2 old 4 anime?: Cosplay Interview: Mostflogged

This week, we have the distinctive pleasure of interviewing Mostflogged.

If you haven't caught her on my previous Yoko Cosplay blog, you can catch even more here. I was very nicely blown away by her many renditions of Yoko. Usually you would see a couple, maybe 3, but she really took it to the extreme - literally.

Now this is a very kawaii photo of her that I have here. But don't let that charming face fool you. No matter how cute she may look, she also has a very playful enticing side as well. I am sure you will soon be able to see that for yourself soon.

ahh, me talking too much and leaving our guest waiting, not nice, so on to the interview:

What is your name, where do you reside and what is your age?

My name is Jenni Hashimoto, and I go by “Mostflogged” as my internet handle. I live in the greatest city on earth, New York City! And I’m going to be turning 24 years old this May ~

Side question: how did you come up with the name ‘mostflogged’?

Honestly, people always ask me this but the truth is I came up with it when I was 12 years old because I thought it looked nice written down and rolled of the tongue when you said it out loud. There isn’t really any meaning behind it!

What first started you on the road to cosplay?

Haha, honestly, it was all in the pursuit of getting a cute anime girlfriend at first. That didn’t really work out for me, but I ended up loving the hobby so much it didn’t really matter in the end.

How do you choose which characters you will Cosplay?

It’s a combination of loving the show/game, the character, and the design, although very rarely ‘ll do a costume entirely because my friends begged me to.

For instance, even though I might love a particular character from a show, if that character is a giant hulking man then I might be more inclined to cosplay his female friend, even though I don’t like her as much as I like him, because it would look more appropriate, and I can still geek out with people about how much I love that series (like my Irene cosplay from Silent Hill 4, I adored Henry but would have looked very out of place as a 25 year old man).

Other times I’m just drawn to a design, which will usually inspire me to try reading/watching/playing whatever media the thing is from so that I can have a better understanding of the character, and enjoying making/wearing the costume more. This is actually what happened with my Alabasta Nami costume, a friend of mine asked me to make Nami to go with her Vivi, and I agreed, then watched 100 episodes of the series while sewing my costume and now I absolutely adore One Piece and can’t wait to cosplay more

from it!

Then there are the times my friends just peer pressure me into making a costume, like my Star Driver cosplay. I’ve only seen 3 episodes of the show and honestly thought it was a bit stupid but they begged me for months so I finally agreed to do it with them.

Lastly, there’s the best kind of costumes! Characters I love in designs I love, like all my Yoko and Evangelion costumes.

I see that you have done several renditions of Yoko Littner of Gurran Lagann fame. She is one of my personal all time favorite characters as well. What drew you to cosplaying her as much as you do?

Yoko is actually a big part of what inspired me to cosplay. Growing up I was a big tomboy and when my body started to develop (ie: when I got boobs) I was pretty horrified. I kept them bound for a while, and after that only wore sports bras for even longer, it wasn’t until I watched Gurren Lagann and wanted to cosplay Yoko that I was really happy with my body.

And I suppose she’s just a very real character to me – it was in the last episode during the scenes of each characters idealized life that I really came to love her, because unlike every other (male) character, who had one set dream hers was interrupted by the fact she couldn’t decide what she wanted from her life. This moment just made her very real to me and was the moment I decided to cosplay her and started just adoring her. It also helps that she’s a curvaceous babe and totally adorable.

What conventions or shows have you cosplayed at and have you gotten any awards?

I’ve gone to (and cosplayed at) New York Comic Con, New York Anime Fest, AnimeUSA, Katsucon, Anime Boston, Fanime, AnimeNEXT, AnimeEXPO, and Otakon! Usually I don’t attend all of those shows but some combination of them, this year so far I’ve gone to Katsucon, and I’ll be going to Anime Boston/PAX EAST, possibly Fanime, possibly AnimeNEXT, definitely Otakon, definitely NYCC, and maybe AUSA.

The only cosplay award I’ve ever won was “The Hottie Award” at Mokucon 2010, which was kind of a joke because there were barely any people there and I was friends with all of the judges. But honestly, I’ve never entered my costumes in any serious competition, or hall way contest – a lot of my friends go to FIT, a fashion school, but I myself have never had any technical training so I’m kind of self-conscious about my construction.

Some of your cosplay characters you do have a high sex appeal. I know that some of our fans may be a little ‘hesitant’ when it comes to these. How do you prepare yourself for these characters knowing the attention you will gather at the conventions?

It’s not really that big of a deal, to be honest. The only times I truly felt truly overwhelmed by the attention a skimpy costume received was for my Psylocke costume at NYCC last year, and my bondage Yoko costume at AX in 2010. Both times there were just walls of photographers and I couldn’t walk more than three feet over the course of several minutes because of so many people asking for my picture.

Generally though I’m very comfortable with my body, and when I get attention for wearing skimpy/sexy costumes it’s not a big deal to me. I’m more comfortable in less clothing, to be honest, I feel kinda frumpy in some of my more covered up costumes, haha.

Usually people are just very flattering, I’ve never had anyone say anything rude to me at conventions, although it does happen online from time to time. But I don’t let it bother me, I put myself out there in a certain way and people react the way they do, if anyone ever crosses the line I let them know it, and that’s all there is to it.

Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back. I was wondering, how was it doing a photo shoot with with Yaya Han?

Haha, it was fun! We had a shoot together earlier in the day and she had her Catwoman with her, so after dinner we went back to my place and shot Gotham City Sirens near my apartment! She’s a super cool lady, I’m super excited about the costumes we’re making together right now!

When not cosplaying, what do you do?

I’m a student, so I’m usually reading, writing papers, or goofing around on tumblr when I’m not working on costumes. I also really enjoy scrap booking, video games, fishing and baking!

For any aspiring cosplayers a little shy, what words of wisdom do you have for them to get started?

Start simple, and cosplay things you love! You have all the time in the world to tackle harder things, so start with something that looks doable and eventually you’ll become more confident in your abilities to tackle more complicated projects! And take as much time as you need – if you think you’re not going to be able to finish a costume for a certain convention then don’t, it’s a much better alternative than bringing your machine to the con and stressing yourself, and your roomies, out.

Some Additional Cosplay Photographs

I want to thank Mostflogged for taking the time to write to me and to the Photographers for the great photos that you get to see here today.

Want to be my next interviewed COSPLAY STAR? Drop me a line a bluedrakon (at) gmail (dot) com!