Gaala tiems!

Cosplay Gaala is this coming Sunday and we are, of course, attending. Maiju as a masquerade judge and Elina as an investigative reporter (whatever that means).

We'll be gliding around as Utena (Maiju) and Dios (Elina) from the film Adolescence of Utena. We'll hopefully have time for a brief photoshoot at some point, so that we can finally have presentable pics of our team. Fingers crossed and all that.

And, as you probably guessed, we'll (most likely) be taking these costumes with us to Japan.



Design for Utena


Design for Dios


If you are in Finland (and you probably are), coming to Gaala (you totally should) and you see two incredibly attractive people who look something like, come say hi!

Who is who: Elina

Hey guys!

Introductory posts are always super awkward so let's just get this over and done with.

We're the people representing Finland (Which is a European country, right in between Sweden and Russia but not belonging to either for almost a hundred years! We're independent, dammit!) in the 2012 Cosplay World Championships also known as The World Cosplay Summit also known as WCS. The abbreviation shall henceforth be used when referring to the event.


Cu Chulainn & Okuninushi (Shin Megami Tensei Devil Summoner) after the WCS selection, photo by JamFoot

The geek typing this right now is me. Hi. I'm the shorter one (on the left) who, according to the official WCS blog, is looking forward to going to Japan just to eat. This is not true. I was just hungry and stunned when answering the questions. Although I do like sushi.

My name is Elina, by the way. Apparently my nick is Rimppu, which it is, but if you're not Finnish, you shouldn't even try pronouncing that. It's a name my elementary school teacher came up with and has something to do with my last name. It is also, apparently, a very common name for a horse.

On the interwebs I have been known as fokushii since 2002, which is a name my best friend came up with (it's a teenaged otaku version of my even lamer then-nick Foxie).
So I'm either a horse or a weeaboo fox. Awesome.


Rainbow Ranger in 2006, photo by *skatanic

I've been cosplaying since 2004 and my character choices can usually be described as "flamboyant", "tacky", "cheesy", "wtf" or "gay". Sometimes all of the above. Well, pretty often, actually.

I usually end up falling in love with series no one has ever even heard of and then whining loudly when no one recognizes my costumes. My life is hard, I know.

My craftmanship skills are in no way magically amazing but I love making costumes, regardless. I'm especially good with shoes. Shoes are awesome.


Willy (from Romeo x Juliet) in 2010, photo by Tomi Väisänen

For some reason I ended up hosting a masquerade in 2007 and have since been the MC at ten (or so) different events/masquerades. Nowadays I'm semi-retired and only do one gig a year. See how I made it sound like people are bombarding me with requests to come and host their masquerades? They're not. Really.

I study journalism, am currently working at a broadcasting company making online videos, spend eleven days each year watching movies at the Helsinki Film Festival, love my flesh eating cichlids (they're not really flesh eating but they try) and slightly retarded budgies (they're not retarded, they're just budgies, which is, initially, the same thing) and want a dog (a yellow lab, her name shall be Hildegård Marygold aka. Hilde).

I vlog about cosplay @ RECosplay (only in Finnish atm) and hang out @ dA & Cosplay.com

If there is something I forgot, please ask. I probably won't answer, but you can ask anyway.

Who is who: Maiju

Hello!

I'm the other half of the team representing Finland at World Cosplay Summit 2012. Self introductions might come in handy now that the preliminaries have began, so here goes! My character in our performance was Okuninushi from Shin Megami Tensei games.

Photo (C) YumiKoyuki

My name is Maiju. It's pronounced the same way you say the words "my" and "you" and put them together. Kind of. Online I mostly use my nick Majo, which is supposed to be pronounced like the Japanese name Mayo. Welcome to the world of illogical language & pronounciation of Finnish!

I've been cosplaying since 2003, and I've always loved taking part in cosplay contests. Nowadays I'm more prone to sitting behind the judges' table or being a panelist/hosting panels, but I still love competing, so I always somehow find myself signing up for cosplay contests every now and then.

Balthier (Final Fantasy XII), EuroCosplay final 2010. Photo (C) David Cooper


In 2010 I took part in EuroCosplay -finals at London MCM Expo with my Balthier from Final Fantasy XII. It was my first cosplay-centered trip aboard (and an awesome one), the next one being obviously WCS next summer of which I'm insanely thrilled.

Berserker!Paine @ Desucon, Finland 2011. Photo (C) YumiKoyuki

I love making armor/weapons/etc., props are almost always my favourite part of the costume. My sewing skills could use some work since my main focus always seems to go to sanding the armor pieces and other relevant stuff. Though I admit that I do fear for my poor lungs being exposed to massive amounts of Paperclay dust. One healthy hobby this is.

Most of the characters I cosplay tend to be from video games, but this year I hope to finish at least 2 costumes which are actually from anime. We'll see how long my resolve lasts.

I'm a 5th year student in art education and I have also qualification in crafts education, or will have one day when I finally graduate. Hopefully soon. Aside from cosplay my hobbies are videogames, going to hiphop dance classes and fooling around with my dog Halla, who is a Finnish Lapphund. I'm a huge Star Wars-nerd and I love pretty much everything Range Murata has laid his hands on.

I have more or less active cosplay blog called Serious Business (do notice the sarcasm) which, unfortunately, is only in Finnish at the time. Lots of nifty photos there though! Most of my photoshoot material goes either to my deviantArt or Cosplay.com, of which the former is the more active one.

And that's about that. Hopefully lots of active WCS-related blogging ahead!