Zenith isn’t new on the Philippine cosplay scene — she is an active videogame cosplayer and one of the event coordinators for Cosplay Mania.

However, what a lot of people do not know is that she is actually not Filipino — Zenith hails from the Straits city of Singapore, also jokingly called by locals as the Red Dot City (if you look at any map, the country is so small it is covered by a red dot that says “Singapore” :D).

Zenith takes time out from rubbing elbows with industry bigwigs and trolling the internet to answer five questions for us.

When and how did you get into cosplay in Singapore? Did you find it difficult to transition to the Philippines scene?

Back at 2002, I got into cosplay because I saw a friend of mine in a event and she shared with me about cosplay in Singapore. We love games and reading manga thus seven months later I debut my first cosplay with a group of friends.

Transitioning to the Philippines scene wasn’t really difficult for me maybe because I took one month to read up online which I found Cosplay.ph and chatted a few cosplayers before I attend any con.

How different is cosplay in your home country and in your adopted country?

In Singapore, we have a lot of cloth cosplay and tend to just sit down and chat with friends in Conventions.

In Philippines, armored, mecha and sentai cosplays is plenty. Pretty much fun to look at as to how it moves and function.

Which part of your putting together your costume is your favorite?

Picking the right color and cloth flow can make costume improve the impact of the look. I am thrilled to see the amount of prints and wide varieties of cloth which I don’t see a lot in Singapore.

What is the hardest task for you personally when you cosplay? How have you dealt with any problems?

Hardest task was to improvise what I learn from Singapore and changing the method due the material that cannot be found here.

Getting to location for material like rubber foam sheet since that was the only place that has those. I end up getting a friend to help me get a roll so that it would save time and it is considerable cheap for a roll.

What advise would you give to others who would like to cosplay overseas — in Singapore in particular?

Show much creativity with signature item “The Rubber Foam Sheet” — hahahaha. Just have fun and experience other cons in overseas for experience points +10.