”Tifa is just that busty” says Enako.

There’s a synergy in the professional cosplay sphere in which the most popular cosplayers tend to cosplay as the most popular characters, which helps raise the profile and popularity of both. So it was perhaps inevitable that Enako, Japan’s “number-one cosplayer,” would one day slip into the outfit of Final Fantasy VII’s number-one heroine, Tifa Lockhart.

But while Enako has proven her high-level credentials with dozens of widely lauded cosplay photo sessions, Tifa presents a special challenge, since the video game martial artist’s costume is not only iconic, but also form-fitting and rather revealing. That makes Tifa cosplay an effort in recreating both the character’s clothing and physique, and Enako recently revealed that she feels she might not have been up to the challenge of the latter.

▼ Enako’s Tifa cosplay

On last week’s episode of her radio program, Enako’s ___ Radio, the cosplayer recounted the experience of the project. Originally she’d been intending to do a studio cosplay session back in the spring to commemorate the release of Final Fantasy VII Remake, but due to scheduling complications brought on by the coronavirus pandemic wasn’t able to. Still, she had the costume ready, so she decided to go ahead and simply snap the photo in her home. She’s not 100-percent satisfied with how it turned out, though.

“The result is kind of like ‘Tifa with Yuffie’s face,’” Enako mused, referencing a different character from Final Fantasy VII who’s yet to show up in the game’s remake, but there’s another area in which she thinks the likeness is lacking. “I think this is something that a lot of Tifa cosplayers have done, but in order to recreate her appearance, I stuffed my top. I stuffed it, but you can’t tell at all in the photos, and even though I made my bust a lot bigger, I still look flat-chested in the photos…In order to recreate her appearance, I would have had to put some oranges in my top. That might sound like an exaggeration, but it’s how I feel after cosplaying as her.”

Enako also claims that after posting the photo she received many comments to the effect of “Not big enough.” “But I really did make them bigger for the cosplay,” Enako says. “Tifa is just that busty.”

▼ Enako also specified in her tweet that she was cosplaying as the Remake version of Tifa, who’s considerably less busty than her original design (pictured top left in the collage here).

However, despite Enako’s comments, a look through the responses to her tweet show an overwhelmingly positive reaction. While one commenter did write “Not voluminous enough. Try again!”, pretty much everyone else seems to have only had nice things to say, such as:

“So cute!”
“What a great physique!”
“Perfect.”
“You look exactly like Tifa.”
“Your waist is an exact match.”
“If they make a live-action Final Fantasy VII, Tifa has to be played by Enako.”
“Please punch me!”
“Wait, even Enako gets split ends? Or is that part of the cosplay too?”

So overall, it doesn’t look like Enako lost any fans with her Tifa cosplay (and for those who do require a more “voluminous” look, there are alternatives), and so she probably doesn’t need to worry about oranges, melons, or any other kind of fruit.

Source: My Navi News via Otakomu
Top image: Final Fantasy VII official website
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