It’s time once more for another cosplayer interview! This next one, shared from Cosplay Blog with a Brain, is an interview with Blatsuura! He’s a talented cosplayer from Washington, who has a great variety of costumes to choose from!

Blatsuura out of costume

What’s your cosplay alias and why did you choose it?
I don’t really have a cosplay alias, but I use “Blatsuura” as a screen name in a lot of cases. I chose it because it is a portmanteau of my middle name (Matsuura) and the word “Blat!” (an onomatopoeia used to describe the sound of a firearm discharging), and I feel it adds a silly, competitive edge to my name. I originally used the screen name for entry in to video game tournaments, hence the competitive aspect of it. For cosplay stuff, I’m not a fan of competition when it encourages negative interactions and emotions.

Blatsuura as Kai Leng from Mass Effect 3, photo by Nate Zimmer

How many years have you been cosplaying and what got you started?
I made a few costumes when I was younger, but I feel like I really started as a cosplayer about three years ago. I got started on the idea by a friend of mine inviting me to attend Sakura-Con back in high school.

What has been some of your favorite things to work with when constructing costumes and why?
I enjoy creating small parts and props the most when making a costume: I’m definitely still a beginner when it comes to any part of costume creation, but I really like the parts that are more arts-and-crafts-y rather than the parts that are more like tailoring.

What are you excited to be working with in the future and why?
One of the next things I’d like to try to do for a costume is the creation of molds for casting objects from materials like polyurethane. I believe that being able to create a ‘master’ that I can create copies of is an important step towards improving my costumes as a whole.

What are some of the traits you like to see in other costumes and who do you think does well in them?
My favorite costumes are of characters from video games, and my favorite thing about cosplay as a medium is how people use costumes to adapt character designs into something physically real. I love to see other cosplayers use their creative skills and their own physical features to adapt these fictitious characters in to their own unique expression.

What is your view of the “cosplay scene”?
Most of my friends aren’t, but all of the ones who are cosplayers are kind and accepting people who want to share with everyone else how much they love something. I feel kind of out of touch with the community as a whole, but I like that we are brought together by positive attitudes and a creative pursuit.

Blatsuura as Assassin Recruit from Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. photo by Robert Walker

What are some of the things you want to see change in the scene?
It seems like less of an issue within the cosplayer community, but I wish that cosplayers wouldn’t get criticized as much for casting themselves against type. Cosplay is a creative medium, and a cosplayer’s body is part of the materials that they work with: being the “wrong” color or shape or whatever shouldn’t hold someone back from celebrating something that they love. Bearing a physical resemblance to a character can do a lot to make a costume impressive, but I don’t think that it is the most important thing.

What are some of your favorite conventions you’ve attended and why?
“Sakura-con” in Seattle is the convention I’ve attended the most, and it is my favorite. It is a great event for me because cosplay is so popular and because it is primarily an anime convention. This means that, as a cosplayer, there are more attendees that appreciate cosplayers, and there are more cosplayers to interact with. Since my interest in anime is fairly limited, I tend to be less distracted by the actual scheduled events at the convention, and it is more of a social experience for me- cosplaying as popular video game characters has made a real difference in boosting my self-esteem.

Give a random fact about one of your costumes that you’re proud of!
For my costume of Garrett Hawke from Dragon Age II, I made the poor decision of wearing a full shirt of chain mail that was only visible on my upper arms. I did it because I wanted to produce an authentic looking result, but it ended up increasing the overall weight of the costume by about fifteen pounds, which made it kind of a pain to wear for long periods of time.

Blatsuura as Garrett Hawke from Dragon Age II, photo by Shun Al Hayashi

Thanks for the interview, Blatsuura! If you’d like to see more of his work, you can go to his Tumblr!

Koi

A cosplayer for over a decade now, Yunie is a giant nerd who still pretends she’s cool. She runs several sites on her own, including Engi no Shouzoku! Cosplay, Cosplay Blog with a Brain, and her store, Yunie’s Designs. An avid fan of fellow nerds, Yunie loves attending conventions and dorking around in costumes with all types. Oh, and if there’s shenanigans, even better!

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