Bengaluru Comic Con 2023

Hosts Pro Cosplayer Brittani Ginoza

One of the highlights of the opening day of Bengaluru Comic Con 2023 was an interview with professional cosplayer and propmaker Brittani Ginoza. She had flown in all the way from Ohio, United States, to judge the convention's cosplay competition as well as the Bengaluru Qualifiers for the Indian Championship Of Cosplay Competition. The Twitchcon 2022 winner sat down with the host in her Samurai Mandalorian costume and talked about her journey as a cosplayer, her motivations, and cosplay culture across the world.

BCC being her first convention in India, she said that she feels "very loved" by everyone stopping by her booth.

Like a lot of cosplayers, Ginoza didn't start off with the intention of going pro. Her first costume was an original character that she describes as a “steampunk medic.” She recalled how she got leather dye everywhere and there were no tutorials or patterns available online, so all she was armed with was her sewing skills. She further elaborated that foam wasn't even used in cosplay back when she began her journey, stating that it was “protected information” before KamuiCosplay began making tutorial videos. Some of Ginoza's first props were made from wood using a saw and a belt sander. She said “they were awful.”

Ginoza didn't even start cosplaying to participate in competitions. She just wanted to find something she liked. It wasn't until she started winning some big name competitions that she began thinking of cosplay as a career option. “Once I won a certain amount of competitions it got serious,” she said.

When asked which competition that was, she couldn't pinpoint a single one but said getting third place and Best in Show at C2E2 was definitely a landmark. She had cosplayed Death Knight Sonya from the Heroes of the Storm game and a Paladin from World of Warcraft. While insisting that she is a very competitive person, she says her favorite part of cosplay is the backstage culture.

When asked by an audience member what her favorite costume was, she said she doesn't even have a picture of it. But that it's Ping from Mulan. Throughout her interview she repeatedly stressed how making something that's never been done before is a big part of the creative challenge for her and her peers. Her Instagram page sports examples of such like a beautifully intricate Grimoire Weiss from Nier Replicant that's made of foam clay. She however said in her caption that she "will not be making this one again. It was a nightmare of detail."

In response to an audience member's very thoughtful question about when to give up on a costume, she said that “you have to figure out when it's a lost cause.” After elaborating on the details of some of her abandoned projects, she added that you can always “take your old thing apart and use it as a pattern.”

She ended her session with some final advice to cosplayers in the audience, telling them that cosplay is about fun and you should not have to make everything yourself. "Thrift stuff. Use old stuff. You like Naruto, be Naruto." She said she wasn't the most confident person when she began her journey, but that love from a supportive community helps cosplayers build that confidence.

Source: Bengaluru Comic Con