”This isn’t the Sasha I know and love,” laments one fan of the original series/outfit.
Cosplay spectators’ enjoyment of comes from two places. First, of course, is an admiration of the costume that recreates clothing from a fictional world. However, there’s also an appreciation for the physical appearance of the cosplayers themselves, many of whom have toned their physiques through diet and exercise to replicate the build of the characters they’re cosplaying as.
Because of that, many of the most crowd-pleasing cosplayers are those who cosplay as characters who wear attire that’s both distinctive and revealing, and there’s no shortage of fashion that fits that description in the realms of anime and manga. For example, here’s cosplayer Ichiha Hamatsu (@ichichiha on Twitter) dressed as Mai Shiranui, from the Fatal Fury/King of Fighters franchises, pretty much the originator of the “ninja girl in a skimpy outfit” video game character design template.
Hamatsu dressed up as Mai for the Summer Comiket dojinshi manga gathering, which is also Japan’s biggest cosplay event. However, Comiket is a multi-day celebration, and on Day 4, Hamatasu switched things up by cosplaying as Sasha, the potato-loving (and curry-inspiring) Survey Corp member from Attack on Titan.
However, while the online reaction was pretty positive for Hamatsu’s Mai outfit, fans of Sasha weren’t nearly as supportive of her Day 4 cosplay. While at times it might seem as though Japan operates under a simple policy of the more exposed flesh the better, Sasha’s supporters were upset at what they saw as a false representation of the character, and were quick to make their voices heard on Twitter, responding to Hamatsu’s above tweet with:
“Sasha doesn’t dress like that. Please don’t call this Attack on Titan cosplay.”
“Sorry, but where is Sasha in these photos?”
“This isn’t the Sasha I know and love.”
“If you don’t understand the character, don’t cosplay as her.”
“Have you ever actually seen Attack on Titan?”
▼ Sasha’s in-series outfit
“I’d rather you didn’t dress up in such a cheap, porno-style outfit at Comiket. It’s willfuly ignoring the source material, and it’s insulting to the other coplayers who are dressing as Sasha.”
“That high-on-the-hips bikini bottom isn’t Sasha’s official uniform. It’s a made-in-China bootleg Attack on Titan one-piece swimsuit that you can buy for about 1,000 yen [US$9.25]. This cosplay is a blasphemy of the original work.”
One commenter, while still not approving of the modified Sasha costume, tried to be a little more constructive in his criticism, complementing Hamatsu on her shapely legs while saying she’d look just as nice wearing some actual pants, which he took the liberty of adding, in illustrated form, to one of her photos.
▼ Hamatsu also dressed as Bleach’s Sui-Feng at this year’s Summer Comiket, which also shows more skin than the anime-original outfit.
It’s worth pointing out, though, that despite the vocal dissenters online, several of the on-site camera-toting Comiket attendees didn’t seem to mind the lack of faithfulness to the source material.
Something else to take into account is that in her Twitter profile, Hamatsu introduces herself as a “junk cosplayer” who also does gravure swimsuit/lingerie modeling, so by her own admission, she’s not necessarily setting out to perfectly replicate the look of the characters she’s cosplaying as so much as simply provide an eye-catching eyeful.
Source: Twitter/@ichichiha via Hachima Kiko
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