Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Japan gets them all!

If cosplaying will become globally famous, Japan will get all the benefits. For one, they are the one who started it so they will be more famous. And two, their culture will be richer because even people from other countries will embrace it because of its popularity.

Disadvantages of having Cosplay Conventions in the Philippines

There is one major disadvantage of having Cosplay Conventions in the Philippines. And that is the Filipinos decrease in awareness when it comes to Filipino culture. The filipinos are too exposed in different cultures of other countries and tend to forget about the Philippines' own culture. We should all have in mind that even if we embrace the culture of other countries, we should embrace more on our own culture and promote the Philippines more so we may increase our popularity to other countries not as lazy and bad people, but a well-behaved and loving country and citizens.

Advantages of having a Cosplay Convention in the Philippines

Below are some lists of advantages of having a Cosplay Convention in the Philippines:

1. Filipinos, especially anime lovers can be updated on the new set of anime that were recently released.

2. Filipino Cosplayers can socialize with other cosplayers.

3. The Philippines and other countries can cooperate with each other and make programs in which Filipinos and citizens from other country can socialize with each other and it can increase the number of tourists in our country.

Risks of Being a Cosplayer

There are different risks of being a cosplayer:

1. Expenses. Cosplaying is not as cheap as you think. You'll need to spend money for your costume, hair, and make up. Unless you have an alternative for those things, cosplaying may be a little costly.

2. Time Management. Cosplay and Studies (or work) can be hard to balance especially studies. Some just want to cosplay but doesn't want to focus on their studies. People should balance both if they really want to cosplay because education is more important than anything.

3. People. Not all people will adore you because you're a cosplayer, some of them may become your anti-fans.

Benfits of Cosplay

There benefits on being a cosplayer: 


If you tend to sew your own costumes, fix your own wig styles, make your own accessories props and weapons: you may learn new skills in arts and crafts

when you save up and budget your meager allowance in preparation for your costume: you may learn to better handle your own finances

because you interact with different people - the tailors, clothing salespeople, photographers, other cosplayers, cosplay groups - you may learn to become more outgoing and less shy

in the pursuit of something really close to your heart - cosplaying as a favorite character - you may learn new aspects of your self thus self-realization and identity comes more easily!



cr: polidread

Who are the famous cosplayers here in the Philippines?

Alodia Gosiengfiao

Alodia Almira Gosiengfiao was known as the "Cosplay Queen" of the Philippines. She attended so many cosplaying events and portrays different characters every event which makes her famous. Below are some of the characters that she portrayed:

1. The Baroness III
2. Magna Carta
3.  Mirai Suenaga
4. Angel Sanctuary's Alexiel
5. Black Mage

Aside from the ones posted above, there are still many characters that she portrayed in different cosplays. According to the author's research, there were actually 40+ characters that she portrayed. Due to her large contribution to the cosplay community in the Philippines, Alodia has been invited to various international cosplay conventions not only as a participant, but also a judge or even just a guest. She now has different product endorsements and TV Shows. But even if she already got the attention of the media and press, she still has time to attend cosplay conventions and promotes cosplaying here in our country.


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Now, if you think that the only thing you can cosplay are Anime characters, well then you're wrong! You can actually cosplay Asian Celebrities, mostly in Korea. Some of the characters that were portrayed would be either an actress, a member of a band, a band, and a character from a certain drama. So here I'll give you an example of a famous cosplayer here in the Philippines.

Roxie Almeida

Roxie Almeida a.k.a. RoFany is a famous cosplayer in the kpop field. She's cosplaying Girls' Generation's Tiffany Hwang. As you can see, she resembles Tiffany and her fans call her as Tiffany's long lost twin sister. Some of her and Tiffany's pictures will confuse you because it is hard to tell which is which and that's one of the reason's why RoFany's famous. She has so many loving fans that would wait for her to come on different events just to have a picture with her, have her autograph, and meet her in person. If you guys think that it'll be hard to approach her, well once again, you're wrong! She's very approachable and friendly. 

So, how did this all started?


It all started when she joined this contest about kpop look alikes, and fortunately, she's one of the chosen winners! That's the time she started to have fans. And during the Kpop Convention, her fans finally had the chance to meet her. After a while, her facebook fan page was created by her no. 1 fan. As of now, she continues to have so many fans not only in the Philippines but also in other countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Mexico, and the list goes on. Don't believe me? Check this out. Maybe those thousands of fans is enough proof.

Recently, she was featured in Sparkilng Magazine Philippines' October Issue as one of the "kpop idol look-alikes" together with the other kpop cosplayers like Charles as Big Bang's Seungri, Dona as CL of 2ne1, Dondie as Taeyang of Big Bang, Jaysen as TVXQ's Yunho, Patricia as 2ne1's Minzy, and Min Hero as JYJ's Jejoong.


Monday, October 10, 2011

Who can be a Cosplayer?

Anyone, man or woman, old or young, and black or white can be a cosplayer as long as he/she can carry out or portray the character well and support his or her own expenses especially his/her costume for the event.

History of Cosplay

"For almost 50 years, costume fandom has had a consistent and widespread following with costumers markedly influencing science fiction writers, artists and the media. Costuming, as an innovative, three-dimensional art form, has probed and broken all limits of imagination in SF and fantasy. From the first Worldcon in 1939 to last year's Worldcon in Philadelphia, costume fandom has emerged as a robust and dynamic force within science-fiction fandom. At the First World Science Fiction Convention in New York in 1939, a 22-year-old Forrest J Ackerman and his friend Myrtle R. Jones appeared in the first SF costumes among the 185 attendees. The future editor of Famous Monsters of Filmland was dressed as a rugged looking star pilot, and his female companion was adorned in a gown recreated from the classic 1933 film Things to Come. Both of them created quite a stir among the somber gathering of writers, artists and fen (plural of fan), and injected a fanciful, imaginary quality into the convention's overly serious nature. Frederik Pohl, in his book The Way The Future Was, described the couple as "stylishly dressed in the fashions of the 25th century" but feared that they had started an ominous precedent. He was right! So successful were their costumes that the following year, about a dozen fans turned out in their own "scientifiction" apparel. Now, over a half century later, costume fandom has come to represent a large segment of the hardcore genre audience. Artists like Kelly Freas, Wendy Pini and Tim Hildebrandt, authors like Julian May and L. Sprague de Camp, and fans by the hundreds dress regularly in costume. Groups, such as the U.K.‘s Knights of St. Fantomy, the Society for Creative Anachronism and the International Costumers' Guild, conduct business and ceremony in costume, and the masquerade has become the central event of most large conventions.

Source: Wikipedia

What is Cosplay?



According to Wikipedia, Cosplay, short for "costume play", is a type of performance art in which participants don costumes and accessories to represent a specific character or idea. Performers of this type of art are called "Cosplayers".
Sometimes, people who naturally look like or idolize someone whose famous mostly either an anime character or a famous Asian Celebrity.


cr: Wikipedia