After a few days we finally could settle down and recover from this amazing weekend.
We still cant believe what happened and that our adventure since September found an end.
For us it was already a huge surprise to win the ECG – European Cosplay Gathering preselection’s at Connichi (we even didn’t plan to go to the winning ceremony, but got convinced by the organizer), because we really messed up our skit.
While Germany is pretty successful in the Solo categories, until now a German team/ group has never won a podium place in the whole international Cosplay history since 2005.
We didn´t expected anything, because we knew neither our skit, nor our
costumes are even near to perfect and we could see how talented and
skilled other teams are. (To be honest, we messed up our fight and were
tripping on stage…). For us being able to participate next to so
many talented Cosplayers, to meet them and to make so many new friends
was already an amazing experience and price. To even bring back a podium
place is something we never expected.
We want to thank everyone for their kindness and support. Thanks to you
we could kept going. It was very stressful and not easy at all. But
thanks to everyone we could make it.
We want to thank especially Riko Creatix
our best helper for her patience and her time. Helping us to dress,
bringing us water, feeding us tasty food and helping us with the prop
transport.
Kai for driving our props over 1.000 Kilometer to Paris, being patient with us and endless supportive. Thanks to Bryan Valentino who made the amazing background video for us and Kukkii-san for the private wig workshop to get a clue how to make this monster of a wig.Thanks for your patience and time!
Also thanks to the team epic for giving their best, being kind and taking really good care of us. Of course Benjamin Zafrany,
who sacrificed his sleep in order to make the ECG an unique experience
for every single participant! We didn’t felt left alone even once during
the whole event, because there was always someone of the epic members
helping us. Thank sou! We also want to thank our senpais Artflower Cosplay and Abyssinian Cosplay
for taking their time to answear every single of our stupid questions
and giving us all the important advices to survive this adventure.
Also thanks to our sponsors myCostumes for sponsoring our wigs and more and Yakitori for the awesome team T-Shirts.
And of course thanks to all the other participants and congratulations
to winners! Everyone made this trip amazing and unique. So much
kindness and talent in one place. It was such an honor to be with you
guys and to be part of this amazing ECG family! Thank you!
I really need to say, that the World Cosplay Summit was a bit chaotic, because the schedule for the next day were missing or people just didn’t know what to do.
But still it was a life changing and great experience. I experienced so many awesome events, could meet so many great and talented people and had so many moments, which I want to remember forever.
I never expected to make so many friends and to have so much fun in these 2 weeks.
A lot of people told me it is stressful. For me only the championship itself was stressful. You had so much time at the other days and events, could take your time and feel the spirit of all the people who shares the same passion as you. Actually I rested and ate more than the last 7 months before the WCS…
One of my most precious memories.
I never met so many Anime fans at once in my life and I really would recommend everyone, who loves Cosplay as me to go there, to meet the people and to feel the spirit of this community.
I wasn’t sure if my efforts would pay off. I am not a really good Cosplayer, nor a very good performer. I just gave my best in order not to regret it. These 7 months were very hard, where I pushed myself to my limits and barely met any friends or family. I know that other could do much better, but I am satisfied, because I know I gave my best. I don’t regret anything and just to experience this support during the end of the 1rst stage, it was worth it! Every single minute I spent into this costume, skit and preparations. Everything it was worth it.
Thanks Eriko chan and Yuuka chan for all your work!
It was great and I am so happy and grateful for this experience.
I really miss the people and want to go back. I will try my best to meet them again, to have fun with them again and to create more great memories with them.
I am also grateful to have Chiko as my partner, because I never could imagine experiencing this life changing event with someone else as her.
I also was so grateful how much effort Patrick, Iris, Mo and Laura spent just in order to make the trip as comfortable as possible for us. Thank you so much for this support!
Thanks Chiko for being an awesome partner!
Thanks Patrick for all your hard work!
I don’t know if I did a good job as representative, but I honestly don’t care. I gave my best, I am happy with what I could achieve, it was more than I ever expected. And I also nevery expected to gain so much personally.
I am just so so grateful for this.
Thank you! And thank you for all your support!
It really kept me going and I nearly cried when I red all your messages and Tweets after the WCS. Thank you so much for being with us and for thinking about us. I never though that you guys would support me so much!
This was one of my best time in my life.
Thank you for being part of it!
I already announced our Interview Cosplays for the World Cosplay Summit in Nagoya this summer.
The decision:
Some of you know that I already cosplayed this version of Asuka before. I am a big fan of Neon Genisis Evangelion and my favorite character is of course Pen Pen. I also cosplayed Rei in her maid version so we decided to go for this Anime quite quickly.
We wanted to Cosplay something we love, something easy in order to gain time for the other Cosplays and something traditional for the courtesy visits. I also have been to Japan in summer before and can tell you that Japanese summer is hilarious hot and humid. Although it was very hot I felt comfortable while wearing a Yukata. So we went for the Matsuri version and decided not to fake the obi but to wear this Kimono as traditional as possible.
Because my friend actually is a typical German girl we thought it would be a great idea that she would cosplay the German Asuka.
The progress:
Actually I already finished this Cosplay in November 2015. I started it directly after choosing our Cosplays for Nagoya. I guess it was a week after the preliminary.
I kept it as a secret until now because we wanted to announce the Cosplays with a quiz on several social media platforms.
As mentioned above it was very easy to sew this Cosplay. It actually took me 2 days to finish the sewing part and 4 more days for the crafting part. Mostly I just waited for the next layer to dry.
The Kimono:
The Kimono pattern is quite easy. It actually consists of stripes which you just put together.
I have a lot of Kimonos and Yukatas at home. So I just took one out of my board and used it as a pattern. I modified the sleeves because they are not typical in shape and length.
I just cut everything out and put it together. Nothing really difficult so far.
The sleeves:
One of the most interesting parts -> sleeves.
I needed to line them 2 times. Why 2 times?
As you can see, the inside of the sleeves are red, but if you just line the sleeve in red you can see the reddish color through the white sleeves. So I put a middle layer in white between.
We also discussed the way of attaching the black stripes to the sleeves.
We talked about painting, gluing, applying and embroidery.
In the end we used flock foil. It was the best way to attach the stripes neatly. And the structure looks really nice.
The Obi:
Because we wanted to wear the Kimono in the traditional way we sewed a normal Obi.
As you can see in the original picture, the Obi is folded in the front and shows a brown color. That’s why we used black fabric for one side and on the other side brown.
The Obi is about 18 cm wide and 3,60 m long.
We still need to practice to put the costume on faster than 20 minutes. (XD Yes, it takes time.)
I already bought a lot of different straps in Japan for my Furisode and got some for my partner Chiko-chan last year. So we are hopefully prepared. 🙂 The props:
The next interesting parts are the accessories for the wig.
I not only crafted the small prop but also the fox mask. I found a better one in Japan, so I changed the mask after finishing the self made one. For me it was the first time working with Styrofoam. At first I drew a pattern and cut it out with a cutter. Afterwards I grinded the Styrofoam into shape and used a white acryl grounder. I waited until the coat dried and grinded again. Than again I painted it with acryl grounder, waited and grinded. I did this about 17 times, to get a smooth surface.
The paintings are simply made with a permanent marker. Afterwards I finished the props with a clear coat.
I spent a lot time waiting for the layers to dry.
Grinding took not that much time, because the pieces are quite small.The pieces are attached with some press buttons at the wig.
The shooting:
We decided to make a shooting with this Cosplays in order to try out how comfortable they really are and if we need to make some changes. We are also planning to wear them at a summer event to experience if we can handle the heat.
It was quite difficult to find a Japanese room in Germany but we were successful. Thanks VW for taking these awesome pictures!
I hope you like our choice and costumes!
We are really looking forward to wear them in Japan!
Thanks to Bryan Valentino who made the amazing background video for us and Kukkii-san for the private wig workshop to get a clue how to make this monster of a wig.Thanks for your patience and time!
We also want to thank our senpais Artflower Cosplay and Abyssinian Cosplay
