Jon Minami's first foray into cosplay wasn't exactly successful. A few years after attending his first anime convention, Minami decided he wanted to "suit up." He chose the Engineer from the video game Team Fortress 2, a burly protagonist in brown coveralls, red shirt, orange hardhat, kneepads and a tool belt. He bought all the ready-made items he could find—what veteran cosplayers call, a bit derisively, "out of the closet."
"The entire day everyone kept calling me Bob the Builder," he laughs. And it stuck: "Ten years later, everyone's like, 'Hey, Bob.'"
Things have changed for Minami since then. These days he creates elaborate costumes and holds weekly workshop nights with other cosplayers, where they craft, chat, sand 3D models and troubleshoot. Minami, a line cook and dishwasher, estimates he's created about twenty-four costumes. His favorite so far is a "panzer cop" from the Japanese political thriller anime Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade. The intimidating getup includes full-body black armor and a helmet with red, glowing eyes.
Christy Kohama as the samurai rabbit, Usagi Yojimbo. Kohama once met the character's creator, Stan Sakai, while in costume.
Mark Gamiao creating a Captain Hoshina costume from the manga series Kaiju No. 8 at a cosplayer workshop night.
Wearing such an elaborate suit is a thrill, Minami says. For the most part. "On the one hand, once you put everything on, you're like, 'Wow, I'm this character that I idolize,' but on the other hand, you're like, 'Wow, wearing this suit of armor kind of sucks. It's hot, I can't see, I can't hear anything, I hope I don't run over a small child.'"
Cosplayers typically portray characters from movies, video games, comic books and TV shows, often at conventions, or "cons," with other like-minded megafans. In Hawaii that's Comic Con Honolulu, which focuses on comics, movies, sci-fi and video games; Kawaii Kon, which celebrates manga and anime; and Amazing Comic Con Aloha, which emphasizes pop culture, comic books and collectibles. Last year Minami and his friends attended Kawaii Kon as characters from the video game Halo, spending months creating and refurbishing armor. In the past they built and wore matching cyberpunk-style outfits for Halloween events in Waikiki and dressed as characters from Pokemon for the 2024 World Championships in Honolulu last August.
Grace Chee defies gravity as Sabrina from Pokemon at Comic Con Honolulu last September.
Jayson Smetara fits a comic book-accurate, 3D-printed Wolverine mask on his friend Shaughnessy Birgado.
JEDI808 (his Instagram handle) started creating this Boba Fett costume back in 2005.
Cosplay devotees spend hundreds, even thousands a year on costumes, and dozens of hours crafting them. Some purchase portions of their costumes and customize the rest. Others build them entirely by hand, which requires a suite of crafting skills: painting, sewing, sanding, 3D printing, vacuum forming (plastic thermoforming) and "foamsmithing" (building with EVA foam).
Once an obscure subculture, cosplay has entered the mainstream over the last two decades. Some say it originated with sci-fi fans who attended conventions dressed as favorite characters. Others trace its origins to anime fans in Japan, so it's not surprising that Hawaii, with its strong ties to Japanese culture, is home to an extensive cosplay community.
On Oahu alone there are cosplay groups to suit just about any fan's predilections, from the general—the Costumers Guild and Cosplayers of Hawaii—to the extremely specific—a group that focuses exclusively on Halo armor. The Ghost Busters Hawaii Division is for wanna-be Stay Puft Marshmallow Man slayers. A Jurassic Park-themed group often gathers at Kualoa Ranch, where three of the movies were filmed. There's the Last Outpost for Trekkies and Avengers Mid-Pacific for Marvelheads. At least two for Star Wars: the Pacific Outpost of the 501st Legion (the Hawaii chapter of the Star Wars Imperial costuming organization—the bad guys) and its sister organization, the Hawaii Outpost of the Rebel Legion (the good guys).
Today, huge companies such as Mattel and Disney sell elaborate, expensive costumes for kids and grown-ups, which has created a "golden age of cosplay," according to Kalei Kealoha, the commanding officer of the Pacific Outpost of the 501st.
"Now people on the Mainland are dressing up as anime characters, whereas ten to fifteen years ago, only people here were dressing up as anime characters," says "Lola Organa" (Star Wars fans will guess that is not her real name), also a member of the 501st. "With all that's out there now—the resources, the community, awareness in general of what cosplay is and all the cool characters—for someone just starting, it is way easier than for someone ten to twenty years ago."
At a recent workshop night at Minami's home, Jayson Smetara recalls the first time he went to a convention dressed as a Spartan from Halo. "I was so into that video game, and in the back of my mind, I was like, 'I wish I could just dive into that video game and be a Spartan,'" he says. Suiting up, he says, was the best feeling of his life.
The Marvel universe is always well represented at Comic Con Honolulu. Left to right: Jon Minami as Gambit, Smetara as Cyclops and Chee as Laura Kinney/X-23.
Anthony Ragil crafts paladin armor from the game Final Fantasy IV.
Ragil, as Captain America, has spent up to a decade perfecting some of his costumes.
Anthony Ragil was still in high school when he attended his first Comic Con in 2007. Back then his whole universe was his hometown of Mililani, punctuated with occasional trips to Pearl City or Honolulu. "I started realizing there are people from other towns, and as soon as I started diving into the hobby, I was like, 'Oh my god! It's a global thing,'" he says. Ragil, who works at the front desk of a community center and is studying to become a personal trainer, identifies with Noctis, the heir apparent to the Kingdom of Lucis from the video game Final Fantasy. Noctis is fair-skinned with a straight mop of ebony hair. He is dressed in black from head to toe, including a short-sleeve military-style jacket and combat boots, and carries a silver sword that is half as long as he is tall.
Cool costume aside, Ragil feels a personal connection to the character: Like the fictional Noctis, Ragil's own grandfather hopes he will one day become the patriarch of the family. The lines between person and persona get a little blurry, as they sometimes do with cosplay. "While I don't feel I'm quite there yet, we grow every day," Ragil says. "Maybe someday I'll feel that I filled my grandfather's shoes, and that's a lot of what this character's journey is about."
Ten years ago Organa didn't know what cosplay was. A longtime Marvel fan, she heard that Stan Lee, founder of the franchise, was going to be at Comic Con Honolulu, so she bought a ticket. As Organa and her husband were looking for a parking spot, he asked if she was sure they were in the right place. Seconds later, "Someone pulled a ginormous sword out of their trunk, like a huge anime sword," she recalls. "And I was like, 'Yes, we're in the right place!'"
Once she entered the convention center, she was completely enchanted. "I just didn't know that world existed," she says. Organa, who works in compliance at a bank, attended her next Comic Con as Lara Croft from Tomb Raider. Attendees greeted her with, "I love you, Lara Croft! Can I take a picture with you?" And she was hooked.
Lola Organa put a "spicy, feminine spin," as she calls it, on her Praetorian Guard costume from Star Wars.
Minami, who refers to himself as an "armor head," displays a template for a breastplate.
Mason, a ten-year-old padawan, crosses lightsabers with Darth Vader at Comic Con Honolulu.
Organa gravitates to formidable characters, such as a Praetorian Guard, an Imperial warrior from The Mandalorian. That costume is "so cool-looking and so badass," she says. Organa created her Praetorian Guard with a "spicy," feminine spin. Instead of a tunic, she wears a shiny red crop top. The final embellishments include over-the-knee red boots in place of leg armor and a paneled skirt that exposes her thighs. Cosplay, Organa says, is "a passion for showing what you love. And there's the community, too, because no one really cosplays by themselves."
Like many cosplayers, Organa often dresses up to attend charity events for organizations like Special Olympics and Make-a-Wish. Although she loves the conventions, it's this labor of love that is most meaningful to her. One especially memorable of those events was for children of military service members whose parents were deployed during holidays. After the end the cosplayers gave each of the kids a letter from their absent parent. "It was so touching," she says, waving her hand in front of her eyes and tearing up. "I was like, 'I'm hooked. I want to do this all the time.'"
Cosplay has always been part of Kealoha's life. As a child, Halloween was far more exciting than his birthday or Christmas. He also doesn't recall not loving Star Wars. His latest creation is a blue-and-white X-wing pilot uniform featured in Rogue One. Soon after he started making it, his dad passed away. "I'm particularly proud of this helmet because I made it in tribute to my dad," he says, showing off the detailed symbols and precise hand-stenciled and painted line work. The adornments include a modified yin and yang, modeled after one of his father's surfboards, the years of his birth and death, and his initials, all in Aurabesh, the written language from the Star Wars universe.
"This was basically YouTube trial and error," Christy Kohama says of her take on a Palico, a cat-like character from the video game Monster Hunter. Kohama once focused on crafting costumes using foam and 3D printing but now challenges herself—and her wallet—with fur.
During a workshop day at Ragil's home, he and his friend Christy Kohama, a systems administrator, are assiduously ironing out costume details. Two mannequins stand in the corner, one draped in chain mail and one sporting a short grayish wig with pink-and-black pointed ears. Prop swords and guns hang on the wall, and three of Christy's costume heads are lined up on a shelf to the side.
Their friend Mario Mercado, a produce manager, soon joins, carrying a sewing machine, paper and red faux leather. Mercado is pleased with the bargain he got on the pleather. "Remember when I was paying to get my fur down here for my Jon Snow?" he says, referring to the Game of Thrones character. "Dude, the fur costs at least $60 for shipping." Mercado is using the pleather to sew a pair of gloves for one of Ragil's costumes.
Nearby, Kohama trims the fur around the nose of a costume head using a hair clipper. She self-effacingly admits that the fuzzy head currently resembles a capybara. Once she finishes working her magic, though, it will resemble its intended character: Master Splinter, the rat sensei from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Kohama often challenges herself by creating difficult costumes. She mastered armor and has now moved on to fur. One of her fluffy creations is a Palico, a cat-like combat companion from the video game Monster Hunter. The white-and-gray feline is modeled after her own cats, Dobby and Tonks. The mouth moves, and it will eventually include an animatronic tail that moves by itself.
The Pila family as samurai versions of Pokemon characters (left to right: Katie as Gyarados, Dani as Pikachu and Dana as Charizard) at Comic Con Honolulu. The annual con draws thousands of fans of comics, movies, sci-fi and video games and is one of the premier events for cosplayers to wear their creativity.
Another costume is Usagi Yojimbo, a samurai rabbit from a comic book series of the same name created by Stan Sakai, who was born in Japan and grew up in Hawaii. Usagi wears a vivid blue kimono-style top, and its snow-white ears are tied in a topknot. "Most people recognized Usagi, but a little girl came running up to me and hugged me and said, 'Bunny!'" Kohama recalls. "As opposed to some other characters that have scared the living daylights out of four-year-olds."
While creating costumes is enjoyable, it's not Kohama's only motivation. She could build the outfit and leave it on a shelf, she notes. Cosplay allows its enthusiasts to bond with others and express enthusiasm for a particular character or genre. At one convention, Kohama and her friends dressed as Spartans from Halo. They organized an impromptu photo shoot, catching the attention of other Halo fans, who snapped pictures with their phones. Among the spectators was an 11-year-old boy. He hovered shyly nearby, dressed in an obviously inexpensive, store-bought Spartan costume. Kohama beckoned for the boy to join her group and pose with his fellow Spartans.
The boy gave a "Who, me?" gesture, intimidated by the more elaborately dressed Spartans. Yes, Yokohama told him.
"If you're a Spartan, I don't care if it's a $20 costume or a $2,000 costume," she says. "You're doing it because you love the character. That's the whole point of cosplay."
