Cosplaying and Roleplay!!

Hello everyone! It's me Ki-chan!

Yes, for once I did not use Japanese in my greeting like I normally do...why? Because I've been RPing as Arthur Kirkland/England/Britain/UK from Hetalia: Axis Powers. A little too much....I'm very attached to him. My friends will agree.

Anyway, this post will be about how to cosplay and roleplay as your favorite anime character. I'll also include some great cosplayers and cosplay sites, that are loved by my friends and I.


Cosplay~ If you new to the Otaku world, you probably don't know what Cosplay is. Cosplay is the words costume and playing put together. Basically what it means is that your dressing up as an anime character and your pretending to be that character. It's kinda like dressing up for Halloween, except you don't usually get candy and you can do it whenever you want. You can cosplay by yourself or in a group. If you go with the group option, it'll look best if your group is being characters from the same anime. Though you don't have to. For example my friend Haru-chan and I cosplayed at a con together, but she was Momo Adachi from Peach Girl and I was C.C. from Code Geass. Even though we were from two entirely different anime series, we still had fun cosplaying together.


Roleplay~ Roleplay is where you pretend to be an anime character...but you don't have to be dressed up, because it's usually online. RPing is usually done by two or more people, because it'd be hard to do multiple characters by yourself and/or totally boring. Trust me....It's way more fun with a bunch of friends then just in your head.



How to choose who to cosplay as:

• Think of the characters you like.(maybe even write a list)



• Out of those which do you think you could pull of the best??


• Are you going to make your costume? This is a very important decision! If you decide to make your costume, consider you sewing skills. Don't pick a character whose costume is extremely elaborate if your a beginner.


• If you buying a costume think about how much you want to spend. A good site that I know of is http://www.cosplaymagic.com/ They're reasonably priced(I've seen costumes that cost way more) and look well made. They also have a wide selection of costumes. Though I don't recommend buying a styled wig there.....For example: Orihime Inoue's simple long orange hair the wig is $46. The more complicated the wig, the more expensive the wig is. Otherwise it's a very good site.


• As a warning it's a good thing to know that if you cosplay a well known character, like Inuyasha, you can and will get glomped! Glomping is somewhere in between a hug and a tackle...and comes at random times!


• Will you need a wig for your cosplay?? Try buying from a wig store versus the ones they sell at Halloween. You'll find more styles and colors. Like I suggested earlier: DO NOT BUY A STYLED WIG!!! They can get really expensive and they're usually not very good for their price. But I you don't want to style your own, then go ahead and buy one. You can find cheaper styled wigs on Ebay versus some cosplay site.

Can't think of a good character?? Be one of your own characters. No one can say that your costume is wrong or that you shouldn't have picked them. Believe it or not, it's popular to cosplay as your origanal character...most likely for that reason.

Where do you cosplay? Well, that depends on how you feel really.

• Anime Conventions: Where most people cosplay and one of the few places you can without the stares. A vast majority of people at a con, cosplay. Very few do not. Which is half the fun, for example : "Look, Haru-nechan! It's a Kaname Kuran! He's really good!" or "NO WAY!!! IT'S AN ITACHI-SAMA!!!" (yeah, those two examples actually came out of my mouth earlier this year at a con)



• Anime Clubs: Other one where you'll fit right in. The anime club I attended had a specific cosplay day....though I'm sure you could cosplay any day there.



• Restaurants: Yes, there are people who do this. Typically though, they're people who were at the convention who got hungry and wanted something to eat other than what they had there. You can find videos on YouTube with people cosplaying in a restaurant. My personal favorite is one where a group of Akatsuki members(all of them) go into a McDonald's....way funny!



• Grocery Stores and Malls: No...I'm not joking. There are videos of this too. Like an Edward Elric shopping in a Walmart and a China/Wang Yao in a Sanrio store. Again these are my personal favorites, because anyone who's watched FMA knows that there is no Walmart in the FMA world....or anywhere that's not America for that matter. Also if you've seen or read any of the Hetalia series you know that China would totally geek out in a Sanrio store with nothing but Hello Kitty related items everywhere you look.



• The comfort of your own home: No one will give you odd looks there....other than your family. But if your like me and you geek out on anime/manga related items already, then that's nothing new. Some people like to cosplay and take video of themselves as their character doing a blog or something. These are very interesting to watch as well. Some people are really good at getting into character, which I'll cover soon.

Basically, you can cosplay anywhere you feel comfortable.....but expect stares and odd looks.

Now I want to cover how to get into character while cosplaying.

• Watch episodes your character is in: This will help you see how they talk, move, and react. For example: Say you want to cosplay Naruto. Watching the anime will show you that he always says "Believe it!" or in Japanese "Dattebayo~!" You'll also see that he's loud and loves to play pranks.
• Listen to their character songs: Sometimes these will tell you more behind the scenes information than the anime does. For Example: I learned recently that Arthur Kirkland has vacation homes in India and Hong Kong. I also learned that along with his magic he also can predict the future. Even if the character's song is instrumental only, it was written specifically for that character and listening to it will help you feel the character's personality even more.
• Practice facial expressions and poses: So that when people ask for your picture you can get into character for the photo. Posing for a photo makes the other person really happy and they'll think it's cool! I thought that the cosplays who posed were more fun then the ones that just stood there.

About Taking Photos:

• If you're being photographed: like I just said, please pose! It makes it way more fun for the other person.
• If you're taking the photo: As the cosplayer FIRST!! They may not want their picture taken and put on YouTube. If they say yes, wait for them to be ready. Don't just snap away, they might have a pose in mind. Be courteous to the cosplays and they'll have a good attitude about it and it'll make the interaction much more pleasant.
• After taking the photo: SAY THANK YOU!!!

Some amazing coplayers:

These where suggested by one of my friends

• http://anaaesthetic.deviantart.com/ Professional cosplayer (yes, they do exist and they're amazing)
• http://behindinfinity.devianart.com/ A male cosplayer (harder to find, but not unheard of)
• http://kellyjane.deviantart.com/
• http://tealpirate.deviantart.com/

A site where there are amazing cosplayers and they sometimes will tell you how the did it.

• http://acparadise.com/

NOTE: The most important thing about cospalying is....To have fun!! That's the whole point of it. Don't let anyone tell you that your costumes sucks or that you don't have the right body type for that character. As long as your having fun that's all that matters.

Now on to Roleplaying!!

• Everything I say on this topic is based off my personal experience. I'm still new to this and be no means an expert. Arthur Kirkland is the first character I've ever Roleplayed as.

Cosplaying and Roleplaying can go hand-in-hand. If you've Roleplayed that character it'll be easier to cosplay. I personally was going to make a Deidara from Naruto Shippuden costume, but since I've been Roleplaying Arthur Kirkland, I've learned more about him, then Dei-chan(my nickname for Deidara...might come up again later.) who I've loved for a long time.

A lot of anime forums will have RP areas and for several different series. Make sure that you read the rules and understand them before selecting your character. Most forums I've seen asks you to submit a practice piece where you write a short paragraph in character. This shows them that your committed and that your able to be that character.

OH NO! Your favorite characters have already been taken! What do you do??

No worries! Most RP forums will let you create an OC(original character) for that series. You'll just have to make a detailed profile for them, but since it's your character there's no right or wrong way to portray them.

Now I believe and my friends will agree that if you RP with friends it's much more fun! In our Hetalia RP we know at least one person in real life.

How do I stay in character?? Here's how I do it.

• Re-watch the episodes they're in:(same as in cosplay)
• Listen to character songs:(same reason as above)
• Find a site where it has the characters information: For example, when I first started RPing as Arthur I used the Hetalia Wiki page. It helped a lot. I referred back to it when I got stuck...and sometimes I still do, though not as often.

After awhile you'll get used to it and know how to react to different situations.

The fun part about RPing is that you can have your RP character do things they don't do in the anime or expand on something they do.

Examples using Arthur Kirkland(of course)

• Not in anime: Playing his guitar. I know he can, but he's never done that in the show.
• Expanding: Fights with France. Sometimes we cover fights that are in the anime...or just have more interesting ones. Like the time my England and her France started throwing objects at one another...

You can make your favorite pairing come to life! Though make sure the other half likes it too...

I hope this helps anyone who wants to cosplay or roleplay their favorite anime characters!

Remember, whether you're cosplaying or RPing make sure to have FUN!!!