I am an anime fan, I like anime.

But I am also a woman stuck in a man's form. Yippee friggin hurray.

Just curious how many of us are wanting to go the route of enjoying cosplay as their real selves.

By that, I mean like in my case, I have actually pondered designing several of Sailor Moon's outfits to the point of buying an expensive real proper blonde wig for it.

But for the non anime fans here, just curious, have you pondered or been interested in some of the more cliche classic cosplay options available? Two that spring to mind French Maid and Nurse.

Not sure how to apply this question to FTM members here.

What a fun question!   

My everyday style is somewhat based on the anime character Miharu Sena Kanaka, from the show "Girls Bravo".  I have a lot of hot pink in my waist length hair (although I've mixed in a bit of blue and purple for fun.)  Probably 80% of the time my hair is styled like Miharu's, down in back with 2 little ponytails up high on either side of my head and very long, full bangs.  (My employer is very tolerant of me and my silliness.)  I cinch my waist down with daily wear corsets, so that I have an exaggerated hourglass shape, accentuating my round butt and hips and large bust; I always wear belts to accentuate my little waist and a pink rhinestone dog collar (yup, even at work.)  When I'm not at work, I often wear a headband with pink glittery cat ears.  People that know me especially like the cat ears when I'm hanging around pool halls competing in matches!   

What can I say?  I'm a 48 year old child!  It's a good thing that I live in Portland.  I fit right in.

Hugs!
Miharu

I've always had a thing for maids but I think dressing up would be something to do with a significant other for me =P

Though I guess cosplaying for some event like an anime convention or comicon could be an option. There are usually people cosplaying as other genders at those things so I wouldn't feel too out of place =)

I cosplayed in high school. :3  I only cosplayed once as a female and that was because she was a wicked witch.  I loved her. x3

But....all the other times I cosplayed as male.  I cosplayed as Hakkai, Gojyo, and Sanzo from "Saiyuki".   It was such a relief to be able to dress like a guy. ^^

I'm a huge anime fan and I love cosplay (even if it is crazy expensive ) The cool thing about cosplay is that crossplay isn't looked down upon really in the anime/manga community (there's always gonna be a couple of jerks though  ) Most of my cosplays have been male, the only female I've ever cosplayed was Haruka, and it was her civillian form so I might as well have been cosplaying a dude I thought about cosplaying Utena, but her shorts would've made me extremely uncomfortable. I felt a lot of relief from being able to dress like a guy too. I got a rush when my female cosplaying friends would ask me to do the male characters for their group cosplays, they would say I was the only one among them who would pass. It was the best feeling 

I have to admit, I never had any real desire to dress up in costumes except for Halloween.

Nothing wrong with it per say. I've just seen the "Trekkies" documentary too many times

I only did cosplay of female characters when I used to cosplay in highschool. Some of the cosplays I did were Celes from FF6, Card Captor Sakura as a few examples. I always wanted to do Dizzy from guilty gears.. But yeah, I can't pull that off obvious reasons.. It was certainly fun to go out and about as who I really was. I'm not really a huge anime fan anymore.  I say you should go for whatever makes you happy and not let anyone tell you less.

Quote from: Adelkhf on February 21, 2013, 12:00:51 PM
I've always had a thing for maids but I think dressing up would be something to do with a significant other for me =P

Funny thing is I just found a picture of me dressed as a maid years ago..

I've thought about going down the generic lolita dress route (probably not so much the "sweet" kind), but sleeves is about a no-go for me, so my options are few.

cosplay is awesome! unrelated to my decision to transition though... I am really really looking forward to a day when I can pass and dress up in a female cosplay, even if it's not the girliest one.

as for previous cosplays I've done Mugen(samurai Champloo), a french maid (as a joke with a group of friends), and some homestuck stuff (I admit the community is crazy, just like every other community out there )

Uhm, speaking as an FTM, I have only ever cosplayed males. I just connect better with male characters, regardless of how terrible I look.  >__>
Long before I ever came out I was into drama and plays, and played male roles. I love the ridiculous male fantasy anime character designs, as a teenager playing stupid angsty JPRGs all I wanted was to be a cliche anime protagonist. It was an easy way to express myself without people judging me as a teenager. "Its okay guys, its just a costume lol!!!"

Evidently it's a good way to make mistakes in public and get away with it.



OMG!!! What was wrong with my padding?!?  And I should have had the jacket open.  Not to mention combed the wig.  Oh I had so much to learn!

Quote from: Annah on February 21, 2013, 03:43:30 PM
I have to admit, I never had any real desire to dress up in costumes except for Halloween.

Nothing wrong with it per say. I've just seen the "Trekkies" documentary too many times

What's wrong with trekkies?? Haha I totally would totally be into cosplaying a cardassian, and I'd be stylin like garak

I've never cosplayed, but I would love to go to Comic Con someday in a costume:D

Cosplay is something that I've always wanted to get into, but never really did because, to be frank, I always wanted to do but never did. I  never really liked my body, and I never really wanted to cosplay male characters because, in my head, they're all kind of the same and boring. On the other hand, I didn't really want to cross dress because my body is so masculine and I'd  look like a gorilla wearing a fancy dress. (I still feel that way, but then I'm still very new in the process and hope I can get over that) I figure that once I start looking more like my ideal self, I'll be more comfortable with myself to start cosplaying. I've already got a character in mind. I'm looking at you, Big Barda....

OMG, Sailor Jupiter for sure! Not only is she supposed to be really tall she's also just plain kickass!
Ironically though her outfit is mostly only the smaller sizes on the net. I would TOTALLY go to comiccon and cosplay as her!

Quote from: Lesley_Roberta on February 21, 2013, 11:34:06 AM
I am an anime fan, I like anime.

But I am also a woman stuck in a man's form. Yippee friggin hurray.

Just curious how many of us are wanting to go the route of enjoying cosplay as their real selves.

By that, I mean like in my case, I have actually pondered designing several of Sailor Moon's outfits to the point of buying an expensive real proper blonde wig for it.
...

I'm not really into the anime scene very much, but I do attend the local sci-fi convention every year. There are always lots of cosplayers around, some of them specific to anime. I see several crossplayers (cosplay as opposite gender) every year among them; more anime characters than anything else. I'm sure there must be others I have not identified. I've seen some who play up the gender mismatch to a comedic extreme (princesses with beards, army boots, and back hair) and I've seen some who pass incredibly well. In fact, there is one guy I am aware of who always dresses as female characters, and does so extremely well, but never participates in the costume contest. From what I can gather, he is cis-male in the rest of his life but enjoys sculpting a convention crossplay personality as different from his own as he can during this one event each year just to escape from stressful reality for a few days.

As MTF myself, I keep toying with the idea of doing a cosplay some year.

In my experience, science-fiction/fantasy/anime/manga fans are a pretty open-minded bunch. (There's always an a-hole now and then, but you'll get that in any large group of people.)  If there is anything about your appearance that doesn't pass, it's unlikely that anyone will say anything. If they do; it will most likely be in the manner of friendly casual advice. Personally, I consider sci-fi/fantasy/anime/mange conventions and costume parties to be about the best environments for experimenting with one's appearance.

You know, when I was wig shopping about a month ago on Amphigory, suddenly it occurred to me "holy crap... I'll be able to cosplay as a female character some day!" And for the first time, I actually got excited about cosplay.

Almost immediately, I started doing internet searches for the outfits of Sakaki from Azumanga Daioh, and Sailor Jupiter, and Haruhi Suzumiya, and my personal hero of Japanese animation, Nausicaa. I'm totally going to do it one day! And I was NEVER interested in cosplay before, because I just don't have any male characters that I'd really like to dress up as. But once I can look good in a skirt, and my inner geek chick can finally be unleashed, I promise you, all hell is going to break loose!

yeah, I mean I enjoyed cosplaying some males, but when I look at it and how most cosplayers are treated...

well, as a male people would come up to me and say "cool!" or compliment the costume and things like that. maybe just a simple thumbs up. and that's great, but I see female cosplayers getting hugs and some fangirls or fanboys literally screaming their little heads off with love and adoration, giving them hugs, all that stuff.... well I guess I look forward to that. it's not that I'm an attention whore, but as a geek I really really love to geek out, and that includes going bat->-bleeped-<- over this stuff.