All congoers have seen a masquerade. But few have seen one like New York Anime Festival’s. Saturday’s masquerade winners didn’t just earn bragging rights and a certificate. The cosplay duo of Yaya Han and Anna Raper left the stage that night with round trip tickets to Japan, VIP passes to Tokyo’s International Anime Fair, and $1,000 in spending money.
The duo dazzled the crowd as Charlotte (Raper) and Carmila (Han) from the anime movie “Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust.”
To see the winning skit, click here.
The prize came courtesy of the Yume Cosplay Prize, a competition to help one pair of cosplayers fulfill their dream of visiting Japan.
Han, an experienced cosplayer with a huge repertoire of costumes, said when thinking about entering the contest, she “mainly wanted to choose something not often seen and ‘fresh’ to the audience’s eyes. [...] I couldn’t stop thinking about Carmila and her bizarre character and costume design, with the football-ish shoulder and hip pieces, helmet hair, 15 foot train and giant sleeves etc. It was a fascinating costume and challenge.”
That challenge included over 50 total yards of fabric for the Carmila costume and 60 yards of black trim. Though Han has been making costumes since 1999 and is a well-known cosplayer often invited as a guest to conventions, she said Carmila “was definitely the craziest costume I’ve ever made. [...] I’ve never done so 
much hand sewing on a mannequin.”
Her partner, Raper, had a daunting sewing task ahead of her as well. Charlotte the Innocent took ivory Silk Crepe (costing $30 a yard), a lace front wig and hand-sewn beading detail.
Perhaps the most amazing element of all this is that Han and Raper coordinated the entire thing by phone and e-mail while living 12 hours apart.
“We talked about what we kind of wanted to do, but with the distance between us, Anna and I never were able to choreograph the performance until the Friday night of NYAF,” Han said.
You wouldn’t have guessed it by looking at the skit. Dramatic, gorgeous and perfectly choreographed, the ripple of awe stemming from the sight of the costumes extended even to the two overflow rooms where NYAF had to seat attendees watching the masquerade on video screens.
On the big day, the preparations began at 10 a.m. Han said it took two people and one hour to get her into that stunning Carmila costume.
“I don’t remember much after going on stage, as the adrenalin was rushing so high,” Han said. “But we knew we did not expect to win at all. In fact the whole time we worked on the costumes, we tried to NOT get our hopes up because this was bound to be an impressive contest.”
“And truly, there were so many amazing costumes and performances!” Han continued. “The Trinity Blood group had the most incredible costumes I had seen, probably ever. I got goose bumps during the D. N. Angel duo’s dance skit. It was so beautiful, and we were all holding our breaths and cheering for the Kaleido Star 
girls who did flips and gymnastics on stage, in costume and wigs! I mean, it was out of this world.”
Han said she grabbed her partner’s hand as they heard the winners being called up, cheering for those who won prizes like Best Craftsmanship and Best Performance. And when she heard her name called as the winner of the Yume Cosplay Prize:
“I didn’t hear anything after that and Anna and I both kind of jolted and somehow got up, and she had to hold my train and I was completely disheveled from sitting in a small chair for so long. Somehow we made it to the stage, I think I was trying no to cry, and they asked us to pose for pictures and all I could think of was that my costume was not laying flat. At some point we remembered to thank the Judges and then everyone started to leave but we were surrounded by friends who were congratulating us and press people wanting to interview us or take photos/interviews.”
Han said Monday morning that the shock of having won still hasn’t quite sunk in. Both she and Raper have never visited Japan.
“I just feel so thankful and grateful to everyone who helped us move around, Anna’s Fiance Alex who was the best costume handler ever, the nice stage crew, our friends who came to support, the photographers who took our pictures, the other contestants who were all so nice and not at all catty,” Han said. “It was the best contest experience I could have hoped for, and Anna and I are both so happy our hard work paid off.”
See more of Yaya Han at: http://www.angelicstar.net
See more of Anna Raper at: http://www.acparadise.com/acp/display.php?a=36865
Photos used with permission from: http://www.conpics.ws/wp/
September 28th, 2009 at 9:40 pm
Wow, very cool! Congrats to those ladies, who do amazing work!
September 28th, 2009 at 10:50 pm
Pretet good! Nothing like Pixelninja. But pretty good indeed!
October 8th, 2009 at 2:48 am
Yaya Han was a really good Carmilla and the prize is only thanks to her…Rapner was very bad as Charlotte. The dress is a mess and her hair was to simple.
October 14th, 2009 at 8:46 pm
Meier, where you there at the con to see Anna in person?? She looked amazing as Charlotte and her dress was perfectly constructed.