To me, appearing in costume would always attract attention of many and result certain people condemning.
You may think, "why don't you ignore them?" or "why get so affected when you know this kind of hobby is bound to get criticism?"
Yes, ignoring them is one thing but can you imagine getting stares or even sometime get jeered at? It is definitely not something you can just simply ignore. Does going into cosplay means that as cosplayers we deserve to be laughed at?
We are not entertainers neither are we trying to be Japanese. We are doing this because we love Anime and we love Japanese sub-culture. Everybody has their own interests, it's just a matter if it is widely accepted by the community or not.
Once at a cosplay convention, I overheard a group of boys saying "eh! just go take pictures with them la, see they like so desperate to get photographed, we should help them!" and also "These female cosplayers are like whore, such a disgrace to human race".
You see, this is the kind of words I usually heard when I attend a cosplay event. Some people are not even scare to let you know that they are super disgusted by people cosplaying and would go close to you and do weird gesture at you.
Anyways, I'm not really bothered by them because since the start, I already know that cosplaying is a hobby that attracts lots of attention, both good and bad. So I live on with it~
It's not easy to be a cosplayer. For most people, their parents usually object their children cosplaying. Some reason being, it is an expensive hobby or they just simply do not like their children hanging out with a bunch of J-culture obsessed people. Luckily for me, my parents did not disagree and even offer to drive me to the different conventions I attend.
As the cosplay circle in Singapore began to grow, there are more and more people picking up cosplaying. This means that there will be a number of people who participate in the events without doing proper research and ended being bombarded on the internet. For me, I try to make my cosplay as accurate as possible. It won't be 100% perfect because some details are too difficult to achieve or may take a plastic surgery to look exactly like the character. So I do ample research and make sure that I'm not ruining the character I'm cosplaying. Like for example, the miku cosplay I did for AFA last year. I had a very hard time looking for the bracelet that she wore and have been searching for 2 whole weeks, sweeping through malls and online shops but I can't find any that is even similar to what it looks like. In the end, I have to DIY it myself. It's a lot of hard work but when you get praises from photographer and people who attends the convention, all this hard work is worth it.
Anyways, I've decided to get a proper photo shoot for my upcoming character. Yuuki Asuna from Sword Art Online. This is my first time going for a photo shoot. Hope I will be able to produce good quality pictures because I really do not want to destroy the image of Asuna.
That's it for today,
Till next time~
