Euro Cosplay October 2013

Where: London Expo / London Comic Con
When: October 2013

The London Expo has become very overcrowded the last few years as it's become more and more popular. One of the reasons for this is that they're trying to get on the same level of popularity as the Japan Expo in Paris (which is the largest geeky convention in Europe). So to compete with them and make more money they began running Euro Cosplay, it's only been going a few years but has become super popular. Each country runs its own competitions in various conventions and picks one or two entries for their country. The winner of those then gets flown to the UK for the competition in October where they get judged on their costume and skit.

Here's a video made as the introduction for the 2013 competition showing the entrees from the year before:

Video by ManyLemons who does photography and filming. Here are his Cosplay videos on YouTube

So because it's become so crowded and repetitive I decided to offer my services to help out. (I know Nert from ManyLemons and some of the other con event people who were involved in the EuroCosplay organisation) And after a few conversations I was asked to do the informal interviews of the contestants which was great because that's exactly what I did for my dissertation at Uni. Below are some of the photos of the contestants from the competition (unfortunately I couldn't get good ones of all of them):

Horo Cosplay - Spice and Wolf - Photographs

Where: AyaCon, UK
When: August 2011

Horo (which some people pronounce Holo) is one of my favourite characters from the novel turned anime/manga Spice and Wolf (狼と香辛料). She's a boisterous old wolf goddess who hires the help of a merchant to get back to her homelands. I love her because she's such a strong female character with her soft spot and she talks like an old Japanese lady, hahaha!

I put my foot in it for this costume though because I put it up for the masquerade and cosplay competition! It was the first time I'd ever entered a costume into a competition and although I didn't win anything the judges said it was a well done and accurate costume.

You can see the construction images of this costume on Horo Cosplay Construction.

Photographs by Nert at ManyLemons, who is a UK convention cosplay photographer.

Horo Photographs

Cosplay at Comiket - Photographs

When: January 2011
Location: Tokyo, Japan

Comiket, one of the most famous otaku spots in Japan, and one of the main reasons I went to Tokyo over the winter break while I was studying in Osaka in 2011. It was so long ago now but still I can remember it clearly. I wish I could have taken photos inside but you're not allowed in order to protect the identity of people who go. So the best representation I could find of what it is like was from the anime Genshiken (just imagine it being even more crowded, so much so that you can hardly move) :

Photographs

Simca from Air Gear Cosplay - Photographs

When: October 2009
Where: London MCM Expo (now called London ComicCon)


I did this costume with a group of my cosplaying friends and it's one of my favourites. I really enjoy the manga for Air Gear (haven't touched the anime with a barge pole) so the costume had to be based on the manga. I put tons of research into doing a sailor costume and worked really hard on painting the trouser leg. It turned out a lot better than I was expecting it to! I'm particularly proud because I made everything in this costume, from the hat to the trousers (obviously not the skates or the wig though).

I didn't take any progress pics for this costume.

Reference Pictures

This was practically the only reference picture I used. This and other images from the manga.

Photographs

Unfortunately spending a day skating around in the wind resulted in the wig getting very, very tangled.

Nausicaa Cosplay - Photographs

When: October 2009
Where: London MCM Expo (now called London ComicCon)

I love Ghibli so when a friend suggested cosplaying characters from it I jumped at the chance. I chose Nausicaa because I probably looked the most like her (she's not petit) and because I love blue. The costume itself wasn't that hard to do and I had a lot of fun making it. It was probably my first successful cosplays that I'd made so I'm still proud of it. The only problem was that I didn't practice posing so I look way too serious in all the photos when actually she's a very happy bubbly person.

I also wanted to make a prop with it so I made her flare gun. I got a lot of people saying "Nausicaa doesn't have a gun" (imitates pretentious voice). I'm guessing they'd never seen the film or read the manga where she clearly has a flare gun for the majority of the beginning.

The only thing I wasn't able to do were the gloves and her hat. I tried making a hat but it turned out too small, and I didn't have time to do the gloves. Note to self - I need to give myself more time before cons to get the entire costume done right. (More often than not I end up wearing the entire costume together on the day of the con...)


I didn't take any progress pictures of this costume unfortunately...

 Reference Pics

Photographs