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WTF: Tenchi Muyo Cosplay

From Tenchi Muyo, I've done a Ryoko costume, Kiyone and Mihoshi

Galaxy Police uniforms (w/wigs), and a Ryo-Ohki suit for my baby. :-D

My Ryoko costume consists of Ryoko's comfy-looking striped

house dress. I used its appearance in the first OAV series as

my reference.

I made a simple striped top and draw-string skirt with

pockets, which was indeed very comfortable. I was able to modify

a wide red satin belt from a thrift store for the "obi", to which I

attatched a plain black cat tail from a costume shop.

I had a black turtleneck to wear underneath, similar to the

pictures, but everywhere I wore the outfit, it was too warm

for the extra material.

The shirt and skirt were made from materials I could find at the

time, rather than materials I wanted to use, so I recently

re-vamped the outfit using some better material. I also

made the sleeves wider and shorter, and made a pair of black

spandex false sleeves to wear underneath so as to match the

design without having to wear a shirt underneath. I also

improved the cowl neckline to better match, and replaced the

drawstring in the skirt with elastic. I gave up on the

pockets altogether; I liked them, but I didn't have material

of the appropriate color to use to keep them invisible (being

of a different color than the stripe they were partially set in,

they showed in some pictures). I also re-did the belt, since

I couldn't find the original one; this one I did in orange

(again, closer to the design... at least in some pictures...),

and I attatched the same sort of tail.

I used a pair of my own boots with this costume, which slouched

appropriately and had the same kind of pointed toe.

For the eyes, I re-used the Darth Maul contacts that I'd acquired

the year before. Though they were not cat-eyed, the red and

yellow did give the appropriate orange color in most pictures.

They were acquired via Lensquest.

I also sometimes wore fangs with this costume.

The most difficult part of the costume proved to be the hair.

Eventually, I decided to try dying a wig; I'd heard (in customizing

My Little Ponies) that RIT dye worked on synthetic hair, so I

decided to try it. It took a bit of mixing dye to get the right

color, and it took a while to find a wig that could be appropriately

re-styled, but it came out beautifully. :-)

The re-styling was done with heavy hair gel, strong hair spray,

wire, and a lot of patience.

Originally, I carried a stuffed Ryo-Ohki with the costume, but I

soon decided to use a Ryo-Ohki backpack instead. Both of these

licensed items can be acquired on eBay.

The earrings and gems were made from craft store pieces; the

wrist-gems were attatched with spirit gum, and stayed on very

well (only at the very end of Anime Expo '01 did I lose one).

This costume was worn at

Fanime 2001, Anime Expo 2001, and DragonCon 2001

in its original form, and the reamped version was worn at

Anime Overdose 2004, where I and

my baby (as Ryo-Ohki) won a Walk-On Honorable Mention in the Cosplay.

I chose the colors that I did for the dress and wig based on what

I remembered from the OAV... Which seemed to be the colorscheme

in about half of the pictures I could find. However, the picture below

shows the entire dress better than most of the other pictures

I have. Should you desire the same outfit, I can make it to the

colorscheme you prefer. :-)

The Ryoko House Dress - tailed belt, shirt, skirt, earring,

and gem(s)s - would be about $80. The Ryoko Wig alone would be $75.

More about the other costumes mentioned above

will be posted later.

Want a Ryoko costume, or anything else Tenchi-related?

Just let us know!

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