As mentioned earlier, EOY 06 is coming in just two more weeks. And as I said, I’ll be trying to interview a few cosplayers who will be taking part in EOY. This is the first of that series of interviews. (If you want to be featured, can tell me too!)

For the first interview…. we have TaMA_ChaN! (that green guy on the left)

Could you talk a little to intro who you are

I am yuzhi aka TaMA_ChaN (perfer u call me tama)
I AM A GUY! 19 this year, currently a student
loves manga,anime,cosplay, otah~
ONLY DO COSPLAY WHERE MY FACE IS COVERED! (rule number 1)

Why rule number 1?

Personally i feel that i am “shy”…. and as “good looking” as i am, I don’t wanna scare people off~~

If you notice when your face covered, parts like ears,eyes,hair is covered (of cos la!!!)
so i wont NEED A WIG if the color was different from mine (mine is black) i may not need a COLOR CONTECT LENS too…save the money on props u see~~

How did you get started on doing cosplay

hohoho! (long story) ok … err.. since me and my brother SHINOBIBLEAHHH noticed there was a “cosplay” event. (COSFEST 05) Back then it was kind of weird and we wanted to take a look what is it about. Noticed that there were costumes from ANIME that we were really interested in. Wanna “dress-up” too but got the date wrong (we tot we missed it). BUT we did manage to go with our “virgin” cosplay.
Thats where we meet CHIBI_KITSUNES (aka boss) and some more dudes.. love them and contacted them in SGCAFE.COM

What keeps you doing cosplay

LMAO~ It wont be dumb to say to attract chicks since i am not a chick magnet but the real fun in cosplay is the friends, the company and the props…

Friends: we have some up and downs but nevertheless we have a true friendship born from NOTHING ^^ not shy to say ..they are sort of family ..

Bleach group from Cosfest ‘06

Company: we have a small skit (as above), we meet up some times… talk about the scrip..bitch a little and scare the crowd!! we sometimes have sushi buffets together.. eat till the shop nearly close down~ oh yes!! we have chalet the day cosfest 06 and that was really the DAY OF MY LIFE …no joke!! we talk the whole night, play games and doing last min props… it was fun…wish that will never end.

they are like forever friends

Props:

the MASK IS LIKE 3KG !! so need to think how to come up with a stand …(secret )
me and my bro had a hard time to come with the scale of production… props are AS FUN AS COSPLAY i would like to say… cuts and burns are price of a hard work which is well worth it… we too have to source out tailors who will do 38 costumes in 2 months~~ we total have like 10 kg of clothes to carry around~

Link to photos of swords. (editor’s note: apparently not allowed to be posted elsewhere. haha)
Sword 1. Sword2.

Extraordinary experience?

LMAO~ ok we have a little plan after to do a naruto group.But the team leader sort of fail and left me and CHIBI or us… well quite sad… (ed. Doesn’t sound extraordinary, sounds more tragic. )

Could you describe abit on what cosplay you’re doing for EOY?

He is from NARUTO and is named tonbi taketonbo … he has only 1 line in the whole anime which is ….” Listen up, we are chunins that are chosen for this exam. Elites so to say,we wont miss a single thing you do. My strength is the proof” He is a chunin examer (2nd rank ninja) whose role is to fish out those who are cheating in the exam. A loner but loyal chunin to konoha village(his village).

The masked guy on the left

How you’ve been getting/making the costume for EOY and how’s the progress

For for costume we get our own tailor (location secret ) and props are mostly hand made… for example like the pic above,u wont be able to see through metal right so we need to figure out how it is done… that’s the magic between a good cosplayer and a BETTER cosplayer !! (how i do it? for u to find out~ )

What so secretive about the location of your tailor?

I want to feel like i am the only 1 that have it~~ (so bad rite??)

Due to bad blood, there are “spies” where leak out things like secret projects and props. Tailoring is also 1 of the major strong holds that it is important to keep within ourselves

She is only 1 person, if more people knew about her, the time needed to collect the costume may increase, as well as the price too.

What do you think about the cosplay scene in Singapore?

Generally it is fine where COSPLAY are more introduce to people like u~ (thanks) (ed. Awww) and cosplayers like us (try to drag friends into and passes the biaton to the next generation).

The younger onces are more active (15-20) and we are kinda old liao T.T
people still have miss conception that we are FREAKS, but we are only try to show the love of the character like u just understand what the character i am doing where u wont have a clue at first … i treat it like a “walking advert”

Good points about cosplaying

u make friends
u gain knowledge where u never would have learnt
u are expose to crowds where u removes your shyness
a skill of communicating with both friends and crowds
totally healthy activities..no hanky panky
u can wear it again and again
u can wear as a fashion (if u dare)
hell my mother also intrested…

Bad points?

takes time
of cos it uses some money…depends how much u want to go to (my vest ALONE is $SGD 250 but i love it )
it takes up space…(my house)

Thanks to Tama for taking time off to answer our questions and providing some insight to the mind of a cosplayer. I’ll try catching him at EOY

(any questions you want to ask him or other cosplayers?)

(I’m still having exams… so rest of the interviews will come AFTER my exams. haha)