Spain 🇪🇸

Merian (solo): Hi! My name is Merian! I’m 36 and I’ve been cosplaying since 2014 (this year is my 10th anniversary. Yay!). IRL I’m an architect and sometimes photography retoucher, illustrator, cosmaker and even cosplayer! I love international competitions so I’m very excited about joining one in my country! I’ve represented Spain before in ECG 2019 and I’ll be representing Spain also this year 2024 in GICOF!

Yuko (duo): Hello! My name is Olga, I’m 28 y.o and I have been doing cosplay since 2010 using Yuko as my nickname. Besides cosplay I also have a lot of hobbies but most of them consist of collecting stuff. I really love cosplay competitions so I’m so happy to be one of the Spanish representatives this year!

Exion (duo): Hi! I’m Exion and I have been doing cosplay alongside Yuko since 2010. My real name is Alejandro and I’m 27 years old. Some of my hobbies include crafting, gardening, horror movies, kpop and of course, making cosplay performances! My partner and I really enjoy cosplay competitions and we are so excited to make new friends this September in ICL2024.

How did you discover cosplay and what made you start in this hobby? How long ago?

Merian (solo): In 2008 (maybe) I went to a convention and saw some people dressed like their favourite characters. Then I didn’t know what cosplay was, but I knew that I wanted to do the same. But it wasn’t until 2014 that I finished my degree, when I started to do some research about cosplay and started creating my own ones. As a child one of my dreams always had been dressing like Sailor Moon, so creating my dream costumes is maybe the reason I started in cosplay.

Yuko & Exion (duo): Both of us started cosplaying together in 2010 when a friend let us know about a convention that was going to be held in our city (yep, a Japan Weekend! even though it wasn’t called like that yet) and we saw on the internet that people used to dress up like their favorite characters for these events so we rushed a closet-cosplay of Misa and Near from Death Note. We enjoyed the experience a lot and kept making new costumes for the following events, learning new skills like sewing and crafting props! During that time, every convention, no matter how small it may be, was the perfect excuse for us to create new costumes, so we learned a lot.

What does cosplay mean for you? And what is your favorite part of the hobby?

Merian (solo): I’ve always loved to craft and I’ll always love to craft, so cosplaying gives me full chance to create everything I want. I really love to learn about new techniques in every single new costume I create. I’m such a perfectionist and I always think I can do a little more, try new things and do a research and make something better that I did before. My favourite part of cosplay is to share and learn about this beautiful part of my life.

Yuko & Exion (duo): We have always been very interested in arts and crafting, and cosplay quickly turned into our main hobby! We believe cosplay is always about sharing, and we have constantly tried to lure our friends into big projects and group performances to create good memories with them. The part we enjoy the most about cosplay is performing on stage! We really like looking back at all the performances we’ve done so far, and it encourages us to create new ones that the public can enjoy.

What changes do you see in the cosplay community in your country compared to when you started?

Merian (solo): Maybe this is weird, but I don’t see any changes. From the beginning I’ve felt so comfortable being part of this community. Most of people is very kind and supportive and luckily, this is my experience with the cosplay community in Spain.

Yuko & Exion (duo): We kind of realized that the general interest of the cosplay community in performing and creating their own costumes has decreased during the last few years. Cosplay has diversify a lot and, while the cosplay performance contests may have been the main point of meeting for every cosplayer back when we started, right now there are so many other ways that a cosplayer can enjoy the hobby (catwalks, photoshoots, tiktok…). While this is something that saddens us, we understand that it is how the hobby has evolved. Anyway, we can’t help but always encourage people to lose their stage fear and have fun performing!

Why did you choose that project for the ICL national selection? Is this your first time joining an international cosplay competition?

Merian (solo): I chose Evil Queen’s cosplay as my project for the ICL national selection because THAT DRESS, that dress is a dream. I feel very comfortable cosplaying her; I think I really love cosplaying evil characters, it’s kinda funny! It’s not my first time joining an international cosplay competition. I’ve represented Spain before in ECG 2019 and I’ll be representing Spain also this year 2024 in GICOF!

Yuko (duo):  I was completely dragged to do these costumes 🙂 but well my thinking was “Exion loves them and they are detectives! So yep, let’s do that”.

Exion (duo): I propose to Yuko the idea of cosplaying Herlock Sholmes and Iris Wilson from TGAAC long ago, since it is from one of my favorite games, and the idea of creating a skit trying to solve a crime was running through my head from the first time I met the characters. I know Yuko’s special interest in everything detective-related so I knew she would be easily convinced! This kind of skit was also really different from what we have done so far so we didn’t know how it would turn out and it was also kind of a challenge for us. Being chosen as the ICL Spanish representatives for the duo was a big surprise for us! As a group, this will be our 4th time representing Spain in an international cosplay competition: we were the Spanish team at World Cosplay Summit 2022 (stage & video division, winning Best Sound Direction), World Cosplay Summit Exhibition at Gamers 8 (winning 3rd place), and at European Cosplay Gathering 2024. Also, Yuko represented Spain at Eurocosplay 2015 and Dreamhack World Cosplay Championship 2017, and recently I represented Spain and won 1st place at Cosplay World Masters 2024!

Does it feel weird to represent Spain, in Spain? What do you expect from your participation in ICL?

Merian (solo): Don’t think so haha! It’s like kinda exciting being the host country and showing everybody about our culture and cosplay community.

Yuko & Exion (duo): While we don’t think it is weird, it will definitely be a different experience from what we are used to! We don’t feel more pressure on us or anything like that, but we want to offer a nice show for everyone, since this time there will be lots of our friends watching the show live! Our main goal for this ICL is to make everyone feel comfortable here and create nice memories with every participant!

Have you decided your project for the finals in Madrid? May you give us a clue? 

Merian (solo): I did! It’s a costume of a not very well-known game, with beautiful historical references. It’s going to be a challenge for me, with a lot of new techniques.

Yuko (duo): We had some ideas in mind for this finals but, after sharing them with our friends, we opted for the project that we think would give the most “interesting” show! I have always loved this musical but I never thought we would be cosplaying the characters we chose. Here you have the clue: “♫ Welcome Monsieur, sit yourself down, and meet the best innkeeper in town…♫”

Exion (duo): I think this project is an agreement between Yuko and I. She has always been very vocal about wanting to make a cosplay from this musical, so I offered her to make a cosplay from it and, while the characters are not what she would have dreamed, she knew it was the best she was going to get! It was not intentional at all, but we ended up cosplaying characters portrayed by the same two actors as in our ECG project!

Describe the cosplay community in your country using five words.

Merian (solo): Helpful, inspiring, talented, inclusive, creative.

Yuko & Exion (duo): Creative, talented, supporting, hard-working and innovative.

Link to your Facebook page, Instagram and Twitter (add other social media if relevant):

Merian (solo): 
https://www.instagram.com/meriancloset/
https://twitter.com/MerianCloset

Yuko & Exion (duo):

https://www.instagram.com/yuko_exion_cosplay/

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Merian, Yuko and Exion were selected at Japan Weekend.