Please welcome this year's Masquerade Judges!
LarpLikeRae is a Southern Arizona based cosplayer who works with prop building, sewing, editing and film making. After finding their passion for cosplaying and bringing characters to life, LarpLikeRae has created over 200 cosplays and counting within only 5 years. Taking character development to an exciting level, they began to cosplay more as side characters or outfits that are beyond the series itself. By creating a new series which helped their cosplay career, LarpLikeRae created Princess hero versions from My Hero Academia including: Princess Bakugou, Midoriya, Todoroki, Aizawa and many others. Not stopping here, LarpLikeRae continues to create versions of characters that are unique and never seen before! Most of thier well known cosplays from social media may include: Princess Bakugou, Fatgum, Thrawn, Mina Ashido, LaBrava, and finally Chili & Pepper. Outside of cosplaying, LarpLikeRae is known for their tattoos and occasionally will combine the two together. Creating tattoo sessions while in cosplay, getting a full in character experience with tattooing. Please welcome LarpLikeRae and feel free to say hello!
Cake Monster Cosplay, is a multi award winning and published costume designer local to the AZ cosplay community. She first taught herself how to sew at 13 years old after a life changing sports accident and fell in love with cosplay at 15. She later studied costume deigning at university. She specializes in working with texturized fabrics that gives a cosplays a realistic feel and recently started getting into armor builds.
Pros and Cons Cosplay are twin Master-level cosplayers from the Midwest in the United States who have a strong understanding of cosplay construction, cosplay competition and diversity, equity, and inclusion. They have competed and won numerous awards for cosplay craftsmanship and performance and focus on complex builds with multiple design elements including needlework, formwork, wig styling, and intricate detailing. Most recently, Pro won the title of USA winner of the Crown Championships of Cosplay for 2022. They are dedicated to making the cosplay community a safe and inclusive space for all, and work personally and professionally on developing inclusive cosplay contest policies, educating the community on bystander intervention techniques, social justice and inclusion in the cosplay and costuming community.
Our Masquerade MC this year will be Supa Lani-Chan! From the islands to the desert, Lani "Supa Lani-Chan" Villanueva is an entertainer, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and music educator from Tucson, Arizona. Over the last 21 years, Lani has picked up over 53 instruments and can comfortably play 19 of them! On top of that, she serves as the Managing Director of Tucson's musical revue group "One Rehearsal Short" and was recently named the 2023 Director's Award recipient at Miss Arizona USA competing as Arizona's first ever "Miss Aloha Tucson USA" In May 2023, Lani was also one of 20 people selected across the country to play in the first North American Taiko Taikai in Little Tokyo in California. Lani has provided entertainment and programming for Monkey Paw Entertainment since 2012 and is super stoked to continue to bring high energy to her "backyard con" here in Tucson! When she's not busy with music or cons, she's either watching cartoons/anime, playing Dance Dance Revolution, playing games on her Switch, or probably at Disneyland with Austin!
Supa Lani-Chan and Austin Allison will also be performing our Masquerade Halftime Show!
The Masquerade will be Saturday evening at 8:00pm in the Main Events. https://www.con-nichiwa.com/programming/panel/view/3q4srqln0svghz
Online Masquerade registration will close Sunday, October 29th at Midnight. You can register here: https://www.con-nichiwa.com/programming/panel/view/3q4srqln0svghz
At con registration will be available if openings are available at the Cosplay Desk on Friday and Saturday.