People
Cosplayer & Model, Sai
Hi Sai it is a pleasure to feature you on SimplySxy. Please share with our readers a little about yourself and where you’re from?
It is a pleasure to be here, I will keep the introduction as compact as possible for your readers. Hello everyone! My name is Sai, in Japan and I am 23 years old. I am a Caucasian girl with DNA from Belgium and Holland and a whole lot of unknown mixes. I have been a model since I was six years old and I was discovered by the cosplay and anime companies in Tokyo that eventually hired me to work as a fulltime cosplayer and idol in Tokyo. I am registered as the first “white” girl (Or “European” girl as some media has decided to call me) to have become a full-time cosplayer in Japan. However, I honestly don’t like categorizing people because of their DNA . I am just a regular girl in Japan with Japanese nationality living her life, and working hard for my career.
What inspired you to cosplay?
My mom has kind of pushed me in the modeling business since when I was 6 years old, even forcing me to travel all the way to France to follow a modeling school all alone for an entire season to get a French Modeling Degree (which is considered high value in Japan). And I have been growing from being a child model to a fashion model, But I disliked being a fashion model. It was not fun, you had to reduce yourself to zero. You had to practice puking your food out, having a zombie expressionless look on your face, and you had to do your best to be nothing so that the clothes would shine out.
It was very much a lot of work and it was very degrading. And it was never good enough. The only one proud of it, was my mom. I was lonely as well. Never had friends. People at school bullied me for being a “ghost”. Eventually something snapped in me and I stopped modelling. I was rebelling. I started to go against my parents, started to eat what I wanted and finally I started to get some friends and they took me to concerts, we also cosplayed while watching anime together and eventually they invited me to my first anime convention. We were going to meet at the convention. When we met, I was surprised that they all were cosplayed. I was in just a red Lolita dress.
We walked around at the con and I was introduced to a lot of other cosplayers, it was so fun. It seemed they all thought I was cosplaying Misa Amane from Death Note. So I played along and made tails in my hair. It was a quick solution for fitting in their pictures more, these new friends were talking about going to a big convention together and having a sleepover at someones’ house near the convention. I never had friends before and I really wanted the affection a lot, I never had so much fun in my life so when they asked me to join them I was so happy.
We had a sleepover and prepared for the convention when we noticed my cosplay was a mess! It was no good ! So a friend offered me one of her old cosplays to wear at the convention to match her outfit. Best solution ever! I was so happy to have a friend with matching outfits! It became an addiction to go with these cosplayers to conventions, get photos taken together, make nice memories and get a lot of affection of everyone. I started to grow a fanbase without realising it. Eventually I was discovered and asked to join up into a more serious cosplay career. I accepted, wanting to make my friends proud. I worked hard. My first inspiration was my friends, then it also became my fans. I am addicted to all the love and cheering on!
Which characters have you loved cosplaying most so far?
I loved cosplaying Chii of Chobits, it was the first character that was discovered by the talent hunters. They even thought I was a life size doll in the convention when I was sitting. People started to take photos with me not realizing I was a real human being. It was funny how people jumped when I moved so eventually I stopped moving so people lined up to take photos with the lifesize doll, was less awkward while resting my feet than to constantly correct people that I was actually a human being. I wonder how many people have photos of me thinking I was a doll that day!
What are some of the challenges you face when creating a costume?
I barely create costumes anymore because we have to rehearse our characters personalities, and the costumes are from the official anime companies. Every day we have a different character, sometimes even 2-3 characters a day that we have to do in Akihabara and cons! So it is impossible to do! Also we are not even allowed to use our own costumes, it has to be official costumes by the anime company itself. But back in the day when I sometimes created my own costumes, the biggest issues were finding the right material, sometimes drawing things on pattern, cutting it out, sewing it, all going well, last minute finding out the size is wrong or something else went wrong. Always a horror if you then were on a deadline!
Have you experienced a funny or embarrassing cosplay moment before?
Haven’t we all? As I mentioned before, when I was resting my feet in a chair, people thought I was a doll and started lining up to take photos with me, it was too awkward to correct everyone the entire time , especially since the first ones I corrected had nearly a heart attack! A lot of these kind of things happened in my career !
I guess the weirdest / creepiest thing that happened was this guy cosplaying this creepy character Jason from Friday the 13th, he was following me all over the convention. With his creepy mask! I didn’t mind it, it happens often enough that people follow. But, when my shift was over and I was returning home, I took the train home and saw he was still following. I walked to a friends home. Even now, years later, my friend still tells me about the days a man with a mask staring through the living room windows at night.
The most embarrassing thing that happened, was that I was for cleanup duty and I decided to quickly buy some kitchen cleaning paper in the convenient store, I opened the package in the office saying I took the liberty to buy kitchen paper, while opening it we all realized at the same time I accidentally bought toilet paper. The logo of the brand was covering the package on just the right spot so it wasn’t noticed until opened. I was so embarrassed!
A colleague of mine had an even worse embarrassing moment, she had to do a character with large boobs for one of the cosplay assignments. She used pads and when she was jumping they started to escape , some fell on the floor and more started escaping and falling out when she bent to pick them up from the floor. I tried to help her by distracting the people by giving them an “accident” panty shot.
If you can travel anywhere in this world, where will you go?
Anywhere ? Like, without obligations or anything to worry about ? I think Ikea after closing time, there are so many soft beds and stuff!
What do you find attractive in the opposite sex?
Loyalty, courage, knows etiquette, confidence.
Lamest or weirdest attempt a guy has hit on you?
A lot of guys in Japan that are of older age and older generation believe that a woman is still lesser than a man. Often, a 60 year old man walks up to a 20 year old woman and if they find out that the young woman is still single, they demand a date or even marriage. Even a “no” seems to be very hard for them to understand out of a woman’s mouth. So it is one of the lamest attempts I experience on a weekly based 1-3 times averagely.
Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions Sai. One question before we end, how do you define “sexy”?
“Sexually attractive or exciting”, brought to you by Oxford dictionaries.
Follow the beautiful Sai on:
Instagram: @Hoshisai
Facebook: Hoshisai
Images courtesy of Sai
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