We start off with a fansign from our correspondent, Stephanie. As our website’s resident genki girl, we certainly need her extra motivation with an extra heart and smile.
The cosplay community has its many colorful ways of making itself unique and creative. This is shown in the strange but amusing ritual called the fansign.
Although far from perfect, the cosplay community is quite friendly with everyone, particularly with each other. At events like conventions, they casually or intimately greet each other with the entire spectrum of courtesies, pleasantries and all sorts of body language. Online, in the realm of cyberspace, they greet each other with fansigns.
Our good friend Mari sends us this fancy fansign while in her favorite Naruto cos. We’re always grateful for her contributions to this website.
A fansign is any piece of writing which involves a person’s name or nickname on some medium, usually a simple piece of paper. The one making and giving out the fansign then takes a snapshot of themselves with that sign then posts it online and is shared to the one who asked for it. One may think of it as getting an autograph, except that you get your name instead shown in a photo with the one you admire.
As the name may suggest, it’s usually a sign for someone’s fan with the fan’s name on it. Particularly popular cosplayers receive many requests for signs, usually through Facebook. Getting one is the same as getting an autograph with all the associated feelings that come with it, like happiness, appreciation, giddiness, hysteria, shock, vertigo, blushing, flushing, incontinence, and, well, many other emotions. I remember when I got my first fansign fro this particular cosplayer I liked. Suffice to say I was strangely overjoyed, like I just won a prize of some sort. I could not take the smile off my face the entire day.
Eiri Mina as Inori Yuzuriha of Guilty Crown is just too hot for words as she sends us this colorful fansign. Eiri has been featured several times on this website and has been our coverage partner in a number of events, so we send her our love and our thanks.
One need not be famous to give away fansigns. Cosplay friends give each other signs every so often. Usually such transactions happen on Facebook, like, “Send me one; I’ll make you one,” or “Who wants a fansign?” Everything is done lightheartedly, and everyone ends up happy.
There are many variations to this practice, of course. The one giving fansigns may choose to be in cosplay or in everyday clothes depending on their preferences. The sign itself may have other messages along with the names, like “I love (name),” or “(name) is my slave.” It can also have pictures and drawings like those of flowers, kittens, hearts and caricatures. The material the sign is on can vary too, like instead of paper, names can be written on phone screens, tablets, clay, papyrus, fruit, even body parts.
This one comes from across the seas, from our amazing friend Xyana from Malaysia. Our mutual fascination of cosplay has made us good friends even if we’re from different countries. We thank her for her constant support for our website, and I thank her personally for the wonderful drawing of Nyanbu on the fansign.
To those not familiar with it, fansigns may not seem all that meaningful, but to those in the cosplay community, it’s one simple way of greeting each other, affirming friendships, returning affections, and acknowledging admiration. Probably words will not suffice in describing the feelings involved, so I urge you to try it out for yourself, to either politely ask for one from a cosplayer friend you know, or offer to give out one yourself. I assure you that it’s strangely enjoyable.
Please enjoy the fansigns our friends have made for us. They were given wholeheartedly without asking for anything in return, so we at arkadymac.com are truly grateful to each and every one of them.
Please click on a photo to view slideshow.
Serreniethy Fionah as Perona from One Piece sends us this adorable fansign while touring the Visayas. Everyone in the community always awaits great cosplays from her, and so do we. Thank you, Serreniethy.
This collage of fansigns comes from our bright and talented friend Carmae, showing us her array of cosplays. Despite the rigors of studying engineering, she has been gracious enough to help us out at every turn and we certainly appreciate each and every instance.
Iishe is a bubbly and endearing soul we have come across on our journeys to the cosplay world and has become a loyal friend ever since. We then are very grateful to her for sending us this equally bubbly and endearing fansign.
Jane is a colorful and lively character even without her costumes and she isn’t afraid to show it to her circle of friends. We then are happy as can be for this lovely fansign and look forward to having her here again real soon.
Sabrina sends us this heart-filled fansign sealed with a warm smile. We always enjoy seeing her at events, so we are thankful that she has gone out of her way to help us out with the site.
We wish to thank Angel as Zatsune Miku for giving us this charming fansign with a cute sketch of what seems to be a winged onigiri. Angel has been our cover girl for one of our events and we look forward to having more of her here in the future.
Pau Line as Tsunade from Naruto was gracious enough to agree to a fansign. We of course welcome her support and wish to see more of her in future events.
The feisty yet sweet Rin sends us her ninja fansign. We thank her for her assistance to the website and await enjoying more of her company.
We have featured our good friend Angel as Tifa Lockheart from Final Fantasy VII a number of times on the website and we thank her for sending us this fansign.
Nicole is a new and refreshing face in the local cosplay scene, seen here as Black Rock Shooter. We expect to see more of her around and we acknowledge her support of our site.
To round off our list of wonderful friends, we have Netski with a lovable fansign complete with a winning smile. We do consider ourselves lucky to have one for her, so many thanks, Netski.
Thank you for dropping by, and, if you can, please send us your own fansign for us, preferably in cosplay. We promise to post your pictures here. Until next time.
