Junior Nikita Opel is a professional when it comes to buying cosplay costumes online, but is now venturing into the task of creating her own ensembles. Opel is planning on creating a new costume with materials purchased from Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft and Michael’s and is hopeful the cost will be less than $40, whereas shopping online would amount to around $80. The process of designing and constructing her costume would take around two months if all goes well. “Encompassing the character and interacting with other cosplayers is my favorite part because you get to fangirl over the game or anime together,” Opel said.

Junior Paola Rivas’s favorite part about cosplay is the sense of community and seeing other cosplayer creativity. She likes to cosplay as the character Levi from the anime “Attack on Titan” since he is her favorite character. Rivas prefers to buy her materials online from Amazon and eBay, despite the difficulty of finding all the pieces for her costume. Her Levi costume priced around $150, mainly due to the costume’s $80 boots, which are the exact same as the anime. In addition to the boots, Rivas searched the websites for pants, a shirt, and a jacket to match her costume.

Alongside golf and the violin, senior Fairy Chotset also enjoys cosplaying as her favorite characters from shows and video games. Chotset does not design her own costumes, however, she will occasionally create an accessory of her own, whether it be a bag or a pin. Chotset previously made a pin for her costume which took around two weeks to produce because of the tremendous amount of detail required. “Cosplay is a way to express yourself,” said Chotset. “Maybe sometimes you have something alike with a character and you can’t show it. So when you dress up, it makes you feel like you can show it.”