Appearances: Halloween 1999, FanimeCon 2000, Cherry Blossom Festival Parade 2000, Anime Expo 2000, Otakon 2001, Ani-Magic 2001 Awards: 3rd Place at the Cherry Blossom Festival Anime Costume Contest 2000 What I Love: The buttons, after I redid them. ^^ The shoes and socks before I lost them. ;_; What I Don't: That I never had the right hair with the right shoes; it's like I had to sacrifice one for the other. :P Status: Retired
Inspiration and Etc.: This was my first anime costume! My first anime costume was going to be Sailor Moon in 1997, but I was Princess Leia instead. XD But in '99, Seri and I were best friends in seventh grade and wanted to do anime costumes for Halloween. We had a list of a few pair ideas and finally settled on Utena and Anthy. I don't think Utena was ever my very favorite character, but I liked her and with Anthy she made a good choice for a duet cosplay. We wore them together for Halloween and then at our first convention together, but after that I was solo Utena latching onto various friends in same series costumes. :3 I wore this so much and generally lost interest in cosplaying it... @_o I have ideas for a couple more possible costumes from the series, but I doubt I'll wear this again. It was always too big for me back then ... and perhaps I could sell the jacket someday. Anyone interested? :X
Construction / Costume Notes: The base of this costume was sewn by my late stepmother. What I did was sew on some detail on the collar, painted and relaced my shoes to match Utena's, and later sewed new buttons throughout the costume (cuffs and main jacket opening). I bought red biker shorts from Target and red socks as well. I was so proud of myself back then when I figured out that to keep my socks staying up Utena style, I just had to wear pantyhose underneath and they'd stick on. XD So my AX pictures tend to look better than Fanime's, if only because my socks were always falling then. I never had a wig, but it was also my first cosplay and I don't think I was quite that well versed in such things yet. >_> Every cosplayer has their first, semi-embarrassing costume, and this is mine. XD;; I was able to borrow one from my friend Mel at Otakon and wore it again for some pictures at Ani-Magic. ^^ But I had lost my shoes at AX in 2001 (I had brought the costume but never wore it) so I was with the right hair but no longer the right footwear. ;_; I was so happy with my shoes, too!
So please, try to excuse my ugly boots in the Otakon '01 pics. ^o^;
Photos:
FanimeCon 2000
Anime Expo 2000
Otakon 2001
First Created: September 1999 Last Tweaked: October 2001 (small details added) Created by: Michi and her late stepmother Special Thanks: To Mel for letting me borrow her wig ^^ and to Van for getting the rose signet rings for us ^_^
Photo Credits:Lionel Lum, Kevin Lillard, and Diana Kou
Character Background: Utena is the title character of the anime and manga series Shoujo Kakumei Utena (released here as Revolutionary Girl Utena). When she was little, both her parents died and she was consoled by what she calls a mysterious prince on a white horse. Instead of wanting to be the princess in distress, she was inspired by her savior to actually become a heroic prince that saves maidens. Because of this, she wears an altered boy's uniform at school and is admired by all the girls. Due to her princely nature, in the process of defending her best friend Wakaba, Utena ends up being involved in the Student Council's game of duels for the power of revolutionizing the world. This outfit is her special dueling version of her school uniform, seen in the TV series and later chapters of the manga (the early manga had her in a pink uniform instead).
