AFA09: Kaname Cosplay Panel

One of the highlights of AFA09 is the cosplay panel session featuring Kaname, a renowned Japanese cosplayer. He appeared on stage with this amazing and convincing cosplay of Cloud from Final Fantasy VII.

There was a huge turnout for his cosplay panel session and the event hall was filled all the way to the end. Thanks to the media pass and I was able to avoid the crown and capture shots for your viewing.

Kaname shared quite a few different topics on cosplay, including character selection, costume selection, makeup, and posing. I never knew there was so much preparation work to be done beforehand.

Did you know that Kaname had cosplayed over 20+ characters and 34 versions?! He shared that in order to have more variety in his character selection, he had to maintain a neutral body shape so that his arms would look slim when he relaxes but looks muscular when he flex his arms.

On the topic of costume selection, Kaname shared that he prefers costumes which allows him to reveal some masculine parts such as his arms or back. One disadvantage would be that it is very chilly in the winter ^^

There was quite an elaborate discussion on applying makeup. I had no knowledge of makeup at all so I was clueless about what was the difference between an eyeliners or eyeshadow.

In the next section, Kaname revealed that he was still learning to sew his own costumes. He would be interested to learn from anyone who was experienced in this area. I’m sure there will be many female fans who want to be his personal tailor at that moment.

Finally Kaname shared on the different type of poses: Action, Still and Professional Photoshots. For action poses, sometimes it might be useful to move about with the photographer trying to capture all that motion with a fast shutter. For still poses, it was important to bring out the mood of the character. He also shared on some of the dynamic poses that he had to do for professional photoshoot for magazines.

Kaname then gave a great final messages to all his fans and cosplay enthusiast. He shared he had only started cosplaying 2 years ago and he was very touched (he had some tears of joy) to see so many people outside of Japan sharing the same passion as him.