The Art of Embodiment: Insights from Jei, a Professional Cosplayer

Jei, is a professional cosplayer from Malaysia with four years of experience in the industry. From her first handcrafted costume to becoming a dedicated specialist in the cosplaying industry, she shared about her creative processes, insights, and rewarding moments that transformed her art into a career. Whether you are a cosplaying enthusiast or curious about the realm of cosplaying, this conversation with Jei offers you unique and valuable insights behind the craft. Enjoy!

 

What inspired you to start cosplaying?

Jei: Animations and cartoons had been a big part of my childhood growing up. I would mimic the characters’ iconic lines, perform their actions, and had burst of laughter with my fellow siblings – it was such a common and fun thing to do back then!

I was introduced to the concept of character cosplaying during my teenage years from YouTube. I have come across so many videos introducing and explaining the art of cosplaying but the one video that stood out to me was Alodia Gosiengfiao’s GoGo Tomago Cosplay Getting Ready Tutorial. At that time, I was a huge fan of Big Hero 6, and I thought to myself it would be so cool to dress up as a character that I like and to pose like them. Since then, I started to explore more about cosplaying. I also went to several anime conventions with my friends and cosplayed myself. You can say after these experiences, the rest are history!

Have you cosplayed as a game character before? How do you choose which game characters to cosplay?

Jei: Usually, I will pick the characters that I LOVE from the games I am playing. Some of the game characters that I have cosplayed previously were 2B from NieR:Automata, I love the gameplay, soundtracks, and environmental landscaping of the game. I also cosplayed numerous characters from Genshin Impact such as Raiden Shogun, Jean, Ayaka, Mona, Amber, and Madam Ping; Robin from Honkai Starrail; Diesel, Rapi, and Marian from NIKKE Goddess of Victory and most recently, Burnice from Zenless Zone Zero!

To me, cosplaying the characters that I like is like me showing my appreciation for the artists who created the character designs (on the outside), and the authors who gave personalities to them (from the inside). I am always amazed by the character designs, their backstories, personalities or things that I find relatable. It resembles how actor or actresses embody their characters by understanding who they truly are. That to me is the beauty of cosplaying. It is a performance and a form of art itself.

Recently, cosplayers are also getting more client jobs especially in the gaming industry. Often times when game companies want to promote their game characters, they will hire cosplayers to portray them in real life to attract more fans and to increase fans’ engagement. It is a great and more common marketing strategy for big game companies or popular game franchises nowadays. This is also one of the possible routes in choosing a character to cosplay – through receiving commissions/gigs/appearance jobs from these clients.

Can you walk me through your process of creating a cosplay from start to finish?

Jei: After selecting a character, the usual next step is to start the crafting. There are so many details during the process, but to summarize it: looking for/creating the costume, wigs, accessories, armor, weapons, makeup and so on, depending on what is needed for the character. You can also acquire these from handmade or commission professionals who are often cosplayers as well! Some cosplayers have a speciality in making accessories or outfits such as weapons and armor crafting, costumes design and making, makeup artists and so on. I personally specialize in making wigs, so most of the hairstyles I use in my cosplays are self-made!

 

Have you noticed any trends in game character designs that have influenced cosplay in recent years?

Jei: Back then when Street Fighter and Tekken were famous, you could see many cosplayers cosplaying as Chun Li and so on – they usually have simpler outfits that required simpler preparation. Nowadays, with trendy games such as Valorant, League of Legends and Genshin Impact, the characters have really cool armours with incredibly detailed designs. This has raised the bars of what is considered as a good cosplay because there are many more details in the characters that cosplayers have to strive to achieve so that the costume looks accurate and beautiful at the same time.

Have you ever cosplayed a character from a game you have not played? If so, how did you prepare?

Jei: Yes, I did. Mostly were due to the client’s job. As professional cosplayers, we have to do a lot of research before cosplaying a character. Cosplaying often looks beyond just looking like the character, but it also involves the “act” such as knowing what the character will say and how they behave. It is an art of embodiment I would say. Sometimes when the timeline is short, I will do some video research by watching some in-game footage to understand the character’s mannerisms. I will also consider the character’s likes and dislikes. On the other hand, when I have sufficient time, it is always a great idea to play the game yourself because firsthand experience is the best way to know a character.

 

What advice would you give to someone who wants to start cosplaying?

Jei: Just start with a character that you truly resonate with! It could be a character that has a sad backstory that you resonate deeply with or a character that you play as in a fighting game. Visiting anime and game conventions is another great way to get started and the community is also what makes the experience worthwhile! Try to put on your favourite character’s costume and you will find yourself having great conversations with other cosplayers. Most importantly, enjoy the process and have fun!

 

 

Pictures:

Feature image from NieR:Automata official website https://www.platinumgames.com/games/nier-automata?age-verified=17a0f53d3d

Other images are from Jei’s official Instagram account (@jiei0302)

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