I live for obscure cosplays LOL, there's nothing like hearing: "oh my god are you _____?" "YES! you're the only person that's recognized me so far!" you become best friends right then and there
ThatGuyYouKnowww That has been me! I did a Just Dance cosplay and lost my badge. While I was looking for it, somebody was like "Oh my God! Are you that coach?" It was gr8.
The major downside of obscure cosplays is, that you miss out on this "fan-love". You won't get recognized (or just very very rarely) and therefore people will come up less frequently to you. You also find NO tutorials on specific characterparts and sometimes not even many pictures on someone else cosplay of that character. On the bright side, this means you end up being unique at the convention. You don't run into an army of clones, people aren't bored of seeing that cosplay and you aren't easily compared to anyone else. For popular cosplays all of those points are reversed. The best of both worlds would be to make an obscure cosplay that is just HUGE and amazing with lots of details, wings and stuff going on. Something people look at and are amazed by so much, that it doesn't matter that they have no idea who you are supposed to be.
^^^ all of this. i cosplayed Cure Flora from Go! Princess Precure and while I got a ton of compliments, people seemed to generally think it was a Princess Peach redesign.
There's definitely downsides, but it's awesome to get people who tell you "you're the first X cosplay I see!". But I like having both, you get the best of both worlds in a sense.
F. Jinxy depends on who you're choosing, and your skill level! if you have experience creating/modifying patterns it's much easier but it's a little intense for a first cosplay i think.
I notice that when i cosplay lesser known characters(at least in my small country), I'm usually recognized a lot more by the artist's in the artist's alley. One of my fonder memories is of cosplaying Shizuo from Durarara and hearing a bunch of artists shouting the characters lines as I passed :')
TooCoolForUsernames I KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN!! I got stopped going through a gallery as Markiplier by a girl who hopped over the front counter of her booth and chased me down so she could get a pic of me infront of her Markiplier prints lol
A few years ago, I cosplayed as Martha Jones from Doctor Who, and as a little blonde girl cosplaying one of the least popular modern companions who also isn't white, I was expecting to go completely unrecognized. However, I had my red leather jacket and my styled hair, and I was ready to go out and be my favorite companion even if no one else understood. It was still disheartening, however, when even Doctor Who cosplayers I went up to didn't recognize me. Still, I soldiered on and was completely blind-sided when someone came to me halfway through the day at lunch and said, "Hey, are you Martha Jones?" The absolute thrill of being recognized was so electric that to this day, probably 6 or 7 years later, I can still remember this moment precisely and with the same joy. I wish I could meet that person again some day and thank them, because to this day she has helped me to have a level of confidence when cosplaying characters I love that I don't think I would have had otherwise.
Oh. My. God. You, my friend, are a legend. I honestly (being a white blonde girl) would probably never get up the courage the be her... But you are so cool!!! Holy cow, I don't know what to say!
I don't normally comment on videos, but I learned a valuable lesson just this weekend at FanExpo in Toronto about doing popular cosplays - particularly in a group. My friends and I did Goddess versions of the eeveelutions and we kept getting stopped every ten steps for people to take pictures of us and ended up being stuck in pose for a good five to ten minutes while people took pictures. While it was really fun in the beginning, it got really exhausting really quick and it was hard to actually travel to the places and panels we wanted to get to. By the end of the day, we were all just sitting around a table eating and trying to relax and people were still taking pictures of us despite the fact that we were stuffing our faces with food. So yeah, there's definitely pros and cons to doing popular cosplays. xD
Something similar happens with three pokempn cosplayers I met at a con. One was red from the first game, but the big winner was the two friends who did shifts in a pikachu mascot suit. They said they'd been hug attacked in the street by random twenty somethings and it took them 2 hours to make a 20 minute journey. They couldn't leave the large center area of the buyers hall because they were so mobbed.
Okay so i know its a webcomic but i don't actually know where i can read it. Ive seen so many fandom posts of it and stuff but i dont know where i can find the original thing. Is the original thing even still up anywhere? Please help
Mwahahahahahahahaha if you're planning to read it welcome to hell. Homestuck just died and now it's coming back cause of hiveswap, you'll sell your soul to hussie and never be able to escape.
For the "quality over quantity" thing you mentioned: I was at a con recently and I saw this amazing cosplayer running a booth dressed as Shin Ah from Yona of the Dawn and I FREAKED out bc she was amazing and her eyes lit up and she was SO happy. We had this amazing conversation and I hope she's running her booth again next year!! (She's been running it for the two years I've been going so far lol)
I've always wanted to cosplay OCs of mine and my mom is always like "why would you want to cosplay something that no one knows" I just want to make my rad designs irl for me not for anyone else
I'm cosplaying Coraline for my next convention and I'm not sure what's going to happen. I think it's probably in the middle between popular and obscure, but I'll still keep my expectations down just in case. At the end of the day, it's a cosplay I'm really excited for and I get to go with one of my best friends, so it'll be loads of fun either way!
I think I like cosplaying from the “middle ground” mostly. Popular series or media that people enjoy, but minor characters that you don’t really see get cosplayed that often. That way, people recognize you and you’re one of the only cosplayers doing that character!
I've always cosplayed well known characters, but my less-well known(?) character I've cosplayed was probably Star Butterfly. (Star is popular but it seems a bit more niche compared to other anime/video games/cartoons). Star has definitely been my favorite cosplay I've done so far! Not only did I feel super cute as her, but seeing people recognize me and get super excited just brightened my day. A girl even came up to me and started swooning over my hand made wand and decorated boots. I got a few comments throughout the con, but that girl will forever bring me joy when I cosplay Star.
This is a tricky one 🤔 For me, I prefer cosplaying more well-known characters (I don’t just cosplay for that reason, but it’s more fun when you’re recognised and people get excited to see that character). For example, when I was cosplaying Deidara to a con, I little boy asked if he could have a photo with me because he loved the Akatsuki. He was so sweet, and bringing characters to life is one of my favourite parts of cosplay, and I love seeing people happy as a result of cosplay😊 Also, all the people saying ‘WHAT IS TRUE ART, DEIDARA?’ was entertaining 😂👌🏻 However, I cosplayed a more obscure cosplay to a con recently, Nine from Terror In Resonance, which was a totally different experience. It was super fun as this anime is close to my heart and deserves recognition. Only one person recognised me and my friend though (who was cosplaying Twelve) but they were super excited to see us. That one person being that happy to see us made my day though 🙏🏻 Plus, we were unique as I’ve never seen anyone else in real life cosplay from this anime, so it was amazing to be able to bring it to life 😊
I choose my cosplay depending on what I like and who I'll feel best cosplaying as. I don't really care if its obscure or well-known I just do what I want and have fun.
i just need to say i love how well spoken you are. you make your points clear and always remind your viewers that cosplay is about having fun and being yourself. this is why i love your videos. you give such great information and are so friendly that, as a viewer, i feel a connection with you when watching your videos. I've been considering to start cosplaying and i know 100% that i will watch your videos for help. thanks for such a great channel! and happy (late) birthday!!
Oh my goodness you have no idea how blown away I am by your comment. Thank you so much, hearing all of this seriously means so much! ❤ (I was actually really worried that I was super rambly and unclear when doing this video, so your comment was incredibly reassuring! ) Thank you again so much for your kind words and amazing encouragement, I'm so incredibly grateful!!
I went to a con a few weeks ago and I went as a character that was kind of in the middle (with this version at least), I went as Welcome to the madness Yurio and I was worried that not many people would recognise me or come up for photos and all that, I was very wrong though and people asked me for photos a lot and would start up a conversation with me, I had someone on the train talk to me and I also made a really good friend who was cosplaying Yuuri Katsuki and we just would talk when we would see each other roaming around the con floor
AngelLife Hufflepuff yurio is extremely no where close to the middle its like the highest lol (tho i dont see alot of ppl cosplaying welcome to the madness)
I cosplayed aya as well and I got recognized so much I was so surprised! Did you have the chainsaw? I made one so maybe that's why. Haha. But I was so happy people knew who I was because I love aya!
Your videos always make me have to comment, so good going Anya! My second ever cosplay was incredibly obscure, she was from a Dungeons & Dragons comic and no one knew who she was, even after I explained it. The second convention I wore her to was New York Comic-Con, and both the artist and author for they comic were there. I saw them both and they both immediately recognized me and were really happy. They'd never had anyone cosplay their characters before. The artist drew a sketch of her for me and it was incredible. They were as happy to see me as I was to see then.
That's awesome! I hope someday I meet the author of something I cosplay from. There aren't many more lengths you can go to show your love for something! What's the comic, if I may ask?
There's a lot of obscure characters on my To Cosplay list. For me, it's often a mixture between 'I'd love to see someone cosplay this character, I'd love to see it around!' and 'I love this piece of media/character, I want to show that in a visible way!'. And, like you said, when you're cosplaying an obscure character, you don't expect to get recognized, but, when you do, it makes it really special. Like, I just did Kahlan Amnell from Legend of the Seeker, and I had a guy come up to me SUPER excited because it's his favorite book series, he completely fanboyed out. And it made me even happier to know that I made someone's day that much better by bringing a character they love as much as I do to life. And on the flip side, when I do a Disney Princess or Lady Loki it's equally as fun and exciting to get stopped and recognized often. I love doing both and as long as I'm portraying a character I love, I'm always going to have a good time.
i've noticed that my favorite cosplays are obscure characters from popular shows like Axca from voltron or like background characters when you meet people from your fandom it like and inside joke and its really fun!
I really liked you explaining both sides of the cosplay spectrum. At the moment I only cosplay 'obscure' cosplays and I honestly love that. My first cosplay was Sam Manson from Danny Phantom and I didn't expect that quite a few people would come up to me and tell how much they love this as their childhood show. Because I cosplayed Sam some friends started rewatching it and I ended up with Danny Phantom cosplay group this year ^^ I also cosplay Homestuck which is nowadays barely cosplayed in my country but when I do see a fellow Homestuck it's always a lot of fun :) And last but not least I feel like the lesser known cosplays however end up doing it well on social media, so you might not always have a connection at a con but online there will always be :D
I cosplayed Cecil/Kevin from welcome to night vale and as an extremely obscure character from an extremely obscure podcast with no canonical form it made me immensely happy when one person jumped out of the line they were waiting in for food and came up to me and complimented me on my costume! I thanked them immensely and said that even though they were the only person who noticed, their compliment made my day😄
I did an obscure character from a popular series a few years ago, and I've worn this costume a lot. People will recognize what the character is from, but 99% of the time people are getting the character completely wrong. It was a cosplay from Inuyasha, and I got called, Kikyo, Kagura, Kagome and Kaguya all in one day. Even if I carried around my Inuyasha plushie like a baby, or was with an Inuyasha cosplayer no one got it. I think 2 people in the 4-7 times I've worn it have gotten it right that I was cosplaying Inuyasha's mother.
I've done a cosplay that's kinda in the middle of the spectrum of popular and obscure. RWBY from Rooster Teeth isn't like as popular as Overwatch or Steven Universe, but is more popular than shows that don't even really have a fandom. It's especially kind of hard to get recognized when you're not doing the main protagonists. And when I cosplayed Neo (an antagonist & my favorite character) I got a good amount of people who did notice and take pictures of me, but a lot of the time people would recognize my friend who was cosplaying Ruby (the main protagonist), and then sometimes would recognize me after. So I think it doesn't only depend on the series but also on which character you cosplay from the series that determines how much recognition you'll get while cosplaying them. But I completely agree with you on the fact that it should matter more what you think and how much you'll enjoy being the character, rather than what other people think and how much they enjoy - or dislike - certain characters.
Kandy The Kat I did a yang cosplay and a kaori (your lie in april) cosplay in a weekend, on the Saturday I did a punk yang and got alot of people recognise me, On the Sunday morning I did a kaori cosplay and I got like 3 people recognise me and 1 of them asked for a photo, and in the evening I did a volume 4 yang and got a couple of people recognise me and got mistaken a good few times for a female ed from full metal alchemist, just goes to show how popular doesn't always mean best
AmyIsCreating lol, true. When I was Neo I still had a ton of fun and got really happy when people did recognize me. I also cosplayed You Watanabe from Love Live to a really small, local comic con and didn't expect to be recognized at all, but a couple people did which made me REALLY happy! I was just saying that the character in the series You cosplay also factors into whether it's considered "popular" or will be well-recognized.
I plan on being Ruby's mum Summer Rose, I very much doubt I'd be recognise as much as i am as Yang. My boyfriend being Qrow will be more recognised than me. Not that I care.
One of my favorite cosplays thus far has been Nana Osaki from the series of the same name, Nana. It's an older series that has been on an indefinite hiatus for years, and it's definitely for a more mature audience, but I love it to bits. (I suggest you check it out if you haven't read or watched it yet!!) My best friend cosplays Hachi with me, and it was our dream for the longest time to be able to cosplay the girls to a con. We finally did almost a year ago at the River Valley Arkansas Anime Festival, and even though we only got recognized a few times, we had a blast!! The Nanas mean so much to us because we connect with them so strongly as people, and being able to fulfill one of my cosplay dreams with one of my absolute best friends in the whole world (and getting to fulfill her cosplay dream with her!) still remains to be one of my favorite cosplay memories. The passion that I have for not only the series, but for the character and the relationships she has with others remains to be one of the reasons why I started cosplaying in the first place. It's like nothing else.
For me the thing is I feel left out most of the time when cosplaying an old obscure character. I will get the few that do recognize the cosplay and treasure those recognitions but Because anime has become more mainstream with you much younger people, most of you will only recognize the most mainstream anime for the last couple of years 2007 to present Ouran High, Naruto, to Soul Eater, Gurren Lagan, to Durarara, Hetalia and Attack in Titan. A lot of you cosplaying are teens to early 20s. How many people are gonna recognize my Kiyone cosplay from Tenchi Muyo?! I'll still enjoy it.
OMG... Like nothing makes me feel older than cosplaying neo-queen serenity from sailor moon and getting many people not recognize it... "oh, I have not seen it". Wow. And I'll recognize Tenchi and think it's super cool!
One thing about more obscure cosplays that I love is it’s a great way to get other people interested in that fandom. I’ve gone up to people who were dressed as more obscure characters and asked about who they were and the series they were from. It’s definitely helped me learn more and gotten me interested in some things I might not have known about otherwise
I cosplayed as Jim West recently. Now I know what you're thinking, "OMG ew that movie sucked why did Will Smith even do it!" I would like to correct you, I was cosplaying 1960s TV show/1970s/80s TV movies Jim West, played by Robert Conrad. Literally nobody recognized me until they were told who I was. But you know what? I had fun, which is what matters! In fact the next day I cosplayed as Bucky/Winter Soldier and several people asked for pictures, so I got a day to look around, and a day to take a loooot of photos
I know what you mean! I cosplayed Levi during the attack on Titan cosplay craze lol I think the most obscure I've gone was Hibari from KHR & my best moment from cosplaying him was I was with my friend (who was cosplaying Eren Jäeger) and a girl came up to my friend and she was like "can I get a picture" and I (sitting on the floor) offered to take the photo for her and she did a dead stop and went all quiet. Then she asked really quietly if I was Hibari Kyoya from KHR and when I nodded she lit up and asked if she could have a photo of "Eren" and "Hibari" about to fight and it was honestly one of my favorite moments while cosplaying
The Lord of the Rings/Hobbit fandom has certainly died down since the final movie came out, but Tauriel is one of my favourite characters of all time so I'm definitely going to be cosplaying her as my first handmade cosplay. Thankfully the Metroid fandom is rising again considering the new releases, so I'm very excited to cosplay as Samus in the near future as well. My first cosplay ever was of Makise Kurisu from Steins;Gate and I wore it along with my boyfriend who went as Okabe Rintarou and we were recognized but not as much as many other characters. I didn't see too many other Makise cosplays but when I did it was so great because we'd wave at each other or talk in lines from the show which made the experience pretty great
I went to a con last weekend and I saw over 50 people cosplaying as Sans from Undertale, and it was honestly so cool because every single cosplayer looked different, they all put their own spin on the character and it was so cool seeing the "same" cosplay done in a completely unique way
I was thinking of doing Jim lake from TrollHunters. He's very easy to cosplay, you legit just need to buy the wig and have good makeup for him. I was debating on doing it because i knew i wasn't going to get a big chance on getting recognized and you explained everything so well and gave me some confidence if I'm up for cosplaying him eventually
i cosplay an anime called "hetalia" i look back at the past years like 2011 and the hetalia cosplay community was quite large. now its quite small but i was really happy when someone recognised me when i was cosplaying Italy casually. it was hot so its a big no to wear his outfit. I'm going as a hetalia character again in October to mcm London comic con.
I was in the hetalia fandom back when it was huge and now I kinda just got back into it and really want to cosplay hetalia again and I'm just so scared everyone will recognize me but be like "omg no one does that anymore get with the times loser"
I got a panda and decent sized polar bear plush to do a Canada cosplay.... My dad hid it and I haven't seen Kuma since... Also I still don't have a Hetalia cosplay. I'd still like to.
I'm really happy for finding this video because in about 2 weeks I'm cosplaying Anthy Himmemia from Revoulanty girl Utena and I absolutely love her but I was really nervous because I've only done well-known cosplays before, and this video made me feel a lot better about cosplaying her. Thank you so much!
Well, last year I cosplaied Duo Maxwell from Gundam Wing. I had a blast, but it made me realize very quickly that not a lot of people recognized it. So when people recognized me, it made each one all the more special. Though this year, I'm pretty sure more people will recognize me. I'm gonna cosplay Sakura from Cardcaptors in her Final Juedgement costume and her costume from the second movie.
parvati009 gundam wing is my OG gundam series. From the many conventions I've been to, I have only ever seen one person cosplay a character from the series, a Duo Maxwell, and I 'bought near had a complete freak out, I was so excited. I love that you chose to go as one of the characters, considering how classic and, at this point, under the radar that series is.
Yep, he's my favorite character from that series. And another plus is that I didn't need a wig, I already have brown hair down to about my waist. I also usually braid it, though I didn't really bother with the bangs. Considering that I had the hat, I don't want to cut my hair just for a cosplay, and I couldn't for the life of me get the clip in bangs I got to cooperate.
Personally, I like wearing Zelda because I get so many people who recognize me and want a picture, especially kids and it's magical for them and it's awesome, but it's kind of exhausting having to be social when I'm a huge introvert, and it can be to the point of not being able to walk around the dealers' room because I get asked for a picture every couple minutes. It's cool to be popular, but I like also having more casual, obscure costumes when I just want to walk around in peace. But I also have a costume that even a lot of fans don't recognize (Curie from Fallout 4). Quite a lot of people played the game and cosplay from it, but the character is kind of "hidden" I guess? There's a lot of steps to finding her, you have to go to a specific place that isn't particularily one the game leads you to, leave and come back a few days later, complete a quest where you find her but she's a robot, then recruit her as a companion, travel with her for a while, she gives you another quest to complete and if you do you can finally put her in a human body. Suffice to say, only a fraction of players find her on their own. But I don't mind, I feel cute in it and it's quite comfortable and practical to walk around in.
I love “fandom connection“ moments. For me my first cosplay was Ty Lee from Avatar the Last Airbender. I bumped into a girl dressed as Azula and we immediately knew we had to take photos together. We talked for a little while and it was a nice experience
I absolutely love that someone else knows and has watched that ghost busters cartoon. I watched that show with my siblings when it was coming out. Ah, childhood
Oh my gosh that's so awesome!! I only started watching it this year (20 years late to the party oops ^^'), but it's really awesome to hear that so many remember it and that they watched it when they were younger! >w
I totally agree. Cosplay is supposed to be fun. When you do it for others and not for yourself or you do it and just wait for someone to walk up to you and compliment you and stuff like that, it just takes away all the fun that you should have while cosplaying. Last year I've cosplayed as Mio Akiyama from K-on in the dress from Don't Say Lazy ending and just one girl took a photo with me and I was totally fine since I just love Mio and I was happy to cosplay as her. This year I decided to instant cosplay as Yuuri Katsuki from Yuri on Ice and I was seriously shocked about how many people actually recognized me as him since I just bought some clothes and glasses and wore a wig..I met so many wonderful people by cosplaying as Yuuri and I even got pulled into the cosplay competition by a friend to help her out and we won ^~^ I actually made a more popular version of him thanks to a girl that I met this year, she encouraged me a lot and I'm really proud of myself for being able to finish it and it actually doesn't look that bad for my first ever cosplay that I made myself and it took me barely a week to make it from the beginning..so I'm really happy and I'm totally going to do more cosplays without paying attention to how popular or not the character is ;3
Thanks for making this video, I really enjoyed it and it's helped me with my own cosplay decisions! Whenever I do a cosplay, I really enjoy putting my own spin on it, and I especially enjoy genderbending. I'm a girl, so I like to make male character cosplays into something more overtly feminine; one character I've done this with is Grand Admiral Thrawn (the Star Wars Rebels version.) This is one character that's already not super well-known, but just in posting pictures of my cosplay online, I've had a great reaction from other Rebels die-hards. Now I'm thinking of species-bending a creature from the same series, and making it into a human cosplay to wear for my first time at Star Wars Celebration this coming spring. I've been hesitant to actually do it, because I'm not sure how many people will pick up on what I'm trying to do, but I think I'll go for it anyway, because I know that the people who DO notice will be my people. 😁
This really made me happy because I'm going to a con tomorrow as a very obscure character (that I haven't finished the full outfit for even). And I know if even one person recognizes me for a character who stood out to me in this show I recently got into that was created 3-4 years ago, I will be so so happy!
I usually recognize the obscure and i get so happy when i see them. Last con had indie game cosplays like aya from mad father and bendy and the ink machine
Super late but he here's my story: I dressed up as a character from a semi-popular cartoon short and no one really asked for photos expect for this dude who was playing the sidekick and he was an awesome person. I wish we could met up again lol
Every year at Fan Expo Vancouver I cosplay as Thundarr The Barbarian. Most people don’t get who I’m dressed as and I usually get mistaken for He-Man, and occasionally Conan. I usually dress as Thundarr on the first couple of days of the convention, then on the last day I dress up as something a little easier and more recognizable, like Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers. I haven’t gone as Leatherface yet, but I might try that one in the future (I have the costume, I just have only ever worn it for Halloween so far).
i love to cosplay as support characters and villains because everyone is so used to seeing main protagonists that they get so much more excited to see other characters from the show/movie/game/comic/etc. People who dress as main characters actually flip out the most because theyre like I NEED A PICTURE WITH YOU.
My first cosplay was a character from the Discworld books and no one knew who he was . . . until I was walking past someone dressed like Negan. (and this guy looked like he just stepped off the set) who pointed Lucille at me and said "Rincewind?" and I was over the moon.
Yeah, I totally get this! I went to an anime convention in Atlanta last year, and one of the days I cosplayed as a “breakdance” Evillustrator from Miraculous Ladybug, and I think all of two people recognized me, but since one of those people happened to be the English voice actor of Hawkmoth, Keith Silverstein, it ended up being totally worth cosplaying! So, obscurity can be fun too!
my major problem whenever i go to cons is that one of my favorite cosplays is manga-only, and pretty late in the series, whereas a lot of the fandom at cons only watches the anime, so i don't get recognized a lot lol. i also cosplay a lot of book characters that don't have official art of them so i almost never get approached in those cosplays :')
It's a good thing that obscure cosplays are fine, because while I've never had the opportunity to cosplay, if I ever do, ain't NO one gettin' most o' mine. I am into some super-obscure stuff. For instance, there's a Golden Age superhero named Micro-Face. I relish the thought of cosplaying as him, because then, when bemused people ask me who I am, I can proclaim dramatically 'I am MICRO-FACE!' and strike a pose.
I always goes as obscure stuff (mainly Touhou Project characters, for those who know) and when someone tell me like "hey, are you that character?" And get it right, we become instantly friends. And even when no one no the character, I'm still happy to have a "special" cosplay (well, all cosplays are haha)
Finally someone who talks about Touhou!! Its sad that in the west is not as popular as in japan :(. I'm planning a Utsuho Reiuji cosplay for next year! :D
I can sort of relate because I personally LOVE the Ninjago fandom and Fairy Oak...and these dont even have major fandoms to them. Still, I spent a whole afternoon making plans to cosplay one day as Pythor from Ninjago, so this somewhat made me happy--
Man, extreme ghostbusters is so good and so underrated like the men in black the animated series. Also Kylie was like my very first gay crush, so I love and respect my goth wife and people who cosplay her 🖤🖤
It's interesting that your takeaway and focus is really on 'the positive con experience' and personal love of the cosplay. I wonder how your perspective may have evolved since this video! Another aspect of this topic that could also be discussed is the downsides. Possible negative con experiences from popular cosplays because of people vocally comparing outfits, and having to constantly explain what you are for obscure cosplays. Also I think that the different reasons people pick which cosplay to do could be touched on. I personally pick based on how visually impressive it is and how accurately I physically match the character (obviously nobody else is beholden to this restriction I place for myself). I like complicated cosplays that challenge me and couldn't care less about the series or character themselves. Other people apparently pick based on getting to roleplay as the character, and whatever they want to embody in the halls and onstage is their driving motivation. Then there are people like you who seem to choose based on personal love for a character or series. And people who chose based on what they think will be easiest/within their skill level or budget. And as your video pointed out, people who choose based on how popular a character or series is. I feel like a lot of other factors go into what might be chose, and I'd be interested to hear how you think the above 'types' would factor into choosing popular or obscure cosplays. Always fun to watch you on here, keep up the great work!
Last June I cosplayed edd from Eddsworld.. had his hoodie, smeg head shirt, lucky can and all. It was fun to be him, but throughout the day no one really recognized me. That’s until we were actually getting ready to leave, somebody called to me and said “I like your edd” and I was so shocked; I smiled and shouted “YOU KNOW WHO I AM?! THANK YOU!” Lmao,, That one interaction made it a bit more worth it.
btw. What I said in my last comment about being Shireen, that most dont reconzie here. When they do its indeed a perfect moment. One lady started crying as soon as she saw me, she was like ; can i give you a hug? Im so sorry for what they have done to you :O . .awwwhh
I like to cosplay lesser-known versions of popular characters. For example, I have cosplayed Professor Xavier from the flashback scene at the opening of X-Men: The Last Stand, when Charles and Erik go to meet Jean Grey for the first time at her parents' house when she was a child. Charles is already bald but still walking & using his powers (which does not fit with the new timeline) and he is wearing a light brown tweed sport coat, a white polo shirt, and a dark pair of trousers (as opposed to his usual three-piece suit). I anticipated that no one would recognize this cosplay (as even I only vaguely recalled this scene and had to watch it again for a costume reference), so I wore a name tag that read, "Hello, my name is McAvoy or Stewart?" (I left implied the part about "These timelines are so confusing.") People would recognize the line from Deadpool and get a chuckle out of it, but they would not realize that I was in full cosplay until I showed them a still frame from the scene in question (which I had printed out & brought with me). At that point, the reaction was rather consistently, "I forgot about that scene!" followed by delirious laughter. No one recognized the cosplay without the visual aid.
Honestly if I saw a sea of cosplayers all in the corps uniform it would likely look so cool. Because look at it! All these people showing their love for this show, and this ended up with the result of a small army, in uniform
I wanna cosplay Ken kaneki because the anime and manga had a big impact on my life, but I wanted to make this cosplay unique by doing the centepede kagune...any tips?
Unpopular_ Girl okay so I made the kagune with the four "arms" and i basically looked up a tutorial on cosplay amino, where you would cut out rectangles out of cardboard that get smaller and smaller and then you roll them up into a tube and you stick all the tubes together and form the shape of the kagune. Just search on amino for the tutorial or you can check my Instagram for reference (iteza_cosplay) I hope I helped you! :3
Unpopular_ Girl I'm sure it will turn out just fine! :3 I just remember it being A LOT of work. But I was so proud of it in the end :3 and doing a face full of blood make up for kaneki is always fun :D
my favorite is cosplaying characters that are well known but you don't usually see people cosplaying as them. Old cartoon characters like Danny Phantom that make people feel nostalgic are always fun. or putting a twist on characters that are a bit more popular like combining Chat Noir with Westly from the Princess Bride. that way you're probably the only person at the con dressed as them, but people will still recognize you a lot. it also helps when the costume just looks really cool in general, cause even people that have no clue who you are might ask for a photo lol
I cosplayed as Reigen Arataka year, but not normal Reigen, schoolgirl Reigen when he was breaking into an all girls school. Very obscure, compared to the sea of Dekus you see (nothing against those Dekus, in fact I pray for their safety from crazy fans) so I was worried no one would get it. Not a lot of people did, but the people who DID get it thought it was so funny and excitedly asked for photos. It was super heart warming and got me excited to cosplay more considering it was my first one
Extreme Ghostbusters was the show that inspired me to catch my school's rumored resident ghost with a 'machine' that I made with paper clips and metal stuff when I was 8 lmao. I'm glad there are other people who remember it!!! KYLIE'S A BADASS!!!!!! :^)
The fun thing about obscure cosplays is when people ask you about it, you can bring people to know about the show and that it exists. Start creating a fandom, more people to enjoy it with. i cosplayed Ladybug and not many people knew it, and a good handful that did know it where I found another Ladybug and Adrien. So it was fun and other people found out about the show and could watch it themselves if they want to!
I really resonate with your story about Kylie, there’s this French cartoon that I’ve loved ever since I was a literal toddler and I wish I were kidding when I say that I want to cosplay every single character (I even want to do the stereotypical annoying mean girl that I don’t like) but I’ve held off on it because of the unpopularity. Your enthusiasm about the ghostbusters cartoon was really adorable and it only got me more excited for this future cosplay. Your videos cheer me up quite a bit I hope you have a lovely day/night !!!
I cosplayed Dipper and I met a group of people cosplaying Mabel, Bill and Soos! It was really fun to act in character and the Bill Cipher cosplayer was really good at impressions :D
I've done a mix of things. One of the more popular series I'm making cosplays for currently is Jjba but It's still characters you don't see as often and (Diavolo and Doppio) A really exciting obscure cosplay I got recognized in was Graham from Baccano. I didn't get recognized a lot but when I did it was so exciting. Lastly I did my own orginal character and while I didn't really get stopped for pics I was so invested in the design that it felt awesome to finally wear. I paid to get cosplay photos done of it at the con and if you can afford it I'd definitely recommend doing so because then you at least have those to look back on.
I remember when I wore Kida and Popuri to AE 2015 I had the same kind of Kylie moments that you had where they people who DID know who I was cosplaying would come up and we would have some really heartfelt conversations about the movie/game and just have a really good bonding experience?? Like, I didn't think Popuri would go over well, but I had a lot of people come up to me and say how Popuri was their favourite bachelorette from the old Harvest Moon games and it made me feel so good! Also side note, I'm really diggin' these storytime videos. Your vlogs are great, but getting to hear your view on things and your personal experiences is really good for background noise for me :'D
I like to think I have found the balance - I'm planning to go to comic con as Hatsume Mei from Boku No Hero Academia. The show is very popular but she herself is a bit of a side character, so hopefully people will recognise me without there being swarms of Hatsume clones 😂
I think it's fun to do popular cosplays and try to make them better than other peoples or better made. That's also fun because a lot of people recognise you so you can get plenty photos with other people from your fandom and lots of people want pics of/with you
I usually cosplay characters obscure cartoons (though not as obscure as the ghost busters cartoon). It's actually quite nice finding out how many people do recognize those characters and tell me they thought no one else liked those shows. Most recently was my Lord Dominator cosplay from Wander over Yonder, that has a tiny fandom next to GF and SvtFoE. I got recognized way more than I expected, and most of the people who recognized the character were pretty damn excited.
My first cosplay was Schierke from Berserk. Nobody knew who I was except for like three people who were Guts, and one Griffith, and the look on their faces when I found them at the con made my day. I'm pretty sure they didn't stop smiling after I left.
Next year I'm planning on completing a very obscure vocaloid character named Utatane Piko. He's gonna be my first full cosplay (I did a random killer T-cell cosplay a few months back) It'd be fun to see how many people would recognize me but I've been wanting to cosplay as him when I first saw his design a decade ago.
I went as Final Haikyuu Quest Kageyama once and i legit did not expect anyone to know what that was because it's such a small part of an already small fandom (at the time) and I had not seen any haikyuu cosplayers at cons in my country before. But there were some who did and they were so excited that someone is doing that thing that's really cool (i mean comparing volleyball to an original medieval fantasy au) and that was great. But then there was also a kid who asked if I was supposed to be Levi xD. Can't blame him. Black short hair, green cape, white pants, black boots, hmmm I wonder who Kageyama's design was based on...
I’ve given a panel on How To Choose A Cosplay and I highlighted a lot of these points too. First and foremost, you should choose a character you love, then from there decide what you want from it. There are times where I want to wow a lot of people and get a lot of pictures, and there are times when I’m fine with being lowkey and hanging out and conversing with just the people in that fandom.
Liking or even knowing who the character is has never been a factor in how I choose what to cosplay and I think that's a valid position that gets neglected in the cloud of feel-good 'pick someone you love!!!'. I pick based on how closely I can physically match the character and how visually spectacular I think it is and then aim to recreate it as faithfully as possible. And I have always had a blast doing it that way! My very first cosplay was Yue Ying from Dynasty Warriors 5, and I had to work from concept art and stuff because it hadn't been released yet. I'd never played a dw game, couldn't even be sure how to pronounce her name, but none of that mattered a whit because I got to go wild flexing my creativity muscles to make it happen on a tiny budget (and to this day I think it turned out great!). My motivation isn't less fun for me just because I lack an emotional connection to the character, and I hope that this was able to give you some insight that may be helpful in possible future panels or discussions!
My very favorite and FIRST (true) cosplay I ever did was Levi Ackerman. I have a bit of an obsession with Levi (^-^;). I rp online as him, a lot of my accounts are in his name, and, yeah ppl mak fun of me, but idc. Everyone said the fandom was dead and that thesecond season would never come, but I was geared up last March and I was being laughed at, but I WAS RIGHT AND ON APRIL FIRST SEASON 2 CAME OUT! AND IN MAY THERE WAS A SEA OF AOT COSPLAYERS AGAIN! (I dressed as Levi) there were lots of Levis. (please don't think I'm cosplay shaming, i'm 5'3'' and ive cosplayed Grell Sutcliff who in the show is a skyscraper). I got a lot of attention at the con, even though I wasn't the only Levi. The reason being, because I was a very ACCURATE Levi. like I said, I'm 5'3", and weigh about 110-120lbs. ......most Levi's at the con were either too tall or were less fit than I was. I was also the ONLY person who cosplayed Levi from the No Regrets OVA. Both Eren and Mikasa's English voice actors were at the convention (as well as the lead female singer in most aot songs). Eren and Mikasa's voice actors BOTH broke the con rules to give me 2 signatures. ....Later at the aot panel, I had my friend Hanji with me, and we had to sit tward the back. Hanji was a staff member and had to leave halfway through the panel and I was left all alone with a giant furry in front of me. eventually, Eren's voice actor pointed at me and said "you!". I started hyperventilating and blushing. I screamed "CAN YOU SAY 'HEICHOU, I LOVE YOU?'" they couldn't see me.... I stood up... they couldn't see me. I STOOD ON MY CHAIR AND SAID "Sorry I'm short!" and the ppl around laughed, bc I'm a goddamn midget. Something crazy happened then.... they called me on stage with them..... I was about to cry, mikasa looked concerned, "no, no! don't cry!" I was serious af when I replied "I spent an our making the wings even on my eyeliner, I am NOT crying today!" then...um... this moment was a thing... ua-cam.com/video/rYyhO3WmJvY/v-deo.html
I haven't been able to go to any cons yet but one day when I do I will bring my sasako cosplay (shirokuma cafe) and my bf as honda and if anyone recognizes us I will probably explode from excitement. I'd probably also bring himiko (drv3) and jirou (mha) and get recognized several times for those lol so a day where I dont get recognized often might even be a nice break
I usually choose to cosplay characters from media who have really made an impact on my life and while my favorite animated show is pretty mainstream, my favorite video game is less popular than say Mario or Zelda or Fallout, but I fell in love with it and I want to give love to the developers in the best way a cosplayer can!
I live for obscure cosplays LOL, there's nothing like hearing:
"oh my god are you _____?"
"YES! you're the only person that's recognized me so far!"
you become best friends right then and there
Heck yes, you're so right! :D It's such an amazing experience when that happens!
ThatGuyYouKnowww That has been me! I did a Just Dance cosplay and lost my badge. While I was looking for it, somebody was like "Oh my God! Are you that coach?" It was gr8.
Avenger of Fallen Rhyme oh what! You did a just dance cosplay, that's amazing! Haha
👌👌👌
ThatGuyYouKnowww I was Romania from Hetalia in October and a few people recognised me and it made me so happy!
ThatGuyYouKnowww I feel like I know you
Obscure cosplay is better because your chance of being death-tackled is significantly lower.
True!
haha 😂
It
Very very true, even still today!
I know this is awhile ago but I got tackled in Bakugou 😳 like it was terrifying lmao someone just bolted towards me and tackled me snmxjckdldhdj
The major downside of obscure cosplays is, that you miss out on this "fan-love". You won't get recognized (or just very very rarely) and therefore people will come up less frequently to you. You also find NO tutorials on specific characterparts and sometimes not even many pictures on someone else cosplay of that character. On the bright side, this means you end up being unique at the convention. You don't run into an army of clones, people aren't bored of seeing that cosplay and you aren't easily compared to anyone else. For popular cosplays all of those points are reversed. The best of both worlds would be to make an obscure cosplay that is just HUGE and amazing with lots of details, wings and stuff going on. Something people look at and are amazed by so much, that it doesn't matter that they have no idea who you are supposed to be.
^^^ all of this. i cosplayed Cure Flora from Go! Princess Precure and while I got a ton of compliments, people seemed to generally think it was a Princess Peach redesign.
There's definitely downsides, but it's awesome to get people who tell you "you're the first X cosplay I see!". But I like having both, you get the best of both worlds in a sense.
is making a precure cosplay hard? I really like precure and am considering cosplaying some precure in the future.
It really depends on the design you pick. But precure has a lot of intricate costume details so most of them aren't very beginner friendly.
F. Jinxy depends on who you're choosing, and your skill level! if you have experience creating/modifying patterns it's much easier but it's a little intense for a first cosplay i think.
I notice that when i cosplay lesser known characters(at least in my small country), I'm usually recognized a lot more by the artist's in the artist's alley. One of my fonder memories is of cosplaying Shizuo from Durarara and hearing a bunch of artists shouting the characters lines as I passed :')
Did you get to chuck a vending machine at somebody?
Moth Winged Wizard sadly, no xD i did hit a couple of (complying) people with my stop sign though ;)
TooCoolForUsernames I KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN!! I got stopped going through a gallery as Markiplier by a girl who hopped over the front counter of her booth and chased me down so she could get a pic of me infront of her Markiplier prints lol
TooCoolForUsernames durara isnt obcure tho but yea i know what u mean, its more satisfying when someone recognizes it
boi maybe in your country it isn't, i live in a very small, country in which most anime is completely unknown, sadly :')
A few years ago, I cosplayed as Martha Jones from Doctor Who, and as a little blonde girl cosplaying one of the least popular modern companions who also isn't white, I was expecting to go completely unrecognized. However, I had my red leather jacket and my styled hair, and I was ready to go out and be my favorite companion even if no one else understood. It was still disheartening, however, when even Doctor Who cosplayers I went up to didn't recognize me. Still, I soldiered on and was completely blind-sided when someone came to me halfway through the day at lunch and said, "Hey, are you Martha Jones?" The absolute thrill of being recognized was so electric that to this day, probably 6 or 7 years later, I can still remember this moment precisely and with the same joy. I wish I could meet that person again some day and thank them, because to this day she has helped me to have a level of confidence when cosplaying characters I love that I don't think I would have had otherwise.
Oh. My. God. You, my friend, are a legend. I honestly (being a white blonde girl) would probably never get up the courage the be her... But you are so cool!!! Holy cow, I don't know what to say!
I don't normally comment on videos, but I learned a valuable lesson just this weekend at FanExpo in Toronto about doing popular cosplays - particularly in a group. My friends and I did Goddess versions of the eeveelutions and we kept getting stopped every ten steps for people to take pictures of us and ended up being stuck in pose for a good five to ten minutes while people took pictures. While it was really fun in the beginning, it got really exhausting really quick and it was hard to actually travel to the places and panels we wanted to get to. By the end of the day, we were all just sitting around a table eating and trying to relax and people were still taking pictures of us despite the fact that we were stuffing our faces with food. So yeah, there's definitely pros and cons to doing popular cosplays. xD
This is a very good point, I totally know what you mean! Thanks so much for adding your thoughts and sharing your experience.
Shey Stellazzio Oh my gosh, I saw you there! I wanted to ask for a picture but I was in a rush to a panel also social anxiety!
Shey Stellazzio me too
Something similar happens with three pokempn cosplayers I met at a con. One was red from the first game, but the big winner was the two friends who did shifts in a pikachu mascot suit. They said they'd been hug attacked in the street by random twenty somethings and it took them 2 hours to make a 20 minute journey. They couldn't leave the large center area of the buyers hall because they were so mobbed.
2013-2015 attack on titan became the less-paint-spreading version of Homestuck.
Bananaz Whit
Homestuck's amazing
I still cosplay it
So do I
Okay so i know its a webcomic but i don't actually know where i can read it. Ive seen so many fandom posts of it and stuff but i dont know where i can find the original thing. Is the original thing even still up anywhere? Please help
www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6
Mwahahahahahahahaha if you're planning to read it welcome to hell. Homestuck just died and now it's coming back cause of hiveswap, you'll sell your soul to hussie and never be able to escape.
I have a video idea! A wig collection video. you can show off your wigs!
Trash Bag Ooooh yeah if people are into that I could totally do a wig collection video. ^^
AnyaPanda I really like watching those so I can see different styles of wigs and see what I might like to wear. 😊😊
AAWW YES!!! DO IT, DO IT!
For the "quality over quantity" thing you mentioned: I was at a con recently and I saw this amazing cosplayer running a booth dressed as Shin Ah from Yona of the Dawn and I FREAKED out bc she was amazing and her eyes lit up and she was SO happy. We had this amazing conversation and I hope she's running her booth again next year!! (She's been running it for the two years I've been going so far lol)
I've always wanted to cosplay OCs of mine and my mom is always like "why would you want to cosplay something that no one knows" I just want to make my rad designs irl for me not for anyone else
I'm cosplaying Coraline for my next convention and I'm not sure what's going to happen. I think it's probably in the middle between popular and obscure, but I'll still keep my expectations down just in case. At the end of the day, it's a cosplay I'm really excited for and I get to go with one of my best friends, so it'll be loads of fun either way!
If you do the button eyes I bet a bunch of people would recognize it. Or the doll with the button eyes from the movie.
I think I like cosplaying from the “middle ground” mostly. Popular series or media that people enjoy, but minor characters that you don’t really see get cosplayed that often. That way, people recognize you and you’re one of the only cosplayers doing that character!
My favorite quote from this video:
"That is not made FOR you, it is being shared WITH you."
I cosplayed as Piper Mclean from the Percy Jackson books at one of my first cons and literally NO ONE recognized me. I was so sad. ;-;
You should do a video about all your wigs
I've always cosplayed well known characters, but my less-well known(?) character I've cosplayed was probably Star Butterfly. (Star is popular but it seems a bit more niche compared to other anime/video games/cartoons). Star has definitely been my favorite cosplay I've done so far! Not only did I feel super cute as her, but seeing people recognize me and get super excited just brightened my day. A girl even came up to me and started swooning over my hand made wand and decorated boots. I got a few comments throughout the con, but that girl will forever bring me joy when I cosplay Star.
This is a tricky one 🤔
For me, I prefer cosplaying more well-known characters (I don’t just cosplay for that reason, but it’s more fun when you’re recognised and people get excited to see that character).
For example, when I was cosplaying Deidara to a con, I little boy asked if he could have a photo with me because he loved the Akatsuki. He was so sweet, and bringing characters to life is one of my favourite parts of cosplay, and I love seeing people happy as a result of cosplay😊 Also, all the people saying ‘WHAT IS TRUE ART, DEIDARA?’ was entertaining 😂👌🏻
However, I cosplayed a more obscure cosplay to a con recently, Nine from Terror In Resonance, which was a totally different experience. It was super fun as this anime is close to my heart and deserves recognition. Only one person recognised me and my friend though (who was cosplaying Twelve) but they were super excited to see us. That one person being that happy to see us made my day though 🙏🏻 Plus, we were unique as I’ve never seen anyone else in real life cosplay from this anime, so it was amazing to be able to bring it to life 😊
I choose my cosplay depending on what I like and who I'll feel best cosplaying as. I don't really care if its obscure or well-known I just do what I want and have fun.
Miu Iruma
i just need to say i love how well spoken you are. you make your points clear and always remind your viewers that cosplay is about having fun and being yourself. this is why i love your videos. you give such great information and are so friendly that, as a viewer, i feel a connection with you when watching your videos. I've been considering to start cosplaying and i know 100% that i will watch your videos for help. thanks for such a great channel! and happy (late) birthday!!
Oh my goodness you have no idea how blown away I am by your comment. Thank you so much, hearing all of this seriously means so much! ❤ (I was actually really worried that I was super rambly and unclear when doing this video, so your comment was incredibly reassuring! ) Thank you again so much for your kind words and amazing encouragement, I'm so incredibly grateful!!
I went to a con a few weeks ago and I went as a character that was kind of in the middle (with this version at least), I went as Welcome to the madness Yurio and I was worried that not many people would recognise me or come up for photos and all that, I was very wrong though and people asked me for photos a lot and would start up a conversation with me, I had someone on the train talk to me and I also made a really good friend who was cosplaying Yuuri Katsuki and we just would talk when we would see each other roaming around the con floor
I love Yurio (I guess my profile pic shows that already LOL) , If I was there I would've took a bunch picture with you LOL X3
AngelLife Hufflepuff
I wish I was there!
Yurio's my favorite character
I'd take way to much pics
AngelLife Hufflepuff yurio is extremely no where close to the middle its like the highest lol (tho i dont see alot of ppl cosplaying welcome to the madness)
boi yeah, I saw quite a few yurio's but no one was wttm and I rarely see wttm (even online) so that's why I said in the middle
Omg i love the welcome to the madness short!!!
I was cosplaying Aya from Mad father and I kept getting called Alice and it got kinda annoying...
Kind of an honest mistake, but I understand your frustration.
My friend was cosplaying a league of legends character and everyone kept calling her rarity, which annoyed her.
I cosplayed aya as well and I got recognized so much I was so surprised! Did you have the chainsaw? I made one so maybe that's why. Haha. But I was so happy people knew who I was because I love aya!
Rabbit Rebel Cosplay oh hey i know you XD i didn't know you cosplayed aya! I would love to see!
Oh my.. I was going to cosplay her too, but now Im kind of scared that It'll be the same for me.. Im not sure if I could stand people doing that o.o
Your videos always make me have to comment, so good going Anya! My second ever cosplay was incredibly obscure, she was from a Dungeons & Dragons comic and no one knew who she was, even after I explained it. The second convention I wore her to was New York Comic-Con, and both the artist and author for they comic were there. I saw them both and they both immediately recognized me and were really happy. They'd never had anyone cosplay their characters before. The artist drew a sketch of her for me and it was incredible. They were as happy to see me as I was to see then.
That's awesome! I hope someday I meet the author of something I cosplay from. There aren't many more lengths you can go to show your love for something! What's the comic, if I may ask?
Emissary of Wind It was called Baulder's Gate. The character's name is Shandie.
You mean Legend of Baldur's Gate? There's a lot of DnD things called Baldur's gate so it's kinda weird to navigate
Emissary of Wind Yes, that's right! I (shamefully) had to go find the comic. It was a while ago so I'm not as familiar with it now.
If I could afford it, I'd go as James Bond just to get people to ask who I am and after telling them they say "I should'a saw that coming".
Well, all you need is basically a suit right?
Just tell them "The name's Bond James Bond"
There's a lot of obscure characters on my To Cosplay list. For me, it's often a mixture between 'I'd love to see someone cosplay this character, I'd love to see it around!' and 'I love this piece of media/character, I want to show that in a visible way!'. And, like you said, when you're cosplaying an obscure character, you don't expect to get recognized, but, when you do, it makes it really special. Like, I just did Kahlan Amnell from Legend of the Seeker, and I had a guy come up to me SUPER excited because it's his favorite book series, he completely fanboyed out. And it made me even happier to know that I made someone's day that much better by bringing a character they love as much as I do to life. And on the flip side, when I do a Disney Princess or Lady Loki it's equally as fun and exciting to get stopped and recognized often. I love doing both and as long as I'm portraying a character I love, I'm always going to have a good time.
i've noticed that my favorite cosplays are obscure characters from popular shows like Axca from voltron or like background characters when you meet people from your fandom it like and inside joke and its really fun!
One day I'm thinking about doing the cabbage man, complete with cabbage or sprouts to gift as 'baby cabbages'.
Last year at AKon there was an amazing cabbage man, it was so great! Such a fun cosplay to run into ;)
Axca is such a nice character :3
As someone who cosplayed Haggar from Voltron, I get it
I really liked you explaining both sides of the cosplay spectrum. At the moment I only cosplay 'obscure' cosplays and I honestly love that. My first cosplay was Sam Manson from Danny Phantom and I didn't expect that quite a few people would come up to me and tell how much they love this as their childhood show. Because I cosplayed Sam some friends started rewatching it and I ended up with Danny Phantom cosplay group this year ^^
I also cosplay Homestuck which is nowadays barely cosplayed in my country but when I do see a fellow Homestuck it's always a lot of fun :)
And last but not least I feel like the lesser known cosplays however end up doing it well on social media, so you might not always have a connection at a con but online there will always be :D
I cosplayed Cecil/Kevin from welcome to night vale and as an extremely obscure character from an extremely obscure podcast with no canonical form it made me immensely happy when one person jumped out of the line they were waiting in for food and came up to me and complimented me on my costume! I thanked them immensely and said that even though they were the only person who noticed, their compliment made my day😄
I did an obscure character from a popular series a few years ago, and I've worn this costume a lot. People will recognize what the character is from, but 99% of the time people are getting the character completely wrong. It was a cosplay from Inuyasha, and I got called, Kikyo, Kagura, Kagome and Kaguya all in one day. Even if I carried around my Inuyasha plushie like a baby, or was with an Inuyasha cosplayer no one got it. I think 2 people in the 4-7 times I've worn it have gotten it right that I was cosplaying Inuyasha's mother.
I've done a cosplay that's kinda in the middle of the spectrum of popular and obscure. RWBY from Rooster Teeth isn't like as popular as Overwatch or Steven Universe, but is more popular than shows that don't even really have a fandom. It's especially kind of hard to get recognized when you're not doing the main protagonists. And when I cosplayed Neo (an antagonist & my favorite character) I got a good amount of people who did notice and take pictures of me, but a lot of the time people would recognize my friend who was cosplaying Ruby (the main protagonist), and then sometimes would recognize me after. So I think it doesn't only depend on the series but also on which character you cosplay from the series that determines how much recognition you'll get while cosplaying them. But I completely agree with you on the fact that it should matter more what you think and how much you'll enjoy being the character, rather than what other people think and how much they enjoy - or dislike - certain characters.
Kandy The Kat I did a yang cosplay and a kaori (your lie in april) cosplay in a weekend, on the Saturday I did a punk yang and got alot of people recognise me, On the Sunday morning I did a kaori cosplay and I got like 3 people recognise me and 1 of them asked for a photo, and in the evening I did a volume 4 yang and got a couple of people recognise me and got mistaken a good few times for a female ed from full metal alchemist, just goes to show how popular doesn't always mean best
AmyIsCreating lol, true. When I was Neo I still had a ton of fun and got really happy when people did recognize me. I also cosplayed You Watanabe from Love Live to a really small, local comic con and didn't expect to be recognized at all, but a couple people did which made me REALLY happy! I was just saying that the character in the series You cosplay also factors into whether it's considered "popular" or will be well-recognized.
I plan on being Ruby's mum Summer Rose, I very much doubt I'd be recognise as much as i am as Yang. My boyfriend being Qrow will be more recognised than me. Not that I care.
One of my favorite cosplays thus far has been Nana Osaki from the series of the same name, Nana. It's an older series that has been on an indefinite hiatus for years, and it's definitely for a more mature audience, but I love it to bits. (I suggest you check it out if you haven't read or watched it yet!!) My best friend cosplays Hachi with me, and it was our dream for the longest time to be able to cosplay the girls to a con. We finally did almost a year ago at the River Valley Arkansas Anime Festival, and even though we only got recognized a few times, we had a blast!! The Nanas mean so much to us because we connect with them so strongly as people, and being able to fulfill one of my cosplay dreams with one of my absolute best friends in the whole world (and getting to fulfill her cosplay dream with her!) still remains to be one of my favorite cosplay memories. The passion that I have for not only the series, but for the character and the relationships she has with others remains to be one of the reasons why I started cosplaying in the first place. It's like nothing else.
For me the thing is I feel left out most of the time when cosplaying an old obscure character. I will get the few that do recognize the cosplay and treasure those recognitions but Because anime has become more mainstream with you much younger people, most of you will only recognize the most mainstream anime for the last couple of years 2007 to present Ouran High, Naruto, to Soul Eater, Gurren Lagan, to Durarara, Hetalia and Attack in Titan. A lot of you cosplaying are teens to early 20s. How many people are gonna recognize my Kiyone cosplay from Tenchi Muyo?! I'll still enjoy it.
OMG... Like nothing makes me feel older than cosplaying neo-queen serenity from sailor moon and getting many people not recognize it... "oh, I have not seen it". Wow. And I'll recognize Tenchi and think it's super cool!
One thing about more obscure cosplays that I love is it’s a great way to get other people interested in that fandom. I’ve gone up to people who were dressed as more obscure characters and asked about who they were and the series they were from. It’s definitely helped me learn more and gotten me interested in some things I might not have known about otherwise
I cosplayed as Jim West recently. Now I know what you're thinking, "OMG ew that movie sucked why did Will Smith even do it!" I would like to correct you, I was cosplaying 1960s TV show/1970s/80s TV movies Jim West, played by Robert Conrad. Literally nobody recognized me until they were told who I was. But you know what? I had fun, which is what matters! In fact the next day I cosplayed as Bucky/Winter Soldier and several people asked for pictures, so I got a day to look around, and a day to take a loooot of photos
I cosplayed Caleb Vatore from the sims 4. Nobody knew who I was. No one even asked but it was fun
I know what you mean! I cosplayed Levi during the attack on Titan cosplay craze lol
I think the most obscure I've gone was Hibari from KHR & my best moment from cosplaying him was I was with my friend (who was cosplaying Eren Jäeger) and a girl came up to my friend and she was like "can I get a picture" and I (sitting on the floor) offered to take the photo for her and she did a dead stop and went all quiet. Then she asked really quietly if I was Hibari Kyoya from KHR and when I nodded she lit up and asked if she could have a photo of "Eren" and "Hibari" about to fight and it was honestly one of my favorite moments while cosplaying
Omg I found a KHR cosplayer. That anime is so underrated
Welllllllllllll looks like it’s time to rewatch Extreme Ghostbusters
HECK YES!
The Lord of the Rings/Hobbit fandom has certainly died down since the final movie came out, but Tauriel is one of my favourite characters of all time so I'm definitely going to be cosplaying her as my first handmade cosplay. Thankfully the Metroid fandom is rising again considering the new releases, so I'm very excited to cosplay as Samus in the near future as well. My first cosplay ever was of Makise Kurisu from Steins;Gate and I wore it along with my boyfriend who went as Okabe Rintarou and we were recognized but not as much as many other characters. I didn't see too many other Makise cosplays but when I did it was so great because we'd wave at each other or talk in lines from the show which made the experience pretty great
My first cosplay was a blue long dress adapted into Arwen in 2014. I haven't seen a LOTR cosplayer where I live since then...
I went to a con last weekend and I saw over 50 people cosplaying as Sans from Undertale, and it was honestly so cool because every single cosplayer looked different, they all put their own spin on the character and it was so cool seeing the "same" cosplay done in a completely unique way
I was thinking of doing Jim lake from TrollHunters. He's very easy to cosplay, you legit just need to buy the wig and have good makeup for him. I was debating on doing it because i knew i wasn't going to get a big chance on getting recognized and you explained everything so well and gave me some confidence if I'm up for cosplaying him eventually
I'm cosplaying as an obscure character! I'm gonna be Nightlight from the Guardians of Childhood series.
Hoping to cosplay cyborg noodle, super obscure - at least some people have done it... hardly anyone.
i cosplay an anime called "hetalia" i look back at the past years like 2011 and the hetalia cosplay community was quite large. now its quite small but i was really happy when someone recognised me when i was cosplaying Italy casually. it was hot so its a big no to wear his outfit.
I'm going as a hetalia character again in October to mcm London comic con.
Did anyone see you. I did pirate Spain in 2016 and there was only three other Hetalia cosplayers in Cardiff.
Yeah hetalia has really died down over the past 5 years or so. But it's so fun meeting someone who's still a part of the fandom
I was in the hetalia fandom back when it was huge and now I kinda just got back into it and really want to cosplay hetalia again and I'm just so scared everyone will recognize me but be like "omg no one does that anymore get with the times loser"
I used to cosplay hetalia way back in the day
I got a panda and decent sized polar bear plush to do a Canada cosplay....
My dad hid it and I haven't seen Kuma since...
Also I still don't have a Hetalia cosplay.
I'd still like to.
I'm really happy for finding this video because in about 2 weeks I'm cosplaying Anthy Himmemia from Revoulanty girl Utena and I absolutely love her but I was really nervous because I've only done well-known cosplays before, and this video made me feel a lot better about cosplaying her. Thank you so much!
Well, last year I cosplaied Duo Maxwell from Gundam Wing. I had a blast, but it made me realize very quickly that not a lot of people recognized it. So when people recognized me, it made each one all the more special. Though this year, I'm pretty sure more people will recognize me. I'm gonna cosplay Sakura from Cardcaptors in her Final Juedgement costume and her costume from the second movie.
parvati009 gundam wing is my OG gundam series. From the many conventions I've been to, I have only ever seen one person cosplay a character from the series, a Duo Maxwell, and I 'bought near had a complete freak out, I was so excited. I love that you chose to go as one of the characters, considering how classic and, at this point, under the radar that series is.
Yep, he's my favorite character from that series. And another plus is that I didn't need a wig, I already have brown hair down to about my waist. I also usually braid it, though I didn't really bother with the bangs. Considering that I had the hat, I don't want to cut my hair just for a cosplay, and I couldn't for the life of me get the clip in bangs I got to cooperate.
Woooh! Last hear my best friend cosplayed ad Heero and only one per don recognised her. I know what you mean!
Omg!! She knows what voltron is yaaaas! You should do you voltron Cosplay! If it makes you happy.
Personally, I like wearing Zelda because I get so many people who recognize me and want a picture, especially kids and it's magical for them and it's awesome, but it's kind of exhausting having to be social when I'm a huge introvert, and it can be to the point of not being able to walk around the dealers' room because I get asked for a picture every couple minutes. It's cool to be popular, but I like also having more casual, obscure costumes when I just want to walk around in peace.
But I also have a costume that even a lot of fans don't recognize (Curie from Fallout 4). Quite a lot of people played the game and cosplay from it, but the character is kind of "hidden" I guess? There's a lot of steps to finding her, you have to go to a specific place that isn't particularily one the game leads you to, leave and come back a few days later, complete a quest where you find her but she's a robot, then recruit her as a companion, travel with her for a while, she gives you another quest to complete and if you do you can finally put her in a human body. Suffice to say, only a fraction of players find her on their own. But I don't mind, I feel cute in it and it's quite comfortable and practical to walk around in.
I love “fandom connection“ moments. For me my first cosplay was Ty Lee from Avatar the Last Airbender. I bumped into a girl dressed as Azula and we immediately knew we had to take photos together. We talked for a little while and it was a nice experience
Now Voltron took over.
Oh well. But its a fun thing to cosplay it ^^
I absolutely love that someone else knows and has watched that ghost busters cartoon. I watched that show with my siblings when it was coming out. Ah, childhood
Oh my gosh that's so awesome!! I only started watching it this year (20 years late to the party oops ^^'), but it's really awesome to hear that so many remember it and that they watched it when they were younger! >w
Omg omg omg! I love Obscure cosplays because I feel like you have a huge bond with someone else whom loves the same thing! It’s the best feeling! 😊✌🏾
Im actually cosplaying as calne ca this year, your vid made me sure of myself
Thank you
I totally agree. Cosplay is supposed to be fun. When you do it for others and not for yourself or you do it and just wait for someone to walk up to you and compliment you and stuff like that, it just takes away all the fun that you should have while cosplaying. Last year I've cosplayed as Mio Akiyama from K-on in the dress from Don't Say Lazy ending and just one girl took a photo with me and I was totally fine since I just love Mio and I was happy to cosplay as her. This year I decided to instant cosplay as Yuuri Katsuki from Yuri on Ice and I was seriously shocked about how many people actually recognized me as him since I just bought some clothes and glasses and wore a wig..I met so many wonderful people by cosplaying as Yuuri and I even got pulled into the cosplay competition by a friend to help her out and we won ^~^ I actually made a more popular version of him thanks to a girl that I met this year, she encouraged me a lot and I'm really proud of myself for being able to finish it and it actually doesn't look that bad for my first ever cosplay that I made myself and it took me barely a week to make it from the beginning..so I'm really happy and I'm totally going to do more cosplays without paying attention to how popular or not the character is ;3
One thing I love to do is a less-popular character from a really popular show/game etc.
Thanks for making this video, I really enjoyed it and it's helped me with my own cosplay decisions! Whenever I do a cosplay, I really enjoy putting my own spin on it, and I especially enjoy genderbending. I'm a girl, so I like to make male character cosplays into something more overtly feminine; one character I've done this with is Grand Admiral Thrawn (the Star Wars Rebels version.) This is one character that's already not super well-known, but just in posting pictures of my cosplay online, I've had a great reaction from other Rebels die-hards. Now I'm thinking of species-bending a creature from the same series, and making it into a human cosplay to wear for my first time at Star Wars Celebration this coming spring. I've been hesitant to actually do it, because I'm not sure how many people will pick up on what I'm trying to do, but I think I'll go for it anyway, because I know that the people who DO notice will be my people. 😁
This really made me happy because I'm going to a con tomorrow as a very obscure character (that I haven't finished the full outfit for even). And I know if even one person recognizes me for a character who stood out to me in this show I recently got into that was created 3-4 years ago, I will be so so happy!
HELLO IM EARLY FOR THE FIRST TIME! I'm cosplaying lapis at animate Miami next month
Awesome! Don't forget to seal your bodypaint ;)
I usually recognize the obscure and i get so happy when i see them. Last con had indie game cosplays like aya from mad father and bendy and the ink machine
YO, EXTREME GHOSTBUSTERS WAS LIT!!
And so is your eyeliner. Keep SLAYING!
Will you do a video of your opinion of OC's
Super late but he here's my story:
I dressed up as a character from a semi-popular cartoon short and no one really asked for photos expect for this dude who was playing the sidekick and he was an awesome person. I wish we could met up again lol
Every year at Fan Expo Vancouver I cosplay as Thundarr The Barbarian. Most people don’t get who I’m dressed as and I usually get mistaken for He-Man, and occasionally Conan.
I usually dress as Thundarr on the first couple of days of the convention, then on the last day I dress up as something a little easier and more recognizable, like Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers. I haven’t gone as Leatherface yet, but I might try that one in the future (I have the costume, I just have only ever worn it for Halloween so far).
i love to cosplay as support characters and villains because everyone is so used to seeing main protagonists that they get so much more excited to see other characters from the show/movie/game/comic/etc. People who dress as main characters actually flip out the most because theyre like I NEED A PICTURE WITH YOU.
My first cosplay was a character from the Discworld books and no one knew who he was . . . until I was walking past someone dressed like Negan. (and this guy looked like he just stepped off the set) who pointed Lucille at me and said "Rincewind?" and I was over the moon.
Yeah, I totally get this! I went to an anime convention in Atlanta last year, and one of the days I cosplayed as a “breakdance” Evillustrator from Miraculous Ladybug, and I think all of two people recognized me, but since one of those people happened to be the English voice actor of Hawkmoth, Keith Silverstein, it ended up being totally worth cosplaying! So, obscurity can be fun too!
Thank you for this. Everyone keeps pressuring me to do a Cloud Strife cosplay but I really want to be Zack 😅
my major problem whenever i go to cons is that one of my favorite cosplays is manga-only, and pretty late in the series, whereas a lot of the fandom at cons only watches the anime, so i don't get recognized a lot lol. i also cosplay a lot of book characters that don't have official art of them so i almost never get approached in those cosplays :')
It's a good thing that obscure cosplays are fine, because while I've never had the opportunity to cosplay, if I ever do, ain't NO one gettin' most o' mine. I am into some super-obscure stuff.
For instance, there's a Golden Age superhero named Micro-Face. I relish the thought of cosplaying as him, because then, when bemused people ask me who I am, I can proclaim dramatically 'I am MICRO-FACE!' and strike a pose.
I always goes as obscure stuff (mainly Touhou Project characters, for those who know) and when someone tell me like "hey, are you that character?" And get it right, we become instantly friends.
And even when no one no the character, I'm still happy to have a "special" cosplay (well, all cosplays are haha)
Finally someone who talks about Touhou!! Its sad that in the west is not as popular as in japan :(. I'm planning a Utsuho Reiuji cosplay for next year! :D
I can sort of relate because I personally LOVE the Ninjago fandom and Fairy Oak...and these dont even have major fandoms to them. Still, I spent a whole afternoon making plans to cosplay one day as Pythor from Ninjago, so this somewhat made me happy--
Man, extreme ghostbusters is so good and so underrated like the men in black the animated series. Also Kylie was like my very first gay crush, so I love and respect my goth wife and people who cosplay her 🖤🖤
It's interesting that your takeaway and focus is really on 'the positive con experience' and personal love of the cosplay. I wonder how your perspective may have evolved since this video!
Another aspect of this topic that could also be discussed is the downsides. Possible negative con experiences from popular cosplays because of people vocally comparing outfits, and having to constantly explain what you are for obscure cosplays.
Also I think that the different reasons people pick which cosplay to do could be touched on. I personally pick based on how visually impressive it is and how accurately I physically match the character (obviously nobody else is beholden to this restriction I place for myself). I like complicated cosplays that challenge me and couldn't care less about the series or character themselves. Other people apparently pick based on getting to roleplay as the character, and whatever they want to embody in the halls and onstage is their driving motivation. Then there are people like you who seem to choose based on personal love for a character or series. And people who chose based on what they think will be easiest/within their skill level or budget. And as your video pointed out, people who choose based on how popular a character or series is. I feel like a lot of other factors go into what might be chose, and I'd be interested to hear how you think the above 'types' would factor into choosing popular or obscure cosplays.
Always fun to watch you on here, keep up the great work!
Last June I cosplayed edd from Eddsworld.. had his hoodie, smeg head shirt, lucky can and all. It was fun to be him, but throughout the day no one really recognized me. That’s until we were actually getting ready to leave, somebody called to me and said “I like your edd” and I was so shocked; I smiled and shouted “YOU KNOW WHO I AM?! THANK YOU!” Lmao,, That one interaction made it a bit more worth it.
btw. What I said in my last comment about being Shireen, that most dont reconzie here.
When they do its indeed a perfect moment. One lady started crying as soon as she saw me,
she was like ; can i give you a hug? Im so sorry for what they have done to you :O . .awwwhh
I like to cosplay lesser-known versions of popular characters. For example, I have cosplayed Professor Xavier from the flashback scene at the opening of X-Men: The Last Stand, when Charles and Erik go to meet Jean Grey for the first time at her parents' house when she was a child. Charles is already bald but still walking & using his powers (which does not fit with the new timeline) and he is wearing a light brown tweed sport coat, a white polo shirt, and a dark pair of trousers (as opposed to his usual three-piece suit).
I anticipated that no one would recognize this cosplay (as even I only vaguely recalled this scene and had to watch it again for a costume reference), so I wore a name tag that read, "Hello, my name is McAvoy or Stewart?" (I left implied the part about "These timelines are so confusing.") People would recognize the line from Deadpool and get a chuckle out of it, but they would not realize that I was in full cosplay until I showed them a still frame from the scene in question (which I had printed out & brought with me). At that point, the reaction was rather consistently, "I forgot about that scene!" followed by delirious laughter. No one recognized the cosplay without the visual aid.
Honestly if I saw a sea of cosplayers all in the corps uniform it would likely look so cool. Because look at it! All these people showing their love for this show, and this ended up with the result of a small army, in uniform
I wanna cosplay Ken kaneki because the anime and manga had a big impact on my life, but I wanted to make this cosplay unique by doing the centepede kagune...any tips?
Unpopular_ Girl okay so I made the kagune with the four "arms" and i basically looked up a tutorial on cosplay amino, where you would cut out rectangles out of cardboard that get smaller and smaller and then you roll them up into a tube and you stick all the tubes together and form the shape of the kagune. Just search on amino for the tutorial or you can check my Instagram for reference (iteza_cosplay) I hope I helped you! :3
ToniLittleStranger thank you so much! I'm just so worried that the centepede will look awful and I really want this cosplay to be special
Unpopular_ Girl I'm sure it will turn out just fine! :3 I just remember it being A LOT of work. But I was so proud of it in the end :3 and doing a face full of blood make up for kaneki is always fun :D
ToniLittleStranger Thank you so much! :3
A lot of people make articulated tails with pool noodles or solo cups, you should look into that!
my favorite is cosplaying characters that are well known but you don't usually see people cosplaying as them. Old cartoon characters like Danny Phantom that make people feel nostalgic are always fun. or putting a twist on characters that are a bit more popular like combining Chat Noir with Westly from the Princess Bride. that way you're probably the only person at the con dressed as them, but people will still recognize you a lot. it also helps when the costume just looks really cool in general, cause even people that have no clue who you are might ask for a photo lol
I cosplayed as Reigen Arataka year, but not normal Reigen, schoolgirl Reigen when he was breaking into an all girls school. Very obscure, compared to the sea of Dekus you see (nothing against those Dekus, in fact I pray for their safety from crazy fans) so I was worried no one would get it. Not a lot of people did, but the people who DID get it thought it was so funny and excitedly asked for photos. It was super heart warming and got me excited to cosplay more considering it was my first one
I’m gonna cosplay Mikasa at anime expo this year! This will be my 2nd cosplay ever so I’m excited uwu
Extreme Ghostbusters was the show that inspired me to catch my school's rumored resident ghost with a 'machine' that I made with paper clips and metal stuff when I was 8 lmao. I'm glad there are other people who remember it!!! KYLIE'S A BADASS!!!!!! :^)
Oh my goodness that's such an adorable story! :D I'm so glad to hear that someone else knows EGB, and I agree Kylie is such a badass! >w
I have done mainly obscure cosplays and the feeling when someone knows who you are is euphoric
The fun thing about obscure cosplays is when people ask you about it, you can bring people to know about the show and that it exists. Start creating a fandom, more people to enjoy it with. i cosplayed Ladybug and not many people knew it, and a good handful that did know it where I found another Ladybug and Adrien. So it was fun and other people found out about the show and could watch it themselves if they want to!
I like cosplaying background characters, its actually super fun to do since it feels more personal in my opinion
I really resonate with your story about Kylie, there’s this French cartoon that I’ve loved ever since I was a literal toddler and I wish I were kidding when I say that I want to cosplay every single character (I even want to do the stereotypical annoying mean girl that I don’t like) but I’ve held off on it because of the unpopularity. Your enthusiasm about the ghostbusters cartoon was really adorable and it only got me more excited for this future cosplay. Your videos cheer me up quite a bit I hope you have a lovely day/night !!!
You had me at Extreme Ghostbusters cosplay.
I cosplayed Dipper and I met a group of people cosplaying Mabel, Bill and Soos! It was really fun to act in character and the Bill Cipher cosplayer was really good at impressions :D
I've done a mix of things. One of the more popular series I'm making cosplays for currently is Jjba but It's still characters you don't see as often and (Diavolo and Doppio) A really exciting obscure cosplay I got recognized in was Graham from Baccano. I didn't get recognized a lot but when I did it was so exciting. Lastly I did my own orginal character and while I didn't really get stopped for pics I was so invested in the design that it felt awesome to finally wear. I paid to get cosplay photos done of it at the con and if you can afford it I'd definitely recommend doing so because then you at least have those to look back on.
Well this isn't 20 years but it is 3 and now I'm a fan lol , really like your content and all the tips. Thank you
I remember when I wore Kida and Popuri to AE 2015 I had the same kind of Kylie moments that you had where they people who DID know who I was cosplaying would come up and we would have some really heartfelt conversations about the movie/game and just have a really good bonding experience?? Like, I didn't think Popuri would go over well, but I had a lot of people come up to me and say how Popuri was their favourite bachelorette from the old Harvest Moon games and it made me feel so good!
Also side note, I'm really diggin' these storytime videos. Your vlogs are great, but getting to hear your view on things and your personal experiences is really good for background noise for me :'D
Ayyyy thank you so much, Ashley! ;u;
I like to think I have found the balance - I'm planning to go to comic con as Hatsume Mei from Boku No Hero Academia. The show is very popular but she herself is a bit of a side character, so hopefully people will recognise me without there being swarms of Hatsume clones 😂
I think it's fun to do popular cosplays and try to make them better than other peoples or better made. That's also fun because a lot of people recognise you so you can get plenty photos with other people from your fandom and lots of people want pics of/with you
I usually cosplay characters obscure cartoons (though not as obscure as the ghost busters cartoon). It's actually quite nice finding out how many people do recognize those characters and tell me they thought no one else liked those shows. Most recently was my Lord Dominator cosplay from Wander over Yonder, that has a tiny fandom next to GF and SvtFoE. I got recognized way more than I expected, and most of the people who recognized the character were pretty damn excited.
My first cosplay was Schierke from Berserk. Nobody knew who I was except for like three people who were Guts, and one Griffith, and the look on their faces when I found them at the con made my day. I'm pretty sure they didn't stop smiling after I left.
Next year I'm planning on completing a very obscure vocaloid character named Utatane Piko. He's gonna be my first full cosplay (I did a random killer T-cell cosplay a few months back) It'd be fun to see how many people would recognize me but I've been wanting to cosplay as him when I first saw his design a decade ago.
I'm doing my first cosplay sometime this year when my group isn't busy. We're going as the sally face characters and I'm being Sal. Really excited!
So many great points stated here!!!
I went as Final Haikyuu Quest Kageyama once and i legit did not expect anyone to know what that was because it's such a small part of an already small fandom (at the time) and I had not seen any haikyuu cosplayers at cons in my country before. But there were some who did and they were so excited that someone is doing that thing that's really cool (i mean comparing volleyball to an original medieval fantasy au) and that was great. But then there was also a kid who asked if I was supposed to be Levi xD. Can't blame him. Black short hair, green cape, white pants, black boots, hmmm I wonder who Kageyama's design was based on...
I’ve given a panel on How To Choose A Cosplay and I highlighted a lot of these points too. First and foremost, you should choose a character you love, then from there decide what you want from it. There are times where I want to wow a lot of people and get a lot of pictures, and there are times when I’m fine with being lowkey and hanging out and conversing with just the people in that fandom.
Liking or even knowing who the character is has never been a factor in how I choose what to cosplay and I think that's a valid position that gets neglected in the cloud of feel-good 'pick someone you love!!!'. I pick based on how closely I can physically match the character and how visually spectacular I think it is and then aim to recreate it as faithfully as possible. And I have always had a blast doing it that way! My very first cosplay was Yue Ying from Dynasty Warriors 5, and I had to work from concept art and stuff because it hadn't been released yet. I'd never played a dw game, couldn't even be sure how to pronounce her name, but none of that mattered a whit because I got to go wild flexing my creativity muscles to make it happen on a tiny budget (and to this day I think it turned out great!). My motivation isn't less fun for me just because I lack an emotional connection to the character, and I hope that this was able to give you some insight that may be helpful in possible future panels or discussions!
My very favorite and FIRST (true) cosplay I ever did was Levi Ackerman. I have a bit of an obsession with Levi (^-^;). I rp online as him, a lot of my accounts are in his name, and, yeah ppl mak fun of me, but idc. Everyone said the fandom was dead and that thesecond season would never come, but I was geared up last March and I was being laughed at, but I WAS RIGHT AND ON APRIL FIRST SEASON 2 CAME OUT! AND IN MAY THERE WAS A SEA OF AOT COSPLAYERS AGAIN! (I dressed as Levi) there were lots of Levis. (please don't think I'm cosplay shaming, i'm 5'3'' and ive cosplayed Grell Sutcliff who in the show is a skyscraper). I got a lot of attention at the con, even though I wasn't the only Levi. The reason being, because I was a very ACCURATE Levi. like I said, I'm 5'3", and weigh about 110-120lbs. ......most Levi's at the con were either too tall or were less fit than I was. I was also the ONLY person who cosplayed Levi from the No Regrets OVA. Both Eren and Mikasa's English voice actors were at the convention (as well as the lead female singer in most aot songs). Eren and Mikasa's voice actors BOTH broke the con rules to give me 2 signatures. ....Later at the aot panel, I had my friend Hanji with me, and we had to sit tward the back. Hanji was a staff member and had to leave halfway through the panel and I was left all alone with a giant furry in front of me. eventually, Eren's voice actor pointed at me and said "you!". I started hyperventilating and blushing. I screamed "CAN YOU SAY 'HEICHOU, I LOVE YOU?'" they couldn't see me.... I stood up... they couldn't see me. I STOOD ON MY CHAIR AND SAID "Sorry I'm short!" and the ppl around laughed, bc I'm a goddamn midget.
Something crazy happened then.... they called me on stage with them..... I was about to cry, mikasa looked concerned, "no, no! don't cry!" I was serious af when I replied "I spent an our making the wings even on my eyeliner, I am NOT crying today!"
then...um... this moment was a thing... ua-cam.com/video/rYyhO3WmJvY/v-deo.html
oh my god that is amazing! im so happy for you!!
I haven't been able to go to any cons yet but one day when I do I will bring my sasako cosplay (shirokuma cafe) and my bf as honda and if anyone recognizes us I will probably explode from excitement. I'd probably also bring himiko (drv3) and jirou (mha) and get recognized several times for those lol so a day where I dont get recognized often might even be a nice break
I usually choose to cosplay characters from media who have really made an impact on my life and while my favorite animated show is pretty mainstream, my favorite video game is less popular than say Mario or Zelda or Fallout, but I fell in love with it and I want to give love to the developers in the best way a cosplayer can!