“I want to be the very best, like no one ever was…”
If you can’t finish that line (or the rest of the song for that matter), you aren’t going to enjoy this post as much as someone who grew up when Pokemon came to America. One of the more prevalent anime shows in the late 1990’s was Pokemon. Whether or not you were into anime, you still knew about the adventures of Ash and Pikachu, catching Pokemon.
While it wasn’t one of my favorite anime, it was one that was very popular with my generation. And it was a lot of fun to create a costume for. It also made for a perfect group costume with friends! To make it more unique to us, and because we can, we decided to gender-bend our characters.
Becoming Femme Brock
Oh, what fun was had in the process of creating this costume! Not that you can tell, but I created some…enhancements…in my character’s costume with an age old trick. The trick is: wear a push-up bra with another bra over it. It’s like inception bra. I also cut my t-shirt in half to create an hourglass silhouette for my “athletic” build. Well, that and our “Mansty” didn’t really feel like showing too much skin, so one of us had to do it.
The hardest part was figuring out how to style my hair, seeing as my character, Brock has short spiky hair. Mine is neither short nor spiky. In the end, it all came together really well. It was the most comfortable cosplay I’ll probably ever wear – especially considering I got to wear sneakers like the character! I even made my own Pokeball out of styrofoam, paint, leftover fabric scraps, and foam. Not too shabby for only 30 minutes of work (including drying time)!
Cosplay at AAC
Once that was done, my costume was complete! I originally had shorts for this costume but managed to find some corduroys that looked much better than shorts would have. I tried to make this costume as close as possible to the original character with the time limit I had. Our group planned to wear them to AAC (Another Anime Con), my first ever convention, this past weekend (nerd goal: achievement unlocked!)! This is one of those things that I’ve wanted to do forever, but it never seemed to work out. I was ecstatic to finally go!
Not only did I get to enjoy walking around in costume with my group, but between seeing what all the vendors were creating and selling, along with taking the time to admire all of the amazing costumes other participants created for the convention, it made for a really fantastic day.
A few people asked to take a picture of my group, multiple knew my character’s gender-bent version, and two requested hugs. And one cosplayer ran up to me to tell me I was a beautiful person, and “just thought I should know” before disappearing into the crowd. I shouted thank you and proceeded to walk around the rest of the day with a goofy smile on my face.
Expect the unexpected
One thing I will say that I didn’t expect was the snow…yes, that’s right…snow. In October.
…SNOW…
…IN THE MIDDLE of October.
All right, it was just flurries, but STILL! 40 degrees when everyone in your group is wearing t-shirts is not ideal for taking photos outside. Needless to say, I’m glad I found a pair of pants for this costume. Though the crop top wasn’t doing me any favors. I think our sheer drive to get pancakes after we took pictures is what got us through the biting wind. Considering the unexpected weather, our shots turned out pretty well!
A HUGE thank you to Gypsysaint Cosplay for inviting me along and suggesting the idea. I really appreciate your letting me join your little group for the day.
This may have been my first public cosplay, but after the success of the day, it certainly won’t be the last. Any suggestions for characters I should cosplay next year? What group cosplays or costumes have you done with your friends?
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