Continued from Page 1

DENNIS: What is the most satisfying and most frustrating aspect of being a cosplayer?
HENRY: One big dilemma for me in cosplay has been pictures. There are so many cool outfits out there, and I want to take pictures of them all, but it’s hard to do so when people are taking pictures of you! I’d have to say above all else, the most satisfying thing about cosplay is to have someone just walk up to you, recognize the series you’re from and give some kind words.

PHOTO: Henry as Kamui from the series "X".

DENNIS: For those who are new to cosplaying, they will notice that many cosplayers belong to a group or a circle of cosplayers. Are these groups public, members only or area-based type groups? What advice do you have for those who want to join a group? HENRY: Contrary to public view, I’m actually not part of any group. I’m sort of a rogue cosplayer. Groups are usually members only but if you’re friends with one of the members, you can usually be referred in. Obviously, it helps to be in the same area as everybody else. I can see the benefits of a group, especially if you’re doing skits. I think good skits are incredibly hard to pull off solo but I like the flexibility in cosplaying, doing whatever I want. A lot of the times when you join a group, you’re obligated to do such and such series, since this is what the group has decided on, even if you may not be totally excited over it. The best advice I can offer is to have your first few costumes be solo, just to get a feel for what groups are out there. As a tangent, I’m not sure if this is the case anymore but in the early days of cosplay, I noticed from the mailing lists that West Coasters tend to form around groups, while East Coasters formed around series. The West Coast groups would cover different series, while for East Coast cons, someone may post on a mailing list asking for anybody to join them on a particular series for a photoshoot. DENNIS: For the newbie cosplayer, can you give us your top three advice for them if they want to get involved in cosplaying. HENRY: LEARN TO SEW. I guess this applies more to guys than girls, but in either case, you’re going to hit a wall pretty quick in your evolution as a cosplayer if you don’t learn to sew.

PLAN AHEAD. Just because a convention is six months away doesn’t mean you shouldn’t start at least making an outline on how you’re going to make your costume. It will save you lots of tears and blood if your costume’s good and ready to go the day before you hit the con. “But Henry,” you’d say, “Didn’t you just tell us how you usually finish your costumes at the convention?” Well yes, but I’m an idiot, so I don’t count.

EGO IS NOT A PART OF COSPLAY. Ok, granted, I couldn’t agree more with my friend who says that everybody who cosplays wants attention but that doesn’t mean you should let it get to your head. Cosplay because you love the manga, show or game, not because you want everybody to be in awe of you. There are much less expensive ways of doing that anyway, like running around the hotel at night with nothing but a fig leaf. Ok. not really, but you get the idea.

DENNIS:  A few of the photos that I have seen, you have huge weapon props. Can you tell us more about the weapons you made for your Serge cosplay and how you created that weapon.
HENRY: Serge’s weapon probably represents the best of my skills, since it’s the last prop I’ve made. I knew I had to make the weapon in pieces, for transport purposes, so I split it into 3 parts: left blade, right blade, and handle. All was made out of wood, using a jigsaw and power sander. I actually broke two blades cutting the curves on the blades. I attached the pieces using screws and small metal plates, which meant I always had to carry a wrench and spare screws with me. The handle was covered with brown yarn to give it some texture, though in retrospect, if I wanted to be truly authentic I would’ve found some thin brown rope. After that, a few coats of silver paint and gloss finish gave it a smooth look. The weapon was actually somewhat balanced – slightly heavier on one end, but still very manageable. I remember carrying it around at Ani-Magic for the first time, scared to death of the screws and plates not holding. Fortunately, it’s survived a beating or three. I think that’s why I usually make my props out of wood, it’s great if your weapon looks painstakingly detailed and perfect, but what use is it if you can’t whack a few things with it?

DENNIS:  Let's talk about the large Sanosuke sword that you kept accidentally hitting people with. How did you create that?
HENRY: Ingredients are one bo staff, styrofoam boards and lots of duct tape. Like 3 or 4 rolls. Align the staff with the boards, then start duct taping away! By my third version of the sword, I was able to do it in about two and a half hours. Only problem is, every version always became a gift for the hotel maids, since it would be too big to carry back with me. In retrospect, there are better ways to make the sword, which people have shown but it was not too shabby for my first cosplay prop. The first one was 6 feet long for AX98. The 2nd version was done for Anime Central 99 and it grew to 8 ft. Finally, for AX99, I made it 12 ft which was the actual length in "Rurouni Kenshin" if I remember right. When the LA winds started blowing me to the side I decided it was time to retire it.

DENNIS: You make really cool weapon props but for those who are newbies and have no prior skills in wood cutting and such, can they create a sword or were you knowledgeable in such skills?
HENRY: I took woodshop in middle school and got a B for my wobbly chair. That was the extent of my woodworking skills. If I could do it anybody else can too! Seriously, as long as you have a good saw, the wood slabs you find in Home Depot are good enough. That's what I use in all my props. Though for weight purposes, the balsawood they sell in craft stores
works wonders too. It's very lightweight, relatively sturdy and you technically don't need a power saw to cut through it. It can get pricey though and they have limited sizes. My woodworking skills are still rudimentary. Cutting curves are still as much luck as it is technique for me. But as long as you have a blueprint on paper and the patience to not rush through the cuts, making wood props isn't that difficult.

DENNIS: I have seen you dressed up as a video game character and an anime character. Do you happen to have a preference of which you prefer to cosplay?
HENRY: I don’t really prefer one to the other, but it’s varied over time. As of recent, I’ve had less time to just sit down and watch a substantial amount of anime, so my cosplay has shifted more to videogame characters. Reference materials are more accessible to me with videogames, so that helps too.

DENNIS: I saw a cosplay photo of you dressed up as Gackt from Malice Mizer. How did that come about?
HENRY: Damn, thought I could totally avoid that part. Oh well. Yes, I did do J-rock cosplay for a brief time. I'm pretty flexible in terms of what I do and do not cosplay. Basically, if it's a costume I'm not interested in, but for some reason or another people "want" me to do it, the rule is that if they make the costume and I'll wear it. I actually don't listen to much J-rock but my friends needed a Gackt for the Katsucon skit, so I grudgingly obliged. After that experience,
I somehow got talked into doing it again for Anime Expo, where I was lovingly referred to as "The Pink Pirate". Will you see me in more Visual Kei outfits in the future? I hope not because all that makeup was wreaking havoc on my skin.

DENNIS:  When you cosplay as a character, do you try act like the character? HENRY: Oh, definitely. I try to cosplay characters that either have the same personality as me or qualities that I like. The minute I put on the costume I’m more that character than I am Genjitsu. So the world may tremble in fear when I have my Luffy of "One Piece" costume done. DENNIS:  If you had all the time and money to make a costume, what would be your dream costume? HENRY: I’d say either a mecha suit of some sort or one of the characters created by Yashiro Nightow. He makes crazy weapons for them!

PHOTO: Henry cosplaying as Gene from "Outlaw Star". Photo taken by Albert of cosplay.com.

Can you imagine the fun in having a working version of Wolfwood’s (of "Trigun") cross?! I’d have it fire paintball pellets of course. Wouldn’t want to kill anybody now, would we?

DENNIS: Have you ever worn your costume to an area that freaked people out? How was that experience?
HENRY: Oh see, I gave up all that dignity stuff around my 2nd year of cosplay, so I have no qualms about going into non-convention places in my costume. In fact, I remember at Anime Central, a friend and I drove to the local Japanese plaza, about 5 miles away from the con. We had lunch, with me in my Taikoubou outfit. Japanese people, being polite as they are, didn’t say anything but I could tell a few were staring. The best part was having these cute Japanese kids run up and say I had a cool costume and ask what show I was from, then laughing when I made goofy faces.

DENNIS: Have you experienced any freaky or embarrassing situations from cosplaying? May it be the costume or even experiences from fans?
HENRY: I always tell the story of having a random girl literally make a flying tackle at me while I was dressed as Orphen, knocking the both of us to the floor. I guess that was my first taste of fangirls and it was quite disorienting at the time. (laughing) Other than that, I’ve learned to take everything in stride, so nothing really phases me. Well, maybe the time when I was Wufei and a couple girls asked me to assume yaoi positions with other Gundam Wing cosplayers.

DENNIS: Hmm... Were you one of those male dancers for the Britney/Jack in the Box skit at Anime Expo 2001?
HENRY: Oh man! We're just dragging all the skeletons out of my closet aren't we? Yes, I was one of the dancers for the Jack in the Box skit for AX01. I also helped make the skit soundtrack, which involved me doing extensive research into Backstreet Boys, NSync, and any other teenybopper groups. I downloaded the music videos and paid special attention to the dance choreography. Sure, I could've just made up some silly dance, but if we're going to use boy band music, we might as well recreate the whole experience right? Suffice to
say, I was quite traumatized after listening to them endlessly. I'll have to admit though, some of the dance choreography in those videos are cool! In high school I couldn't dance if my life depended on it, so I appreciate the talent of those who can.

DENNIS: Changing the topic a little but keeping with cosplay, you are the founder and creator of the American Cosplay Paradise Website. Tell us a little about ACP and the history behind it.
HENRY: Well, Wayne Kaa (of AGSMA) and I were talking one day and he was telling me about the Tokyo cosplay sites, how they have galleries of female cosplayers. I had taken a peek into them but wasn't really interested at the time. We started talking about how there should be one for American cosplayers, since the Japanese sites don't allow foreign submissions. We started brainstorming. Wayne would be in charge of the ideas and publicity while I handled the technical work. Before we knew it, we had version 1 of ACP up. We didn't publicize it in the beginning. A lot of ideas were still being thrown around, so we asked people we knew to enter and be our guinea pigs. But soon word of mouth spread and the submissions kept coming in. I
was still a relatively new cosplayer at the time but I had a big interest in web development, so ACP became my HTML toy so to speak. It underwent many revisions as I learned new techniques. Anyone who's kept up with ACP since the beginning can then see my growth as a
web programmer. I say programmer and not designer because some would say my aesthetics and taste still need some work. In the early days, Wayne would do his fair share of the HTML, since I was too busy with school to devote all of my time on the site. But now with so many members, we've had to convert to a database system, so Wayne leaves all the grunt work to me and he schmoozes with the members.

DENNIS: Well, Henry before we start winding things down for this interview, I have a few special guest interviewers who have questions for you.

WAYNE (Wayne Kaa, West Coast-based cosplayer of AGSMA: Anything Goes School of Masquerade Arts): You're known for your wild cosplay antics. Describe your most outrageous cosplay stunt and your most embarassing cosplay activity that you've done in your illustrious cosplay career.

HENRY: Oh what could you possibly mean? I am quite the timid and shy cosplayer on stage. But maybe you're referring to the Kamui versus Fuuma skit for Anime Central 2002.
Besides Kamui and Fuuma weilding 5 ft Giant Pocky sticks for swords, we were each backed up by two Iron Chefs who fought each other in the background. I guess you could say that was my most active skit, since we tried not to hit each other. For sheer shock value though, that would have to go to Katsucon 2001, where I debuted on stage as Gackt and got a little too into the singing. Picture me in tight silver clothes, crawling on the floor and making other
suggestive motions, definitely a once-in-a-lifetime event. (laughing) In terms of just cosplay, hands down that goes to Chun Li for San Diego Comic Con 2001. Wearing all that makeup, being shoved into those 12 inch heel boots. Yeah, that was definitely a test of my masculinity! I'm still not sure whether to be proud of the fact that some people actually thought I was a
girl until I spoke. As for why I did it? Errr...well, let's just say it's evil how cute girls can beg their way through anything.

KAMUI "KARRIE" SHIROU (iplay): Is there some aspect of cosplay you have not and would never ever touch, and how many cookies would it take to get you to do it? And why do you keep asking me to join this ACP?

HENRY: Well let's see. Anime, videogames and J-rock crossplaying...What's left to cover? Can't think of any aspect of cosplay that I'd never do, except maybe those gothic lolita outfits I see once in a while. It would take only one cookie to get me to do it. Goes without saying that the cookie has to be home-baked, made only out of the purest ingredients. That cookie would have
to literally melt in my mouth the minute my lips touch it though, and be so good that I'd be reduced to a happy puddle of quivering goo on the floor. A "Cookie Climax"! By then you could basically slap any costume on my prone body and I'd hardly notice.

To answer your second question. Well, considering I don't even know who's asking me this, there could be a lot of reasons why I want you on ACP. Either you're cute, you bake or ....no
seriously, Wayne Kaa is the official person that bugs and coerces people to join ACP but there's no reason not to! You get free publicity on your costumes and your pictures get to help out other cosplayers who might want to do the same costume someday. Plus, how could
you possibly resist my suaveness and blindingly brilliant charisma?

KIE GRUENKE (1/2 of the Baby Neko Twins): What's your opinion on original costumes? For example, the catgirl trend? Would you wear a catboy costume?

HENRY: I don't have a problem with original costumes, you just won't see me doing them. There's so much anime out there, so many varied character designs and you're telling me you can't find one you like? I was a catboy for a whole 2 minutes at Fanime 2001 when I borrowed a pair of cat ears and took a quick photo. I don't consider it cosplay, unless if you went ahead
and made a complete outfit to match said cat ears. My theory is that a lot of people want to cosplay but either can't or don't want to put the time and effort to make a costume, so they get a pair of cat ears and feel like they "blend in". Either that or they just want an excuse to act a little "friskier" than usual. In order to see me as a catboy, you'd have to get a reeeeeally cute girl or some reeeeeeally good cookies. Or both if you want to be sure for me to go through
with it.

TIFFANY-MARIE(Tiffany-Marie Austin, Ah! My Cosplay): Which convention out of the ones that you have attended was your favorite and why?

HENRY: Probably Fanime. I say probably because every year it's always at the same hotel with the terrible hotel staff and unfriendly security. Otherwise, it's a fun con. Not too big and the masquerade knows how to treat contestants. Despite other people's opinions, I actually like Anime Expo a lot as well. Yes, it's enormous, yes the lines feel like purgatory and yes
the masquerade is way too strict but it was my first convention ever, so it always has some sentimental value for me. Plus, one of the benefits of being the largest convention is that you get cool movie premieres and guests!

PHI (AGSMA): Which outfit have you spent the most amount of time working on, including sewing time and time to make props? How much time did it take, and was it worth all the effort you put into it?

HENRY: Kamui. The wings took forever to make since all the feathers were individually glued. I had help on sewing the outfit but all in all it took a full week to get the complete outfit done.
I'm still deciding whether it was worth it, as they were heavy, rather fragile and bulky, but it
certainly looked cool. And I had a big sword, so I was happy! Serge took about the same amount of time, but it was an absolute joy to make and I was really into it, so I guess it didn't seem as long to me.

DENNIS: How much longer do you want to cosplay? Or is this something you see yourself doing for a very long time?
HENRY: I WILL COSPLAY TILL THE DAY I DIE! Well ok, maybe not but I’d like to say that I still have a few years left in me. There are still outfits and things I want to do and if I’m going to go, I’ll go with a bang. Once the cosplay bug bites you, it’s hard to pass up dressing as cool characters, though, so who knows?

PHOTO: Henry cosplaying as Gackt.

DENNIS:  If you look back at all the cosplay events you have done, the things you have experienced. If there is one cosplay moment you will always remember, what would that moment be? HENRY: Winning "Best Skit" at Anime Central 2002. I did it with my school’s anime club and it was the first time I supervised everything. From props and costume construction to choreography and soundtrack. It was my baby and it wasn’t so much the award as knowing that everybody genuinely enjoyed it. It’s either that, or the countless people I hit when I lugged my 12 ft. Sanosuke sword to AX. DENNIS:  Before we go, I just have to ask you about all this talk about cookies. Are you craving for cookies or is there some hidden meaning when you talk about it? Hmm... HENRY: Oh no, you've found me out! I've actually been sending subliminal messages to everybody, commanding them to obey my every whim! Ok, that was a little cookie of me, err I meant kooky. But honestly, I just like cookies or baked goods in general...a lot. My parents never let me eat sweets when I was a kid. We saved a lot of money from dentist visits, and I generally grew up without having a sweet tooth. Then, at A-kon 99, one of my friends brought home-baked cookies and let me have one. I wasn't interested but I took it anyway out of courtesy.

Words could not describe the bliss that followed afterwards. It was better than sex! I was hooked after that and ate my way to earn the nickname "Cookie Monster". Someone even gave me a Cookie Monster plushie to prove it. I still don't have much of a sweet tooth but if I see 'em in front of me, it's fair game!

DENNIS:  Your final words to the people who support your cosplay work.
HENRY: As long as there are good home-baked cookies lying around, you haven’t seen the last of me!
--

For more about Henry "Genjitsu" Lee, please visit his website here.
For more information about American Cosplay Paradise, click here.

###

Back to Cosplay Underground ][ Go back to Page 1 ]

Note:  All photos on nt2099 Cosplay Underground has been taken by a staff member of nt2099 media and entertainment or has been supplied to us by the individuals being interviewed.

--
Dennis A. Amith is an entertainment writer and celebrity interviewer and the Principal of nt2099 Media and Entertainment. Dennis A. Amith has appeared in many publications worldwide for his knowledge of Asian pop culture and for his entertainment articles. He is also known for his conversation-style celebrity interviews and continues to stick with his formula of promoting artists and professionals who are well-known to the up-and-coming, as well as his goal of helping to smash the barriers that exist for Asians in the entertainment industry and to continue in asking questions that will definitely grab your attention.

Copyright ©2003 Cosplay Underground - nt2099 media and entertainment.  All Rights Reserved.