Cosplay Gen: There’s always a beginning to a story; how did your cosplay story start? MiYo: As a girl, I always used to draw something when I had some spare time. I was very interested in games and manga, and one day I found out that there was an event called ‘Comic World’ in Korea, like Japan’s Comike and other countries’ conventions. I went there, and met lots of people, and afterwards I communicated with them via Internet. We became very close friends, and one of them once suggested: ‘Why don’t we do costume play together?’ And that was how I made my first cosplay. It was Tenka from Fujisaki Ryu’s Hoshin Engi. At that time, when we planned it, it was just a one-time event; I didn’t even imagine that I would become so addicted to cosplay.
C.G: You choose to cosplay as both male and female characters, with both simple and flamboyant costumes. To you, what are the most important criteria when choosing a character? MiYo: The most important thing is ‘Do I like the story and the character?’. I usually make the costumes myself, and I don’t have enough time to make all of them. So I don’t want to spend my time making costumes I don’t like. And there is also the money problem. The next step is to check the costume. I like costumes that look like something from an anime or game, which means I don’t prefer school uniforms or daily clothes. I do that when I really, really like the character, but not that often. The character’s personality and appearance are also important.
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