One of the most satisfying glow-ups within LarpLikeRae's cosplay career is their Denki Kaminari cosplay by progressing and changing through challenges of their wig styling and growth! The progress of growth first started in 2020 and has now shown in their everyday cosplays due to the challenges of wig styling and learning with repetition. Rae says, "There's 2 main ways of learning: Repetition or Blunt force trauma. I'm glad I learned how to style wigs the repetition way."
One of the most rewarding outcomes from cosplaying is noticing your change, growth and knowledge from challenging yourself.
Evolution of Casual Denki
"When I look back at my cosplays from 2020 I tend to cringe (like most people do when they look back at their past). The cringing is just a part of learning, if I did not make those choices, I wouldn't of learned what I needed to, to be where I am today. Especially with hobbies and new skills I learned on the way by becoming a cosplayer."
"Denki Kaminari was one of my first challenging wigs, and I know for a fact that people will say 'It's just a lightning bolt' but it is a challenging feat for a baby cosplayer. My first ever time making this wig, I had teased it in the back and got sharpie to draw on the lightning bolt design. Of course this did not hold up and stained into a black blob within time. My second attempt was to cut out a piece of foam in a lightning bolt design and glue on black hair from an old wig, to attach it I ended up just bobby pinning it into place. For the back, I had teased and lightly styled the back and front into spikes. My third and final attempt was to get a brand new wig, trim the back into a shorter cut, and leave the front end pieces to chin length. More like a bob from a short back to long front. I parted the wig in the middle at first, laying over black clip on extensions. Next, simply cutting the black extensions into a lightning bolt design on the bottom/end and then flipping over the yellow wig to a side part to cover over the black extensions. I finally cut the yellow wig that was overlapping the black extensions into a lighting bolt design as well. To set the wig, I nearly used an entire can of hairspray and pins to keep it in place!"
"Due to all the changes in the wig for Denki, I had to use new tools and new skills I learned along the way. If it wasn't for learning and implying new skills to these wigs, I wouldn't of learned what I needed to do for some of my larger and more challenging wigs."
When the holiday season begins to creep up and you need to make content of a electricity based character, you combine Christmas lights with a Santa suit...
Santa Denki
"One of my favorite things to do when in need of making content and not knowing what character to do, I ask my followers. At this time of my cosplay career, I had asked my Patreon (when I still had it up and running) what character they desired. One of my Patrons 'IsLeafyyCosplay' had requested Denki. So, planning to already make a Santa jacket for my Bakugou, Dabi and Fatgum, I had simply gotten into the cosplay already made for the other characters. I took some wrapping paper and a huge cardboard box, and wrapped myself into a present, decorating it in Christmas Lights! This cosplay was posted on Christmas Day and sent as prints for that month to my Patrons. A huge thank you to Leafy for requesting this cosplay and inspiring me to bring this photoshoot to life!"
Electrifying their audience LarpLikeRae adds another trendy cosplay to their hashtag: My Princess Academia with a new cosplay of Princess Denki.
Princess Denki
"When given the opportunity to have a panel in 2023 at Metrocon (Tampa, Florida) I was ecstatic to know my my 'Princess Academia' panel was approved and accepted. The next thing to worry about was finding the cosplayers to make this a reality. It was not a hard feat to find friends that were willing to help me out by cosplaying characters to bring this panel to life, my next step however was to make 11 individual princess cosplays for each cosplayer to their measurements!"
"Princess Denki was one of those characters, I was able to dye all the fabrics together at one time in one huge batch to make them at even as possible. Denki was a fun addition to the bunch by adding accessories to him. The cosplay was one of the fastest ones done (given that I had 2 weeks to make all 11 cosplays). He is one of my favorite Princess cosplays to do now and honestly the comfiest!"