Name: Pichu / ピチュー
Appearance: Pokemon Generation II
Variation: Gijinka
Height: 1’00”
Type: Electric
Description: Known as the “Tiny Mouse” species of Pokémon, are the pre-evolved version of Pikachu. Pichu is a small ground-dwelling rodent. Its fur is very short, and it has bright yellow coloration. The tips of its large ears are black, and it has additional black markings on its neck and short tail.
Worn at: AnimeNEXT 2010
Why I chose this costume:
There’s an interesting story for this. My roommate is one of the reasons I got into cosplaying. I’ve always wanted to cosplay, but didn’t have the skill or money for it. Then I learned that she cosplayed as well, so that pretty much started me off in cosplaying. She mentioned she was doing a Plusle and Minun gijinka with her best friend, so I was looking up Pokemon gijinkas to do. I thought, why not do a whole Pikachu family cosplay? I decided I was going to do Pichu and my friends volunteered cosplaying as Pikachu and Raichu. Thus, the Pikachu family is born!
Mechanics of the outfit:
My mom made the base dress and the petticoat underneath. I made the ears, and sewed on the collar. For the tail, I followed the reference picture and made sewed a ribbon in the back. For the shoes, I just wore a pair of yellow Harajuku Lovers converses that I had. I decided not to purchase a wig and just keep my natural hair. I originally had no intention of purchasing another wig because it would’ve been too expensive at the time.
The ears were the hardest part. I was feeling uninspired and short on time. I made ear covers with the fabric used for the dress, which was a terrible idea because it was a knit fabric so it was stretchy. I was originally going to put foam board inside the covers, and attach them to a headband, which completely failed. Then I used bubble wrap so it would be lighter, which sort of worked, but would have still failed. Suddenly I had an epiphany the night before I had to debut it. I put my hair in pigtails and pinned the ears to it. It completely worked. It flopped from now and then, but it still worked.
Personal Thoughts/Feelings:
Ahh.. This was a fun cosplay. I don’t think I’ll do another Pokemon gijinka for a while though, haha. Unless I needed a cosplay and absolutely had nothing else to do. I guess because a gijinka isn’t an actual official outfit. You could throw parts and bits together to make a gijinka, which makes it different and unique, but it’s not official. There’s nothing to base it upon. For more images, check out my Facebook!
Copyright (c) 2010 Knightmare6 (Philip Ng). All rights reserved.
Disclaimer: The entire outfit is not made by myself.
Mei Hoshi's Blog 