Weeeeeell, this is it. This is the year where I finally, at long long last, break down and actually go to an anime convention. My best friend and I are hitting Katsucon in Washington, D.C. in February…and, being of the opinion that anything worth doing is worth doing right, we’re preparing to dress for the occasion. That means – you guessed it – cosplay.
[deletes a good paragraphs’ worth of self-deprecating remarks; it’s not like we weren’t total nerds prior to this, so it’s really not that big of a deal]
Anyway, we were trying to come up with ideas of how best to disguise ourselves for this first journey into the Realm of Higher Geekery, and we’re coming up woefully short. Knowing as I do that the Dope houses a not-insignificant number of otaku, I find that I must turn to you, as with so many things before, for advice. We need costume ideas. Hook us up.
Here’s what we look like: Me, the Ben (yeah, I know, but I don’t have any better pics), and us rockin’ it out as Spike and Ed from Cowboy Bebop.
Guidelines for suggestions:
We’re not going as Spike and Ed.
Both characters have to be guys. Hence, we’re not going as Spike and Ed.
No mecha. This means no telling us to go as Hiro and Quatre. No, really.
No Ronin Warriors. Even if we didn’t both hate it, we ain’t about to make full suits of samurai armor.
Other than that, have at it. Thanks in advance for any recommendations!
Ishikawa and Saito from Ghost in the Shell. Saito for the guy who looks best with slicked-back hair, and Ishikawa for the one who looks best with a beard and a bad sleep deficit.
Cons: Might not be too obvious that you’re cosplaying.
Pros: Might not be too obvious that you’re cosplaying.
Thanks for the suggestions so far. I’m looking into the characters to see if we happen to look like enough like any of them to give it a go. If all else fails, we’re defaulting to Ranma and Ryoga (which has the upside of being easy to make; I need a red Chinese shirt and a queue, and Ben needs a bandana, a nasty-ass yellow sweatshirt and a backpack). Still, we’re fishing for ideas in hopes of finding something cool.
And yeah, GYBRFE, you’ve hit upon the main problem…animes with two prominent male characters in them. We could revisit the Bebop vibe, but there ain’t enough makeup in the world to make the Ben look like Jet, and if he goes as Vicious it will just look like he’s wearing a bad Sephiroth getup. We did consider FF as well, but that’s more money than either of us wants to spend on fake foam hair (and Ben doesn’t play 'em, so he doesn’t know who anyone is).
I’d be happy to throw some suggestions your way, but could we have a pic or at least a description to work with (height, hair color, eye color, etc)? Gotta find the perfect match, after all.
(Too lazy to link - Google is your friend.)
[ul]
[li]The Mario Bros., or some variant thereof[/li][li]Link and Ganon(dorf) from the Zelda series (or, depending on who you ask, Sheik also counts as a male character)[/li][li]Vash the Stampede and Wolfwood from Trigun[/li][li]Any of the male leads from Rurouni Kenshin (no samurai gear needed)[/li][li]…or Naruto[/li][li]…or Bleach[/li][li]…or Full Metal Alchemist (although obviously Al would be kind of hard to pull off)[/li][li]…or the Final Fantasy series (I suggest a character from FF6, FF7, FFTactics, or the anime Final Fantasy Unlimited)[/ul][/li]
If you want to go for something a little semi-obscure, you can try the male job classes from any of the Nippon Ichi games (La Pucelle, Disgaea, Phantom Brave ).
[ul]
[li]Any of the Seven Seishi from Fushigi Yuugi (one of them even has red hair)[/li][li]The adults (or even the Children!) from Neon Genesis Evangelion[/li][li]Zelgadis (requires extensive face makeup), Gourry (requires some armor), or Xelloss (requires no sense of shame :D) from Slayers[/li][/ul]
Heck, try looking through the pictures here, you might get ideas on how to pull some of those costumes off without spending an exorbitant amount of money.
Just wanted to wish you luck, Roland. It’s very fun. I was Utena one year, back when I was still super-thin, and I’m tall, have blue eyes, and I’ve been known to dye my hair frosty pink for no reason at all (I* like * pink, I was doing it before I saw Utena). Of course, I went as the Utena from the series, not the short-haired Utena from the movie. Besides, I liked her series school outfit more.
