FANeXpo 2012: it's my cosplay!

When one cosplays people ask for one of these three things:

- I want it to be fast
- I want it to be cheap
- I want it to be good

At most, you can only achieve two out of the three requests when it comes to cosplaying.

As I generally am a perfectionist and expect my costumes to be passably accurate and well made, my costumes are almost never cheap. I can easily sink over $100 dollars on the fabric of my costumes alone, and that's just because I am incredibly picky about colour, weight and feel.

I therefore usually stick to a "one costume a year" approach. That is, if I make a costume for myself, I make only one to therefore save on the costs of having to worry about having to create another.

(Plus there is also the time involved as well in sewing every costume) 

Therefore, when it came to cosplaying at FANeXpo on Saturday and Sunday, as part of my costume rule, I simply reused the costume I had created for Anime North of this year.

It was a two-person cosplay with a friend. He was the ressurected Zabuza and I was the ressurected Haku from the Anime/Manga series Naruto: Shippuden.

I couldn't begin to tell you the work and the effort put into making both of these costumes. Yes, I made both because I had the sewing machine and knew how to use it.

It was a hardcore week of sewing to assemble everything while working and going to school, but before that, it was several weeks of purchasing parts from all over the place. The greenish-blue fabric for my jacket ultimately was found at a specialty fabric store on Queen Street West (and cost a tidy penny too) while the purple leggings and armbands was a lucky find at a Fabricland... but also required me to sew black lines down it as part of the detail.

Basically, it was a lot of work.

The decision to make these costumes was actually funny. We had originally planned to go as the actual characters from the first season (and Naruto's first opponents) but as Anime North got closer, we began to worry about the construction of the sword.

The idea then was to create the half-sword that dead-Zabuza had in one of the mangas to save on weight.

Long story short, he made the whole sword in the end, but the resurrected idea stuck and we kept with it.

And I won't lie, it turned out to be a pretty sick idea.

Now at the time, the anime episode that coincided with their resurrection wasn't out yet. But by the time  FANeXpo came out, it was. So I watched it.

And that confirmed my happiness with the decision to stick with their undead versions.

Seriously, their characters were and still are sick, and I really loved the way that their story came full circle with how much Kakashi and Naruto ultimately cared for these particular opponents, how they ultimately defined how Naruto viewed the world and those around him. It also highlighted how they were far from inherently bad people, just individuals that were down on their luck and forced on opposite sides by outside forces.

It's a great episode and a great story.

Anyway, the fun part was on Saturday, while walking around the Dealer's room I overheard more than once that "I saw them at Anime North!" Hey, we were memorable!

And finally, people seemed to have really enjoyed the costumes. Despite the fact the $30 dollar crazy eye contacts dried our eyes out, and our costume became quite restrictive, it was fun.

And that's the point. 

Cheers!

FANeXpo 2012: cosplays on day 4

Cosplays on Sundays are often much more muted and quiet as most and many tend to use the last day to make final purchases, say good-bye to old and new friends before packing up and leaving for home and the harsh world of actual reality.

But reality can be delayed for a day, and there are still some who appear for one last hurrah at being your favourite superheroes or characters, or else just prefer the fun and voyeurism of wearing a costume. I did it for Sunday, and I wasn't the only one.

But first... my last COSTUME OF THE DAY!

To be honest, I don't know what this is (apparently it's from a game as one of my friends were able to identify it but I can't recall precisely what he said) but I thought it was adorable, well made and well executed. The construction looked solid and as a sewer I know that despite its simple concept, working with latex and making it come together cleanly and flawlessly is very very difficult to pull off!

Anyway, my regrets in terms of not finding (or lack thereof) of certain cosplays, I was really really hoping some group of guys would get together and dress up as the characters from The Big Bang Theory. But alas it was not to be and I was sorely disappointed on that front.

I saw a Katniss (from the Hunger Games) with the silver bow and the outfit from her bout in the arena but I did not see the girl on fire dress, an outfit I would have found worth a good picture.

And finally, you can tell the abundance of superhero movies and lack of anything fantasy or sci-fi has left the convention overrunned by Avengers, Batmans and Spidermans.

So here are the rest of my cosplay photos. Hope your weekend was costume-filled and fun. It's always and adventure for me.

FANeXpo 2012: cosplays on day 3

Marvel Superheroes cosplayers act out a scene

With help from the Masquerade and by sheer numbers of people alone, costumes and cosplay on Day 3 (Saturday) of FANeXpo is always at its best and most interesting.

Granted, the costumes largely pale in comparison to those that often come out at Anime North or the more fan-driven conventions out there, but with that said, there is still much to look at and enjoy on the Saturday when we speak of costumes.

First things first however... my COSTUME OF THE DAY!

This is a fabulous cosplay of popular radio talk show host Ruby Rhod - played by Chris Tucker from the 1997 sci-fi movie The Fifth Element. The construction was flawless and the cosplayer had the flair and the knack to pull it off with respect. Bravo!

And that image really does sum up for me the kind of things you can find at this convention that really doesn't come to light at any other, and it is that people can be a fan of anything and dress up as anything and still fit into the spectacle of the show. The ideas and fandoms aren't restricted to Anime, or Fantasy, or Sci-fi or any of the other major genres. A few years back, me and a bunch of friends showed up dressed as CSI (based off the then hit television crime drama) and I couldn't begin to tell you how popular that costume was with people.

And this is really what separates the cosplay at FANeXpo apart - it can be from anywhere and anything and still find people who will fall in love with you because of it.

So pictured here are some of the cosplays I found, saw and enjoyed the most, but with restrictions. 

One being my camera, which is a digital point-and-shoot (that has problems with clear pictures when indoors) after failing to get a proper SLR from my school before the convention. The second is the sheer mass of people often made it hard to stop those to take pictures of.