Youji Kudou


I've had a blast Cosplaying at many cons as Youji. My first try was a bit of a flop at Fanimecon 1999, because I was alone and my costume, literally, was stapled together. But, I had so much fun at the following cons, because I had fellow cosplayers to make me stick out. Anime Expo there was Aya [Jey Kama] and Ken [Kamui Shirou] to make me more noticable. We got stopped ever few feet to get photographed in the dealers rooms. If you have pictures of any of us, please, send me them!! ^_^
I went to AWA 5 and cosplayed Youji as well and finally we had all of Weiß together, even thought poor Ken [played by Jimmy Taylor] was almost slaped together. Jey Kama again was Aya and Gilda Santiago was Omi. ^_^ AWA 5 was the last convention I intended to go to as Youji, but I hauled it to Fanimecon '00 on a whim and wore it with a Weiß group there who was consequently missing just Youji. ^^;; I had a lot of fun, and we even karaoked (albeit BADLY). At Fanimecon 2000 Aya was played by Sam, Omi was his younger [yet TALLER] brother and Ken was Logan. My hair is too long for Youji now [and then], so it's a retired costume, although I might try whipping it out on occasion.
The first image below is when I attended FanimeCon '99 in my "Half-ass" Youji costume. The rest are shots of me and the other cosplayers from the consequent cons. Click the image to enlarge.


Fanimecon 1999:
Me as Youji Kudou at Fanime Con 99

Anime Expo 1999:
Jey as Aya, Van as Youji, Kamui as Ken at AX 99 Jey as Aya, Van as Youji, Kamui as Ken at AX 99 Me as Youji before leaving to AX 99 Me as Youji and Jey as Aya before leaving to AX 99 Me as Youji w/open coat before leaving to AX 99

Anime Weekend Atlanta 5 (1999):
Jey as Aya, Jimmy as Ken, Van as Youji, Gilda as Omi Gilda as Omi, Jey as Aya, Van as Youji, Jimmy as Ken Jey as Aya, Van as Youji Van as Youji smoking a cig Jey as Aya, Van as Youji, Jimmy as Ken, Gilda as Omi

Fanimecon 2000 (F2K):
Van as Youji, Sam as Aya, Logan(?) as Ken, Sam's brother as Omi croaking to Velvet Underworld Van as Youji, Sam as Aya, Logan as Ken, Sam's brother as Omi Van as Youji, Kamui as Birman *_* (I'm so lucky)

Check the CG Images for more Weiß & Van-as-Youji images.


Youji Kudou
I made this costume intially for Fanimecon 1999 but it was thrown together terribly. The piece was finished and worn completed to Anime Expo 1999, as well as AWA 5 in Atlanta in October (1999) and again for a nice close, at Fanimecon 2000. My main change for the costume was the cut in my hair. My best friend Jey [who played Aya] and I both are/were really in to Weiß kreuz and since I resembled Youji the most and Jey resembled most Aya we both hacked our hair to their lengths and cosplayed as them at both AX '99 and AWA 5. ^_^; Anyway, my dresss/coat/smock thing Youji wears was just an ankle-length black trenchcoat that I bought at Hot Topic for the sole purpose of editting into Youji's shigoto fuku. Jey and I editted it massively to a rehaul of manga Youji's. We removed the collar and installed a black zipper down the front. We added a high "neck" collar piece that zipped as well. I removed the cuffs, pockets and hacked about 5 inches off the bottom and hemmed it. I also sewed on the while cross stripes on the arms. I bought nice black slack pants and a belt to wear for the cons which I wore. I also painted the boots I'd used in a previous year from my Sailorjupiter costume from green to black and wore them. They have a slight heel but otherwise make a pretty good replica of Youji's boots [they match him better than they matched Jupiter, and they boosted me afew needed inches]. At Fanimecon 2000, I wore the same 3" platform boots I had for my Touga costume and it helped me be tall enough to pass as Youji. I bought a pair of black satin gloves and hacked them at the wrist and hemmed them to get my gloves. They worked lots better than the cotton winter gloves I'd used at Fanimecon 1999. I bought a similar watch to his and wore it all the time atop the gloves. It was nice, since I had a watch [unlike Aya]. For the under shirt, I went to JC Penny's and bought a black tanktop [in June, for like, $6.99, it was great] and hacked the sleeves off and hemmed that. Then I hacked the shirt to a midrif and hemmed that. Afterwards we brought the shirt in so it wasn't baggy. What else? Oh, sunglasses are my normal sunglasses, I usually wear them atop my head a la Youji-style. To make up for the cigarette? I intially was going to have Jey just buy me a real pack [as I was still 17 for AX 99], but we ran out of time, so the morning of AX, I took computer paper coloured the bottom inch orage-yellow with a marker and rolled myself two cigarettes. They worked amazingly well, and several times I had to give them up for inspection by AX officals. ^^; Lastly, I bought a pair of tiny silver hoops at a jewerly store months ago, that I've been wearing since, and called it good. The night before AX, Jey used a pen and tatoo'd Youji's tatoo on my arm, but unfortunately after wearing my trenchcoat outside all day in the hot July sun of California, my persperation more or less wore it all off. ^^;;
This costume was also worn to AWA 5 and Fanimecon '00.


Cast list per con as follows:

Fanimecon 1999:

Youji -- Van Donovan

Anime Expo 1999:

Youji -- Van Donovan
Aya -- Jey Kama
Ken -- Kamui Shirou

Anime Weekend Atlanta 5:

Youji -- Van Donovan
Aya -- Jey Kama
Ken -- Jimmy Taylor
Omi -- Gilda Santiago

Schuldich -- Midori Branwen

Fanimecon 2000:

Youji -- Van Donovan
Aya -- Sam
Ken -- Logan
Omi -- Steven (I think, Sam's brother)

Birman -- Kamui Shirou


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