I've Never Seen A Good Asuka Cosplay

[bogey]

there have been some good Rei's, but even a lot of the Rei's are too sexed up and lack the waifish, pale creepiness of tv series Rei. Asuka's another story though, i've never really seen a great Asuka cosplay. but today I was flipping through channels and stumbled upon this show with this girl and thought 'damn thats Asuka!'







she's bella throne on a show called 'shake it up'

if that live-action eva movie ever happens she would be a good choice to play her

[riffraff11235]

I started to doubt myslef while looking at a few cosplay pictures: Is Asuka supposed to look Asian or Caucasian? She was raised in Germany, but her mother was Japanese, right?

[Mr. Tines]

Kipi seems to have been the canonical Asuka cosplay at one time.

@riffraff11235
Father American, mother half German, half Japanese.

[Jayfive]

I object to the tendered notion, behold the twins

What pushes the vid into awesomeness is that strictly speaking she's being Shikinami there. Soyru would be pushing Rei out of frame and giving peace-signs. This Asuka wants to be left alone and is on the verge of giving Mr Cameraman a smack upside his head.

[Bagheera]

It's hard to make that damn interface headset work, but apart from that Jersey is pretty good (this is the one that completely sold me on her take on Asuka). There are three reasons I think that set works: the outfit looks real, the hair looks like a natural color, and her attitude is spot on. Also, she legitimately looks like Asuka, which helps. I'm not as wild about the hair here, and I dearly wish she had a better plugsuit, but she's still the best Asuka I've ever seen.

[Sailor Star Dust]

I think Kipi and Jersey are the best Asuka cosplayers, myself.

[driftking18594]

I think MideKyon is a nice-looking Asuka cosplayer:

[deeRez]

My main complaint with Asuka cosplays is that-darn-hair.
Too many of them use that fake orangeish hair that sticks out from their skin.

Hard to find a good naturally red/orange haired Asuka.

Anyways, despite that, some Asukas I've picked up over the time:

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[bogey]

who is this? not a bad Asuka, I like her expression, but i'd need to see more pics





wow, hair & body wise that's the perfect Asuka. too bad she doesn't really have the face for it imo

[Bagheera]

wow, hair & body wise that's the perfect Asuka. too bad she doesn't really have the face for it imo

The hair looks okay from the back, but in the face shot it's obvious it's fake. Not such a hot rendition.

The Shikinami pic looks like it might be okay, but with only a back shot to work with it's hard to tell.

[Fireball]

I like Jersey too. She is very natural.

Hard to find a good naturally red/orange haired Asuka.

A blue haired albino even more. It's not just the hair with Rei though. It's the whole face and body. They all lack the petit and fragility.

[Bagheera]

The big mistake people make when cosplaying Asuka is trying to give her red or orange hair. Forget DC/EoE, and forget the merchandise -- that girl has brown/auburn hair throughout most of the show, and most cosplayers seem to lose sight of that by focusing too much on the odd color shifts seen toward the end of the show. The reason Jersey works is because she used her natural hair with that outfit, and it matches what we see in a good chunk of the show (and particularly the bulk of the scenes we see of Asuka in her school uniform). Her hair also has some red in it, so when you see her in a plugsuit the hair still looks like a good fit.

You don't need hair the color of Asuka's to do a good Asuka cosplay, but you should at least pick a wig that looks natural as opposed to one that's a freakish orange abomination. There are lots and lots of wigs out there using ordinary human hair, so finding one that suits one's complexion and is still a good sell for some iteration of Asuka shouldn't be all that difficult. Combine that with a well-fitting outfit and the rest should fall into place naturally.

[AR-99]

Found this randomly while searching for something else:

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Source

[arkiel]

Father American, mother half German, half Japanese.

We really can't gleam much from this. Physiogomy can look Caucasian in hafus (half-Japanese, half-something else), or indistinct from a person whose parents are both Japanese. Its also possible to get asian physiogomy with non-asian hair colors in hafus.

There is also a girl out there with Asuka's racial background (whose name I forget, chime in anyone) who has red hair and a Japanese, "moon" face.

I always preferred Asuka have caucasian features, but all evidence points to me putting more thought into Asuka's gaijin identity than everyone that ever worked on any of the Evangelion projects, put together.
^several people on this board also meet this distinction.

There is no canon or empirical answer.

[Blue Monday]

I hadn't seen Jersey's cosplay before this thread but that's probably the best I've seen. Natural hair colour, the facial expressions, the poses and the clothing are all spot on.

[ReiAyanami25]

In my opinion, this is one of the best Asuka cosplays:

SPOILER: Show

As for Rei cosplays, I find that most of them are very lacking, few are good. However, I find that this is a good one:

SPOILER: Show

I shall post more later, when I plug in my hard drive where I keep most of my Eva related things.

[bogey]

In my opinion, this is one of the best Asuka cosplays:

SPOILER: Show

As for Rei cosplays, I find that most of them are very lacking, few are good. However, I find that this is a good one:

SPOILER: Show

I shall post more later, when I plug in my hard drive where I keep most of my Eva related things.

neither of those are good cosplays

[Mr. Tines]

neither of those are good cosplays

You should explain your criteria -- the Rei for example has good costume and manages to avoid the issue of eye colouration by pose.

[bogey]

You should explain your criteria -- the Rei for example has good costume and manages to avoid the issue of eye colouration by pose.

I was a little harsh on Rei because the outfit was spot on, but that wig just looked too fake and weird-looking..and not being able to see her face doesn't help for a convincing cosplay. the Asuka cosplay he posted just doesn't look like Asuka at all

here's a decent Asuka cosplay I just found

[Maru]

We really can't gleam much from this. Physiogomy can look Caucasian in hafus (half-Japanese, half-something else), or indistinct from a person whose parents are both Japanese. Its also possible to get asian physiogomy with non-asian hair colors in hafus.

There is also a girl out there with Asuka's racial background (whose name I forget, chime in anyone) who has red hair and a Japanese, "moon" face.

I always preferred Asuka have caucasian features, but all evidence points to me putting more thought into Asuka's gaijin identity than everyone that ever worked on any of the Evangelion projects, put together.
^several people on this board also meet this distinction.

There is no canon or empirical answer.

This has been my experience as well. I have a friend who, like Asuka, is one quarter Japanese, and three quarters of European extraction. She has a younger sister who is also a quarter Japanese, from the same parents. Somehow, the elder mostly got the Japanese look, and the younger got mostly the European look. The elder does not look entirely Japanese, of course, but it is obvious to anyone who looks at her that some of her ancestry is Asian; and while you can see some of the Japanese heritage in the younger, you have to look really hard to notice it. So really, as far as her appearance goes, it could go either way; she could look entirely European, or European with the barest traces of Asian ancestry in her features, or mostly Japanese, or entirely Japanese with inexplicably red hair. Anything is possible, really. It's complicated further because while we know that Kyoko's other half was German, we know nothing at all about Mr. Langley's ethnic extraction: was he Irish? Italian? German? Polish? Norwegian? English? Scottish? The name Langley is suggestive of the British Isles, but we don't even know for sure if that was actually his name. And even if that is his name, a lot of immigrants changed their names to something more Anglo when they came to the United States in order to fit in better.

I'm not sure whether I prefer Asuka with predominantly European features, predominantly Asian features, or a clear mixture of both, but like you I wish that the issue had been explored in greater depth. I had written a long essay about that, but then I realized I was getting off topic, so I'll post it elsewhere.