Yaya Han Cosplay Interview

What area of your work do you wish you could invest more time? What area would you be willing/eager to pass off in order to make time for the previous one?

I would love to devote more time to design and make original costumes and go back to drawing and doing art.

I’ve already put many hobbies and areas of interest on the backburner in order to grow my cosplay related company under YayaHan.com. Right now it’s more about time management than passing off more areas.

Yaya Han as Sharon Apple from Macross Plus

(I think it’s under-appreciated, myself.)

Absolutely, Plus is one of my All-time favorite shows. I just adore Sharon as a character, and also wish more people knew and appreciated this anime.

Which other cosplayers do you admire? Are there any that you’d most like to work or compete with?

My cosplay friends are who I admire the most because I can see how dedicated they are first hand to their craft. They also help me stay excited about cosplay. Limebarb of and Ale-chan are two of my favorite cosplayers and great friends, as well as the girls of wego4kyo.com and pixiekitty.net. I love all of them to death and I really respect them as cosplayers.

Can you tell me about your experience teaming up with Omi Gibson? How was that arranged? How would you describe Omi after spending time with her in person?

I got in contact with Omi through the message system on ACparadise.com. After winning the Yume cosplay contest at NYAF 2009, where the prize was a trip to Japan in March 2010, I sent her a PM hoping to meet her at the Tokyo anime con we were supposed to attend since she has been my favorite cosplayer for years now. I was shocked to find out that Omi had been following my cosplays for years as well!

We started planning a meet up and a cosplay duo which turned into Faye and Julia from Cowboy Bebop. It was a little difficult communicating with each other other over email as I speak hardly any Japanese and Omi doesn’t speak much English. But with the help of two friends, Ed and Brad, we were able to set a time and date to meet, at the Toshimaen Amusement Park which hosts cosplay events sometimes.

It was really amazing to meet Omi in person and do a photoshoot with her. She is completely graceful and sweet, with a charming funny side. We had 6 SLR cameras pointed toward us and only two of the camera men could speak English so trying to coordinate poses and which camera to look into was funny. We shot till the sun was setting and went to dinner with a bunch of Japanese cosplayers, then went Karaokeing for 3 hours! It was an awesome day and I miss Omi a lot. I’m recommending her to a few American conventions as a Guest because she has never left Japan (!!!) and would dazzle everyone here.

Are there any other cosplay team-ups that we can look forward to in the future?

I met another fantastic Asian cosplayer at San Diego Comic Con, Alodia Gosiengfiao. We also had been talking online for a while but never met in person.

Yaya Han and Alodia Gosiengfiao at San Diego Comic Con 2010

Our meeting became an event when the camera crew for a documentary about Comic Con followed both of us around and filmed the initial meet (lots of squeeing and hugs lol) and the photoshoot we did together as Baroness and Black Cat. Hopefully the next time Alodia and I meet we can team up with matching costumes.

Dragoncon is coming up and I am organizing two cosplay groups from two of my favorite TV Shows: LOST and Firefly lol. It should be epic.

And of course… Do you have any words of wisdom for those fresh in the world of cosplay?

My advice is to do it for fun, and for yourself. Don’t cosplay to fit in, or please someone, or to get attention. There are cheaper and easier ways in life to do those things lol. Cosplay is such an involved artform that you really can only enjoy it in the long run if you embrace all it’s creative aspects, and be true to yourself.

Thank you for this interview, Sean!

And thank you, Yaya!

If you’d like to learn more about Yaya, you can browse through her bio and photo galleries at her homepage, YayaHan.com. You can also check her schedule to see when she’ll be appearing at a convention near you!