These cosplay couples share the love this Valentine’s Day

Each couple has their “thing”. Whether it’s watching ‘The Office’ several times a year, visiting all the restaurants featured in ‘Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives’ or dressing up as a variety of characters from everything from movies to video games. The latter is obviously why we are here today. Although, I could talk a lot more about all that Office stuff. Unfortunately, couples who cosplay together, kill together and it was such a pleasure to be able to speak with cosplayers who find their cosplay counterparts in life who have helped them in myriad ways.

Now, none of this group of cosplayers got their love of costumes from their partners. No, everyone you will meet within the confines of this piece was drawn to the creative hobby long before their partner entered their life.

Danny, who met Carter on a school trip to DC when they were teenagers, has always loved dressing up. So much so that they even talked and showed off their ‘Star Wars’ looks to Carter the day they met. Fate works strangely because they later found out that his parents had been friends since they were babies. Like Carter, Charlie Rocket also grew up in love with costumes. However, unlike Danny and Carter, Charlie and JJ met when he slipped into his DM to ask for some cosplay tips.

Asia and Alice bonded over help and met in college when Alice was looking for someone to create an attraction around cosplay. “The fun part for me is that I’ve seen Alice on stage before I met her personally. I didn’t know it was her! I had no idea that I was watching my future wife’s show,” Asia said as she recalled her past encounter.

Speaking of scenarios, Daisy and Imriel are our only couple today who have met at a convention. “We met during the Italian World Cosplay Summit qualifying round in Rome, where I was judging and she was in the audience,” Imriel said. Daisy added: “We started talking about our [cosplay] Project for the World Cosplay Summit selection long before dating!”

It’s great that neither of these couples seem too unbalanced in their interest or passion for cosplay. They all brought one or both elements to the table in their relationships from day one; for the most part, and once the spark was off, it didn’t take long for many of them to dive in and start planning their cosplays together. Well actually for a couple, couple cosplays started before they made anything official. “We even cosplayed couples just as friends for quite a while. I’d say it helped us kind of build a relationship afterwards,” Alice said.

No matter when they started their own couple cosplay rabbit holes, everyone has found the path they love to travel the most. Danny and Carter aren’t opposed to making other couples, but they’ve found Rey and Ben Solo to be their favorites since they started. Danny admits that “Disney is always a big deal”, while Alice and Asia have a soft spot for Bubbline. “In a way, I associate Princess Bubblegum with Alice and love the energy and aesthetic of her and Marcy,” Asia pointed out.

I was wondering how Asia and Alice navigated the cosplay landscape as an LGBTQ couple when representation isn’t always that common in the pop culture realm. Alice said a few years ago that she didn’t feel represented at all, but that has since changed with the emergence of several LGBTQ couples across the board.

Asia added, “If we like the characters, their story, designs, and ideas for a photo shoot, we can really cosplay anything. But being part of the representation, being an LGBTA+ person and having the possibility of portraying characters that they also represent, gives more joy.”

Making a way to be your own representation is just one of the ways that Alice and Asia have been able to create more than just looks with their cosplay. Being able to flex their imaginations together is just one of the many gifts they’ve received from working together over the years. Cosplay has led them towards photography and video editing. As for Charlie and JJ, Charlie says that they do everything together and share a lot of interests, one of the biggest aside from cosplay is music.

So does the couple who cosplay together stay together? I wondered how their current relationships compared to partial relationships where maybe cosplay wasn’t as integral a part of their shared interests. Daisy had dated a cosplayer in the past and it didn’t work out because something was missing: “Creating together is something that helps you get closer IF there’s a strong connection, trust and true love for each other and for cosplay.”

Her partner, Imriel, added his opinion: “I can’t really say if art makes couples stronger, but every time I tried to date someone who wasn’t a cosplayer, it never lasted more than a few weeks.”

Charlie did his own thing for some time before JJ entered the scene and noted how much commitment being part of a cosplay couple can require: “Anytime you do a project with someone else, it takes a little extra work. Now you’re scheduling for two, planning for two, and depending on someone else being on the same page as you.”

That’s one of the reasons I assumed cosplay couples would be closer and have, well, more commitment to each other than couples who don’t have any creative projects at stake. Cosplaying takes a lot of time. So much so, it makes being in a couple that does it together an even bigger commitment. “Especially when the other person trusts you to do certain parts of the costume or also to act together on stage,” said Daisy.

It’s clear that these cosplayers are just as good separately as they are together, and so I wanted to know if you could share some tips on the do’s and don’ts of couple cosplay, and for those of you who have been thinking about cosplay with their partners, but they weren’t sure how to get it going.

Personally, Danny and Carter don’t hold hands when cosplaying if they don’t send the couple. Danny said it’s mostly a little inside joke they share, but they wanted other convention attendees to realize an important don’t when approaching cosplayers: “I love the cosplay community, but some people can be really horrible in terms of respect.” those limits. For example, people who want to take romantic photos with any of us.”

In addition to respecting others, Danny said the best thing a couple can do is have fun and “never stop communicating with your partner.”

Charlie echoed the importance of communication, saying, “Don’t expect your cosplay boyfriend/girlfriend to do everything for you!” That coincides with knowing the limits of others and talking about them. This is something that Alice and Asia noted was key to their relationship, both cosplay and otherwise.

“We know what our goals are in terms of cosplay and we agree on what we want to achieve,” they said, adding, “You don’t have to have the same goals to support each other in achieving yours, but to help each other.” to self-actualize and follow your own unique goals is a really important part of the partnership.”

They also said that Halloween is a great time to try on a couple’s costume and see how it goes. As for Daisy and Imriel, they have no dos and don’ts when it comes to their cosplay, but they said it’s all about confidence when they go together, “Cosplay can be very stressful, right? Especially when you’re trying to finish everything on time or when you’re competing on stage, and if you cosplay as a couple, that stress becomes a burden to share with your partner. If you find the right balance between yourselves, if you learn to become a team, that’s what will turn stress into a challenge that you can take on together.”

Cosplaying is a hobby that you can do alone, with friends or, in this case, with a partner, and if our couple of cosplayers has taught us anything today, it is that finding someone as passionate about the craft as you can make a difference. Just keep those lines of communication open, don’t expect them to do everything and, as always, have fun with it.