2015 Cosplay Plans

Now that 2015 is here, it's time to put some of my plans into writing! I've had all of this in mind since late last year (and have been updating Facebook accordingly), but there's something about putting it on the page properly that makes it feel a bit more real.

Read on for character notes, group plans, and my tentative convention schedule~

First up is Utena Tenjou, from Revolutionary Girl Utena! I've been wanting to do Utena for a while now, but the timing just never seemed to match up. It's going to happen this year (I've already bought all the fabric) and will hopefully be my first completed cosplay for 2015.

I love Utena because of her personality and her character design. She's exactly what I like to cosplay (no cleavage and lots of leg!) and has the added benefit of being a complete badass. I'm planning to make the jacket so that the duelist transformation additions can be snapped on an off, for both versions of her uniform.

Now I just need to find an Anthy to shoot photos with...

Assassin from Fate/stay night. A friend of mine is running a Fate/stay night cosplay group this year, and asked me if I'd like to participate. At first, I was thinking of doing Rider, but her boobs are just a bit beyond my abilities, oops. I really like Assassin's character design, and he's feminine enough that I shouldn't have any trouble with this crossplay. Plus, I really like traditional Japanese clothing, and this will give me a good excuse to get some practice in making them.

I'm worried about how to do his sword, but I have a lot of friends who do props so hopefully they will be able to point me in the right direction. I'm pretty excited for this group--as long as no one falls through, it should be very impressive! I think this also counts as my "airing this year" cosplay because of the new Unlimited Bladeworks show?

Benten from Uchouten Kazoku--this one is my "unknown character" for the year, I think, and it's partly because I love the character and partly because I've finally gotten my husband to commit to a cosplay himself! We're trying to get a few more friends to join us for a group Uchouten Kazoku cosplay, but we'll see how it goes.

This is going to be a very simple one. The hardest part will probably be finding appropriate shoes. The suit itself is very straightforward, and the wig shouldn't be any trouble at all, either. My husband even got me a matching prop--you'll have to wait and see what it is, though!

So I've put off doing Super Sailor Uranus for over a year now... Maybe it will actually happen this year! I have all the parts I need to do it, it's just a matter of getting off my butt between bigger cosplays and commissions and making it happen.

The difficult part with this one will be perfecting the stupid sheer sleeves. I did a few prototypes for a commission last year, but I'm not 100% happy with any of them quite yet. If anyone knows of a really good tutorial, point it my way! Or maybe if I finally get it perfected myself, I'll make my own tutorial, haha.

Right now is the time of year when people are putting together cosplay groups, so being the crazy person that I am (who needs sleep when you could be sewing?!) I volunteered to join an Inuyasha group as Kikyo! I love her tragic backstory and serious demeanor, plus I can reuse the patterns for Assassin (or vice-versa).

Lady Oscar Jarjayes from Rose of Versailles! This is another one (like Utena) that I've wanted to do for a while, and I'm going to try very hard to make this year the one. I already know that the most difficult part of this one is going to be finding appropriate fabrics. I've already started looking for cobalt velveteen and gold brocade. I doubt I'll be able to get her done for AX, but possibly another con later in the year.

Last is a bit of a surprise cosplay, that comes out of having some very enthusiastic friends and a desire to do more crossplay (it also helps that I randomly happen to have an unused blue wig already). The show is only a few episodes in, but already I like Epinard/Atsushi the best as far as appearance and personality. We have almost a full group for Binan Koukou magical boys, so it should be really fun!

In addition to these, I have a still-unconfirmed-but-most-likely-happening secret cosplay that I'm doing as part of a group (the same core group from our Sailor Moon project last year) that I'll hopefully be announcing soon!

I also have two other backburner cosplays that might happen, Haruka's school uniform and Death of the Endless from Neil Gaiman's Sandman comics. I will also be wearing Melisandre and classic Sailor Uranus again at some point during the year. Possibly Satsuki again as well, but that one is up to my friends.

As for conventions, my husband and I are hoping to possibly go to one or two out of town conventions this year, but neither of them will probably be anime-related. Luckily, there are a lot of (relatively) local conventions for cosplay!

Here is the tentative line-up:
Hanadoki-con
Wondercon
Anime Expo
San Diego Comic-Con
Gen-con
Anime California
PAX Prime
Pacific Media Expo

I'm excited about this year, now let's just see if I can keep it together well enough to accomplish everything!