SAC Anime Circle hosts their annual Cosplay Day to celebrate Halloween

A homeless motivational speaker, a UA high school student, and the Ultimate Lucky Student walked into classroom N-117. It may seem like a random event is taking place. In reality, just a few students are having lots of fun showing off their cosplay.

The Wednesday before Halloween, SAC Anime Circle held the annual ‘Cosplay Day’. Club members show up to this meeting wearing their cosplay, acting in character and have a contest where they vote for the best cosplay. The winner receives bragging rights and a $20 Nintendo eShop gift card. Non-members could also participate if they were interested

Cosplay Day has been a staple for the SAC Anime Circle for almost a decade. Marr has been the advisor since 2015 when the club started

“We’ve had cosplay day pretty much since the beginning. We also had a maid/butler cafe a while back, and club members made their own outfits,” said John Marr, Assistant Professor of Music at SAC, and Advisor for the SAC Anime Circle.

Each member in the event, about 10 participants, votes for who has the best cosplay. In the end, Angel Torrez, SAC Alumni and former president of SAC Anime Circle got the most votes, winning him the gift card for his portrayal of Nagito Komaeda, from Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, a 2012 visual novel.

“I chose the character I’m cosplaying because Nagito is one of my favorite characters from the Danganronpa series of games,” Torrez said.

Runner-ups included Pedro Garcia wearing a UA Gym training uniform from My Hero Academia, and yours truly as Matt Foley, or Chris Farley, from Saturday Night Live.

When it comes to how difficult or simple it is to prepare your cosplay, it depends on who or what you are trying to portray. Garcia had no difficulty searching for his outfit because “I went to Amazon and bought it,” he said.

Torrez needed more time to prepare his outfit. “From the time I ordered the costume online, I already had a pair of pants that were similar to what the character wore, so all I needed were the shirt, jacket, and wig,” he said.

Cosplay is not just a once-every-year thing. People also like to wear cosplay at different events yearly for fun, such as pop culture conventions like Comic-Con, BlizzCon, and Anime Expo. Sometimes not even at events.

“I’ve had students in the past who would wear cosplay to class, just because,” Marr said.