22 Sep

Cosplay, Between Fantasy and Reality

Tifa Cosplay

Tifa Cosplay

Between fantasy and reality, whoa… that’s quite something isn’t it? Whoops! Don’t be discouraged by that exaggerating post title! You won’t find any heavy stuff here, not in my blog. Well, what is cosplay? For those unenlightened ones please read the wiki here. Sorry, but I won’t bother to (re)invent the wheel… *halah!* Bear with me please. :-)

This topic crossed to my mind when some crazy dude in Loenpia.net mailing list mentioned about wearing anime costume to a quiz show we’re about to attend (which due to its deadline, I personally doubt its realization.. sorry guys :-p) Wearing anime costume? That’s only means one thing, Cosplay! yay! For me, cosplay means two things :

1. Draw the line between fantasy and reality
To be honest, this is my first impression when I saw cosplayers for the first time. It’s quite common reaction for newbie like me back there. But the impression didn’t stop there, until now, sometime watching cosplayers in a convention or show really shock you up. It instantly awakes you from the land of fantasy, and here’s why…

Well, the reasons are simple. I’m sorry to inform you ladies and gentlemen, in this boring world, there no such thing as (or do exist, but extremely rare) :

  1. Cute, living, girl shaped, personal computer, named Chii, like you Saw on Chobits
  2. Ultra cute girl, red eyed, blue haired, slim enough to fit in a plugsuit, smile only once in her entire life, named Ayanami, like you saw on Evangelion.
  3. Stunningly beautiful, martial art master, named Tifa, like you saw on FF Advent Children.

And this stupid list goes infinitum..

So, what I’m about to say is, when we (normal, mere mortals) try to recreate things I listed above, the result is not quite like we expected. And whats sucks about it is : there’s nothing wrong here! It’s all because our limitation as normal human. Maybe we aren’t good-looking enough? Our body are not slim enough (yay!) or not muscular enough? Our skin are too dark or too white? Yup, this is “reality factorâ€?; you can’t do anything to fix it. But hey, don’t get me wrong. I love cosplay (though never really done it). I admire those spirit cosplayers spread, I feel it and I love it. Salute to all of you cosplayers!

2. Blurring the line between fantasy and reality
Yup, you read the line right, the second meaning is exactly the opposite. Sometime cosplayers do amazing things, they perfected their appearance like the character they are imitating! Not only the face, but also the outfit, the detail and the behaviour (read it as pose)! These amazing cosplayer do exist and thus, they are blurring the line between fantasy and reality. Got it?

Remember item number 3 in the “impossibleâ€? list above? Tifa? Yes, be prepared because you’re about to see the real life version of her. Actually this is pretty basbang, because I saw it first on Toni’s blog sometime a go.

Tifa Cosplay
Tifa striking pose : Attack me please. :-p

Tifa Cosplay
Blurring the line : See what I mean now?

Wow, a perfection! Even the striking pose is redone perfectly. There’s not much info about her. This is sad, because if she’s a real cosplayer then I would like to see her again in different costume other than Tifa. The pictures are taken from Eswiftfire flickr page. You can find more pictures of this Tifa there. But don’t bother to click any link given by that guy. It’s all “spam” linking to his blog, to totally unrelated articles, without any further information about that Tifa. What’s this, eh? Using Tifa’s charm to spam people? That’s not cool dude! shame on you!

Here’s another great example of Tifa’s cosplay (in her striking pose), click to see their site/album :

tifa cosplay 01   tifa cosplay 02   tifa cosplay 03

You can find more info (and photos) on cosplay in cosplay site like cosplay.com and acparadise.com. Just search with the character’s name. Like I said before, you’ll be shocked or amazed to see how your favourite character looks in real life.

Here in my hometown, Semarang, I saw cosplay event three times. First is in Party Pake J in Gedung Juang 45 Pemuda, second is Sakura in Java in UNDIP‘s Auditorium Hall and the last one is Japan Vaganza 2005 in Taman Budaya Raden Saleh. Sorry, no link for the first two, I haven’t started blogging back there :-p But I do have pictures of those event. I didn’t really participate in the cosplay event, my best attempt of cosplaying is my Smart Brain jacket from Kamen Rider Faiz and Tekken’s Jin Kazama pants! That’s all. :-)

Btw, here’s another feast of super amazing cosplayer on Koung Treasure photoset on flickr (all are girls, sorry :-p). Damn it dude, where the hell did you get all these? See it! You won’t regret it! Hurry up! Because it’s just only few days left before Ramadhan! Huehehe.. :-p Last words, any a suggestion character for me to cosplay it? Yes, I can hear voices from distance… Giant! Giant from classic anime Doraemon!!!

46 thoughts on “Cosplay, Between Fantasy and Reality”

  1. zam -

    Takeshi!!

    kamu kan disuruh ibu jaga toko?!

    ini malah ngeblog!!

    ehehehehehehe *ketawa tsuneo*

    btw, film Doraemon harusnya dapet live achievement award untuk anime yg masa penayangannya paling lama :D

    Reply
  10. Tia -

    Ayooo di update….saya tunggu nih kabar animenya, buka persewaan anime aja mas budi hehehe, setau saya penggemar anime di smg sangat banyak, dr anak2 sampai orang tua…mereka kadang minjem sampai habis ratusan ribu rupiah ( ini info yg saya dapet dr QiuPid )

    Reply
  12. budiyono -

    to Zam + Dendi : Iya, Doraemon memang legendaris, bahkan seiyuu (pengisi suara)nya pun sudah ganti generasi loh.

    to Tia : yang kiri itu CG (computer Generated) yang kanan penirunya (cosplayer).
    Kalau ada yang mau anime silahkan ngopi di saya, gratis tis. btw, rental atau jual anime fansub itu perbuatan yang ngak baik. apa itu fansub? ah.. ceritanya panjang. :-p

    to Markun : Hi Roy!™ juga.

    to Mafiq : ah tahu aja Mas. Ayanami Rei! bukan Aya naon. hehehe

    to Ario : Namanya Tifa Lockhart.

    to Hari : karena english itu NGGAYA!™

    to Toni : Senchimentaru… Our Generation !!! :-p

    to Pepeng : *kejar, lempar golok*

    Reply
  19. Sierra -

    I love Tifa! You do het very well, and I think in the one photo you look alomost exactly like her. Even with the face characteristics!

    Reply
  36. Mel -

    I’m going to a Cosplay event in Oct and I’m dressing up as Tifa, but I can’t find the shoes I want.
    Can anyone tell me where I can get the pair in the middle picture?

    Reply
  45. raza saga -

    lying my bet i her the clock tick and thing of you.
    confusion is nothing new.
    flash back to warm night almost left behind. suitcases in memories,time after some times you picture me i”m walking far a head your calling to me i can hear what you said, than you said go slow i fall behind the second hands unwinds, if you lose you can look and you will find he, trust me. i the new people in your life tetsuhiko.

    Reply

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