The world of cosplay is one of endless possibilities. With the bewildering number of characters to portray, it’s amazing how cosplayers get to try out different types and genres. Crossplaying, or cosplaying a character from the other gender, puts an interesting twist on the practice, and Maiqui is one who we got to meet who pulls this off quite well. Featuring Maiqui as Howl of Howl’s Moving Castle as arkadymac.com’s latest Cosplay Model, featuring the work of Aileen Omana of AIEN STEIN Photography,
“I love Howl,” Maiqui admits unabashedly when we ask her why she chose to portray this character for our shoot. “I just plain love him ever since I first saw him in Howl’s Moving Castle,” a popular Japanese animated fantasy film. “Or maybe I’m just attracted to blondies,” she says with a laugh. “I share his trait of being fastidious, but I’m still not sure.”
“When I do female characters, I like to cosplay ‘hime’ types or the ‘kawaii’ ones. At some point I thought that, for a change, why not try crossdressing? Then before I even knew it I’ve already fallen in love with it. I usually like cosplaying ‘seme’ type male characters, and sometimes I go for the ‘bishie’ ones too.”
Maiqui has been cosplaying for quite a while, since 2010. She began by cosplaying as Misa Amane of Death Note. “We all know how one starts from scratch,” she smiles as she recalls those days of being new to cosplay.
Maiqui says she cosplays for the simplest reasons. “I want to be able to feel how it’s like to be an anime character for a day, to be able to feel how it’s like to be in your own world where you can feel that you really do belong.” She says her friends are the reasons why she can continue. “Being able to know the word ‘fun’ as you wear your costume and head off to the cosplay world together, being able to be in a group where you’re close with one another and would not think of anything else aside for fun: these are the fond memories that cosplaying has given me.”
For those who have yet to try cosplay, they wonder what Maiqui and others like her find fun and exciting about it. “It makes me happy to get to pose and smile in front of the camera, especially when people know the character I’m cosplaying; it inspires me. I get excited thinking about the photos that will be uploaded. I want to know how my costume would look in a photo, to be able to see the result all your hard work and effort. Imagine the fulfillment one feels.”
Even as she has been in the community for quite a while now, Maiqui still finds cosplay challenging. “Imagine a cosplayer’s or crafter’s hard work on one’s costume just to make it close to perfect. It’s challenging, but at the same time worth the effort.” We then ask her how long she sees herself cosplaying. “I honestly don’t know when it will end, but one thing is for sure. As long as I have friends who give meaning to cosplaying, I definitely won’t give up being a cosplayer.”
As our shoot concluded, we gave her the chance to leave a few words for us. “I would like to thank my cospartner Mari Marta for being there so support me. Honestly, I was on the edge of quitting cosplay because before I often thought that it had no sense anymore, but my partner came and gave me meaning to cosplay again. Also I would like to thank Ate Aileen for giving me the opportunity to be shot by her. I had fun despite of my hot costume. Also, I would like to encourage everyone to continue pursuing their hobbies such as cosplaying, not for the fame, not for the prizes, but for the contentment and fun of being in a world where you know you really do belong. Cosplayers Fighting!”
We would then in part like to thank Maiqui for taking part in this feature. Credits as well to cosplay photographer Aileen Omana for participating in this collaboration. You can catch more of her great work at AIEN STEIN Photography. You can be sure we’ll be featuring more of them soon here on our website. Thank you for dropping by, and do visit us again for more cosplay features here at arkadymac.com.
Please click on an image to view slideshow.
About The Author
