Can you tell me about the character and what led you to choose it ???
Dejiko is the main character of the Di Gi Charat mangas as well as the anime of the same name created by Koge-Donbo. She is a princess of a planet that is also called Di Gi Charat. By looking at her you can tell a catgirl which and when she speaks she ends each sentence with the cat sound ‘nyo’. Degiko is also the mascot for the Anime goods store in Akihabara (Tokyo) Japan called Gamers, which is a retail chain of Broccoli, the production company for Di Gi Charat. I choose to cosplay as her because I am rather short 4′11″ so I try to cosplay as character that are pretty much vertically challeged LOL. I have been wanting to cosplay as herfor year but never thought I could pull it off. My friends say her personality reminds them of me. Plus she is tiny….like me. I personally think my friends like to dress me up in cutesy stuff and show me off. But anyway lets see, Dejiko is tiny but does have a temper which results in her being violent at times and will resort to using her special ability, eye-beams, to inflict damage on others. Me on the other hand I dont think I have a temper….but maybe I do…..okay okay a tiny bit. >^_^< But I can not shoot out laser eye beams out of my eyes. Degiko is very close friends with her sidekick Puchiko who is the exactly opposite personality to that of Dejiko’s. Hmmm My best friend is definately like Puchiko except she is much taller I height. Dejiko is very cheerful, carefree and adsolutely adorable!!! She has green eyes and green hair and her maid-like dress of fluffy royal blue to navy dress with big cat b ells tied to her hair with blue ribbons. On the very top of her head are her cat ears, which are white with pink inside and have a set of large, and of course non-functional green cat eyes.
Hmmm…lasers coming out of your eyes sounds like a fun ability Wish I had that for special occasions ^^ Tell me how you put your outfit together ? It sounds like you’ve been thinking about Dejiko for a while so I assume you had plenty of time to work on the outfit ?
About 3 months. It’s a rather simple costume really, very comfortable. I actually got help from my mom, friends and a online. I was never really good at sewing but pretty decent with alterations and prop making.
Who else have you cosplay and how did you get into it ?
I haven’t really cosplayed alot. But I did dress up for dance performance. I have been far too nervous to even try to cosplay, then one day I was like what the heck why not, so I cosplayed as Random school girl simlar to Kaolla Suu (Love Hina), Anna Kurauchi (Kore ga Watashi no Goshujin-sam), Unico (Tezuka Osamu’s Fantastic Adventures of Unico), Gloomy Bear (Mori Chax), Miku Hatsune (Vocaloid). I have also dress up in Sweet lolita fashion as well, and even did my own rendition of the Neil Tennant (leader singer of my favorite group the Pet Shop Boys) from the “Go West” video and “Don’t Know What You Want But I Can’t Give it Anymore” video. And the dance group I was in even did our rendition of MIni Moni “Okashi Tsukette” video.
I basically have always love to be in costume since I was a kid. My mother used to like to make my costumes >^_^<. Halloween is still my favorite time of year…. and sometimes Mardi Gras.
I grew up around anime, from what I can remember I did watch some Osamu Tezuka Films like Astro Boy, Unico, etc, Sazae-San, Dr Slump Arale-chan, Doraemon, Himitsu no Ako-chan, and of course Hayao Miyazaki Films Like, Kaze No Tani No Nausicaa, Laputa, Tonari no Totoro. I even try to build my own cloud climbing glider that Nausicaa flies. Mind you I was only 8 or 9 years old trying to build it out of cardboard, what ever plastic I could find, and tent material. We all know that would have never worked but I so wanted to be Nausicaa. I live in Japan for most of my childhood life until about middle school I moved back to the US, and I kind of lost touch with Japanese Animation. Then about end of high school and begining of my college life I started to be more exposed to Anime again. I didn’t go to my first Anime convention till I was 20. Yes! I am a late bloomer in the cosplaying world. But I do throughly enjoy it!
Okay, really general easy question, one I’ve been asking everyone is what cosplay means to you ?
I pretty sure everyone you have asked this question have given pretty much the same answer, but here we go. To me cosplay not just about dressing up as a character, you can do that for halloween. But cosplay is a form of presentation of art in costuming. There are many technics that are involved in creating a costume. You know, like pattern making, cutting, sewing, gluing, pianting, sculping, molding, alterations, etc. Also it gives people the opportunity to express and display their creatvitiy as well as just having fun with what they have created. Cosplaying shows the dedication and personal connection each “cosplayer” have towards a particular character. Some people can really relate to character that they are protraying just like one relates to music. Some characters cosplayer view as a cute representation of a personality that they themselves may have. Cosplaying is also fun, you spend a great deal of time and effort into you costume so you might as well have fun with it too. Everyone wants to know what it feels to be in another individual shoes for example being a celebrities, so why not with a characters from books, cartoons or a video games. *giggles*. I find it to be rather rewarding to see “wow I can actually make something with my own hand” and have people just love it!. It is also makes you feel really good when seeing the reactions from convention goers, especially younger crowd, who are just getting into everything, and knowing that in some way you made theirs as well as your own convention experience a postive and memorable one.
So how was your reaction by folks at AX to your outfit ?
I thought that everyone who wanted a picture just absolutley loved/adore it. At on point I was surrounded by children who wanted to hug me and take pictures and had one little girl who wanted to just hold my hand the whole time. I do remember that when I would pose for one camera, hundreds would follow. On photographer wanted me to hold their infant daughter while he snapped pictures. *giggles*
And finally, if money, time and technology was of no matter, who would you cosplay?
That is a hard question to answer. Right now I would have to say Sky Girls including the Sonic Diver they ride in.
Okay, thanks a lot ! Hope to see ya at future cons !
