Okie ! ^^ I was intrigued by your outfit as I personally haven't seen this at any of the other cons I've gone to. Can you tell me who you are cosplaying and why you pick that character ?
I was Sorceress Edea from Final Fantasy VIII. I'm surprised there aren't more of her out there, because I personally think she's a very beautiful villain.
Final Fantasy VIII is my favorite Final Fantasy. It was the first one I played and I fell in love with all the characters. My friends wanted to do a group cosplay for it and had originally asked me to be Quistis, who's a very pretty blonde character, but she shows her stomach. Not wanting to scar many people at a convention (haha!), I told them I couldn't do it. They kept asking, so I jokingly said that I would make a Sorceress Edea. Low and behold, my joke turned into reality. But she's such a wonderful villain, so it worked out well. :D
Hmm..well, I do spend a lot of time with my face behind a camera and especially at the bigger cons it is much harder to see everything. lol ! So I remember you had difficulty actually moving around Anime Weekend Atlanta in that outfit ! I couldn't imagine trying to move around especially with everyone who wanted to take photos of you. How difficult was it to put the outfit together ?
Putting the outfit together was very difficult! Especially the backpiece. AWA was my second attempt at it. I wore the costume for the first time at ACEN in Chicago (I met another Edea there), but I wasn't able to get the spikes at the top to stay, so I didn't get to use it.
At AWA, I was determined to wear it. But then it started raining! With the spikes on the back piece, it was too large to fit in a truck or SUV without damage, so I had to transport them separately. My friends and I tried to attach the spikes at the con, but they fell off right away! Oh the horror! So my backpiece was unfinished. D: Maybe next con I can get them to stay!
It also wasn't very stable because my straps were too loose, so I wasn't able to move my arms around. It was very difficult to do much of anything with it on.
The headpiece and the dress weren't difficult at all to wear. :)
But the headpiece was very difficult to make! xD
So I will shall assume there'll be Edea 3.0 at the next con ? Oh, tell me about your headpiece ! I remember making a mental note to ask you about it later on !
Yeah, an Edea 3.0. She will be the last. Hopefully! xD
Edea was essentially my first cosplay I made on my own. The headpiece was my first 'prop' I ever had to made. I was completely clueless as to how to start it. I got some ideas from forums and other cosplayers, and decided to make it out of paperclay. There are 3 parts to it. The base, which has the horns, then the two side pieces which are attached via velcro so that I can take the head piece off and on.
It took me months and months of trial and error. I couldn't get the base in the right shape, or I'd break off the horns, or some other horrible thing would happen. And there was SO much sanding! Oh the sanding! It was horrible!
Painting it was exciting though. I loved mixing the colors and seeing it develop into something that resembles the pictures from the game was very touching to me.
It was a ton of work, but I love the outcome and I'm very proud of it.
So Edea being essentially your first cosplay on your own, what were your previous ones like ? Whcih kinda leads to the other question I was gonna ask as how you first got started ?
My previous ones were simple cosplays that I had commissioned. There was a Yumi Komagata from Rurouni Kenshin and an Asuka from Tekken 5 (in her alternate outfit). I have an obsession with sexy women in kimonos.
I went to my first con years ago and was amazed by all the people. It took me a few years to get a cosplay of my own because I wasn't working and I didn't have the money to devote to it sadly. Since I've gotten into college, I've had more time and money, so I bought myself a sewing machine for Christmas last year and I got to work! It's slow moving though because I am a beginner, so altering and making my own patterns is still very new and very hard for me.
So I guess you can say that I'm still very new to cosplaying. I hope to get better in the future and have many wonderful cosplays to show people! [:
How was the reaction to Edea at the ACEN and at AWA ? BTW : how did you find yourself at ACEN ? You're based in Georgia and Chicago seems like a pretty far city to travel to for a con.
The reaction was pretty similar at both cons. People seem to love the head piece, and they were excited to see an Edea, because she isn't very popular to cosplay. As you saw at AWA, it was hard to walk 2 feet without getting asked for a picture. It took me 4 hours to make 2 laps around the convention. I had one person, at ACEN, come up to me and express how rare I was, like I was a pokemon. It was entertaining.
I like to go to as many conventions as I can. I mostly go to the ones in Georgia and Florida, but I try to branch out when I can. I have a good friend who lives up in Chicago, so I went to go visit him for a week, and we timed the visit to fall on ACEN. :D If I can, I'd like to visit Alabama cons and Tennessee cons, and eventually visit out west. It's my goal to go to all the big cons in the US. But you're already on top of that! xD
lol ! I have met
Yeah, my friend from Chicago had flown down for AWA. I met him at a Florida con (metrocon). It's fun to make friends with other con-goers.
ACEN was alright. It wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be. My friends and I discussed it, and we figured we would just throw it up to differences of the North and the South. It was huge, and not all in one location, which was a downer, but not a big deal. But the people were less likely to sit down and play a game of apples to apples or mafia with complete strangers.
But cosplay wise, ACEN was amazing! There were so many cosplayers, and of such high quality to! It was really fantastic, and everyone was really eager to compliment you and discuss methods and secrets to cosplaying with anyone who would listen.
I don't have experiences with the North/South as I did go to Otakon since that's a super con and comparing one that size to AWA is kinda like apples to oranges though I'll say I prefer the South (and maybe that's just me growing up in Texas that's talking). I've met so many folks in the South more welcoming.
So do you have future cosplaying plans and if you had unlimited time/money/technology, who would you cosplay ?
I do! I have so many future plans!
I'm really looking forward to doing a group cosplay to Drakengard. Not many people are familiar with Drakengard, but it's an action RPG with really interesting characters who are all sinister in different ways. It involves beastiality, incest, pedophilia, cannibalism, love to the extreme, hate, homosexuality, just about anything and everything you can think of. It's crazy! And it's going to be so much fun to cosplay, and their outfits are all AMAZING! We're hoping to have those ready by next AWA, but it's so much to do, and we're all 'noobs.' xD
My dream cosplay, on the other hand, isn't quite as exciting or hard. It's Lulu from Final Fantasy X. I think that she is absolutely gorgeous, and her outfit is so beautiful! I want to do her perfect, so I'm waiting until I have more experience before I try to make her outfit. All that colored lace and those belts! I want it all to be PERFECT!
Speaking of group cosplay, do you have a preference between solo or group cosplaying ?
I love group cosplays. I definitely have more fun when I have my friends right there with me. There's more interaction. You can have so many different poses and photos with your friends. I'm also a very social person and love to have someone with me at all times. When I'm solo, I have more freedom, but I feel lonely and feel as if I'm excluding my friends. Plus, I like having other people to help push ideas and times, and it's nice to have an entire group of friends to go to for help. We all want our costumes to look good, so we're all willing to help one another, and I love that.
Okay, anything else you wanna add ? Favorite con ? Funny story ? Etc. ?
My favorite convention I've been to is probably Metrocon in Florida. They do a lot with their cosplayers, and everyone down there is amazing! What with their interactive masquerades to their anime chess, it's a blast for anyone who's really into anime, video games, and cosplaying!
I worry for their future though. I hope that it continues being a fantastic convention, even with the problems that have arisen.
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