About Odoriko

Hey guys! Welcome to Odoriko Cosplay! I will use this blog to post pictures of my cosplays including progress in acquiring needed parts and photoshoots alone and with friends, as well as pictures from cons. I have nothing new past 2010 because I need to focus on school, and the south has very few accessible cons.

Who is Samantha Odoriko?

I am 21 years old from New Jersey currently going to school in South Carolina to get my bachelor's degree in nursing. Since this requires a lot of time and focus I will not be getting any new cosplays or attending any cons until I graduate. Also most of the nearest cons are several hours away, and the two closest never seem to be on a good weekend for me, so there will be no new posts for a while. I will graduate in May and am looking to move back to NJ. Once I get settled I will be cosplaying more and attending cons once again. I will mainly be attending cons in New Jersey and New York and will occassionally travel to Pennsylvania and Maryland, depending on location, money, and who is going.

Why Odoriko?

One day I wanted to know what "dancer" means in Japanese, because I am a dancer, so I looked to Google Translate and "odoriko" was one of the words that came up. I don't know how true this is or how often it is used, but I have seen it in a few other places, and I liked the way it looks and sounds so I started using it as my dance and cosplay nickname.

How I got started

I first got into anime/manga in the spring of my junior year of high school. My new friend G liked it and I started noticing my other friends talking about it, so I wanted to see what it was all about. G started me on Inuyasha, and I was hooked right away. About a week or so later I saw it on Adult Swim that Saturday, and I was watching it, Bleach (another favorite of G's), and Death Note (my other friends' new favorite) every weekend, at least until the lineup changed haha. I wanted to read and watch more. That summer I read the first 23 volumes of Bleach in about a week or two and it instantly became my favorite series, and it still is. Then soon I heard about a convention in New York City...

My very first con was the New York Anime Festival 2008. I didn't have a cosplay yet, but I really wanted to go anyway. It is still my favorite con that I've been to. That may have to do with it being the very first, where everything is new and exciting and you just want to experience it all. A big group of us went Saturday and stayed pretty much the entire day. Even my dad came with us, and I think he had a pretty good time. He likes Death Note and Ryuk is his favorite character. My next con was New York Comic Con 2009. I went with S and her sister. S made me my very first cosplay: Sango from Inuyasha! S herself went as Kagome. I had everything but the right hair because we didn't have enough time to style the wig, but so many people asked for pictures throughout the day. Out of the 4 I have, she was the most popular. Since then I have been to AnimeNEXT 2009, Anime Expo 2009 (due to an opportune trip to LA), New York Anime Festival 2009, and Otakon 2010.

I was instantly attracted to cosplay because I love dressing up and wearing different costumes. I may have dance to thank for that. I usually pick a cosplay based more on the costume itself than the actual character, but most of the ones on my list are characters that I like. So far I have cosplayed as Sango, Nemu (Bleach; AnimeNEXT and Anime Expo), Female!Gokudera (Reborn!; NYAF 2009), and Madam Red (Kuroshitsuji; Otakon). Madam Red is my favorite and I cannot wait to do her again. You can view my wishlist here.

Some of my other interests include dance, KPOP, gaming, reading, writing, baking, traveling, and just hanging out. I also run dancingtotherhythmofkpop.blogspot.com, where I blog about my progress learning KPOP dances. Please check it out!

My Fellow Cosplayers

You may see these guys in many of my pictures: M, S, Kitty Cosplay, L, G, Kai Kai, T, SS, TZ, R, D

Comments
Constructive criticism is appreciated! Please let me know if I have any part of a costume that is inaccurate! However, comments such as "You suck/Your cosplay sucks/You shouldn't be cosplaying/You're ugly/You need to lose weight/etc" are NOT appreciated. I don't cosplay for you, I cosplay for me. "You suck/Your cosplay sucks" do not help me determine what I need to do to make it better. "You need to lose weight" is not helpful in the least. I already know I need to lose weight, so you wouldn't be telling me anything new. You don't have to like my cosplays, but you don't need to be rude.

So if you've continued this far, thanks for reading everything! I hope you enjoy my blog!