Initially we were stumped by the origin sources of our cosplays but the mystery was later revealed.

Our Japanese-language writer and lover of New Year’s lucky bags Ikuna Kamezawa figures that you can never have too many outfits, especially at this time of the year with so many Christmas and end-of-year parties to let loose at. Therefore, she recently bought a lucky bag from cosplay site CGcosplay that contained two full cosplay outfits for 9,680 yen (US$56.28) (with shipping fees factored in, the total actually came to 11,330 yen). She thought that was a decent deal for two complete costumes, though she was a little bit anxious about the fact that the outfits would be chosen at random.

▼ What would be waiting for her inside?

Upon opening the package, she was a bit chagrined to admit that she had no idea whose costumes they were or from which works they came from.

Taking a closer look at the full ensembles, the first costume was a dress resembling some kind of uniform. Its upper jacket and frilly petticoat were separate pieces, which gave the impression that the set was well made and not just hastily made into one piece to cut cost corners. There were also several smaller accessories included in the bag.

Meanwhile, the second costume looked like the kind of eye-catching personal clothes that an anime character might wear when not at school. It consisted of a long-sleeved shirt and shorts along with a cap and choker necklace. Ikuna could see it being the outfit of a VTuber or Vocaloid, even.

Since she didn’t have the foggiest idea which media they were from, she called in our resident all-things-2-D expert, Seiji Nakazawa.

However, even our resident expert was stumped.

▼ “It feels like I should know them, but I don’t…”

The outfits were both unique enough that the two of them figured something would come up if they used Google Lens, but nope, they were still in the dark. It was hard for Seiji to let it go, though, when he felt that the answers should be on the tip of his tongue. He also didn’t want his otaku pride to take a hit.

Meanwhile, Ikuna decided that she would try the clothes on regardless of whether she knew whose costumes she was wearing or not. After all, they were her special lucky bag purchase.

▼ Seiji continued to channel his otaku sense to the best of his ability.

Here’s the first full look. Ikuna imagined herself as the bossy, princess-like leader of the student council in whatever (school?) anime this costume was from (but she apologizes profusely if she’s completely off the mark).

She also had no idea if she wore the accessories or styled her hair exactly as the corresponding character did, but it was nice to feel pretty in any case.

▼ Of course, for all she knew, perhaps a classic “Are you an idiot?!” pose was actually more appropriate.

Here’s the second look. By the way, Ikuna had ordered a lucky bag that was supposed to contain large-sized clothes (out of small, medium, large, and extra-large options). She’s 168 centimeters (5 feet, 5 inches) tall and felt that for this costume in particular, the medium-sized version probably would have been a slightly better fit. Please use that tip for reference if you place your own cosplay lucky bag orders.

She also had no clue what kind of character she was dressing up as now, but she imagined that it must be someone with a cool persona.

In the end, Ikuna had stitches of fun with her short photoshoot, and Seiji also pulled through with his anime-sleuthing skills. He determined that the first costume was from Blue Archive (originally a 2021 smartphone game adapted into a TV anime earlier this year), and the second one was from Project Sekai: Colorful Stage! feat. Hatsune Miku (a 2020 smartphone game followed by two anime adaptations as well as a recent animated film). The two of them would still like to apologize to all of the hardcore fans out there for not figuring these things out right away!

Ikuna definitely recommends CGcosplay’s cosplay lucky bags if you’re not particularly picky about which characters you dress up as as long as the quality of the clothes is high. For reference, the site also offers lucky bags with five complete costumes for 23,650 yen (plus shipping). In fact, one of these lucky bags might contain the perfect thing for you to wear to an upcoming Comiket convention.

Reference: CGcosplay
All images © SoraNews24
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
[ Read in Japanese ]