Cosplay in America: The Interviews

Throughout 2009, Ejen Chuang spent five months traveling to anime conventions across the U.S. The result of his labor is Cosplay in America, a slick photography book documenting the creativity within the cosplay community. Sunday night, Royal/T will be hosting a release party for the book.

Chuang also collected interviews with cosplayers during his travels, two of which you can watch on YouTube. The video above is of Jon, who portrays the title character of Studio Ghibli's Porco Rosso. We've seen Jon at Anime Expo, so it was interesting to hear the story behind his cosplay.

Chuang also interviewed Zaya Spif, a twenty-one-year-old with a pretty cool Blood Seras (Hellsing) cosplay.

There are text-only interviews on the Cosplay in America site as well. We were excited to see GNB Cosplay, who was featured in our coverage of Anime LA 2009, amongst the interviewees. Read more about the work that goes into becoming Sailor Moon, Darth Vader and more on Chuang's website.