Cosplayer Nazia as C.Viper from the Game Series Street Fighter 4

Cosplayer Nazia as C.Viper from Street Fighter 4

Cosplayer Nazia was my first featured cosplayer here in Cosplayer Studio. For the second time around, I'll be featuring this young and creative cosplayer as C.Viper from the game Street Fighter 4. Check out her interview with me...

Cosplayer Nazia as C.Viper, very detailed and creative.

Tell me a little bit of your background information

I am currently a full time university student, I am in my 2nd year studying BSC Forensic Science. I am 22 and located in east London, UK.

How long have you been cosplaying for?

Not very long, the first time I cosplayed was in may 2010 at the MCM Expo in London as Misa Amane. I have a tutorial on how to cosplay as her, I have to re-upload it in a week. Just check out my youtube channel KawaiiKandee.

What inspired you to start cosplaying?

Well I heard about Anime Expo 2 years ago but I kept missing the dates. Eventually I managed to find out about the one in May and while I was searching it up I came across cosplayers. I was so amazed by the cosplay culture that i really wanted to cosplay. At that time I had got back in to gaming and fell in love with Street Fighter, As I was a fan from a very young age, along with Mortal Combat and Streets of Rage so I looked up to see if anyone had cosplayed C.Viper (because shes my favorite) and I came across Phoenix Kasai. I was amazed by her as a cosplayer and mostly her C.Viper cosplay there and then. I wanted to cosplay her in May but left it too late so I cosplayed Misa Amane just because she's a quick and easy cosplay to do. I placed together that cosplay in less then a week.

Since your First cosplay, what else have you been up to?

Well after that I went to Hyper Japan which was also held in east London down bricklane, they had cosplay competitions going on but I didn't enter any nor did i cosplay. Me and my friends were more interested in sweet Lolita fashion style. So we tried making our own outfits, I tried dressing up as Himegyaru and my friend tried going as a gothic/sweet Lolita. It was great fun. I sort of deco'd my shoes with pearls and they looks amazing. I also done a youtube tutorial on it, heres the link.

Cosplayer Nazia in action! The first cosplayed C.Viper in London UK.

Recently I attended the MCM again this October where I cosplayed again.

So who have you cosplayed as so far?

Misa Amane from Deathnote - May 2010
C.viper/crimson viper from Street Fighter 4 - October 2010

Who would you like to cosplayer next?

Well I really want to cosplay Kyou Fujibayashi from clannad and my friends want to do a group cosplay so we might do the Tenchi Girls, I'd like to cosplay Salor Jupiter as well, I absolutely Adore her.

So whats you favorite cosplay out of the two you have done?

My C.viper cosplay had to be the best. I think I'm the first in the UK to do it. I haven't really seen anyone else do it which probably explains why everyone was so impressed with it. The senior PR manager for Capcom was also impressed. so he's inviting me to a couple of events to cosplay as her for them.

How did Capcom find you?

Well I was walking around and had a few Street Fighter fans taking pictures and Sony Playstation came up to me took a picture and took my email for an interview. They never got back to me lol, but then the PR manager guy came and asked me if I would mind dressing up as C.Viper at other events, I said I wouldn't because I'm having so much fun in this costume. He then handed me he's card and asked me to contact him after the show. When I did, he said he had a few events lined up for me if I could do them. I'm really excited, it's such an honor to have someone from the company and ask you to cosplay for them. so I really can't wait. I think that's an achievement in its self.

What was the process of you becoming C.viper?

A very very long one lol. Well I got the costume as exact as I could by looking for small detail too. The costume looks easy but it's really not, all the small detail was killing me. I couldn't find her belt and earrings so I went without them. Then my make up was my basic cosplay make up but I added two sets of lashes so u could see them through the shooting range glasses I had on. Once that was down we got started on the hair. The hair was a nightmare. I was so near to giving up because we just couldn't get it right.

I had 3 friends working on my hair. I had already a long braid, braided out prior to the day which was up to my knees. I used about six packets of cornrow braiding hair (j'adore in bug red) and I had a extra packet for the quiff thing she has. I sectioned my hair and tied each section right at the top of my hair and then we sewed the braid in to them sections. While my friend was sewing that my other two friends had the job of painting my natural hair to look more red. With red colour styling gel. i used manic panics dye hard in vampire red. Lastly, we put a velcro roller in the middle of the last sled of loose hair and pined it down on my hair and sewed the red back in. I have a video on the events in October and I'm actually showing you the hair and clothes I was meant to modify. Here's the link if you scroll to about 2.00. bare with me because I'm kind of a newbie vlogger I sometimes go off topic.

Cosplayer Nazia getting ready for her cosplay. Her best cosplay so far!

Have you entered any competitions?

I entered my Misa Amane cosplay at the Digviz/Manga cosplay competition. I didn't get in to the short list but I re-entered my C.Viper cosplay and I've got shortlisted this year so I'm really happy. Just waiting to see who the winner is. I wouldn't be upset if I didn't win because I saw some amazing cosplayers this year. I was really impressed with the Keyblades and Kindom Heart cosplayers had. I really want one now =)

Who would you like to cosplayer next?

Well I really want to cosplay Kyou Fujibayashi from clannad and my friends want to do a group cosplay so we might do the Tenchi Girls, I'd like to cosplay Salor Jupiter as well, i absolutely Adore her.

What cosplayers caught your eyes this year?

I saw the most amazing Lightning from Final Fantasy. I managed to catch a picture of her. I saw some really Good Kingdom Heart cosplayers. it was really hard to see other cosplayers as most of them were cosplaying Naruto, Black and Vampire Knight. Last time I went, I saw the most amazing Dante from Devil May Cry I was hoping to see him this year but I didn't see him.

Cosplayer Nazia everyday cosplay

As you new to cosplaying, what's your advice to someone who wants to cosplay for the first time?

well I would suggest to pick someone easy, pay attention to detail, try and get your costume AS CLOSE AS POSSIBLE to the anime character your imitating. Lastly, the cosplay should complement your natural looks so pick someone that you know you can pull off. Erm.. that's about it i guess and if your a girl FALSE LASHES! AND GEO CIRCLE LENSES! They work wonders when your cosplaying. As for the boys just the Geo Circle Lenses would be fine.... don't..... touch.... the....lashs...boys....please.