Award-winning cosplayer Yuji Koi is making the trek from Switzerland to South Africa for Comic Con Africa 2025. Yuji, who is originally from Vietnam, will be at the pop culture celebration, taking place at the JHB Expo Centre, on all four days (28 – 31 August). In addition to Main Stage appearances and fan interactions at her Cosplay Central booth, this veteran cosplayer, who took up the hobby in 2011, will be one of the judges for the twice daily Casual Cosplay Competition.
We were fortunate to sit down with Yuji when she was a special guest and judge at sister event Comic Con Cape Town earlier this year. In this interview we learn more about her cosplay journey, why she has avoided making her passion her full-time job, what the cosplay scene is like in Vietnam, and her tried and tested advice for cosplayers who want to start competing.
Thank you to the organisers of Comic Con Africa/Comic Con Cape Town and their PR team for facilitating this interview.
Noelle (Pfangirl.com): It’s really interesting that you’re originally from Vietnam. What is the cosplay scene there like?
Yuji Koi: I would say that it has been changing a lot since the time that I was starting to cosplay. There was no access to shops or anything. It wasn’t that easy to even buy a basic wig. So a lot of people actually just sprayed colour on their own hair to cosplay their character and then just tried to find whatever fabric they could. There was no different kinds of material like nowadays, so the accessibility of cosplay at that time was very limited. But now it’s completely changed.
You can actually live with cosplay as a job, and to be a cosplayer is something that you should be proud of because you can actually earn good money with that. So yeah, it’s getting crazy over there now.
What are the big events/conventions that provide opportunities for cosplay in Vietnam?
Yuji Koi: OK, so, in terms of conventions, it still cannot be compared to the scene in Europe at least. Like it’s just the size of, like, a flea market most of the time, with the stage and some competitions and everything, and you just walk around for like 10 to 15 minutes and you’ve already seen everything. So that’s the biggest it can be.
Otherwise, social media-wise, things are glowing up gradually. I’m starting to see some more Vietnamese names on the scene.
How did you get into cosplay?
Yuji Koi: I’ve been a big fan of manga and anime since I was a kid, like since I didn’t even know how to read letters yet. I had my nanny reading comics for me. Then at some point, when I was 15-16, suddenly I saw an article in the magazines about cosplay, which was featuring a very handsome looking female cosplayer, and I was like, “Oh, something like that exists?” I wanted to try it.
So yeah, I started to gather my first costume, and then go to my first convention ever. And I really liked it. People didn’t know that I was Vietnamese. They kept speaking English with me and my younger self liked that kind of attention. So yeah, it kept rolling from that moment until now.
How did you come to be based in Switzerland? Has that been beneficial for your cosplay journey?
Yuji Koi: So there was a time that I stopped cosplaying for a while to continue my higher studies and then after my graduation, I met my husband there [in Switzerland]. We got married, then I decided, “OK, yeah, I will stay here.”
As for Europe being better, in terms of more opportunities for your cosplay career, actually I don’t know. I think it’s the same, but of course I can take advantage and utilize the currency differences. When I was in Vietnam, I already got invited to many countries in the Southeast Asia area; now that I’m based in Europe, I will be invited more to European countries. I guess it’s kind of something special because there’s not so many Asian people there, so yeah, I’m kind of getting some advantages from that.
Is cosplay your full-time job, or do you do it around another profession?
Yuji Koi: I could have made it my full-time job, but I don’t want to. I would prefer not to. I still have my main job, which is a restaurant manager.
I don’t want to put that job stress on my hobby, so I would love to just keep it on the side and make it like my safe space. So when I’m stressed from my main job, I can always come back and crash over there.
When it comes to cosplay, is there a part of the process that you really enjoy e.g. sewing, prop making, wig styling, performance, photo shoots? On the flipside is there an aspect you still find challenging?
Yuji Koi: I would say I really enjoy wig styling and armour making. I don’t know, I just think that that skill fits me more and I can make a costume up way better, in short time, compared to sewing.
I hate making patterns for costumes. I’m always struggling at that step in the first place, but after you’ve got it done, then everything just rolls by itself.
How do you choose the characters you cosplay? Is there something that draws you to them?
Yuji Koi: I would say it starts with the first few seconds when you see a design and you’re like, “Wow, that looks so cool. I could totally fit in that.” Then I start to think about, “OK, this part is it too revealing?” or “Is it going to be comfortable to wear?” or “Is this feature, this hair colour, this eye colour, is it going to fit me? Will this kind of hairstyle fit my face or not?”
So it’s slowly, slowly like that, but you always think about all the aspects. You sort of look at yourself and the character, and mostly at appearance. When I was younger, I would think more about the character’s personality and stuff, but nowadays I think I have seen a lot of characters, so a special personality is not that special anymore for me.
Do you have a favourite cosplay of yours, to date? Anything that stands out as particularly special?
Yuji Koi: I have way too many, but yeah, it’s a very hard question to answer. I love all of my projects and obviously cosplay can take you to many different events.
On that note, is there a moment that is very special for you, such as a competition victory on stage, travelling somewhere, or even a smaller, quieter interaction in costume? What’s been a highlight for you?
Yuji Koi: I would say it’s the time, in 2017, that I qualified to join in the World Cosplay Summit (WCS), which is a gathering in Japan where you compete with more than 40 countries’ representatives from all over the world.
During that time, I made a lot of friends, a lot of connections that are were beneficial for me in my cosplay career, and I’m still benefitting from it. And yeah, it’s a very nice, one-of-a-kind experience.
If you ask me to compete again now, I don’t think with my age and my energy and my strength, I can do it anymore. I would just come back as an alumni, but yeah, it’s once in a lifetime experience that I cannot forget.
With your vast competitive experience, how about your top piece of advice for cosplayers wanting to enter competitions? What do you look for as a judge?
Yuji Koi: It really depends on the competition. Some competitions, they are focused more on performance and some are more focused on craftsmanship and some focus on both.
So you have to see which skill fits you more, and then you just choose the competition that is more to your favour. Then, yeah, choose the character that fits you and you think your skill can connect up with it. For sure it must be a character that you love very much because the process of making that costume will maybe kill the love that you have for the character [laughs].
Also, there are so many tutorials everywhere you can learn from for free, and ask other people for advice and experience as well.
Finally, do you have a dream bucket list project/cosplay build that you haven’t got around to yet?
Yuji Koi: It will be (Morde)kaiser from League of Legends. The costume is full armour, but I think the best materials for it should be a silicon kind of thing, which is going to be very expensive. So yeah, maybe one day, one day.
