Pax East 2025: Cosplay

A few years ago my kids began attending the annual "Pax East" gaming convention held in Boston (or somewhere on the east coast) every year. A few years ago, I joined them out of curiosity and I was hooked, not because I know anything about video gaming, but because I was fascinated and impressed by the amazing cosplay I saw!

"Cosplay," a portmanteau of "costume" and "play," the term arose in the 1980s to refer to dressing up as a fictional character from film, television, books, or video games. The concept gained popularity alongside the rise of anime and manga, as well as the general fascination with Japanese culture in the United States. In the 1990s, cosplay became mainstream at conventions and events, and has been gaining in popularity ever since. 

There is a wide variety of workmanship in cosplay costumes, including commercially available outfits that can be purchased online, bespoke designs available from sites like Etsy, cobbled-together looks that hint at a character without actually replicating a specific design, and elaborately detailed and authentic hand-made pieces that involve hundreds and even thousands of hours of labor and a lot of skill. Some creative cosplayers even come up with a unique costume that combines aspects of two or more characters from unrelated franchises (scroll to the end of this entry for a fun example). But the one thing that unites them all is a passion for the games, the characters, the camaraderie, and the cosplay. 

Yesterday my family attended Pax East at the Boston Convention Center, and we saw some amazing cosplayers. Since I'm not a gamer, I didn't recognize many of them outside of a handful of Super Mario characters (Mario! Luigi! Princess Peach! Those mushroom guys!), one or two from Legend of Zelda (there were a lot of Links), and a few Minecraft characters (I didn't know exactly who they were, but I did at least recognize that they were from Minecraft, not that it's particularly difficult). 

Here are some of the favorite cosplays we saw yesterday, along with an explanation of who they are and what they're from, for those of you who, like me, are not gamers. Any misidentifications are completely mine, and I apologize to anyone that I've misidentified. 

Character: Usagi Tsukino (Sailor Moon)

Game/Franchise: Sailor Moon

Description: She is the reincarnation of Princess Serenity. A carefree and tomboyishly adorable blonde sailor-suited schoolgirl, she is the civilian persona of Sailor Moon, leader of the series' primary heroines, the Sailor Senshi.

Character: Tuxedo Mask

Game/Franchise: Sailor Moon

Description: The alter-ego of high school student Mamoru Chiba, he wears a mask to conceal his identity. He lost both his parents and his memories in a car accident as a child, and seeks a "Silver Crystal" he learned about in dreams in the hopes it can restore his memories. 

Characters: Creeper and Witch

Game/Franchise: Minecraft

Description: Creepers are hostile, non-player characters that spawn in dark places and form mobs which attack silently. Witches also form hostile mobs and are often found in swamps. They are created when villagers are struck by lightning, or can spawn during raids. They use potions to heal themselves and attack others.   

Character: Venti 

Game/Franchise: Genshin Impact

Description: A traveling bard and member of the Knights of Favonius, a group founded to protect against oppressive rule. He is the human form of the god Barbatos, the Anemo Archon. 

Character: Navia

Game/Franchise: Genshin Impact

Description: She is the president of the Spina di Rosula, a group dedicated to the protection of the Fontaine region. She attacks using the power of crystalline shards. 

[Fun fact: this cosplayer managed to remove one of her costume arms to reach inside her costume and grab her phone from her pocket but dropped it on the floor and couldn't bend down to reach it! I got it for her but unfortunately missed the chance to ask if she needed a hand.]

Character: Yellow Semibot

Game/Franchise: R.E.P.O. (Retrieve, Extract and Profit Operation)

Description: Semibots are robotic entities used to locate and extract valuable objects from haunted environments while avoiding monsters.

Character: Squirtle 

Game/Franchise: Pokemon

Description: The Squirtle Squad are Pokemon who were abandoned by the trainers and who wear various styles of sunglasses. They are pranksters and troublemakers. Ash saves them after a run-in with Team Rocket, and their leader, Squirtle repays Ash for saving his life by joining Ash's team. 

Character: Tifa Lockhart

Game/Franchise: Final Fantasy

Description: Childhood friend of Cloud Strife, Tifa a bar in the slums and is a member of the eco-terrorist group AVALANCHE, to which she recruits Cloud in order to keep him safe.

Character: Cloud Strife

Game/Franchise: Final Fantasy

Description: Childhood friend of Tifa Lockhart, he serves as a kind of messiah figure and opposes his former colleague, Sephiroth, alongside Tifa. In the original game, he carried an impossibly huge sword; in later sequels he carried six interlocking swords. 

Character: Joker (no, not THAT Joker)

Game/Franchise: Persona 5

Description: The leader of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts vigilante squad, he is the alter-ego of high school student Ren Amamiya. In addition to the supernatural power known as Persona, his weapons of choice are a dagger and a handgun. 

Character: Hastur, the King in Yellow, the Peacock King

Game/Franchise: Surrogate

Description: A Great Old One and half-brother of Cthulu, he is a scheming god of madness. 

Character: Black Shy Guy

Game/Franchise: Super Mario

Description: The Shy Guys are enemies of Yoshi. Black Shy Guys often carry an anvil which falls when a Yoshi is nearby, and a Yoshi loses petals if they eat one. 

Character: Jinx

Game/Franchise: League of Legends

Description: A manic and impulsive criminal, Jinx wreaks havoc without a care for the consequences. She is especially fond of explosives.  

[Note: This is a kind of cosplay called "animegao kigurumi" which involves masks, usually full-head masks, as in this case.]

Character: Hatsune Miku

Game/Franchise: Hatsune Miku: Project Diva

Description: A sixteen-year old virtual pop idol created by Crypton Future Media. Her name means "the first voice of the future".

Character: Izuku Midoriya

Game/Franchise: My Hero Academia

Description: A student at U.A. High School, he was born Quirkless but distinguished himself through heroism and a strong sense of justice. He becomes a student of Hero All Might, who passes him his own transferable Quirk, making him a wielder of One for All. 

[Note: This impressive costume not only included light-up details, but he had a voice modification system so when he roared it really sounded like an animal. It was very cool! And also vaguely terrifying.]

Character: Minotaur Oni

Game Franchise: Dead By Daylight

Description: Kazan Yamaoka, "The Oni," is a powerful demon and killer who can transform into multiple forms, including a minotaur.

Game/Franchise: Genshin Impact

Character: Il Capitano (aka Thrain, the Captain)

Description: The First of the Eleven Hatui Harbingers, with powers rivaling a god and a reputation for strength, skill as a military commander, and moral integrity.  

Character: Power (aka The Blood Fiend)

Game/Franchise: Chainsaw Man

Description:  Having possessed the corpse of a young girl, she is the incarnation of the Blood Devil. Power is narcissistic and self-serving, although she develops a few genuine friendships while serving as a Devil Hunter.  

Character: Eren Jaeger

Game/Franchise: Attack on Titan

Description: A part of the Survey Corps despite being only a teenager, he is dedicated to protecting his village from the Titans. 

Character: Rydia

Game/Franchise: Final Fantasy

Description: A Summoner whose mother (also a Summoner) died protecting her village when she was a child. 

Character: Zagreus

Game/Franchise: Hades

Description: The rebellious son of the god Hades, Zagreus is a prince of the Underworld but feels he doesn't belong there, so he attempts to escape, sometimes with help from his mentor, Achilles, or various Olympian gods. He repeatedly battles the multi-headed Hydra. 

[Note: Sonic is actually a functional puppet, and in addition to being a fabulous cosplayer, this guy was an excellent puppeteer, as well. Also, it's a distinct possibility that that is a real mustache.]

Character: Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik

Game/Franchise: Sonic the Hedgehog

Description: Mad scientist and nemesis of Sonic the Hedgehog, determined to conquer the world with his army of "Badnik" robots. 

Game/Franchise: Mashup of Star Wars/The Mandalorian and Avatar: The Last Airbender

Character: Mandalorian

Description: A multi-species culture of mercenaries and bounty hunters with a way of life revolving around honor and war. 

Character: Aang
Description: An air nomad, capable of using all four of the bending arts: airbending, waterbending, earthbending, and firebending. He also learned the lost art of energybending. 

Character: Momo

Description: A winged lemur and a loyal companion of Avatar Aang and his friends.

And one final awesome cosplay, just for fun:

He may have been a Sith (red lightsaber!), but this dog was definitely a good boy! He was very careful not to accidentally cut off the legs of any passers-by.