Hana was 15 years old and in the springtime of life when she passed away on October 28, succumbing to Japanese encephalitis. Despite the overwhelming grief, her family still had Hana’s wishes and happiness in mind up to her last moments, allowing her friends from the cosplay community to send her off with one last cosplay event at her wake.
Zhanely Neilsen Chan was an exceptional young lady: an endearing daughter to her parents and a doting elder sister to her siblings. She was a bright student and was doing well at school. She was especially talented and creative for her age and loved drawing and painting. She said that wanted to be an architect or a psychiatrist in the future.
She enjoyed playing video games, particularly Overwatch and League of Legends, with D.va, Jinx, Aatrox and Jhin as her favorite characters. She also enjoyed watching anime, especially Naruto and Love Live, with Hinata and Nico Yazawa as the characters close to her heart.
She discovered cosplay only recently. She took her tentative first steps with Vocaloid charcters, then went to her first event, Rampage, just last year, as Katarina from League of Legends. Since then she went to as many events as she could, enjoying cosplaying different characters, participating in a few competitions. She got good enough at it that she got to be chosen for gigs and appearances.
Hana enjoyed cosplaying, showing off her talents, meeting new people, gaining new friends. She was earnest and wide-eyed, which was why perhaps other cosplayers saw themselves in her, her passion for the hobby and the enthusiasm of enjoying something to the fullest.
Cosplayers who knew her came by to visit during her wake, and her parents, supportive of their daughter’s love for cosplay, had them all together for one last cosplay event, as cosplayers said goodbye to Hana Chan and sent her off in their own special way.
Last Friday she was cremated just a couple of weeks short of her 16th birthday this November 17, but memories of her remain in everyone whose lives she touched.
Our thanks to Hana’s parents who have accommodated us, and special thanks to Jewel for her invaluable help with the article. Also thanks to our arkadymac.com’s photographers Marvin Reyes, Stephen Adap and Celine Adriano for their shots of Hana.
About The Author
