Cosplay Portfolio - Light Yagami

Light Yagami was my very first costume, in 2008. I started cosplaying a bit late in my life, but that's a whole new story. Today, I'm going to tell you everything about Light's Cosplay!

I must confess, before all, that I'm not a Death Note fan. I think the series is alright, but I don't find it anything special. And, as a matter of fact, even though Light (Raito, whatever) is a hot guy, I never wanted to cosplay a hot guy in the first place. So, how did I end up doing this as my first cosplay? The answer is that I used to have a friend. That long lost friend was a harcore fan of Death Note and loved L to bits, maybe in a unhealthy way, maybe not. ;p She wanted to cosplay L very much, VERY, VERY MUCH. And she had not the courage to put on a costume and go to a con by herself. So she hired me and another long lost friend to be L and Misa. At first, I wanted to be Misa, since I did not feel comfortable about crossplaying at the time. But the other friend was a "natural" blonde and, thus, she had to be Misa.

We had strange ideas about cosplay then, maybe I'll talk about them in myYT channel in the future. :p

On any case, we did not look very well at our very first event (not even a con): FUPO - Feitos Um Para o Outro 2008. Nobody took our picture, except for Misa (since she was a hot girl and all) and we were pretty sad that nobody recognized us. The only person that said something was a big guy without cosplay that told us our costumes were wrong (thank you!) and there was this moment in which some weird guy took the L by her hand and took her away from us. We were really scared! Because of that experience, I did not have the heart to cosplay till some years later...

I thought I'd never wear this costume again. I used the wig a couple of times when going out at night (my style sometimes required radical hair changes, hahaha) but never thought about rewearing it. However, in 2013 a new friend decided to make a Misa cosplay, with a different design, and we had this crazy idea of going on stage together! We did it for the first time at Anicomics. It was a crazy event, since I participated in the two competitions with different costumes. Anyway, our first skit together was really fun! I wrote the script and recorded it with my friend Al-Marah, who has a semi-professional studio at home and we rehearsed a lot at Hota-chan's new house. The result was quite amazing! We wanted to do some social criticism on the country's situation of the time and the audience absolutely answered to everything we wished! It was amazing to listen to everyone singing "Kill the Troika!" It is a really fond memory I have from going on cosplay competitions <3 This is the only skit we did together that was recorded, thanks to Hota-chan's friend. The quality of the video is really bad because, according to him, it was so hot and steamy at the auditorium that the lenses got water drops on it. Eeeeew.

This skit was a great success and, even though we did not make our own costumes, we passed on to the contest final! In fact, Light's costume was all store bought, at chinese stores, with some pieces that I already had and others that I borrowed. At the time I did not know how to sew or where to start learning and I thought that it would be ok to wear any kind of costume, if it looked more or less like the character. We all start somewhere, right? ;) In Anicomics competition, you could wear store bought costumes, which was great for us and probably the only reason why we went on the contest: so we could show off our not-handmade costumes! xD Anyway, we went to the final. And on the final we decided that we wanted to make a serious, philosophical and strange skit. I had recently heard a song by a local band called Mão Morta (Dead Hand) that I felt that told the Death Note's story in a very poetic way. So we decided to use the song. Very quickly, so it would be ready on the next day, I made a video with the lyrics (and images from a White Stripes videoclip xD). We went to the con really early and rehearsed at the garden next to it. We probably looked like madwomen to outsiders! xD We made a very simple but, for us, very emotional performance, that involved the Death Note and apples. I felt amazing doing this skit, as if all my terrible feelings were released on stage. And I was really happy that, when I looked at the audience, there were some people next to the stage REALLY enjoying the song and the skit! Thanks guys, you made my day! We ended up not winning nothing, but for us it was a great victory anyway!

Since this all went so well, me and Hota-chan could not resist to sign up for a skit contest at Anifest 2013. For this skit, we worked together on the script. We decided to make a parody of a comedy show that used to air on national TV in the 90s, called "Herman Enciclopédia". So, the concept here was to sell a Death Note to the audience, demonstrating how it worked. And we demonstrated it by killing off some people we hated at the moment (case in point: the president)! =D We ended up winning the First Place at the contest! There were only two groups competing, though, and we received some negative feedback after this. Actually, people did not laugh as much as we expected, but it was still very fun: using Death Note as a comedy routine is hilarious and we loved it! I could be as silly as I wanted and interpret my own Light Yagami: a silly ass, kind of fabulous, a bit dumb and sarcastic. Not canon at all, but that's my feeling towards the character.

So, in the end, wearing this costume was way more fun than what I expected at first! Me and Hota-chan really had some great moments together and much was thanks to this group cosplay. :) 

I don't expect to ever wear it again, to be completely honest. The costume does not fit my big butt anymore and I don't have any more ideas for skits or even for a photoshoot. So, I guess it is time to let it go and sell it. It was nice while it lasted. ^_^

And this is all I wanted you guys to know about my very first costume! Thanks for reading! <3