Who are we, you may ask? We are two sisters, Lacey and Whitney living in a town just south of Chicago. We created this deviantart account to house the cosplay pictures of our group of friends. We've only been cosplaying since 2007, but we have been fans of Asian culture since we were kids. As a toddler, Whitney's first favorite movie was My Neighbor Totoro. Lacey was held captive by Sailor Moon. As they grew up, Toonami won them over with Dragonball Z, No Need for Tenchi, Gundam Wing, and etc. We began collecting manga in 2001 at a rate of about four new volumes a week. We've just recently started purchasing the anime series too. Being passionate readers, we were always the type to read a series or novel before watching the anime or movie. However because the rate that anime and manga being translated has increased tenfold, we have abandoned this read before watching process so that we can watch the anime series that Netflix provides us with. Though usually disliked by the majority of the anime fans, we do prefer to watch the anime dubbed. We think it's because we grew up watching anime dubbed on Toonami and the Saturday morning selections like Rave Master that it has become enjoyable to recognize the English voice actors. We still enjoy watching it subbed too, it helps me practice Japanese for one thing, but dubbed will always have a soft spot in our heart. Also because the subbed version of Dragonball Z is incredibly annoying. Goku's voice is just...argh! and Gohan is such a crybaby and a wuss!
So you've heard about our manga and anime addiction (btw we own more than $10,000 worth of manga now...), but our love for Asian culture doesn't stop there. Video games hold a special place in our heart. We've been playing games since we were very young, starting with a Nintendo. We've gone on to collect hundreds of games, and we own all the new generation consoles, as well as many of our old ones. Unfortunately, we haven't gotten to playing a majority of our games because we ended up buying so many at one time, that we never had time to beat one and move on to the next. We like a wide variety of games from RPGs to platforming to FPS. We aren't a big fan of sports though, only if Mario is involved in it. We even have an online RPG that we created in 2005 that is still going today, on Livejournal.com (japanese_high.webs.com).
We love Asian culture. It started with Japanese culture, but has expanded across all over East Asian cultures. We've learned a lot about the countries and the traditions and the civilians living there. We've tried the food, perfected the chopsticks, and have hopes of traveling there. We are learning Japanese, one of us took college courses in it. We love Japanese music, and Whitney has become a K-pop addict. Not only that, but Whitney is also in an Asian-Interest sorority, Delta Phi Lambda, and is the only white girl in her chapter, though she is called an "egg" (white on the outside, yellow on the inside) by many of her exchange friends.
We learned about cosplaying late in the game, but it has become our passion. Lacey took both sewing classes and cosmetology classes that she uses to make the costumes and style the wigs. Whitney makes the props. We love cosplaying and the friends that we have made from doing it.
Kumagoro's Beam Team was created by the two sisters, but there are other members as well. There is Samantha, who went to high school with Whitney. Nicole who's mom was best friends with our mother, and as a result is more like a sister to us than just a friend. Occasionally, there are others that make an appearance too such as Madeline and Brittany, more friends from high school. Not to mention the countless friends we've met at anime conventions such as Jon, Desiree, Lizzy, Megan G, Megan T, Megan S, Bob, and sooo many more!
Thank you for stopping by and we hope that you enjoy our cosplays!
Deviants:
Lacey
angst-faerieWhitney
ketsueki-ravenFind us on Twitter:
Lacey twitter.com/AngstFaerie
Whitney twitter.com/ketsueki_raven
And on tumblr:
Lacey
angst-faerie.tumblr.com/Whitney
ketsueki-raven.tumblr.com/Sam
overthinker411.tumblr.com/