Cooro - +Anima



Cost: $20
Time to Make: 15 hours
Timeline of Construction: May 2003, August 2003
Award: Best Presentation (Novice Division) - CNAnime 2003 Masquerade


Pictures




Information

I fell in love with the +Anima Manga as soon as I came across some scans of the covers of the first couple of volumes. The art style really stood out and was quite beautiful. Not long after finding the scans, I decided that I would have to Cosplay as one of the main characters. I adored Cooro's design and characterization so I picked to make this costume fairly quickly.

This costume required very little sewing, but taught me a lot about altering pre-existing clothes. I found a plain red t-shirt at Value Village and cut off the sleeves. My mom found an old yellowish turtleneck shirt in her closet and gave it to me for the shirt that goes over the red t-shirt. With help from Pan, we cut the sides of the shirt (we actually cut it a little too low which is unfortunate) and the bottom of the front to match Cooro's design. My father gave me an old belt that I had to adjust so it would fit me. I found my old Girl Guide pouch and covered it with fur to match Cooro's.

My mother kindly knit me the armbands which go up to mid arm and are black (when Cooro is in +Anima form those parts of his arms are actually covered in feathers). Near the hands, however, my mother changed to using a shaggy red material that looks pretty cool. My mother also knit me a second pair of armbands that are completely red to match Cooro's normal form. The birthmarks on Cooro's arms were emulated using black eyeliner. The pants were actually an old pair of my older brother's blue jeans that surprisingly fit me. They were cut around the knees and hemmed up.

The yellow feathers for my hair were bought in a variety pack of feathers and I painted the tops blue and red. I next glued them to a barrette so I wouldn't have to worry about them falling off. I really appreciate Pan lending me her black goggles and a pair of costume wings to really bring Cooro to life!

Considering the fact that I live in such a big city you would think it would be easy to find a pair of yellow boots in the spring, but after a fruitless search, my dad spray painted an old pair of my mother's grey boots yellow. The wig was borrowed from Pan. She braided some of my own hair and let it hang down since the wig was a little too short to be braided in the back. Since I have brown hair it worked out fairly well.

I wore this costume before it became common practice to use digital cameras so I don't really have a lot of really good photos of this costume. Sakura borrowed it for a con and was an adorable Cooro when I Cosplayed Husky. It was a ton of fun Cosplaying the protagonist of +Anima. It's not one of my best costumes, but I had a lot of fun Cosplaying as Cooro since the series was really unknown when I Cosplayed from it. Every time someone recognized me it meant a lot. I joined a few of my friends in a random dance skit at CNAnime 2003 and we won a presentation award.

Events/Conventions this costume was worn to
Japan Day 2003 (high school event), Anime North 2003 (Saturday), CNAnime 2003 (Saturday). My friend Sakura wore Cooro to November Toronto AnimeCON 2003 and March Toronto AnimeCON 2004 (Saturday)


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