In their Sunday best

When it comes to cosplay, girls usually dress up as the sexy, feminine characters from their favourite Japanese mangas or animes.

But local cosplayer Maria Tachi went against the norm yesterday during the Asia Cosplay Meet.

Taking the stage as Calmaramon, a grotesque squid-like beast, the 28-year-old hammed it up with growls and flailing tentacles, attracting cheers from the crowd.

One audience member even shouted: "I love you, Maria!"

She and her teammates Kasumi and Christy Bell represented Singapore at the cosplay competition held over the weekend, as part of the DBS Marina Regatta.

'BIGGEST IN ASIA'

Billed as "the biggest cosplay competition in Asia", the two-day event at Marina Bay attracted teams from across Asia, including countries such as Thailand and the Philippines.

It also featured Japanese cosplay idol Kaname.

Despite the rain during yesterday's final round, spirits were high as fans in costumes of their own craned their necks to catch the action on stage.

Team Singapore performed a skit as characters from the anime series Digimon Frontier.

Christy started the skit as a young male character who "transforms" into Lowemon before disappearing backstage and returning in a different costume as the fairy-like Kazemon.

The trio, who go by their cosplay monikers, declined to reveal their real names.

They spent about two months designing and crafting their costumes and props, which included an elaborately-sewn body piece and tentacles for Maria's character. They spent about $1,500 for the two-day event.

Maria, who has been cosplaying for 14 years, said her moniker comes from the name of the first character she ever portrayed, Maria Tachibana.

The character is from the Sakura Wars series, which started out as a video game. It is now a media franchise which includes anime and merchandise.

"The hardest part (of preparing for the competition) was actually coordination and time management," Maria said, adding that since she and Christy have full-time jobs, they had only evenings and weekends to work on their costumes.

Despite their best efforts, they failed to clinch the top spot in the competition, which went to Team Philippines.

Portraying characters from the Tiger & Bunny anime series, the team walked away with the top prize of $2,000.

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The hardest part (of preparing for the competition) was actually coordination and time management.

- Local cosplayer Maria Tachi, whose team represented Singapore in last weekend's competition