(Madrid, May 6. Yakuza Webzine).- José María «Shema» Arroyo and Juan Carlos Tolento did not imagine in 2014, when they started cosplaying for fun, that a year later they would conquer the highest peak : the World Cosplay Summit.
Their rise was meteoric, but it was preceded by a lot of work and a lot of passion, as they made very clear during an exclusive interview during Expomanga 2016, an event to which they were luxurious guests.
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Shema and Juan Carlos's beginnings in cosplay were late. Both are professionals, graphic designer and chemical engineer respectively, and although they always loved anime and video games, they were strangers to the events and conventions scene in their country.
Natives of Toluca, the two shared a love of theater and Halloween costumes for fun, until a friend took them to a convention and asked Shema to dress as the Prince from her Little Mermaid.
“She wanted me to be her prince and the truth is that my first cosplay was something made up, a shirt, pants and shoes,” Shema confesses. “That's where it came from, I really enjoyed it. She was going for Ariel, in the end it was a trap because she only wanted me to carry her, because she was going for fish, ”he adds.
There she found out that the next day there would be a cosplay contest and she was encouraged to participate. Wearing a Card costume that she made for a play based on the video game Alice Madness Return, she entered the contest and won it.
The next thing was an invitation to Mexico City to participate in an event there from another friend and together with Juan Carlos, Shema prepared to do their first formal cosplay as Adventure Time characters.
The route to Japan
What followed was a succession of events and costumes, once the fans caught up with them they couldn't, nor did they want to, escape. Before what they thought they were participating in the Mexican qualifiers for the World Cosplay Summit, an event that they were completely unaware of months before.
“The truth is that the competition from Mexico is brutal, it is so strong, so elaborate and above all so in demand that it is even seen in Japan, it is broadcast there, people love it. The competition in Mexico is very, very tough,” confesses Shema.
“It gets to be a little different than here. Because there are 20 states that participate, the best one comes out of each state and they go to the final and the final is where they discuss. It seems to me that here in Spain there are only 20 who sign up (in Spain the only test is the contest at the Salón del Manga in Barcelona).
“It's like the Olympics, they have regional, state and national qualifiers. The national representative comes out of all those couples. (…) We felt a lot of pressure because we were going with people who have been participating for 10 years, veteran people who have been participating for a long time, and it was a pleasant surprise that we had the honor of representing our country,” says Shema.
But finally TWIN Cosplay won the honor of representing Mexico thanks to their impressive performance in The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask as Link and the Skull Kid. Although perhaps something played against them on their way to Japan: the previous year Russia also won with a presentation of Zelda.
In such a circumstance, in order to win they had to make an even better presentation than the one that gave them the pass. “I thought it's impossible, if you've ever played a video game or watched an anime, to reduce its story and the wealth it has in three minutes. It was a challenge and I thought it was impossible, but the truth is that we make a good team and we supported each other and we were able to pull it off”, explains Shema.
Winning Presentation at the World Cosplay Summit 2015
Now, after having prevailed among the almost 30 participating teams, what they have left is the experience, which in their case was successful thanks to their willingness to Learn from your mistakes and admit your limitations. “That is something that Juan and I have, I think that you cannot afford to stop learning and believe that you know everything, you have to continue having the ability to want to learn more to improve,” says the older man from TWIN Cosplay.
“That performance taught us because it was a huge challenge. One part was to tell the story, to have all the elements of Zelda, to respect them, to be dynamic and interesting, but the other part was the limitations of the rules of the Japanese setting, which is very strict. They put weight, size, dimension limits on you, so it was a real challenge. Today I am grateful for how things turned out but it was huge ”, he deepens.
But for them the competition began much earlier, as their journey to the Land of the Rising Sun was very eventful. "Everything happened to us (...) we lost the connection to Narita, not because of us, but because of the plane and we had to stay (in the United States) fortunately they supported us," says Shema.
A Japanese administrator put them up in a hotel to apologize for the difficulties and then they were able to travel without problems, but they had already had problems getting to Mexico City to catch the flight. “I think we also suffered a bit because imagine, in case we don't have so much money to carry, they tell us that we missed a flight in the United States, what are we going to do? How are you going to get back?,” said Juan Carlos.
“It was the first flight we had taken in our lives, the first one was to Japan,” Shema said.
They also had problems with a part of the final monster that Majora's mask transforms into in the game, which arrived late in Japan, another problem that, although it caused them stress in the long run, did not stop them from reaching the goal .
World Cosplay Summit 2015 Award Ceremony
Besides that, they considered the trip to Japan an unforgettable adventure, where they could really appreciate the cultural contrast with their life in Mexico. But despite the language and cultural barrier, Japan received them in a good way... although with temperatures of 50 degrees not kind to someone in cosplay.
That if, they had little time to appreciate the country, due to the busy schedule as competitors of the World Cosplay Summit. “Now we are going to have the opportunity, the prize for first place is to return to Japan to be a judge in the final, but they can add a few more days, it depends on you how long you want to stay and that is the idea, now if we are going to go see Japan as it should be seen”, explains Juan Carlos, the younger of the two.
Going back to the theme of cosplay, beyond the trips and the successes in competition, they both highly value this hobby for the personal learning it has given them. “The truth is that it is a lot of fun and you realize that it can teach you more than you think you know. (…) For us, this little hobby that we have in common has opened many doors for us,” says Juan Carlos, who has used the creativity required by cosplay in his work as a chemical engineer.
“Sometimes scientific careers are a little more square, that's how it is and that's it. But notice that it has helped me a lot to open my mind a little more (...) Sometimes how to reinterpret a suit, seeing how you are going to do all the pieces helps you see things in a different way and that has helped me in my job," he says.
In the case of Shema, it is more evident how cosplay has helped him, in his capacity as a graphic designer, who works in the world of marketing and who is also a plastic artist.
Learning from cosplay
Cosplayers and cosmakers, the pair that make up TWIN Cosplay began, like many, experimenting and learning from others. In her case, her great teacher is Valentina Hernández. “She is a very talented Mexican cosplayer, she has been our godmother and also our friends in Toluca, our hometown, who have been very supportive,” says Shema.
Precisely those friends helped them hand paint a roll of cloth that was central to their presentation in Japan. “Really the work is ours, but there are many people behind who have offered us their teachings and their support,” she says.
“At the beginning and it's something very funny, that's why we like to tell it, it's that we didn't know how to use many materials, we didn't know how to sew, how to hold the machine, it was completely strange and different for us. We wanted to compete with things made of paper, papier-mâché, and I don't think you can't achieve great things with that technique, because of course you can, but we realized and learned that if we wanted to give a little more or take it further, we had to learn. more”, recalls Juan Carlos.
Sewing, painting, cutting hair and styling wigs, putting on makeup... are some of the skills that a cosplayer needs and obviously in a country like Mexico it is not very well regarded for a man to wear makeup. “To make a characterization you need makeup, because if you don't see it (laughs), but we had many mistakes. We had to learn a lot but based on our mistakes we were learning”, continues Juan.
What's next after winning the World Cosplay Summit?
Shema: Cosplay is a very valuable part of our lives for us. However, above all we are people like any other with professional, personal, family aspirations. We both have careers, jobs and studies and the truth is that cosplay, although it is very valuable and very big for us, in the long run it will be reduced along with our personal activities, but more than telling you that we are going to leave it, I I think what we want is to inspire others, help other cosplayers to grow, to live the experience and above all to invite them to the Summit because it is a unique experience. But also help dignify this art, get it out of that shadow of the taboo, which at least in our country is considered that you dress up to evade reality. (...) We want to dignify the work of cosplay, take it to a point where whoever wants to dedicate themselves fully to this has the doors a little more open and we feel happy because at least in our country it has happened. (...) However, I believe that Juan and I are not going to see these benefits in our cosplay career, but we want to open the way for others, we want to inspire others and leave our mark on the world like everyone else, that at least be in the world of cosplay.
How would you sell the idea of cosplay to someone who has never cosplayed before?
Juan Carlos: More than selling the idea is to share what we do, the truth is that we had a great time, we had a lot of fun from the first time. (...) Cosplay does not have to be so elaborate to have fun, you can cosplay at the level you want, the joke is that you do it and experience it, because once you do it you realize that you have a good time, that you meet people , many people tend to relate to you and those people bring you something. Maybe they are not cosplayers, they are photographers, normal people like us, but you learn to create bonds and friendships with many people. It is something very father
Shema: For a new person who doesn't know anything about cosplay, it's like saying that cosplay is a personal taste (…) but above all it's the pleasure of wanting to recreate what you're passionate about. (…) What cosplay wants is to get a bit of those worlds, of those characters that you like, that you like. It is the art of fulfilling dreams, not that you want to be a character, but of having a bit of those worlds.
Juan Carlos: Above all that you say, have the ability to do it yourself. Create it yourself, in the end you see the result and it gives you satisfaction. You never thought you could do it and in the end you see it done.
Shema: During an interview, a phrase came up that seemed very accurate to me, that cosplay is a path that has endless possibilities for personal growth, for teaching. It teaches you not to give up, to be disciplined to experiment, that mistakes don't matter but results, that the opinion of others doesn't matter more than your own.
What do you think is bad in the world of cosplay?
Juan Carlos: Everything in this life has a good side and a bad side. (...) If it's true that within cosplay there is still that taboo within society, that it's something bad, that you're trying to escape from reality, if that's what your question is about. And within the same world of cosplay, if it exists, although I'm glad to say that not all of them, sometimes they don't relate so well due to differences. More than competitiveness, sometimes when you go to a contest and you don't get the result you expect, instead of asking yourself what I needed to improve, you think you're perfect and that's what we always try to do with ourselves. You're not perfect, you always have something to learn, so when you realize that instead of saying why didn't I win? You must ask yourself what it took for you to win.
Shema: The bad thing is that not everyone thinks like that. I think the bad thing about cosplay is like any community, of any kind, the problem that is inside is this thought that "if I don't win, nobody wins" and that instead of supporting each other, sometimes people start to criticize the work of others. There is nothing wrong with it if it is constructive criticism, but every person is a world. More than waiting for others to change, it is that we have wanted to be a change so that little by little we can sow change in others.
To close, the guys from TWIN Cosplay expressed their gratitude to the Expomanga organization and to all the people they shared with in Madrid for the experience. They stated that they felt at home, which they appreciate very much. You can follow them on:
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By Amilcar Trejo MosqueraPhotos: María José Cañizal and TWIN Cosplay
