching a special on the original Transformers Series with my dad on “BotCon”. In one of the shots there was an Arcee and some other cosplayer, both costumes made out of cardboard, and my dad says “If you ever dress up like one of those I’ll disown you.” My dad denies that this ever happened. But for me, and my remembrance of it, made it so that cosplay (and by extension-conventions) was off the table.

Fast forward 7-8 ish years, and my mom asks me “Why don’t you ever go to conventions? I think they’d be perfect for you.” I relay the above incident, and my mom says she’ll talk to my dad.

The next time it’s just my dad and I, he asks “Alex, why don’t you go to conventions?” me (matter of factly):”You said you would disown me if I went to one.” dad: “No I didn’t.”

I made plans that day to go to my first convention in costume. And my mom helped as well. I love the Pretear manga (I more or less hate the anime from one episode-but that’s a different topic), and decided that I would use my own hair and do one of the more simple Pretears-the Plant Pretear.

My mom is a self-taught sewer, and does pretty awesome things, she helped me figure out how to make my costume from other clothing items and in the end-I had a wearable costume. And I had a ton of fun at Anime Banzai.

I think until I’ve got more pictures, I’ll continue this train of thought. So next week, more of Banzai.