Cosplay is 'more than just a show', say Malaysian champion duo

Cosplaying involves learning certain skills which participants need to hone, including costume-sewing, props making, LED programming, and more, as Tee (right) and Yap have proven.

Rachel Tee and Yap Li Leng, both 33, may seem like other ordinary, young working women.

But when they don their cosplay attire and take to the stage, their electrifying performance packs a punch. It’s no surprise then that the duo – known as Team Cendol – won the World Cosplay Summit (WCS) Malaysia 2024 Championship in September last year and the ticket to represent the country in WCS Japan 2024 (held from today until Sunday) in Nagoya.

Tee (better known as Tea Kyandy) says that while they’re excited to take part in the finals, the win comes with great responsibility and challenging moments.

“We really want to make our country proud,” says Tee, who works in tech.

“All the participating countries are really good. I believe that for us, there are improvements to be made to be on par with countries that excel in cosplay, like France and the United States. We want to close the gap by raising the standard of cosplay in Malaysia,” adds Yap (known as Rikka Blurhound), who is a nutritionist by day.

The pair, who have known each other since their school days, reveal that it was cosplay that brought them together when they were both studying in Britain.

Tee started cosplaying in 2013 when she was a student in Edinburgh, Scotland, while Yap started cosplaying in 2011 before she went to study in Southampton, England. They started taking part in events in Britain and in Malaysia during summer holidays. They took part for the first time in WCS Malaysia 2019 as a team and came out third.

Tee (left) and Yap are the winners of the World Cosplay Summit Malaysia 2024 Championship and are representing Malaysia this week at WCS Japan 2024. Photo: World Cosplay Summit Malaysia

Yap says they went through different phases in their cosplay journey.

“We did team cosplay and some solos too. There were also some that we did with our friends,” she says.

After a while, they started making props. Tee learned an additional skill in costume-making while Yap tried her hand at developing wigs. They also did cosplay photoshoots.

Tee says different skillsets are required of a cosplayer and honing them develops one’s capabilities.

“Not only do the props and costumes have to look good, they must also be durable for the performance on stage,” she says.

One of the rules of WCS is contestants have to make their own costumes.

“Store-bought attire isn’t allowed,” says Tee, adding that while the task isn’t difficult, the process is time-consuming.

“We’ve never made costumes or props before so we had to learn along the way. In fact, I learnt to sew because of cosplay,” she says. “The WCS’s standards are very high; the stitching has to be very neat and the outfits must look professional.”

Tee (left) and Yap with some of the props they’ve made.

The duo have refined and improved their costumes for the finals in Japan because they don’t want to risk losing marks. They will be dressed as characters from My Hero Academia (Buku no Hero Academia), a popular Japanese manga series about heroes and villains. Yap will be the heroic Todoroki Shoto and Tee will be the villainous Dabi.

These characters are brothers, and the scene they are acting out is when the two characters discover they’re related.

“We chose this scene because it’s not too complicated for the viewers to understand, and it’s also easier to portray the characters’ emotions within two and a half minutes,” says Tee.

After selecting the characters, the duo met online for a month – as Tee works in Singapore while Yap is in Kuala Lumpur – to plan.

Behind the scenes

There are many skills that one can develop through cosplay. Yap (left) picked up wig making while Tee learnt to sew.

Although those who go into cosplay do so with immense passion and interest, the hobby, the duo say, isn’t without its share of challenges.

Since both of them have full-time jobs, they can only work on their costumes and props after office hours.

“Cost is another challenge because we’re self-funded. It takes time to perfect our costumes and props, so we often have to redo them and that means spending quite a bit of money,” Yap says.

“We redid a hand gauntlet four times before we were satisfied. And for the ‘chestpiece of fire’, we had to experiment with different materials to recreate it accurately,” she says.

“Fire is very volatile and there’s a shape to it. We started out with different kinds of paper and thermal plastic. We had to experiment with a lot of materials to get the right weight so it doesn’t hinder our performance yet isn’t too fragile, and is able to diffuse light well,” Yap adds.

The duo finally arrived at resin and they’ve updated the design for the finals.

“A mix of resin and LED foam allows light to pass through, but this is still 2D. The stage is much bigger in Japan so we had to make it more outstanding and 3D. We’ve added more layers of plastic, so that it covers the whole body, as much as possible,” she explains.

Words of advice

Tee picks up sewing to put together her cosplay attire.Tee, whose favourite character is Fern from Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (Sousou No Frieren), encourages new cosplayers to “be passionate about the character they choose” and to “try to connect with it so that they can represent it better”.

“Also, don’t choose a costume that is overly complicated as it’s difficult to recreate it accurately,” she advises.

“Some cosplayers assume that when they pick a complicated costume, they would get points; but if the costume isn’t accurate, they would lose even more marks,” she says.

She adds that it’s also important to “think, plan and prepare” because as a cosplayer, “you need to be good at many things: The costumes, props and performance all need to be on point”.

“Cleanliness, neatness and stitching of the costumes – these can make you earn or lose points,” says Tee.

Yap styles and modifies wigs for her cosplay competitions.Yap, whose favourite cosplay character is King Artoria Pendragon/Saber from Fate Stay Night, advises new cosplayers to first decide what type of cosplay they are interested in.

“There are two types: There’s casual cosplay, where you can just go and have fun, make new friends and experience the culture since you like a particular anime/manga/video game or character.

“Then, there is competitive cosplay where there are certain standards that have to be met, including sewing your costumes and making your props from scratch,” she says.

“Casual cosplay is for fun, so you only need to comply to your own standards. But if you’re joining competitive cosplay to win, you’ve got to be better and learn more skills because you need to raise your standards to a competitive level,” she adds.

The duo have words of encouragement to the WCS 2025 contestants.

“Everyone is a winner; it takes courage just to take part, to learn and to be on the competition stage. That’s something contestants should be proud of. They’re a winner in their own right just by participating,” says Tee.

“Even if you don’t win, you won’t walk away empty-handed. You’ll gain a wealth of experience that is useful for future competitions.

“It is also a good platform to show your skills as a cosplayer and a crafter,” says Yap.

Future plans

This ‘chestpiece of fire’ has been modified and improved for the finals in Nagoya.

Both Tee and Yap say they “really need a break” after WCS Japan 2024, but they will be judges at the Noizucon 2024 cosplay event in September.

They were invited to do so since they are the cosplay champions for WCS Malaysia 2024.

“We’re excited to be judging at Noizucon. There’s a lot of talent in Malaysia, but they just don’t have the platform or means to increase their popularity,” says Yap.

“We also want to share what we learn in Japan with other cosplayers, especially the contestants in the local competitions so that they too, can help raise the level of cosplay in Malaysia.

“WCS is a very good platform because it offers us the opportunity to meet cosplayers from all over the world and there are very few global platforms that offer this,” she says.

After Noizucon, the duo intend to do some casual cosplaying for a while.

“We also hope that as a team, we’ll be able to hold workshops for cosplayers or be judges at cosplay events. We’d like to share our experiences so that other cosplayers can learn from our successes and mistakes,” she concludes.