Before we get into this, can we just stop for a moment and appreciate how clever Kawaiiju Cosplay‘s name is? Literally a kawaii kaiju. Genius. ANYWAY, with that aside, let’s check out her awesome work.
Age: 24
Location: Leicestershire, UK
Favourite food: strawberries and cream
Who or what first inspired you to start cosplaying?
Back when I was a kid I spent a lot of time on DeviantArt and saw people cosplaying there, like Twinfools and the old Parle’ cosplay groups. When I got older I realized that it was something I could do so I started going to conventions when I was 17, and then when I was 22 I just got really inspired by the UK cosplay scene so started taking cosplay more ‘seriously’ and worked on making more impressive costumes and entering masquerades. I think mainly the UK cosplay masquerade scene is what has inspired me the most
What was your first costume? How does it compare to your more recent cosplays?
My first costume was a ‘humanized gender-bent rave’ Nutty from Happy Tree Friends, which was me in an unstyled green wig, a pair of booty shorts and two crop tops with some sweets hot glued all over me. My latest costume is Ardyn Izunia, a fully hand made cosplay using 3D printing, foam work and SFX make up and it won me second place in the Insomnia Cosplay Championship. A pretty decent glow up!
What would you say is your favourite part of the costume making process?
I like when I use a new technique or make something new and it ends up going right the first time without me having to make it over twenty times and cry in the corner for a day!
Do you have a dream cosplay you’d like to work towards one day?
The cosplay i’m working on at the moment and have the most excitement for is my Goblin Slayer cosplay for next spring. It’s a large scale armour build with a lot of fabric work at the base layer. So far I’ve had to learn how to use the program ‘Pepakura designer’ and translate paper patterns into usable foam pieces for the helmet. Since I’ve never made a helmet before I thought that it would be a good “two birds, one stone” deal (learn the program, use it to make something I’ve not made). I picked the character because a lot of my costumes this year have been very fabric heavy so I wanted a change, and his character was one that appealed to me in personality and overall design. I have done some some armour work in the past with my Dragon Age cosplays, but I had been looking for something that was a nice mid ground between fantasy and realism. His outfit gives me the chance to make a lot of armour and props, but then also take my time on the fabric under layers and the suede and leather work with all the belts and buckles. Pretty much it’s just a good ‘all rounder’ cosplay that lets me do lots of things, so if one thing gets stressful at least I can take a break and fall back onto another element of the costume to work on instead.
If you could go back in time and give newbie Kawaiiju any advice, what would it be?
Learn to style wigs earlier on. A good wig can make a simple cosplay great and a bad wig can make a great cosplay terrible.