[Exclusive] Interview with Stayxxxx, Onnies, SiuTao & Miu at CF 2016

From the right - Stayxxxx, Onnies, Miu & SiuTao

Stayxxxx & Onnies

To capture the heart of cosplaying in Comic Fiesta 2016 are the invited guest cosplayers SiuTao, Miu, Onnies and Stayxxxx. The convention runs for two days and each guest cosplayer would portray a character they’ve chosen. Scroll down for SiuTao and Miu's Interveiw. 

Onnies showcased her fun and vibrant personality with Harley Quinn from Suicide Squad. Stay cosplayed as Camus from Uta no Prince-sama. Onnies reveals that most of her costumers is handmade by her but for this specific one (Harley Quinn), she bought the costume from many shops. She also shares that depending on the costume, it can take up to one month to complete the character’s costume. Stay mentions that this costume (Camus), is handmade by her and it took her one day to complete it. Onnies advice to cosplayers who are faced with negative comments to just believe in what they’re doing and do what you love and not care what other people’s bad comments. Stay shares that cosplaying is similar to any other hobbies, it’s the same category. 

“The negative perception of cosplay tends to stems from when the individual gets too into it, such as going to KTV too much and ignoring your studies for example. Another reason why people tend to view cosplaying in a negative light is because buying the costume is expensive. But they’re people who are hand making their own costume in which saves money,” said Stay when asked about the negative connotation attached with cosplaying. 

Onnies reveals that she likes strong woman type of characters to cosplay. For Stay, she prefers characters with a dark background and it doesn’t matter if the character is good looking or not. When asked about the difference from the cosplay community back then and now, Onnies says that it’s convenient for cosplayers now because there are many shops that you can easily buy from. She also mentions that nowadays, the community is much more secretive when sharing cosplay tips compared to back then because there were not many costume shops before. 

“Back then, cosplaying is an expensive hobby but today cosplaying can become a career. It’s like doujinshi in which you can create props and costumes to wear or sell it. Now it’s not just a hobby that spends money but you can earn a living as well,” said Stay. 

“The last cosplay I did was Elementalist Lux from League of Legends, because there were many fans from League of Legends,” answered Onnies when asked if there were any particular cosplay she had done that were popular among her fans. Stay answered that her fans admire her cosplay and there isn’t a specific one that the fan would request again. If she would have to pick, she mentioned it would be her old cosplay of Shiki from Togainu no Chi. Onnies also clarified on why she does not want to do fansign anymore because her inbox is bombarded by messages requesting for fansign. She then decided to request payment for fansign but the money will be donated to charity. 

Onnies decided to cosplay Harley Quinn when many of her fans requested her to do it. She wasn’t sure if she should cosplay from the movie because it’s much more difficult to cosplay from a movie because she mentioned you never exactly look like the actress. She then shares that she felt the actress resembles her a bit. Onnies said that the part of her Harley Quinn cosplay she doesn’t like as much is the wig. 

Stay shares that she likes cosplay because when she’s creating the costume of the character, she feels like a director. Stay wants to present the character in her own way and every detail will be portrayed exactly how she wanted it to be. Stay additionally add on that what she doesn’t like about cosplay is that the longer you do it, people will start to compare. She says that cosplayers should compare their own self to improve better. 

Onnies jokingly answered that she would advise her younger self to go on a diet and not to eat too much but she said it in a joking manner garnering laughter from the members of the media. Stay would advise her younger self to not change herself and do what you like, be yourself and stay as you want. Lastly, the two cosplayers were asked about their 2017 aspirations, Onnies reveals she would like to like stay fit because she can’t fit in her other costumes. Stay shares that she would release her a new photobook next year. 

SiuTao & Miu

Following on, we got to catch up with SiuTao from Hong Kong and Miu from Vietnam. SiuTao with her bubbly personality charms fans at Comic Fiesta 2016. When asked about how she face challenges, she mentions that she'll do do her best and won't particularly challenge anything that's too difficult but will ask advice from her peers if she needs help. Cosplayer Miu answered that she'll also do her best to cosplay the character she loves. She would challenge herself each cosplay so she would improve each time.

The reason Miu choose to cosplay a certain character stems from watching anime and how much she likes the design of the character. For SiuTao, the main reason for her to choose a character to cosplay is the positive and energetic vibe from the character itself. Another contributing factor would be the story of the character she chose to cosplay such as the character she cosplayed from Onmyoji game.

SiuTao reveals the source of inspiration for her to cosplay Rem from Re:Zero photo book was because the character development she saw in Rem was significant. At first of Re:Zero, Rem doesn't like Subaru but each time he reborns and saves her a bunch of time, she eventually falls for him. The ending of the show, Rem and Subaru does not end up together so SiuTao's photobook is expresses what would happened if Rem and Subaru ends up together.

When asked if they could turn back time, what would they improve their first cosplay. Miu answered that she would improve her makeup because back then she does not have enough money to buy cosmetics. Miu also mentioned that she would use to buy wigs that weren't designed for cosplays so it was doesn't fit the costume. She also reveals that her first cosplay was the character Emma Ai from Jigoku Shoujo. SiuTao shares that even if she could travel back in time to her first cosplay, she couldn't change much because wigs were expensive for a student and it's difficult to find. The only thing she could thing of is to make more friends at that time.

Miu reveals that it's difficult for her to make costumes. For example she shares when she cosplayed Kurumi and made the dress, she puts it on and it doesn't look good, she then feels like giving up. But then, she would go look for tutorials and find alternative ways to improve her costume and she will then have mood to continue.

When asked if there's any goals they want to achieve during their cosplay career, SiuTao shares that there isn't a definite goal but to continuously stay happy.  Miu shares that she's happy that cosplay has brought her to travel and meet other cosplayers. Miu's favorite anime is Cardcaptor Sakura and her favorite chracter is Sharon. SiuTaoi also shares that she likes Cardcaptor Sakura, Detective Conan and Ojamajo Doremi.