Pinky Lu Xun is a very successful and very popular Indonesian cosplayer. With her cosplay partner Orochi X, they were the first team to represent Indonesia at AFA Regional Cosplay Championships. Pinky has very graciously agreed to answer some questions for us at magnetic-rose.net, while she prepares for her first trip to Manila as a Guest of Honour for Cosplay Mania 11.

When and how did you get into cosplay?

I was started cosplaying since 1998. I was an avid gamer back then, and one day I was surfing on the internet looking for a game walkthrough, when accidentally I found photos of Japanese ladies. They wore costumes of my favorite video game character. I was very attracted and curious — were they doing it for Halloween?

So I search more about this “video game dressing-up” and found out it called “cosplay”, and it’s not only for Halloween LOL 😀 Then I forgot about my game walkthrough — I’ve been lurking for more info about cosplay and saved many photos of Japanese cosplayers I’ve found at that time. I was very fond of looking at them and interested to do it as well for myself.

I know a lot of Filipino cosplayers are curious about this, but what is the cosplay scene like in Indonesia? In you opinion, is it similar to the US, Japan, or Singapore cosplay scene?

In my personal opinion, cosplay scene in our country Indonesia has its own characteristics. Yes, I’ve heard and even experiences cosplaying in some country, but can’t be said it’s similar to my own cosplay community.

Cosplay started to blooming here around 2004, we have a big cosplay community but usually Indonesian cosplayers know each other:D That make us like a big family in cosplay.

I know almost all cosplayers in my country — they were my friends or even if they’re not my friend yet, I know them. I can say I’m proud of my country’s togetherness. If there is something really bad happens here, usually we will not brag anywhere, we’ll settle down and try to resolve it personally by discuss it amicably and properly.

Even there is a serious trouble maker, we will always try to not take the bait and get angry. Mostly Indonesian doesn’t like getting involved on drama. We would like to stay fun in cosplay and make our cosplay as a universal hobby that will help us gain many friends in both domestic and foreign.

I noticed that a lot of your costumes are fantasy armour types — how long does it take you to make them? What is the hardest part of the creation process? And the easiest part?

I always made my costumes together with my teammate, mostly with Orochi X and sometimes with Shinji X, we usually took around 3-6 months to completed one armored costume. I think the hardest part is to make basic patterns — shaping and molding, and I don’t think there is any easy part because sometimes we can fail in any parts we assumed was easy to do ^^;;

Like for example, choosing fabric for non-armored costume — looks so easy but when we started doing it, we end up like a whole day going around the fabric stores because we couldn’t find the right fabric with texture and color as we would like.

You have set up beautiful photoshoots and competed internationally with your cosplay team partner Orochi X. What is the most important advice you can give for cosplayers planning to team up and work together creatively as well?

First off all I think as a team, we must be willing to help each other. In my team, each member has its own expertise — like Orochi X is the best among us when it’s come to armor. Orochi is willing to help and teach us on making our armors and props. Usually I help my teammates in their non-armored costumes — also by doing make up and face painting. Another teammate of mine named Shinji X is really good on detailing, she is the one who often did final touch in our costumes.

We complement each other — what skills are not owned in a one member, other members have it. We can indeed make a whole costume alone, but it won’t be as good as when we worked for it together. Beside, making costume alone is quite sad, if you failed you’ll go depressed. It will be a different story if we have teammates around, they can cheer you up =)

I think the most important things on working as a team is we should willing to help each other, trust each other and if there is a problem, do not talk about it in behind but talk directly with the parties concerned and try to solve it properly.

Pinky will be at Cosplay Mania 11 as a special guest. Please drop by and join her and cosplayers from Thailand and Singapore, in the biggest cosplay event in the Philippines.

“I’m so happy that finally I can visit your country. This is my first time for visiting Philippines and I’m really excited about it. I hope to meet all the cosplayers there so beside experiences a Filipino cosplay event, we can exchange stories about our hobby, culture and I also want to know what is the cosplay scene like in Philippines ♥”

To get to know Pinky better, drop by her page on Facebook.