Genshin Impact potential future cosplans!

 Hello world!

It's been literal years since I last did any post on characters I'd want to cosplay in the future so I figured I might as well do one now, for a change of pace. Last time I did one such post appears to have been in 2016 so yeah, not exactly yesterday. xD 

 

But first I gotta admit that, just like everyone else, I'm deep inside the Genshin Impact hellhole currently and I've been playing daily since the later half of 2020 with no signs of franchise burnout. In fact my investment into the lore, characters etc keeps getting stronger! I'm not normally the person to play whatever is hyper popular at the moment but Genshin is different to me, it's just sooooo damn good in almost every possible way and the character designs are so aesthetically pleasing! I've always been a fan of anime-styled games and open-world exploration – Genshin's got pretty much everything I could ask for. I wouldn't be lying if I said that, out of all the games that I'm currently playing actively, that Genshin is my favorite game.

So yeah, I totally wanted to dedicate a whole post to all the currently released Genshin Impact characters that I've considered cosplaying more or less seriously. Obviously I can't guarantee that I will do all of these down the line but they are all currently on my list and yeah, it's fun to have plans~

Without further ado, let's get down to it!

*Minor spoiler warning ahead!*

Characters are in descending order.

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Character: Zhongli

 Geo daddy! Hands down my current favorite Genshin husbando by quite a long shot. I loved him from the second I saw his design and that love only got stronger the more I learned about his story and personality. Zhongli is a deeply interesting character to me, I don't want to go into spoilers why for those that haven't finished the Liyue main storyline yet but Zhongli is definitely the number one character that I currently want to cosplay from Genshin and also the one I for sure will do. I was over the moon when I managed to pull him the first time, he's currently C2 on my main team and my most used character hehe. I adore his color scheme, overall design, even his English voice. Heck, he could step on me any day and I'd pay him for it lmao.

Character: Kaedehara Kazuha

Who is surprised to see Kazuha on this list? Definitely not me. Everything about him screams that he's my type of character – he's a wandering samurai, he's a temporary member of Beidou's pirate crew, he's poetic and calm but carries a lot of burdens in his heart that he does not speak much about. He ticks all the boxes, he's basically me if I was in Genshin lol. I've always been drawn to white-haired characters and if they have red or golden eyes then that's a major bonus. :D Not to mention I love color schemes with red, black and white together along with traditional Japanese elements. Yup, I will definitely cosplay Kazuha at some point. Watch me!

 

Character: Diluc

Ah, Master Diluc. Probably the first character in Genshin that I took any affinity to. My youngest cousin Toni taught me to play Genshin when I first started and was very lost with how to upgrade etc and he mained Diluc at that time. I remember thinking that I definitely wanted that red-haired edgy guy in my team and I spent a long time trying to wish for him later. RNGesus blessed me eventually and Diluc is currently my main team's DPS unit. I do enjoy his design too and again we have the red, black and white combo that I'm particularly fond of. Diluc might appear to be that one rich bastard above everyone else, the anti-hero type with attitude problems yet he's so wholesome at the same time, single-handedly defeating evil and protecting Mondstadt when no one is looking. I will definitely cosplay the Darknight Hero at some point.

 

Character: Venti

 This little rascal is not the typical character type that I fall for. Usually this kind of character is more likely to get on my nerves lmao. But there's something with Venti that really speaks to me and I can't really put my finger on what exactly it is. I do like his design a lot (and the fact that he's androgynous to the point of being a genderfuck lolol) although wearing his costume is probably gonna put me a bit outside my comfort zone. He's a funny character, he's carefree and playful but at the same time clever and he says some stuff that really puts you thinking. Of course there's some spoiler reasons why I like him too but I'll refrain from mentioning those in case there's any new players reading this. I do consider cosplaying this prankster bard seriously but I'm not 100% whether it will happen. Probably will though.

Character: Xiao

Xiao is so precious. ;_; He's the distant and intimidating emo guy sitting at rooftops with a tragic past. He's not human, he's an adeptus (for those unknown about Genshin lore it's a kind of godlike being, basically) and more exactly one of the five major Yakshas. I don't want to spoil his background story but it did touch me on an emotional level and I can understand why he acts the way he does. And also why he's so popular with fans. I would really like to cosplay him eventually but he's not going to be among the first ones as tbh I'm super intimidated by how to tackle his tattoo lol. One day...

 

Character: Xingqiu

 Another precious boy. He's very chivalrous and has a great sense of justice. Xingqiu is a bookworm and a martial arts prodigy and although he's not the typical character that I'd be drawn towards I do like him a lot. He grew on me slowly and now he's a part of my team, whoops. He's so genuine and pure and his design is gorgeous, especially the sleeves! I really want to cosplay him at some point but the only thing holding me back is that I know I'm gonna feel so uncomfortable with those tiny shorts rip. But I want to do him anyway, sometimes you gotta challenge yourself.

 

Character: Gorou

 Gorou is in a weird spot for me. I don't know so much yet about his story but the moment I saw him I was like "fuck, I want him in one of my other teams!" but then I was so disappointed cuz you need to build a Geo team around him to get the most use out of his kit as he's a support unit. So I like him based on what I do know about him but especially because of his design, it's gorgeous. And I like characters with animal features so that's a plus! If I do cosplay him one day it's gonna take a while as I need to lose weight to feel comfortable doing a costume with a bare midriff; currently it's a big no-no as I'm extremely self-conscious about my body.

Character: Razor

One of my early favorite characters when I started playing Genshin back in the days. I like Razor's story quite a lot but that's somewhat dampened by the fact that I don't find him very fun to play, although he is a stupidly strong 4-star character. He has to be a main DPS or not be in your team at all cuz Razor's whole kit focuses only on buffing himself, which makes sense when you think about his story but it feels very limiting at the same time. I do toy with the idea of cosplaying the Wolf Boy at some point but I'm kinda hoping he would get another outfit that I'd like more than the current one. Maybe one day.

Character: Aether (Male Traveler)

This one is a big maybe. The Traveler (and Paimon) are the faces of Genshin Impact, the most iconic characters. I do enjoy the story of the twins trying to find each other and I'm very curious about how it will continue. I like the designs of both the male and the female Traveler and I would consider cosplaying Aether if one of my friends did Lumine as there would be some fun photoshoot possibilities! And I do genuinely like Aether's design anyway, although this one has the same problem as Gorou does in terms of cosplaying lol. So yeah, not gonna happen in the nearest future at least.

 

Character: Dainsleif

This dude is a very intriguing character. There's not much information out about him yet, he's super mysterious and appears to have vast knowledge about the past. I doubt he's even human. It's hard to say how much I'd like to cosplay him at this point as so much about him is still shrouded in mystery but from what we do know, based on that one main story chapter, I can't wait to learn more about who he is! His design is super badass too, almost half his face is covered by an eyepatch that looks like a half mask and he has some weird veiny shit going on around parts of his body. I am tempted to cosplay him currently but time will tell.

 

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 And that's it for now. I'm probably gonna do another Genshin cosplay dream list along the way as new characters get added (I doubt we even have one third of all characters released yet). I still want to do some other cosplays too but ngl Genshin is my biggest fandom currently and I can't wait to cosplay from it!

Until next time, stay cool!
~ Shiro Samurai out.

Messy thoughts about cosplay and shifting interests

Hello folks!

I've thought about making this blog post for a long time now but never really got around to it. I'm currently stuck with the flu for the second time this month and figured, as I have nothing else to really post well I do have like fifteen WIP drafts from years back but ssch, no one knows that now is the perfect time to get this out of my system. I'm gonna apologize in advance because this will most likely get long and all over the place so yeah, you've been warned.

Let's go!

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So basically I've been feeling that my interest in cosplay has been dwindling since the last couple years or more. I don't know when exactly it started but I sure know that being locked out of my MyAnimeList account for more than two years did add to it – yes, I only got access back on September this year and that means that I quite literally did not watch any anime in two years as it bothers me like hell if I can't keep tabs on what I'm watching. The weird part is that during this off time I came to notice that I had no real, compelling urge to watch anime nor did I really grow any kind of fomo (fear of missing out) about new series. I didn't read any manga either, save for one exception which was a one-shot, so I don't really count that. And even though my account is back now I still haven't felt like watching anything, even though my "plan to watch" list is very long...

All of this made it so that I started feeling like I had somehow grown out of the "weeb phase" and I felt really weird about it. Like being this anime and manga nerd has been my thing for so long, a big part of my identity. But it just doesn't click as much as before, I don't feel the same excitement when new series are revealed etc and I feel like I should sell a lot of my previously hoarded anime merchandise. When I look at my 40 odd something Bleach mangas I feel a strong urge to sell them at the next best con, lol.
Even my future cosplay list feels like it's in need of an overhaul... and when I look at said cosplay list I realize that almost all the characters left are from video games or western sources like movies. And that's when it hit me.

Maybe my interests are shifting from anime and manga cosplays to video games, fantasy and movies?

It's not really that I don't feel like cosplaying from anime/manga or that I would be "growing out of it" (whatever that means) but I have been having these specific thought demons that have been getting more and more loud as the years have passed. We can start by asking y'all – I'm pretty sure no one has missed how I've done very few, if any, new costumes these past years, right? While there's many reasons that contribute to it the main thing is a combination of lack of money and a lack of energy and motivation hello mental illness my old friend. Now, with manga and anime there's a neverending stream of series available (it's overwhelming!) and I don't know if it's just me or not but I tend to lose interest in series that I have finished really fast. Alarmingly fast, in fact. Like most times as soon as I start watching a new anime I will almost completely drop interest in the previous one, unless I had a particularly strong emotional connection to it. And even then it's unstable for long-time commitment.
It's not uncommon that by the time my ordered wig arrives for a character that, umm, I've already dropped the idea to cosplay said character in favor of something else. And now I have a random wig lying around, which isn't too bad... until there's like over twenty of them in all colors of the rainbow and you sit there and realize how much money you wasted on them. So there I am, with a hole in my wallet and I feel how the dread of "what am I gonna do with all of these things?" slowly kicks in. I could have used all that money for a costume that I would actually wear.

Wigs en masse.

After several of my "what am I doing with my life" ponderings I came to realize that what my remaining cosplay candidates had in common was that they all, more or less, were somehow either related to my childhood or to video games that I've played for a long time. Examples would be characters like Shin Kazama from Area 88, which is an anime/manga but I knew it as a Super Nintendo game from my childhood first – and that's why interest hasn't dropped even if the costume is on ice right now. Other examples would be Pokémon and Monster Hunter. I still want to do an armor set to match my Eldaora's Taus Hunting Horn and I have several Pokémon gijinkas that I designed years ago that I still want to do (although some need redesigns).

The point is that I feel like investing into a video game or "western" cosplay right now is a safer option for me. Many movies are popular and achieve cult/classic status years after their release (note: I'm not saying that anime don't do it!), with super strong and dedicated fanbases and I honestly would, in my current mindset, be a lot more inspired and comfortable to make a Lord of the Rings costume over let's say a Fruits Basket cosplay. I enjoy both of course but I feel like I've hit a stale point with anime cosplays and I want to try discovering new ground and fandoms that I only lightly stepped into before. It's a bit the same thing how I've been growing more and more interested in trying live-action roleplay and Dungeons & Dragons.
And I guess working at a cinema and noticing how several of my friends have been turning more and more towards embracing their western popculture roots is affecting me too – after all, cosplay is almost always more enjoyable with friends. I'm seriously longing for Pirates of the Caribbean groups, Harry Potter groups and Disney and Pixar groups! 
I feel like it's more important than ever right now for me to connect back to my childhood and teenage years because that's what gives me motivation to actually start and finish a cosplay, not just the "flavor of the season" anime that dies as suddenly as it came. I really need that extra burst to get anything done right now because I've been stuck in a horrible depression spiral for years now and any progress is good progress at this point.
Not to mention that I'm convinced that any western fandom cosplays I make will last me a lot longer and thus I won't feel so much dread and anguish over only wearing a cosplay once or twice and then feeling like "it's so yesteryear" or worrying that my friends will lose interest before I do. The thing is that I honest to god can't afford single-wear costumes because my economy is really bad and it stresses me the fuck out every day I'm alive so yeah, every costume counts and has to be worth every penny – and preferably be rewearable, aka inspiring to wear, for a long time. I feel absolute shit over unfinished costumes still lingering in my closet, especially because I know that I'm unlikely to ever get some of them done, not gonna lie.

Also, I've noticed that I don't have as much fun as I want to believe that I have when I go to cons alone. Heck, most times I haven't even been able to arse myself to cosplay when I'm going solo. I really need to be surrounded by friends to thrive and not fall into a pit of very loud anxiety. So hey, if any of my friends are reading this then let's plan something together for 2020?

tl;dr - I've lost that excitement for cosplay since years back and I'm slowly realizing that maybe it's not that I'm "growing out of it" as much as it is that my interests are changing from eastern to western pop culture and fandoms. I need to embrace my favorite video games and movies because those are the ones that are likely to keep me interested and motivated through the whole project – and the risk of losing interest after wearing the costume once or twice is minimal. Peace of mind, saved money and nostalgy. Win-win.

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I'm probably forgetting to mention like one hundred things but hey, I have the flu so my brain is not the most present. I might follow this up with another thoughts and reflections style post? 

Please do note that this is not a "I will not do/wear any anime or manga cosplays ever again" exclamation, far from it! I will still do them but right now I really feel like I need to move away for a moment and dig on the other side of the trench, to refind that happiness and motivation which made cosplay fun in the first place.

Thank you for reading these messy ramblings, if anyone did. Have you had similar thoughts? I'd love to hear your stories!

~ Shiro Samurai out.

Cosplay waste as a result of falling out of fandoms

Hello guys!

January has been a quiet month for me it seems, it wasn't intended but I just honestly have a lot of stuff on my mind stressing me out and the blog is one more such thing right now. ^^"

I still want to write something and, as I've been thinking, I came to the conclusion that there's something with choosing what and who to cosplay that has changed for me over the years. Yes, I'm talking about the process of choosing cosplays. I'll apologize in advance if I repeat myself over the post a lot or if it's just really incoherent and messy but I want to get my thoughts out about this topic. It might be similar to this post and this one in some ways but I'll try to keep this one on a different note.

Let's go!

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I didn't really notice it much at first but during my earlier cosplay years, when everything was new and exciting, I was more... spontaneous. Like I would watch a new anime and immediately decide that I want to cosplay that character and start making the costume, without any second thoughts. What this led to in some cases was that I ended up with a half-finished cosplay lurking in the back of my wardrobe like a ghost of the past, never returning to finish what was started. Why? Because I lost interest in the fandom or character too fast. This, in hindsight, feels like a massive waste of time and resources as the hype in some cases is really fleeting and short-lived and honestly, what am I gonna do with the costume now? How could I even have known which series will last and which ones will die off? It's so daunting.

I have a few unfinished cosplays that met this tragic fate, just lying around whenever there's space and I prefer not to think about them. I punch myself mentally in the face when I see those costumes as it reminds me that all that money and time I could have used on "the right costumes" instead. I feel really conflicted about those unfinished cosplays – some I even have blog drafts about that are to this day unpublished and I just don't know what the fuck to do with them. I don't wanna just delete as I have documented them, taken photos, written about the constuction etc but publishing a post that dates back several years feels really... not relevant? Especially if the costume is not even finished and likely to never actually be debuted. Argh.

The problems arise when I try to figure out what to do. Having them unfinished stresses me out as I'm a perfectionist at heart (and at the same time a massive procrastinator, geez what a godly combo) but I just have little to no interest to go back to the costume, for whatever reason. And knowing me I don't have the determination to scrap it for materials either as I'm a hopeless "what if" thinker and will inevitably sit there and play out scenarios in my head about how angry I would be at myself if I scrapped the costume and later, somehow, got back the interest to actually finish it... or if the parts of the costume would double up for a future cosplay or even an OC, assuming they're generic enough.
Like I completely acknowledge that the odds of getting re-hyped about long past fandoms is small but still I'm holding on to that... or maybe it's just an excuse I make for myself because I put emotional value and feelings into everything I do and just don't wanna scrap it yet. I honestly don't know but it annoys me because it makes me a hoarder that can't easily part with anything without constantly being afraid that I might need it eventually. Not gonna lie, when I was a child I even kept trash like empty candy wrapping papers as I felt guilty throwing them away, as if they were living and feeling things. I know, it's kinda cringy but I was a really sensitive and overthinking kid.

All this has in turn led to a sort of fear of being too quick when choosing a costume – even if it is from a fandom that I have enjoyed for multiple years and deemed "safe to invest in". Truth is that I've lately been feeling distanced even from fandoms that I thought would be sorta eternal to me and now I don't know if I surely want to do some cosplays that I had planned and even bought fabrics for years ago already. I feel so horribly, horribly torn and a really bad economy makes it all worse as I'm constantly stressing over money and have started to feel like cosplay is too expensive for me to afford right now. So yeah, it's a real mess inside my head and nothing feels safe anymore; I feel bad about all the costumes that I'm unlikely to rewear or finish because it's too much of a hassle to sell them and I still can't get myself to scrap them either. 

So nowadays when I get into a new series I might find myself wanting to cosplay some characters really much but I'll hold on to that temptation and see what happens after some months – if it lessens I'll bury the idea and move on, if it stays I'll wait a bit longer. Seems healthy but at the same time it feels a bit like intentionally suffocating new cosplay hype (which is among the best feelings) but I can't afford any "cosplay waste" in my current situation, even though there's a whole different level of fun of doing something while it's new, exciting and your friends are doing it too. A part of me wishes I had the option to be more spontaneous, more forgiving of my own mistakes and that I didn't dwell so much on if I should do something or not. 

Nowadays it feels like every new costume has to be really carefully chosen (unless it's something I can mostly pull out of the closet) and while that's a good thing it makes me feel really doubtful and critical of every new potential candidate as well. Not to mention group and pair cosplays – I really want to do these more often but over half the time I regret saying "yes" before the next week comes around, even if it's a fandom I'm currently into. It's mainly me getting anxious about committing to something because it means I might get crap for it if I bail out, especially if the other person(s) already got started. Don't wanna be seen as a "bad friend" or "flaky cosplayer".

Oh and yeah, of course it's pretty safe to assume that you will eventually lose interest in pretty much any costume you've made but as long as it gets worn enough to make "the cost worth" it gives me no bad feelings and actually feels satisfactory – especially if I get good photos of it too. The issues arise with all the costumes that I only wear like once and then drop or that I never finish. The whole thing is basically just me questioning if my cosplay chosing process is reliable enough and if being picky hurts me or not in the long run, especially as a part of me yearns for wanting to be part of whatever is the hype train of the season – at least once. Despite the blasphemy my brain screams at me for wanting to do something popular as all my life I've been actively avoiding what's mainstream, lmao.

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Honestly I don't know where I'm going with this and I think I lost the red thread somewhere along the way. xD Not sure it even makes sense or if I'm being dramatic again but really, I'd love to hear from you if you have had similar experiences and/or thoughts about costumes that fell short? Spill the beans in the comment field below! I don't wanna be alone with this, lmao.

Thanks for reading my first post of the year!
~ Shiro Samurai out.

My to-this-day undebuted cosplays

Hello folks!

Here it now is – the list of all my yet-to-be-debuted cosplays, as of now. I think every cosplayer is guilty of this one and what I mean is that we all start cosplays and then life happens and we just don't... finish them, for whatever reason. Sometimes we lose interest, sometimes we get other costumes in the way (that we want to finish first) and sometimes we just get lazy. Or something. :D

Regarding my own list I want to say that fear not, all the characters on the image below I still have an intent to finish and wear to a con. I haven't forgotten them! It's just that, for various reasons, all of these guys have ended up on the backburner – finished or not. I will detail below the status of each listed character.

From top left to bottom right:

Sanosuke Harada (Hakuouki, western outfit): Mostly finished. Looking for the right wig.
Team Aqua Grunt (Pokémon, RSE version): Finished, I might have lost my gloves though. Waiting for the right summer con because this is a very light costume.
Invoker (DOTA 2): In progress. Currently on a break.
Rentarou Satomi (Black Bullet): Need new shoes, otherwise finished. Hoping for a group/pair cosplay as I'm not too interested in doing him alone...
Leon S. Kennedy (Resident Evil 4): In progress. Hoping to get him finished early next year.
Mikazuki Munechika (Touken Ranbu): In progress but on a break. I have the wig and headband.
Tsurumaru Kuninaga (Touken Ranbu): In need of upgrading/repairs. Making the sword. Currently on a break.
Kenshin Himura (Rurouni Kenshin): Need to style the wig and fix the sword, otherwise ready. Currently on a break but plan to get back to him soon.
Hotaru (Samurai Deeper Kyo): Finished. Just need to learn to walk without faceplanting with his tengu geta. Waiting for a summer con.
Cheshire Cat (Yume Oukoku to Nemureru 100 nin no Ouji-sama): Needs some small fixing. Currently on a break.
Hajime Saitou (Hakuouki, rasetsu): Finished, except that I kind of want to find an even better wig for him. The juban needs some repairing before wear and the waraji shoes need to be strengthened.
Masamune Date (Sengoku Basara): My eternity project. ::DD Seeing how I last worked on him in 2014-2015 I might want to remake most of the armor parts by now, seeing how some of them aren't even comfortable/possible to wear. Currently on a break.
Shin Kazama (Area 88): In progress. Working on his flight suit. Hopefully finished for next summer.

There you have it. :) Although I must admit that I did not add all characters in there, mainly because either a lack of reference images of the particular version or because I'm highly considering scrapping them from my cosplay list altogether. Look at the list below to get an idea of what characters I left out and what their fate looks like.

Here's the "invisible list" of the second-grade cosplays:

Eren Yeager (Attack on Titan, casual): I actually started making this costume in January 2015 and got like halfway done before I suddenly lost interest. Don't get me wrong – I still think that the show is good but because of bad experiences I don't think that I want to cosplay from it anymore.
Levi Ackerman (Attack on Titan, suit): I still kinda like the character but I just can't look at this cosplay the same as before. The costume is finished but I doubt I could ever get past the mental barrier to actually wear him out, seeing how this very cosplay worsened my already existing insecurities. I know that my friends would tell me to not let anonymous hate stop me from cosplaying him but honestly, I don't want to risk getting bullied for wearing a cosplay again. Especially one that is not important to me anyway... 
Masamune Date (Brave 10): I did actually do a wig test in like 2012 but haven't started working on this cosplay. I later sold the wig but I still plan to cosplay this guy eventually – especially if I could get a group together.
Rokuro Unno (Brave 10, kimono): I was about to wear him to Desucon 2013 but just did a quick photoshoot outside the hotel and skipped actually debuting him. On hindsight I'm happy about that because the costume needs some updating, aka a better wig and eyewrap. Still plan to cosplay him one day, hopefully.
Yuuto (Original Character): One of my early OCs. I wore him for a home photoshoot in 2010 (holy shit that's old!) but since then I've been wanting to improve this costume and rewear him.
Jushiro Ukitake (Bleach, original suit): Did this for Valentine's Day 2012 and for Desucon Frostbite's "iltabileet" the same year. I kind of want to have a proper photoshoot of this costume one day.
Chikage Kazama (Hakuouki): I think I bought a sayagata patterned collar to use for his haori in 2012 and then just... forgot about it. xD I still want to do him but it's probably gonna take a while.

I might be forgetting someone but I left out a few new (or old-new) cosplays that I will soon start working on and want to keep secret for a lil' while longer. x) Also, I chose to skip adding all the different versions of Hakuouki's Souji Okita and rasetsu versions of other characters that I have more or less started working on because yeah, they would quickly take up a lot of space – I only added Saitou and western Harada on the list because those I actually got far enough to costest, haha. I bought perfect red fabric for Okita's regular version in 2014 and it has been waiting for its day since then. I also have red leather fabric for his gloves etc.

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There ya go. I hope you found this little post of interest, hehe. ^_^

Thanks for reading and see you!

~ Shiro Samurai

Game characters I want to cosplay someday! [pt.2]

Hello people!

With the end of this year approaching I thought it could be a nice idea to go through some more cosplay candidates that I want to do in the future – from different kinds of games, just like in the previous post with the same name. ^_^ This post is not a guarantee that all of these characters will eventually happen but it's a fairly good indicator that I want to do them because yeah, most of these have been on my mind and on my cosplay list for a longer time already and haven't fallen out yet. I admit that there is a higher chance of me doing any of the following characters earlier if some of my friends etc are interested in the same series and/or plan a cosplay group! So yeah, comment if you are hyped about any of the characters/series and we could get something together!

Now let's go, roll out the list ~

Characters are in no particular order.

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Game: Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate

Character: Ace Commander

I'm a huuuuuge Monster Hunter fanboy and of course I want to cosplay some armor sets etc but yeah, I also want to cosplay some actual characters that you interact with in the games. I really enjoy playing MH4U (1500+ hours and still going!) and I took a big liking to the Ace Commander. I just love how awkward he is with small talk and showing compassion and yet he's the cool leader type who values the other Ace hunters like family and protects them when it's needed. He's pretty relatable and I love his design, color scheme and... well... I have a bias for males with long silver hair, haha. One day I swear to God I will cosplay this guy, it needs to happen.

Game: Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate

Character: Argosy Captain

This one started of as a joke between me and Sacchan but quickly grew to be a real candidate on my cosplay list. I just love this trade captain in MH3U who keeps mixing Japanese words into his sentences and he's just really funny! I also of course like his design and he wouldn't be too hard to do as a first MonHun cosplay, except that the wig will be a challenge and I need to make monobrows to be accurate.... oh shit!

Game: Resident Evil 4

Character: Leon Scott Kennedy

If you had asked me a couple years ago I would probably never consider playing nor cosplaying from a horror game – I just don't like anything that might give me nightmares. But then there's my friend Sacchan, who loves survival horror games and is a big fan of Resident Evil and once she brought her PS2 to my place and proceeded to play RE4, from the very beginning, while I watched her play. Turns out I found the game interesting (although I'm still too much of a scaredy cat to play it myself) and ended up liking Leon surprisingly much. Besides, Sacchan want to cosplay some characters from the series anyway so why not join my best friend in the fun? And now I finally get a reason to go to an unsettling, possibly abandoned building after nightfall and have a photoshoot in there...

Game: World of Warcraft

Character: Malfurion Stormrage

Before anyone inserts a pitchfork up my ass I must confess that I've never played WoW (yet) but I've always been drawn to the character designs and I really liked Warcraft: The Beginning. But despite not playing WoW it does have some nostalgic connections with me, mainly because one of my childhood friend's brother played it a lot and that I remember at my first big con I saw some really amazing WoW cosplayers that made me think "oh man, I want to be purple and badass one day too!". Later it turned out that Sacchan had been wanting to cosplay Tyrande Whisperwind for years and she asked me if I wanted to join in as Malfurion. I checked him up and my eyes jumped out of my sockets – OMG, this guy has everything that I've been wanting to create in a cosplay! Wings, huge horns, bodypaint, fur details, a long beard, those famous WoW-eyebrows, huge ears, leatherwork, making a realistic muscle suit etc. This will be one hell of a challenge but I'm gonna do it!

Game: Touken Ranbu

Character: Taroutachi

I think most people know by now that I'm a fan of sword boys. I have already cosplayed a few characters from this online web browser game but there's so many more that I still want to do – and Taroutachi is one of them. He's actually one of my dream cosplays from Touken Ranbu and one of the very first ones I decided that I definitely want to cosplay one day. His design just speaks volumes to me and I can't wait to make a huge-ass sword!

Game: Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance

Character: Oscar

Ah, good old Nintendo Gamecube age. I'm still there. Path of Radiance is, so far, the only Fire Emblem game that I've played but I really like it even though it's really frustrating at times. Oscar is one of my favorite characters in the game and I want to cosplay him someday when I'm good enough at armormaking and when... I can get to borrow a horse from somewhere. :D No but really, he's a cavalry knight in the game so yeah, it would be really awesome if I ever got the chance to photoshoot with a real "oat motorcycle", as my father always said. *dreaming*

Game: Umikaze

Character: Kantai Collection

What is this, a female character on my list? Yes, you saw right. Although I'm not into crossplay I will do an exception for KanColle ship girls because yeah, I have a big interest in ships and history etc and hey, why not do something different every once in a blue moon? I really like the color scheme of Umikaze and I thought that "why not? :D". It would be a challenge in itself and way out of my comfort zone. I'm still not 100% sure if I want to do an actual crossplay or a genderbend but I think I'm leaning a bit more towards doing Umikaze as she is because it just makes more sense to not genderbend her since ships have always been referred to as feminine.

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I would have a couple more characters to list but I think I'll save those for a third reveal so stay tuned for that. ^^ Thanks for your time and I'm looking forward to hear if any of these characters caught your interest! I'm often up for pair and group cosplays if it's possible to arrange, the more the merrier ~

Bye bye!

Childhood nostalgy & dream cosplays!

Good day everyone! o(^◇^)o

For a while now I've been itching to make some kind of post about characters that I really liked as a kid and that, nowadays, have a sort of "childhood dream/nostalgy cosplay" status to them! Even though I feel like I can't call many of my cosplays 'dream cosplays' I guess some of these child favorites of mine do come rather close to it. :) Many of these served as childhood heroes and as characters that I related to, admired or just simply really loved when growing up. 

Okay so, even though these characters listed below might be more or less vastly different from one another, they all still have something in common and that's that they were dear to me during my childhood – and that also includes early & mid teenage years. Wow, that makes me sound so old.

What are we waiting for, let's gooooo ~ 

Series: Digimon

Character: Angemon

Oh man, good ol' original Digimon Adventure. ♥ As a kid I was one of those few (?) who loved Pokémon and Digimon equally, aka I never really understood the "war of copies" comparisons between them that other kids made and thus picked sides – saying that you could only like one or the other, not both. I always thought that even though both had some similarities they also had a lot of differences too!
 Patamon was always my favorite of the main Digimons because he was just so damn cute! I have at least two different Patamon plush dolls lying around somewhere. I remember watching the show as a kid for the first time and when Patamon finally evolved into Angemon I was so excited – he was so freakin' cool! *o* But yeah, everyone who watched Digimon knows what happens after that and yeah, the feels are real with this one. *gross sobbing*

Angemon seriously stayed as one of my all-time favorite Digital Monsters (Takeru/T.K was my favorite of the original children too!) and now that I'm into cosplay I really want to do him. I can't live with myself if I don't cosplay Angemon one day. It needs to happen, period.
Friendly note: I know that Angemon is quite heavily inspired by Christianity but, honestly, the religious aspects of his character have nothing to do with why I like, nor want to cosplay, him. 

Series: Digimon Adventure 02

Character: Ken Ichijouji

I want to cosplay at least one of the early DigiDestined (aka Chosen Children in the Japanese version) and I remember really liking Ken when I was young; I had some sort of early mancrush on him, lol. I never saw the complete second season but I rewatched it last year and when Ken finally snapped and hugged Wormmon I had a hard time keeping the tears in check – he's so precious. ;A; I hadn't seen that part of the anime before, so I had no idea that he'd actually revert back to being a good guy and, oh boy, did that dig him up from my childhood memories as one of my human favorites from Digimon!
I really want to cosplay him but I'm not 100% sure of which version I'd do; I am currently leaning towards his gray school uniform though. It's pretty dang iconic.

Series: Beyblade

Character: Ray Kon (Rei Kon in Japan)

I don't remember exactly when it was, but I guess around my early teenage years I suddenly got into a Beyblade craze. The original series aired on television and I saw some random episodes during a summer vacation at dad's; I later asked dad for money and went and bought some Beyblades to play with from the local toy store. xD I remember originally liking Kai more than Ray but afterwards I started digging Ray a lot and even more so when, last year, the wonderful Satu and Päivi from Leikkipuisto encouraged me to do him!
I never really told my friends that I used to like Beyblade but several toys, a GBA game and Beyblade bed covers speak for themselves, haha. I should really watch the original series properly one day. #closetfan

Series: Beyblade

Character: Kai Hiwatari

What should I say? xD We share the same name, I can relate to him in some ways and I must admit that I had a tiny mancrush for him too. :'D I just really liked him as a kid, okay? I dig his design surprisingly much too but I think one of his selling points to me was that his Bit-Beast was based on a phoenix and, well, I always had a huge fascination with birds. I also like his color scheme and I'm itching to tackle that wig because holy crud, that's gonna be one heck of a challenge!

Series: InuYasha

Character: Sesshoumaru

My first and original husbando, not gonna lie. I loved him so much and I still do!!

InuYasha was the first manga I started collecting/reading and I own every single manga volume (in Finnish) of it; it has a special place in my heart. ♥ InuYasha is what really hooked me into manga and anime for good and it's one of those series that made me realize that I had been into anime & manga *coughpokémoncough* long before I knew what it was. :D So yeah, aside from being one of my long-term favorite mangas I can say that InuYasha is very likely one of the series that also led me into finding out about cosplay. I honestly plan to cosplay a lot more characters from it but Sesshoumaru is the number one choice, by miles. I just feel like I must do him someday and I'm really relieved that I didn't decide on him as my first cosplay, lol. xD I'll do him when I feel that I can do him justice, haha. He's such a dear character to me, I don't want to mess it up.

Series: Pokémon

Character: Tracey Sketchit

Who remembers this guy?
I've been a hardcore Pokémon fan since the first games and TCG came out (I was around six years old I think) and my whole childhood centered around Pokémon, not gonna lie. x) I was one of those mildly obsessed kids and I'm still going strong about it, even though nowadays I don't require my birthday cake to be a big marzipan Pikachu, lol. Pokémon is what got me into manga and anime to begin with – Pokémon is what made me who I am today. ♥
Okay so, I honestly don't remember all that much about this guy but I remember liking him and that's mainly because he was an artist and so were I! His design is simple, nostalgic and very typical of early Pokémon and so I thought "why not"? :D Besides, he gives me a legit reason to bring along a drawing pad to conventions and actually practice sketching Pokémons... which I haven't done for years, even though as a child that was almost the only thing I drew, lol. Aaaah, memories... ~

Series: Pokémon

Character: James

Well, contrary to Tracey, James hardly needs an introduction! He's from the infamous Team Rocket duo who always tries to steal Ash's Pikachu or do some other mischievous shenanigans to mess up their day. The thing is that whatever they do and no matter how idiot-proof their idea might have been they will always end up... blasting off again.
I remember that even as a kid I thought that Team Rocket were way too predictable and annoying because you knew they'd always fail! But nevertheless I liked their silly tries and even sillier costumes they'd wear to try to fool Ash and his gang; sometimes they went to great lengths just to get that damn Pikachu and it just makes me wonder why they even bother when Pikachu is not even a rare Pokémon to begin with, lol.
But yeah, even though I did find Team Rocket mildly annoying I still always, somehow, liked James. Something about him that I can't put my finger on was interesting – maybe because he could be so goofy and fabulous at the same time. It was hard to dislike him!
So yeah, expect me to cosplay James someday, although probably not in that gorgeous af Moltres suit... xD

Booonuuuuuus!

Series: Rölli
Character: Rölli

In honor because it's my dad's birthday today I have to uncover this secret dream!
My dad got me into Rölli when I was really really young and this funny little troll (although it has been said officially that he's not actually a troll) stayed with me all my life – I still listen to the songs and I own the movies! The movies actually make me cry, no regrets.
Non-Finnish readers probably have no idea what I'm going on about because Rölli is an old Finnish classic television program aimed for children (read more about it here) but it's so quirky and entertaining that even adults love it, including my dad. ♥ The show does teach you a lot about important matters and in a funny way too, so that even kids can understand and relate to more adult problems etc. Dad always called me "rölli" as a kid and he still does it, lol.
The character Rölli himself is just so lovable (even though he'd say 'yuck'!) and I would love to cosplay him someday since he has been a sort of childhood hero and model for me – albeit a quite different one, haha. :') I'm unsure about which costume version I want to do of Rölli since there exists quite a few; I really liked the movie version pictured above because of those big fantasy helmets and all but yeah, the original Rölli has its charms too. Decisions, decisions...

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Please note that this list only includes characters with a humanoid appearance, even though I would have plenty of Digimon and Pokémon gijinkas to list. I'll save those for another time! ;)

Okay so, I think these are plenty enough to give you an idea of what my childhood was like. I am probably forgetting some characters, series or video games *cougharea88cough* but I'll just leave those for another time! Besides, it might be fun to keep some complete secrets, huehuehue ~

Thanks for checking out this post and please leave a comment if any of these characters interested you or anything! I'd love to hear about your childhood characters too and hey, I'm totally up for doing cosplay groups! *hinthint* 

~ Shiro Samurai out.

Me VS. makeup – How cosplay made me face my long-time enemy

Hello there, people of all genders!

Now here comes a post that I've had on my mind for a while now. I thought that it could be a nice idea to write about makeup and, more exactly, how drastically my thoughts have changed around it. You see, I used to reaaaaaally dislike makeup back then, although it feels utterly weird to say it now, haha.

Without further babblings I'll get to the first post of the year! Let's go ~

You see, before I got into cosplay I had been cramming my head effectively with the idea that makeup equaled nothing more than paying obscene amounts of money to put grease on your face so that you'd look fake. Ouch!
I'm not too sure why, how and when I developed these thoughts but I assume at least partly it comes from earlier school times when suddenly all the girls started using makeup and, while most of them looked fine, others ended up looking exaggerated with their super dark "hooker bar" makeup and, well,  back then I thought it looked like shit. :)) Not like I'm the one to judge but yeah, as a kid I was really negative towards makeup.
I guess my dislike towards makeup was further inconsciously strenghtened because some of these "overly makeup'ed girls" were in reality some of the many people who bullied me in school for years. Not like the makeup in itself is the reason or that it really matters but yeah, it somehow just left an negative impact on me (probably because I remembered some specific people as "those with a lot of makeup"), even though both guys and girls were treating me like a pile of shit without human value. I hate a lot of people from my former school, lol.

But yeah, I had no idea that cheap makeup existed. I had no idea that makeup could look natural, invisible and non-fake. I had no idea that you could use makeup simply for yourself and because it's fun and not just to attract others or give off the image that you're playing sexy, popular or whatever. I had no idea that makeup could actually make you look better without looking like what society thinks the typical flamboyant gay looks like (if you're a man) or a vain and self-centered bitch. What you mean I was narrow-minded and had no check on reality?
I seriously had no idea about the actual diversity of makeup users! People who use makeup range from actors (yes, even men), alternative fashion fans to long-haired badass dudes in heavy metal bands and... cosplayers. Cosplayers. 

...

...

Wait a sec, I'm one of them!! ∑(⊙ᗩ⊙;;)

THE HORROR.
... and my peeps be like "lol chill dude".

I had been effectively avoiding makeup like the plague before I got into cosplay; it was that thing that was so foreign to me and I viewed it as little more than a waste of money. I remember even telling myself that I'd never touch that shit, lol. And now I'm knee-deep in love with said shit, oops. I'm extremely ashamed to admit it but as a young pre-teen I used to think that "the only people who use makeup are those who are too ugly without it" or, God forbid, that makeup users had poor self-confidence or were using makeup to compromise for having an ugly personality.  
Ugh, I was such a horrible, judgmental and misinformed kid. Using makeup is not a synonym nor a reason for bad self-confidence – bad self-confidence is often the result from many different factors. Sure that makeup can make you feel better about how you look (often does!) but don't ever assume that all makeup users have self-image issues. Makeup is an art form, a hobby, a passion and has nothing to do with a lack of inner beauty either. Anybody can possess wonderful inner qualities and whether your face is slathered in two kilos of makeup or not doesn't factor in – anybody can be a good person and liking/using makeup isn't detrimental. I've learned since then that makeup shaming is a huge no-no. Makeup is fun and using it doesn't mean that you lack other qualities or have personal problems. Period.

Truth is that I don't even remember when exactly my opinions began to change, but at some point I realized that makeup, for me, was a neccessary evil in Cosplaylandia™ and that I had to change my approach to it at least a little – especially if I wanted to look somewhat decent on photos or at least a bit more like the character I was trying to portray. But the call to change wasn't the hard part to chew in this, no no – it was the need to learn. From scratch.

I mean, imagine this: You've been believing in Grace for all your life because she told you that Lucifer's grill foods taste like musty toe nails. But then you start studying to become a chef and suddenly it gets shoved in your face that Lucifer is actually a nice guy and that you should go and learn from him – he's the number one man who can teach you how to do the best roasted barbeque feast ever. And then, even more suddenly, you find yourself unwillingly shaking hands with your former enemy, trying to tell yourself that it's gonna be okay and that you'll learn to accept him bit by bit from now on, until you finally become friends and he'll teach you his secret mouth-watering barbeque recipes...

Just change the barbeque recipes to the mystery of makeup and you should get the idea of what it felt like for me, lol. I seriously had to step into unknown waters – I had no idea where to even begin! Everything was so strange to me, intimidating and complicated. The huge world of makeup made my head spin like a tumble dryer and, to make it worse, I didn't have anyone to turn to for help and guidance. Mom is not an option, way too awkward.

Have some (spinning) Monster Hunter meat grilling – because I can.

Nowadays it's more than embarrassing to think back about it but for my first two cosplays I didn't wear anything on my face, except perhaps for a miniscule amount of powder – and that was because mom told me to wear some at the con (yes, she was with me on my first big con). Yes, only powder. I didn't even color my light eyebrows to match the black wig nor use anything to define my eyes at all! Blasphemy!
Hell, I didn't even try to hide my dark circles or other nasty crud on my naked face; I seriously cringe beyond words when I bump into old cosplay photos that are tucked away somewhere in the deep dark corners of my computer – they shall never see the light of day or, otherwise, more than my pair of eyes will rot away. I seriously looked horrible and totally washed out, not gonna lie. It's that kind of thing when the costume is good-looking and even more so for a first one, the wig is good quality (but unstyled) but then there's *le gasp* the face with close to zero makeup on and –to put it as nicely as possible– it just crashes and burns the whole thing into cinders that float in hell for eternity. There ain't no saving that shit.

My first cosplay makeup experiences consisted of the following procedure: powder > eyeliner > fill in eyebrows (if necessary) > pale down lips (if necessary).
Nothing else. A bit later I started doing some minor contouring and after that I tried my hand at using foundation before setting the powder which, by the way, was a disaster. You see, I had always known that my skin is pale (dad would pull jokes about it) but I still wasn't expecting it to be so damn pale that I would have a hard time even finding a light enough fucking foundation! So yeah, my first foundation purchases were waaaayyyyyyy off the mark and I was nooby enough not to notice it until much later and, oh boy, do I puke at those photos now. 
Reminiscing back to that one year when I went to Sweden's biggest con (at that time) and didn't realize I had a horrible, mismatched, unblended brownish-orange foundation streak on my otherwise pale-ass jawline, that stood out like a thousand burning suns.
Finding a light enough foundation is, by the way, still one of my biggest challenges when it comes to makeup purchases, but I think I might finally have found something good – after years of accidentally buying mismatched shit that I can't use and don't know what to do with. #foundationfrustrations

I'm not gonna show you guys any old photos of my either non-existant or crappy makeup back then but I'll tell you that it looked really plain and dull; my eyebags were dragging on the floor, my face looked tired and washed out etc – it was horrible, plain and simple. I did the same very basic pencil eyeliner for all characters and yeah, it made me look like... me, except with a wig on, no matter what character I was supposed to be, lol. I also shudder at the reality that I didn't give a jackshit about my eyebrows until 2014, which means that I did a whole 4 years of cosplaying with hideous untouched hairy caterpillars crowning and roaming wild on my forehead!! *vomits profusely*
I mean, my eyebrows were so bushy that some hairs were growing on my eyelids! Eew. Nowadays I take out my tweezers and go through my brows at least every third day – what you mean cosplay changed me? No but really, cosplay made me start to seriously pay attention to my looks and I mean this in a good way! I'm super thankful about it now.

My first makeup tries looked like this. #relatable

Before cosplaying I rarely gave two shits about if I looked presentable in public or not (I could as well have walked around in a potato sack) but ever since I started cosplaying I make sure to look as clean and nice as possible unless I have a lazy day. Cosplay also made me view beauty and makeup from a whole different angle and made it more human and less superficial, funnily enough – everyone was beautiful in their own way. Cosplay made me realize that even a little change could go a long way in improving how you looked in your finished costume. I mean, the difference between using, for example, liquid eyeliner instead of pencil eyeliner already does a huge difference on photos!
Also, one thing to note is that especially on photos a makeupless face tends to look washed out and "disappear" most of the time, especially with a really colorful costume on or in strong lights, like stage lights etc. So yeah, for photoshoots makeup is really recommended and I'm glad I realized the difference it can make.

My initial response to using cosplay makeup was "meh" and then it slowly but surely grew into a "not too bad", followed by a "it looks better with makeup so I'll bother this time" and finally to a fullblown and self-admitted "I CAN'T COSPLAY WITHOUT MAKEUP! I NEED THIS SHIT!"

This is so me celebrating a successful makeup job.

So yeah, cosplay totally turned my whole view of makeup upside down. From being that kid who'd not even look twice at the grocery store's makeup counter to being that young man who walks in there and actually buys stuff and walks home being all excited about trying it out! It is awkward though when there's other people around. xD I need to get over it.
Nowadays I have quite a lot of makeup and I even have a makeup bag for it, but still I occasionally feel like I'm missing something... :'D I want to point out though that my cosplay makeup got a notable upgrade once I realized the wonders or primer, concealers and liquid eyeliner. It seriously took me until last year to understand how important primers and concealers are! *shamecorner* How can I have lived so long without these godsends?

I'm far from confident with my makeup skills and I still mess up... a lot. I also feel like I have a looooooot to learn –makeup knowledge is like an universe that won't stop expanding for me– but at least now I can honestly say that I LOVE MAKEUP. ♥ I can't even imagine cosplaying without makeup anymore and I've started to enjoy the whole process so much that I occasionally paint up my face for non-cosplay purposes too! Especially for alternative fashion because then I get to experiment and be creative, yay! o/
So yeah, to sum it up: I used to hate makeup but I've come to really value it as an irreplaceable tool to complete my cosplays. I also want to state that I think that makeup is for everyone! It's a fun and a great way to express ourselves and, for those who think that guys can't or shouldn't use makeup, I can say only one thing: "I don't give a rat's ass about your outdated bigoted opinion, gtfo and have a nice day. :)"

Friendly reminder: Please understand that this is just my personal makeup story (and my opinions) and is in no way meant to be a type of "you must use makeup to cosplay" post. There are plenty of cosplayers out there who don't want to, can't nor feel a need to use makeup and that's perfectly okay. There is no need, nor right, to judge those who choose to cosplay differently. Cosplay is for everyone and makeup is not a requirement for a successful cosplay or whatever – not everyone strives to get to the same level and as long as the costumer has fun and puts in the amount of effort they feel comfortable/good with then that's all that matters. Makeup is a tool to enhance the hobby for those who want to take it, not a neccessity.

I'm not even sure anymore what was the original purpose of me writing this post but I guess I got said what I wanted to say. I'm sorry if it's messy and all over the place though. Thank you for reading! ^_^

~ Shiro Samurai out!