Nei (Phantasy Star 2)
creation: July 2001worn at: Otakon 2001, AX 2002
why nei?: Phantasy Star 2 is a Genesis RPG from waaaaay back in the late 80s. However, I wasn't afraid about being recognized since Nei was the Aeris of the 80s. In other words, she was the tragic heroine of the game whose untimely death led to millions of upset fanboys refusing to acknowledge her demise. Anyone who has played the game remembers and mourns her. She was a great character and the predecessor of the wonderful Rika. Both of them are synthetic lifeforms with long, horn-looking ears called Numans, which also exist in Phantasy Star Online. Nei isn't my favorite PS character. I don't even enjoy PS2, even though it is related to PS4, my all-time favorite game. I don't have a very good reason for even choosing her, except that she kicks ass and is really cute. Not to mention, tragic. My sister had gone as Alis from PS1, and I wanted to be a PS heroine too! It was a good choice since not only was I supporting the greatest series of all time, but people knew who I was. Yay old school!
con notes: I met up with a guy dressed as Alys from PS4 at Otakon. Much to our surprise, another girl showed up as Alis! So we ended up with three PS heroines, each from a different game in the series. And, people KNEW WHO I WAS. This inspired me to continue PS cosplay into the future! My sister joined me at AX for more PS cosplay. It was cool!
construction: This costume was difficult to make due to several factors. First of all, there are no consistent drawings of this character. The design I came up with was part of my own imagination combined with pictures from The Phantasy Star Pages. I was unable to find any suitable strechy fabric in a dark purple, so the costume consists of two different types of fabric sewn together. The lower layer, which makes it look shiny, is a lilac leotard four-way stretch. Over that, I put a sheer dark purple stretchy gauze to create an appropriate color. Needless to say, it was a bitch to work with since I had never worked with anything like it. Invisible elastic was used to hold up the bathing suit (I tried to cover the elastic with the wig). I made full-length boot covers for my thigh high leather boots. The claws were made from sheet brass spray painted silver and attached to a piece of cardboard covered with fabric. I used more invisible elastic to crisscross over my hand to keep the claws on. The wig was purchased from Amphigory but I cut the hair and styled it myself. The most difficult part of this costume was the ears. I made them out of Sculpey, which turned out to be rather heavy. They were affixed to a wire structure which I wore underneath the wig. I added my red contacts to complete the costume.
photo credits: Eurobeat King, Jon Lubbe