Dressed to kill

They met through prop-making circles in the local cosplay scene and bonded over a mutual love for the television anime series Kill La Kill.

Last Saturday, the trio comprising Mr Jovi Lum, 23, Ms Sindy Tay, 23, and Ms Sabrina Wong, 24, beat 10 other acts to take home the top prize at a cosplay competition organised by The Cathay as part of J-Obsession 2014, the mall's own cosplay event.

The winning trio dressed as characters from Kill La Kill, a series about a schoolgirl on the hunt for her father's murderer, and performed a five-minute comedy skit based on a script written by Mr Lum. They took home an Olympus PEN EPL-5 camera worth more than $1,000, and $1,200 worth of dining and movie vouchers. A large advertisement of them in full cosplay get-up - worth $10,000 - will also be displayed at The Cathay from July 9 to Aug 5.

The contest was one of the highlights of the fifth edition of J-Obsession, the three-day Japan-centric extravaganza accompanied by live Japanese musical performances, held at The Cathay over the weekend.

On Saturday, about 400 cosplay enthusiasts attended the event, with half of them in full costume. About 130 of them took part in a costume parade through The Cathay, going from the basement of the mall to the cinema box office on the fifth floor and back down again.

The Kill La Kill team said they did not expect to win the competition but were thrilled, as they had spent more than a month on making their costumes, coming up with the skit and rehearsing.

Mr Lum added: "It was a lot of hard work and we are quite relieved it all worked out because we were afraid that some of our costumes and props might not hold up in the end."

Each member of the team spent about $100 on the costumes. Mr Lum's costume resembled training armour used in the Japanese martial art of kendo, while Ms Tay and Ms Wong's were modelled after the school uniforms of the series' fictional Honnouji Academy.

Ms Tay, who works in customer service, and Ms Wong, who works in the property line, bought their costumes online and modified the clothes themselves. But Mr Lum, a national serviceman, made his from scratch out of foam that he painted.

One of the judges for the event was Japanese cosplay idol Naoya Kirihara of cosplay performance group VENaS.S (VENaS Sisters), known for cosplaying predominantly male characters.

She said she was impressed with the 11 cosplaying acts in the competition, adding that she "felt their dedication strongly". She said that even though she had not personally seen Kill La Kill, the winning trio were able to put across their passion for it through their performance.Playing characters she loves

Japanese cosplay idol Naoya Kirihara dresses only as characters she believes she could fall in love with.

The member of cosplay performance group VENaS.S (VENaS Sisters) has made a name for herself playing predominantly male characters.

She said she first started cosplaying male characters she had crushes on. She found that it was refreshing and that it distinguished her from other female cosplayers on the scene.

"I was getting really good feedback on it, so I kept doing it," she said in an interview with Life! through a translator.

Her favourite among the characters she has portrayed is Makishima from the anime series Psycho-pass, a bookish anarchist with long white hair and amber eyes. "He looks cool and I like the way he thinks. I'm attracted to his personality," she said.

Kirihara was in Singapore for the first time over the weekend for J-Obsession, a three-day cosplay event organised by The Cathay. She was a judge for the competition held as part of the event.

For the cosplay competition and parade last Saturday, she dressed as Rin from the anime series about competitive swimming, Free!. Her costume consisted of a red headscarf resembling a keffiyeh (Middle Eastern headgear) and white harem pants.

She picked it for her first visit to Singapore because of a scene near the end of the anime series. "There is a scene of clean sand and clean water and everyone jumping in, and that made me think of Singapore. So I decided that this costume fit," she said.

The full-time cosplayer, who is single and in her early 30s, buys many of her costumes and adds her own modifications. She said she got into the world of cosplay more than 10 years ago, following the lead of her older sister, Maria, who is also in the group VENaS.S.

On Saturday, Kirihara also led a parade of more than 130 local cosplayers around The Cathay.

She said she was impressed with many of them. "I really felt their passion for cosplay strongly," she said.

jennanid@sph.com.sg

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