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p138
T'his is not u-here you would normally be; these are not the
people r-ou would normally be with.

It is a Saturday afternoon in the electronics zone of a \Iarikina

mall. You are surrounded by black mages and masked riders,
by superheroes and Final Fantasists: earnest young people
transformed into their favorite characters from pop culture
(in most cases, Japanese comics and animation), through the
painstaking process of cutting and shaping cloth and colorful
rubber, the repurposingofPvC pipes and cardboard. This is
a cosplay event, and cosplay, as the term indicates, combines
costumes with role-playing.

AL0DIA HAS REACHED IHE P0INI WHERE

W0lJl'n

COSf

Flill0NAL

to her winning more awards, being asked to judge contests, and

representing the countr-v in events and competitions overseas.
-\side from international hosting and judgir-rg stints and a
reccnt r-ideo for the Hong Kong Tourism Board, with a group
of other cosplayers from all around Asia-Alodia was in A Fon'.s
Hope, the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con documentary directed br.
filmmaker \Iorgan Spurlock (of Supersize Me fame). This led to
a meeting lvith Legendary Pictures (the studio behind The Dark
Knight, lnceprion and 3OO), about a possible role in the upcoming
Sam Raimi-directed World ofWarcraft movie. She is also in Cospi:
Norion, another international production (produced by Yian
Studios, Beijing, and directed hr

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It is a competition, the pre-screening
event for an even bigger cosplay event
to take place near the end of October. A
couple of hundred people, maybe more,
have gathered to watch the cosplayers
strike poses, recite lines, mock-fight, and
cnact scenes in character. The best of
them u.ill be participants in the big show.
The program proper is about to start:
the judges start flling out ofa cordonedoffroom. There is polite applause for
the first judge, and more enthusiastic
applause for the second. When the third
judge emergcs, in full costume-winged
headdress. elfin ears and all-that's when
the screaming starts.
I LOVE YOU ALODIA, a howling fan
wants the world to know.
Alodia Gosiengfiao is, in some
ways, much like any rising showbiz star:
physically attractive, projecting at all
times a pleasant personality, and prone
to hosting, modeling, endorsements,
guest appearances and events. In one
important wa1,, however, she is unlike
most other people you might see on TV
co-hosting with Luis Manzano or being
interviewed b--v KC Concepcion: she has
made her name through, for lack of a
bettcr word. geekv pulsuits.
Being into art, fashion, photography
and playing the piano is fairll' standard,
but it's Nodia's penchant for gadgets,
anime, coilecting to1's and figures, her
lifelong passion for video games, and of
course, her cosplal,ing, that have become
the fuel and fire of her fame.
Alodia is. for better or worse and
there are raised voices on both sides of
that argument-the most well-known cosplayer in the countr,r'',
with a massir.e following composed of both self-professed geeks
and so-called'normal people.'At 23, she has been cosplaying
for eight years now. on her second foray into cosplal', she and
her younger sister Ashley placed third in a competition at the
2003 C3 Convention; it was a goocl start to a streak thet has led

At the mall event, after the

winners have been chosen and led elsewhere for meet-and-gree:
and photo-ops, after you have exchanged words with Alodia
herself and arranged an interview you see a little girl in costume
wandering around the area not in a panic, but decidedly, and
alarmingly, unaccompanied. She is one-half of a cosplay duo iritl
her mother (aunt? Older sister?); you remember her from the sh,
You guess she is four or five years old, possibly younger. Thel s t
among the chosen winners.
You knock at the door behind which the winners have gone.
The guard at first tries to turn you away, denying that the little
girl s mother aunt, older sister might be inside. You spot one c,
the organizers, and inform her about the situation. It turns out rl
the little girl's companion is indeed in the darkened room, meec
and greeting. The little girl toddles inside and joins her.
Apparently the prospect of being with Alodia is so powerful :
it can cause someone to forget about a helpless child in her care.

Alittle over aweek

after the mall show, you meet up with,\1,-.

on the second floor of a Starbucks in Quezon City. This is the thi
time you have seen her in person. The first time was at a photo
shoot, the second time was at the pre-screening event.
You don't spot her right away, possibly because instead of
wearing wings, or arm blades, or a skintight black Baroness ourt
she is in is jeans, boots, a black tank top, and a light jacket u'ith :
pink-and-white pattern. You approach her; she looks up and gir.t
you

warm hello.

You sit next to her on the couch. She tucks away her oversize
movie-star sunglasses, and turns her attention from her green
tea latte to you. Her pupils are unnaturally large thanks to her
contacts, but the smile she slips into is reassuringly genuine.
You tell yourself that she is not the most beautiful woman you
ha'r,e ever sat this close to, but at the moment, you would be har;
pressed to name who might possibly rank higher.
"I didn't really expect that cosplay would take me this far.-

Alodia says-citing world travel, working with international

production companies, and making friends with cosplayers of
different nations as just some of the extraordinary things that h;
been happening. "I never really imagined kosi I'm the shy tl'pe
obviously, geeky girl in the corner, didn't really think about gerc
into acting, into hosting. P ardng nct- reroute lang" she laughs.
(Alodia laughs a lot when she talks-almost every other
statement is punctuated by a giggle. This is not just because she
is in a perpetual state of amusement; you notice that she also uher laugh to deflate potentially pointed statements.)
You talk about growing up geeky (she survived high school.
she surmises, because she was also a cheerleader, which offset

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p140
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sau as her 'we irdness,' and kept the mean

at bar'), about haters and stalkers (she has learned

nor ro pa).too much attention to the former, and

talks about her sister being pursued by a particularly
delusional example of the latter), and whether she likes
it rvhen people look at her (her answer is sensible and
straightforward: Yes, if I'm ready for it).
You ask her what her favorite story, in any mediurn,
is (lt's Flnol fontdsy yII). You talk about her persian
cat Tako, who has his own Facebook page, and more
followers than most humans (16,347 at last count).
You tell her that one of your omcemates is
considering dressing up as Nodia for Halloween. She
is amused and delighted at the idea. It is fascinating
that she has reached the point where someone would
costume themselves as her instead of a fictional
character, you say. She tells you that it is not the first
time, though apparently previous Alodia cosplayers
were mostly boys.
Alodia says that she is not the best cosplayer in
the countr,v, and it does nor seem like false humility.
You ask her to trv to assess her cosplaving strengths
objectively, and sl-re sa.vs she is confident about he r
makeup abilities-an offshoot of her facility for drawing
and art, she theorizes and her attention to detail in her
costumes.
She is grateful, she says, and luck,v,

that she has

to enter mainstream consciousness via her

cosplaying, as opposed to the usual rounds of auditions
and rejections. She's still finding her feet, still getting
used to the rumors and procedures that are part and
parcel ofthe local showbiz scene. "I kept on laughing,"
Alodia says about being interviewed on TV. "These
things are not real nantan I was laughing the whole
time! But you have to play along."
You ask her given her self-avowed shy natureabout the engine that drives Alodia, the public figure.
Things like this do not happen by chance, or at least
you don't think they do. "I don't know, I just keep
going," she says. "I enjoy everything I do, er.erything
that's happening."
She makes it sound as if she is just going with the flow of
events, but you take note of how aware she is of everything of the
optimal frequency and schedule for posting online, of the shelf life
of celebrit.v, of the number of theaters in China where her movie
will show. "I don't want to take an),thing for granted. Some people
wait their whole lives for these opportunities."
l-reen able

other celebrities. One of your friends summed up her pop- ".-r,

thus: "People just like looking at picture s of a prettv girl.- .-. "^au&
This is true, but you suspect that there is more to ir rhr
that. You think about the the cosplay event a little over a ,,',.. r,
ago, about talking to people dressed as Kamen Rider Darl. h- i
as Tidur ofFinal Fantasy, as Black Rock Shooter and Deac
Master. You think about the time and trouble that u-ent inr :rr:.r"
handmade costumes, and about their love for the characte:. artr
stories. You think about something that -\1oc:: .rLtr"
about how she got into cosplaying: that ir \\':-i : \i;1,
keep living in that other world, even when r, - s l,lr
A
away from the computer.
Why does anyone transform themselr es r :-ur
SAYS;
extent? To obscure, to disguise or to be recr,:- ;e:dry

IS NO SUIH IHINO AS
DAY OFF VAIAIIONS [AN WAII, SHE
IHERE IS SO MUIH IO DO RIGFlI NOW
FOR ALODIA, IHERE

at the cosplay event, ar tl:e ' .,-,

end of the program propel )rou were standin: *
the sidelines as people tried to get one last p:
taken with Alodia, one last autograph or hani' --a,i*"
-l
She, her fellow judges, and the winners were being led ari:, rrur
wanted to ask her a few things, but it seemed impossible. t:
your eyes met.
Alodia recognized you. She reached out, took your han; , rr.
felt the tug as the guards surged forward and the cro$'d cl, >:-:
in-and that tenuous but definite connection carried vou r:- I
past the unchosen, took you up into a tide that rushed inrr :-c
darkened room beyond. That was a rock star fairy tale mo::r: -m. u
revelation: for that one instant you were beyond mundane. .-r
ofrealiry special. t!

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
For Alodia, there is no such thing as a day off She came to the
coffee shop straight from dance rehearsals, and she had to u,ake
up early this morning because of another interr.ier.l She got thirty
minutes of sleep last night. Vacations can u.ait, she sals; there is so
much to do right now. You remark upon her apparent ambition.
"I om very ambitious," she smiles. "Somc people think noglalorolaro lang ako|'

Away from Alodia,

).ou

think about romance and realit)., and

again, about the u,avs she is different

from

and the same

as-

Yourememher:

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