Oh its that time again, that time when I get really inspired and a little bit jealous of some of the amazing cosplayers out there. I think it is true to say that cosplay is becoming more popular and as a result the standards of competitions such as EuroCosplay are getting higher too. When you take into account that many of the cosplayers in this competition are not professional costume and prop makers it really is inspiring to see what they can achieve.
It is also a really fun chance to test out some of my photography skills (be gentle I'm still learning).
I have included video links to the performances on youtube too so you can see the whole performances in their glory. I have also done a little research on how the winners are chosen and the judging criteria are 40% construction 40% accuracy and 20% performance so it is really worth taking the performances into account when picking a favourite.
With a lot of years and a lot of practice I might hope to be half as good as these cosplayers. Prepare to be AMAZED!
I particularly liked this Bilbo cosplay as it was super serious and moody to start, then broke into the Leonard Nemoy song about the character, after all who doesn't love a bit of a dance routine?
If you follow me on Twitter you may have picked up that I am currently playing Bioshock. I've never played it before and it scared the bujezzus out of me. So far I can only play it in the day-time if my husband is sitting next to me.
As a result this Spider Splicer cosplay based on the brutal concept art for Bioshock was TERRIFYING! At one point the cosplayer even slit her own lip with the hooks attached to the hands and spat blood. With such a frighteningly accurate costume too (and I saw this close up) it is no wonder they came in second place.
I was really pleased to get this shot as the lighting was horrible. But with the pink light I think this is soooo pretty. She had and adorable little moogle too that glowed in the dark :D
This is a terrible picture, but I just wanted to give you an impression of how much detailing goes into these costumes! I would totally wear that jacket in real life too... This skit was lovely, I thought the simple 'getting dressed' idea was sweet and really effective as it made you appreciate how many different layers went into that costume.
I don't know much about Assassins Creed, but this guy's glowing orb was awesome.
I spotted a few Toothianas wandering around the convention, but this version has so many small details and such beautiful wings it is not surprising that she came in third.
I thought the details on this costume were really amazing too, and the 'magic trick' with the fan made me pretty happy.
I have no idea how one would go about making these giant armoured costumes. But seeing this made me go home and look it up!
The scream that went along with this performance was really blood curdling. I liked this costume a lot. Genuinely creepy.
I think this was my favourite costume of the competition, I don't actually know what it is from but I liked the girly style of it combined with the armour. It seems like the kind of costume I would enjoy wearing. I thought the cosplayer played her part really well too.
I've seen a Queen Esther costume in two Eurocosplay contests now, I had not idea who she was first time so I looked Trinity Blood up on Wikipedia and promptly forgot about it. This time I looked it up again ans started watching the series. I will admit I am interested. I have seen many cosplays based on this anime so I am hoping to get a lot of inspiration while I watch it too.
So many arms...
This costume took serious commitment. Look at the shoes. They have no heels! OUCH!
Below is the winning entry, I didn't manage to get any good photos unfortunately, but the video below will give you a pretty good idea of what the skit was about. It might seem like a more simple costume than some of the others, and as such it was a somewhat controversial winner, but it was the performance and accuracy that really sold it. There were some really awesome props and the use of the stage was really effective, they even coped really well when something didn't go quite to plan. It is a great example of what to do on stage if you are doing a cosplay performance.
Just to be clear this is not an exhaustive list of the entries, there were several more that I couldn't get pictures of :( But I thought this would give you a idea of what the sort of standards were like in the competition.
Which one is your favourite?
