We’re spotlighting talent in the cosplay community!
Every month, The Variant showcases cosplayers who display talent, creativity, and a positive voice within the cosplay community.

こんにちは皆んなさん Hello everyone! My name is Nowaki and I’m honored to be this month’s Cosplay Spotlight! I’m a cosplayer from Okinawa, Japan and I moved to America with my
husband who is in the USMC. It was a crazy change for me, especially once
COVID-19 shut everything down.

I’ve been cosplaying since I was 14 with my first cosplay being Juuzou from Tokyo Ghoul. Due to
school and work I hadn’t begun to fully explore the wonders of cosplay. When Covid
got me stuck in the house for a year, I picked it back up again and it
definitely sparked my interest in full force!

As a huge fan of Magic The Gathering, I loved the idea of bringing these planeswalkers to life!
The Wandering Emperor was my first cosplay contest win ever at Playthrough
Gaming Convention 2022, and Chandra Nalaar was my second at Fayetteville Comic
Con Spring 2022. Currently I am working on bringing Vivien Reid to life!

I specialize in armor making and working with EVA foam. (My sewing machine and I have a love/hate relationship!) From making commissions to creating costumes for myself, cosplay
has always been my favorite line of work that I’ve EVER done! Getting into the
community was really difficult for me at first. With being in a brand new
country, with brand new people it definitely was a daunting task, but the
community has been so welcoming and awesome that I can’t believe I was ever
worried about it.

This month we’re bringing you Variant newcomer, Okinowaki who we met at Playthrough Gaming Convention 2022.
Just the sheer amount of positive energy they exude was enough for most of our team to immediately
want to shoot with them. After they won Best Journeyman at Playthrough we decided collectively
that they should definitely be one of our Cosplay Spotlights.

In discussing it with them they mentioned that they would be heading back to Okinawa in a few months
so we had to act fast! We scheduled the shoots for our next con which was
Fayetteville Comic Con in which Nowaki also ended up winning Judge’s Choice in
the Master Class competition and the rest, as they say, is history.

Okinowaki’s Cosplay Spotlight features their cosplays of Chandra Nalaar from Magic The Gathering
shot by Greenfield Photography & Yasuo The Unforgiven from League of
Legends shot by Fox Dream Photography.

WAIT!!...why are you still reading this??
GO CHECK OUT THE PICS!!!