Essential Questions You Need to Ask Yourself When Choosing a Cosplay Character
Cosplaying as a hobby means you get to dress up as the character you love for a day or two at a convention or similar event. However, if you’re still easing yourself into it, it might seem difficult to choose a character to dress up as.
Reading comics and manga and/or watching anime series or superhero movies can get you started on the process. If you are still having a hard time, here are some essential questions you can ask yourself to help you decide:
What is the purpose of my cosplay?
This question is basically asking what you are going to use this costume for. You can cosplay for three reasons: for participating in photoshoots, for attending a convention, and for joining a competition.
If you are going to use your costume to attend a cosplay event, you must realize that you will likely do a lot of walking and wandering around the venue. Therefore, you should make sure that the character’s costume itself or the way you designed it is with your comfort in mind.
The costume that you’ll be wearing should be easy to walk around in so that you can make the most out of your day and actually enjoy the event.
If you’re planning to join a competition, your costume needs to be elaborate to showcase your costume-making abilities. It should have more attention to detail, the overall design, and the materials or fabric since your goal is to catch the attention of the judges.
For photoshoots, your cosplay doesn’t have to be exceptionally comfortable since you have the option to take them off right after having the picture taken. It also doesn’t require a lot of attention to craftsmanship since editing and enhancing the photo an option too.
However, you would want to choose a cosplay character whose costume looks nice on camera. You may need to pay attention to the materials of the costume itself as cheap fabric may not translate well on photos.
What is my budget for the costume?
Before going on Google and researching your character, you should first look into your wallet. Dreaming big is only nice when you can afford it. A lot of cosplayers prefer to make their own costumes and props, although this can be time consuming, it is usually cheaper and the results are rewarding. Take a look at these guides below to get started:
It is possible that you have a list of all of the characters that you want to cosplay already. If this is the case, you can rank them by complexity and see which one you think you can afford to source or buy the materials for.
Do I feel an attachment to this character?
Cosplaying a character that resonates with you and you are actually proud to dress up as makes a big difference when it comes to cosplaying.
The point of cosplaying is to share your passion and enjoy the hobby as much as you can. If you don’t care much about the character, it won’t be that much of a rewarding experience for you.
When choosing the character you want to cosplay, no matter how many factors you try to consider, the most important one should always be your love for the character.
If you love the character and you know that you’re going to have fun dressing up as them, then you’re already doing it right. If you’re into anime, here are the top 10 easiest anime cosplays for beginners.
Still having trouble choosing a character to cosplay? Check out the best cosplay ideas of 2021 for ideas or perhaps you’d like to create an OC character (own creation)
