At the beginning of this week, we introduced you a Slovenian girl, who did well in Katekyo Hitman Reborn Gokudera Cosplay. Crossplay is perfectly expressed by her performance. Cool appearance created by her stirs up a big tide among our cosplay fans. This girl is also known as xMashykax at Deviantart.com. She believes nothing is impossible and shows us many great pictures in her gallery. Luckily, she also accepts our cosplayer interview today. To better know her, keep reading please.
1. Please introduce yourself first.
Hello, my name’s Mashy (actually nickname, my real name is pronounced Masha). I am 18 years old and am from Slovenia. I love anime/manga. I enjoy cosplaying, drawing, listening to music. Iβm also a huge Potterhead. I’ve just finished high-school and am moving to our country’s capital city in October to start with university (I am currently living in the second biggest town which is quite far from the capital city, Ljubljana). I consider myself a funny and crazy person and I enjoy hanging out with my friends and joking around, but I can also be serious when I need to. At first I am mostly shy, but when I feel comfortable enough, you can see the fun side in me π
2. What does cosplay mean to you?
Cosplay to me, means I can express myself in a different way, which is unique and new. I can dress up as my favorite characters from animes, tv shows, mangas and so on. I can relate to those characters and then act as them, meaning I can roleplay, but most of all it is a great way to have fun, meet new friends, practice crafts, sewing and so on… π But all in all cosplay is really great fun. π
3. What and when was your first cosplay?
My first cosplay was Lavi from D. Gray Man. I first cosplayed him two years ago at a mini-convention in our country, and I was extremely proud, since I managed to make my first ever prop, which was extremely hard – his hammer. He was a great character to cosplay, I could really relate to him and it was really fun to act as someone else π after this I just got more and more into cosplay.
4. What is your most memorable cosplay experience?
It would probably be Animuc 2011, which is a convention in Germany. It’s not a really big convention, but compared to the mini-cons we have in our country it was huge. It was my first convention (outside our country) and I was amazed by it, I had loads of fun, I cosplayed Irie Shoichi from Katekyo Hitman Reborn at one day and Gokudera Hayato from the same anime, the other day. I meet loads of new people and we got along really well. We were there for a couple of days only, over the weekend, but it was definitely an amazing and memorable cosplay experience.
5. Whatβs your favorite photo shoot?
My favourite would be the Katekyo Hitman Reborn photo shoot we did at Animuc 2011 – Gokudera π
6. What’s your favorite anime/manga/game character to cosplay as?
Woah….this is a difficult question, there is really A LOT of anime/manga/game characters to cosplay as, which are my favorites. But as for now my favorite one was Gokudera from Katekyo Hitman Reborn π
7. Any cosplay plan in future?
I have many cosplay plans in the future. The main one is a convention now in October that our cosplay group is attending. The London MCM Expo π I am very excited about it, since I’ve never been to a convention the size of this con. I am planning to cosplay Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter and Yukio Okumura (Ao No Exorcist) the next day at this convention. But I also have many cosplay plans for the future, including Hetalia (England and South Italy), KHR! (Daemon Spade, Superbi Squalo and more), Fairy Tail (Jellal Fernandes, Loki), and many more. π
8. Do you make your costumes yourself or buy them?
I mostly buy the costumes, since I can’t really sew very good – I don’t have a sewing machine at home. I mostly do partial costumes myself, I try my best to do the costume props at home – for example bigger props like Lavi’s hammer, or Ichigo’s Zangetsu. I also do smaller props, like Irie Shoichi’s shoulder armor and so on. As for the costumes, if I don’t order them whole, I try to find clothes that would match the character’s clothes and then modify them, to look as the ones the character would be wearing. But I have plans to start sewing myself, once I get to go to university.
9. Any other cosplayers you like?
I like many cosplayers, I have many that I look up to as well, I love my cosplay group friends. Also I like DinoCavallone and LuckyShiro on Deviantart, two amazing people I met at the Animuc convention, they’re great cosplayers. I also have to mention the TeamPiC cosplayers, they’re pretty amazing :3
10. Do some changes happen to you after cosplay?
Actually, I am amazed, by how I changed after discovering cosplay. I used to be a really shy person, I hardly talked to anyone, but once I started cosplaying I opened up more and meeting new people with a smile on my face and casually talking to them would be almost impossible a few years ago.
11. Any advice you wanna share with cosplay newbies?
Hmm pick the character you like and do your best at it, it’s important for you to feel comfortable as the character, prepare the materials and plan how you will make the costume or where you will buy it, talk to some other cosplayers, share your ideas and all in all just have fun cosplaying, it’s not a job, it’s mostly meant to have fun ;D