A rare case where it’s not Cinderella’s feet that everyone’s eyes are on.


You can’t overemphasize how much modern technology and social media has raised the bar for cosplay. Once upon a time, putting together an outfit that even vaguely resembled a character’s costume would get you a moderate round of applause at your local anime convention’s masquerade, but with all the reference material, tutorials, and feedback now available online, some would say there’s no excuse for not having every single bit of your costume perfectly accurate to the source material.

And you’d expect the standard to be even higher if the character’s costume also plays a critical role in their narrative. For example, you can’t cosplay as Cinderella without glass slippers, can you?

Actually, Kyoko Kano thinks you can.

Half of the Kano Sisters Japanese media personality duo, big sister Kyoko recently donned on an exquisitely detailed dress reminiscent of the iconic gown worn by the fairy tale heroine in her Disney animated film version. However, while Kyoko even recreated the character’s on-screen hairstyle, she didn’t slip on any glass, or even transparent, footwear.

Well, in all fairness, maybe she did. If you scroll through all of Kyoko’s Cinderella photos by clicking on the arrows in the above Instagram post, you’ll see that her feet aren’t visible in any of the shots. However, it’s hard to imagine that she had a pair of glass slippers on while dressed as the character but decided to hide them, so it’s more likely that the lack of photographed feet is a conscious choice to obscure the slippers’ omission.

However, none of the many comments the photo has garnered on Instagram voice any complaints about the lack of glass apparel. Instead, there’s a steady string of people remarking on how “beautiful” and “lovely” the photos are, reflecting their philosophy that even if a cosplay outfit is lacking in one area, that deficiency can be overcome by the cosplayer playing to their strengths in one or two other areas.

While several appreciative commenters left requests for Kyoko to cosplay as other Disney princesses, for her latest project she’s gone back to Japanese inspirations by dressing as One Piece’s anime pirate Boa Hancock, following in the footsteps of younger Kano Sister Mika who cosplayed as the same series’ Carifa last year.

Still, it’s important to remember the lesson taught by Kyoko’s Cinderella outfit, which is that when cosplaying, apparently the most important thing really is to have an absolutely fantastic pair of gloves.

Source: Nijimen, Instagram/kano_sisters007