The Art of Gijinka Cosplay

A few weeks ago at AnimeNEXT in Somerset, New Jersey, I was asked by someone, “So I get that you are wearing Ho-Oh’s wings, but what is the rest of your costume?”  I had to explain to him that my entire costume was a “gijinka” version of Ho-Oh.

What is gijinka, you ask?  Gijinka  (萌人え) is a Japanese word that can be directly translated to “conversion personification,” using the kanji characters for person (人) and conversion (萌え).  The Japanese have been using gijinka as a marketing tool for a long time; most commonly representing products as cute, anime-styled girls.  Almost any object or animal can be personified and recognized as such, if the defining features of the gijinka are present in the design.

In the fall of 2010, my cosplay partner Robyn (Rising Moon Cosplay) got me into gijinka cosplay. She asked if I wanted to cosplay the two legendary birds Ho-Oh and Lugia from the Pokemon Gold and Silver games at an upcoming convention.  Making my costume was a blast and we got a great response from our fellow con-goers when we wore our costumes.  Ever since then, I’ve been hooked.

On top of my love for the Pokemon franchise, being a visual artist has definitely helped my interest and pursuit of creating gijinka costumes.  I have come to enjoy designing costume ideas for different Pokemon, and recently some Digimon too.  When designing my costumes, I always do some research on the character I am working with – taking the original creator’s inspiration into account and the character’s overall design.  I consider the color scheme, repeated patterns, and defining features that will make the costume easily identifiable as the character I want to portray.  After I have come up with some initial ideas, I consider which of these ideas are actually feasible to translate into a three-dimensional and wearable costume.  This is probably my favorite part of the creation process. I treat this part like a puzzle, trying to fit all of the ideas together into a cohesive design.

For example, I have been recently inspired by Nickelodeon’s show The Legend of Korra to “gijinka-fy” the heroine’s polar bear dog companion, Naga.  Naga has a very simple character design; she resembles a large white dog with some polar bear features and she wears a saddle and harness.  So my first idea is to create a design based heavily on the Southern Water Tribe garb.  Why? Because she and Korra grew up there, and would pose for a more interesting costume than just wrapping myself in white fur and calling it a day.   I take aspects from many character’s outfits that I find appealing and adapt them to suit Naga’s design.  Once I have finished my costume’s design, I sit down to consider what materials I am going to need.  A lot of white faux-fur to use as trim for her clothing, light weight clay and resin to create a piece of jewelry that resembles her harness, and a few patterns to use for her outfit.  These are just a few of the many things I will need to create my Naga gijinka.  I also consider a white wig styled into two low ponytails, to emulate her ears and make up in light blues and white, which will pull the whole costume together.

When designing and creating your own gijinka costume, it is important to consider things like your budget, your skill set, available materials, and how mobile you can be in your costume (this is imperative if you want to wear your costumes to a convention).   When doing photoshoots and posing for hallway pictures, you want to think up a few poses that will best show off your costume and what the character is like.

The construction and completion of your costume also takes a lot of creativity and problem solving to make everything work out.  By making gijinka costumes, I have challenged myself as a seamstress, prop maker and as a cosplayer to make unique costumes to show my love for the characters I cosplay.

This Article Was Written by Barri Shrager and Photos By Kiera Vallone. Check out their panel about Gijinka Cosplay called “Go Go Gijinka! Your Guide To Gijinka Cosplay” at Otakon 2012!