Cosplay: Taiga Aisaka from Tora Dora

Photos by ACCosplay.

Taiga Aisaka

I love all forms of media - comics, TV, movies, books, anime... it's all good in my book. So it was surprising to realize that I'd never cosplayed from an anime, despite attending mainly anime conventions and loving anime for so many years.

I tend to cosplay from Western media more often. I think it's a little simpler because some of the characters are up for interpretation (like American cartoon characters). Plus, most of the time, when I like an anime character, their outfit is out of my skill range. (See: Mami Tomoe's magical girl outfit. Swoon!)

So when I saw the jacket and skirt for this costume up for sale, I scooped it up right away! I don't think I could sew a jacket or skirt this structured, and even though I am the third cosplayer to wear this costume, it fit like a dream. 

Conventions

• A-Kon 25

Materials

• Wig: Luthien from Arda Wigs in Sandy Brown, cut and styled
• Shirt: Thrifted
• Skirt and jacket: Purchased secondhand
• Thigh-high tights: Ebay
• Penny loafers: Ebay
• Sword: Ebay

The Process

This costume is a little different since I didn't have to make anything. I found a white button-down at a Goodwill, picked up some more specific accessories from Ebay, and styled the wig, and it was done. I thought I was being smart by using faux thigh-highs instead of actual socks, but it wound up being kind of a pain anyway. Next time, I'll just do regular thigh-highs.

My biggest concern with this costume is that Taiga is known for being a small character. She's around 4'11" and very petite - and I'm 5'6'' and not petite. While I think cosplay is for everyone, and I fully believe that everyone should cosplay whoever they want, I wondered if I'd be able to do this character justice in my own eyes. Once I tried on the entire costume, I was really pleased with it! I think it helps that I didn't have any other people cosplaying with me, so there's nobody to compare my own height to. Regardless, this character is a type I wouldn't usually cosplay, so I'm really happy that I went out of my comfort zone and tried something new.

Also, I just want to say that there's absolutely no shame in purchasing or commissioning entire costumes or pieces of costumes! While I love learning new skills, sometimes the only thing holding me back from finishing a costume is a difficult prop or wig. If you don't have the time, resources, or desire to learn to sew/style wigs/make props/whatever, commissioning is perfectly fine. In this case, I could buy the main parts of the costume for a super low price - I couldn't even buy materials for that much, let alone accounting for the time and energy it would take to learn how to sew a jacket. For me, this costume was a worthy investment.

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A-Kon 25

My friend Jeremy runs Cosplay with Me -
 cosplay music videos and more!

A-Kon takes place in Dallas, and is one of the largest anime conventions in the country and the biggest in Texas. I've gone for a few years now, but this year was one of the best yet!

Last year, A-Kon moved to a new venue. Along with the move came growing pains - confusing maps, high-traffic areas directly next to each other, and awful lines. I'm pleased to say that most of these issues were resolved this year! While the new location is still a little confusing to me, I didn't encounter any ridiculous lines or congested areas. For the most part, it seems like there were far fewer complaints than last year.

Shout out to Liz for perfecting my makeup and helping me with my wig!

Friday

I found out too late that the A-Kon extended to Thursday this year. I'm not sure they've ever had programming on Thursday, though many people arrive on Thursday evening for "day 0" of the convention. This year, the masquerade took place on Thursday, and I was so sad that I couldn't make it out!

The hall cosplay contest took place early on Friday - it ended around the time that we arrived. I had wanted to enter my Daenerys in the hall contest, but there was just no way that we could make it in time. Maybe next year, I'll be in a position where I can make it down for day 0 of the convention as well.

We still arrived fairly early on Friday, and I immediately got to work! I knew my Daenerys would take a while to get into since I was working with lots of new elements, including fake blood, a lacefront wig, and a different style of makeup than usual. 

I made the major pieces of the costume myself (the top, skirts, and accessories), so I'm especially proud of how it turned out. I can't wait to share more photos when I get them. I think this is one of the best costumes I've ever made.

Pavi steals all of the hearts!

My main event of Friday was seeing Amber Does Dallas, my former cast, perform Repo! The Genetic Opera live. I hadn't seen the show in a long time, so it was really wonderful to dance and sing and shout at my friends. Plus, seeing a show about organs seemed appropriate as heart-munchin' Dany.

Saturday

Aisaka Taiga!

Originally, I had planned on wearing Mako Mankanshoku (from Kill la Kill) on Saturday morning, but when the time came, I just wasn't feeling it. Instead, I wore Taiga Aisaka (from Toradora) all day. 

This costume was super simple to put together since I purchased the jacket and skirt secondhand. Everything else just had to be assembled. Considering I am the third owner of this uniform, it fits amazingly well! I also really, really love this wig - it's so poofy!

The Palmtop Tiger!

I had a shoot with Avarice Conspiracy Cosplay, and then hung around the con the rest of the day. It was super hot so I wound up changing out of the costume early. I think carrying around the sword made my whole body tired, even though it wasn't that heavy!

Later that night, we went to Medieval Times, which is seriously right next door to the convention center, to celebrate Colby's birthday. I've been to Medieval Times a few times, but it was totally different after seeing Game of Thrones. So many of the knights had colors or sigils that reminded me of the Game of Thrones families. Although our knight didn't win, he was easily the best. Long live Black and White Knight!

Sunday

Usually, I don't plan any difficult, time-consuming cosplays on Sundays, but I had a shoot with Aperture Ashley, so I woke up super early to get back into Dany. I'm glad I'd done the costume once before, it went a lot smoother the second time around! The shoot went really well!

Some friends! Bobii, Liz, me, Camille, and Peony!

I also walked around the Dealer's Room one last time, including hanging out by the Crunchyroll booth. They had a webcam set up with people at home watching live. When I showed up, I got reactions ranging from "Bring Dany to the front!" to "GoT best anime 2K14" and "GoT isn't anime go away pls." For some reason thinking of Game of Thrones as an anime cracked me up.

Vest Buds.

I'm sure I'm leaving a lot out, but I had a really amazing time. I'm glad the con fixed some of the major issues it had last year and I'm glad I got to see most of the people I wanted to see!

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