Wednesday, August 17, 2011



This is Rin Kagamine, 14 year old vocaloid. Her twin brother/other half is Len Kagamine. She was a cosplay of mine that I wanted to do for some time. The only problem was my body type. I'm not the smallest person in the world, and I have long brown hair.

When it comes to cosplaying its always good to build to your bodytype. I said that in my last entry. However if you're going to do something a little out of your bodytype, or greatly as I see it in my case, have fun with it. If you wear the costume well and enjoy what you're doing, then everyone else will feel like they're enjoying seeing you too. Look uncomfortable and feel uncomfortable, and that's how people will perceive you and your cosplay, no matter how good it could be. All cosplays are better when you're comfortable with them.


This. This is me cosplaying as Rin. There are a few things left unfinished on the costume, but this is my Rin cosplay. Not bought from China, commissioned from anyone, but made by me, with a little help and encouragement from a friend. This is the more finished state. I'll include another picture of a less finished state later.

Distinct differences, I'm a big... bigger in the belly area than Rin is, by a lot. I didn't show it off with the cosplay, rather, I just tucked the t-shirt into the shorts as opposed to cutting it short and letting ma tummy show. You wouldn't probably believe that under that wig is REALLY long hair. I'm totally wearing a wig, and rocking it. There was a picture of some decent vocaloid cosplayers in the bad cosplay gone wrong, and the big thing was they didn't have wigs. For anyone. Even one of the rin cosplayers I saw at a con i went to, she didn't use a wig. She used her own hair, which wasn't bad because it was blond, but it wasn't as full as Rin's hair was, and thus was a little off putting. I actually got this one from China, and its surprisingly great quality.

The other major difference is the shorts. They weren't shorts to begin with, rather a pair of pants I found at Kohls on clearance. I cut them and hemmed them and the old leggings were the pants bottoms. Hahaha. And they're not the short shorts that Rin wears, slightly more modest for my body type.

As you can see there's a few differences, and I am definitely not the smallest person for the costume. There is some unfinished aspects of the costume as well, but mostly it actually is done. I wore it first at Anime Milwaukee 2010 (tons of Rins there), and second was at No Brand Con 2010, where I was one of about two Rins there, I believe. I didn't notice other Rins, but did notice other vocaloids. I think? but can't say for certain that the other Rin had ordered her costumes from China or some such, it looked a little like it.

I need to redo the shirt, in my opinion, because the bow tie at the top of my bust line was hastily done, and the sleeve sides are a little uneaven. This was one of the biggest projects I've done so far, and even had to work on it the night before the Saturday of Anime Milwaukee to finish the top. So a little hastily sewn. The sleeves and leggings I'm rather proud of, but I have to tighten the leggings and sew up a portion of the arm things I think. My other version of rin didn't have the white hair clips. IT IS HARD to find white hair clips. I ended up making my own.

Anyways though, this was a big one outside of my body type, but I had fun with it every step of the way. I enjoyed it, got into it, and I think others enjoyed it with me because I was having a good time. I had to take of my headphones from time to time so people could see what was going on on stage and the like. The bow is big, but that was fun to make. Lots of hot glue went into that top part. And some paint.

The belt overall was the hardest part, it took one entire fabric coloring marker to get all those triangles, the orange ones, on there. Not to mention the triangles on the belt loop too. THE WHOLE 3.49 orange fabric marker. That's my only complaint, and aside from what I need to fix, this costume was tons of fun to wear and I can't wait to wear it again.

So taking a few liberties to make it just a little more modest (belly not showing and the shorts not being short shorts) I made it work more for me as a cosplay. One day I might be rid of the extra pounds, but until then I love the costume.

As a bonus, here's the first version of Rin I had. This was taken by a prof. photography group that was at Anime Milwaukee. I can't find my CD with the original copy on it at the moment.

The hair doesn't have the clips and the leggings weren't right either, and were made of the pant bottoms (not pictured here tho). I still had a ton of fun with it, and can't wait to get it full and completed.

I'm not a cosplay expert by any means, but I have fun with what I do. Next up, I might start touching on my favorite thing, including favorite cosplays. HORROR! Fatal Frame cosplays to be exact.

Till next time.

1 comment:

  1. You look fantastic!!! I think fitting to your body type (even if it means not being 100% "authentic") is a lesson that MANY MANY MANY cosplayers need to heed.

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