Best Overall Craftsmanship (AUSA 2002)
Great Stage Presence (AUSA 2002)

"I will never cosplay from an anime I have not seen or a game I have not played." Funny how one should never say never. This outfit was planned as a way to get a friend of mine into cosplay, by bribing him into doing his favorite video game. His costume (Alfonso) fell through, but Ramirez and Belleza were finished in extremis, through a lot of late night panicked sewing, on Akon friday morning.

I chose Ramirez for his prettyboy looks and his white hair, but also because of his dashing Spanish Conquistador look... but also without thinking through how I would walk with his metal 'clogs' either. Big mistake. (See 'Seed and stairs' replace 'Seed' by 'Ramirez'.) I did, eventually, get used to it, and climbed a tree (on a dare) at AX.

As a funny (anecdotal) construction note, the leather straps clipped on Ramirez's top, and the belt buckles on the cuffs were, once, a pair of $1 dog collars. I still remember trying to poke holes through the thick leather as a break from the painstaking process of sewing the gold piping for the sleeves. (Each sleeve took about three hours of work.)

Since Ramirez is a rather obscure character, I was certain no one would recognize me. And I was wrong. This costume was more popular at Akon than Rosiel the year before. It also has the distinction of fooling a lot of girls (brave enough to admit it to me) into thinking I was a hot guy. But more than that, I had the luck to meet up with other Skies of Arcadia cosplayers both at Akon and AX. I still want to disembowel a Vyse though...