What am I doing exactly?

I have never made my own costume. Not really. The most I have done is fit bits and pieces together for Halloween, the best of which was a werewolf costume I put together in college. (Werewolves are my favorite monster!)

My werewolf costume in college.

When my friend suggested that I go to Anime Boston with her, I was delighted. It was a chance to be crafty, to experience something new, and a new nerdy thing I could get into. I was going to learn how to Cosplay. 

For those unfamiliar: 

What is Cosplay:

It is the act of dressing up as a character from a book, video game, show, or anime/manga. For most, it is important to create your own costume (although you CAN buy one) and once in costume, you must try to stay in character. 

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For me, cosplaying feels like an extended Halloween, but instead of just dressing up, you are expected to get into character as well. I am hoping this won't be too hard! 

Each year my friend and two of her best friends cosplay for all three days of Anime Boston. With a different costume each day. (I'm already overwhelmed at the thought of this!) 

On Friday, it's a fairly slowish day, lots of people just arriving to the convention, so they chose a fairly well known anime to cosplay for that day. This year they picked Magi. 

I had never heard of Magi, so I found it on Netflix and watched what I could. Ah, research. 

I ended up picking the character Morgiana, who is a former slave in this Middle Eastern style anime, she's quiet but cute, and a strong fighter. You don't mess with her or her friends. 

Morgiana. 

For the second day, they picked Final Fantasy 10 (FFX). This one was especially tough for me. I had never played FFX and was only familiar with Final Fantasy 7, which I used to watch my brothers play all the time. I didn't even know how to research characters without playing the game.  (which I didn't really have a lot of time to do). My friend suggested looking up cutscenes on Youtube, and that helped a little.

First, because my friends were choosing and I was the newb, I got last pick, and they had picked all the female characters that I thought I could maybe pull off. 

So then I decided to go with the only male character that had a shirt, Auron.

Buuuut, it turns out I am NOT yet experienced to make this costume. I didn't give myself enough time, and the whole idea was very overwhelming. So, I looked for possible costumes online, thinking I could at least buy what I needed. Nope. Too expensive. 

So, I decided to "Feminize" one of the male shirtless characters. 

I picked Tidus, because I liked his personality and thought I could work with a costume I found online. 

 

Tidus is on the left, and the feminized version is on the right.

I tried this, but when I went to purchase the costume, the shipping was insanely expensive. Once again, FFX was giving me a serious headache and I was getting really discouraged. 

This prompted my friend to have a "emergency group meeting" with the others, because cosplay is supposed to be fun not agonizing and I was becoming discouraged before I'd even started.

Someone tossed the idea of being a moogle, which is a cute little creature that mimics Lulu's moves. 

I loved this idea because I could be more creative with it, and could even find a bunch of needed materials at Goodwill. 

The day was saved!

This is a moogle.

Most of the cosplay for moogles are wearing white, with purple wings, ears, the red puffball on the head, and some makeup. I can do all of that!!

FFX drama aside, day three of the cosplay is the slow day. Most people have gone home, and vendors are trying to offload all their stuff. This is the day the girls usually recycle cosplays they have done in the past. 

As this is my first cosplay, I decided to be something that I REALLY wanted to be! I really like the show Supernatural (being a monster lover and all) so I picked my favorite character from the show: Crowley.

Crowley is a crossroads demon who ends up becoming the King of Hell (the show has been out for long enough this shouldn't be a spoiler).

My friend decided to be Castiel from the show (an angel), who is another fan favorite. 

Castiel (also called Cas) on the left, Crowley on the right!

In summary; the first step was deciding which cosplay to do (though admittedly I wasn't part of that process this year as the new person) and then picking a fitting character that not only can you make the cosplay for, but you can also stay in character as. 

Next entry will be more of the cosplay progress that I have experienced so far, and what I have been working on!