Cosplay help!

[telophase]

No, I'm not cosplaying. :) This is the Seekrit Project I mentioned the other day: I'm starting to create a database of characters to cosplay as, with a list of characteristics in stupidly fine detail, that I can use to feed into a quiz/form that people can fill out to get back a list of suggestions of character to cosplay as. Woo, aren't you excited?

Anyway, I now need your help to feed data into it! I have created a Google Docs form to fill out for each character that feeds the answers into a spreadsheet (currently private), which I will then run some basic authority control on (spelling, standardizing names of series, etc.) and then import it into a database which I will be creating shortly. :)

There has been MUCH discussion under filter as to what characteristics should and should not be in the database, and how to handle them. I am arbitrarily declaring RIGHT NOW as the point after which I will no longer add or remove characteristics for version 1.0 of the quiz. Feel free to chime in with your opinion and I'll happily consider it, but if it affects the structure of the database or the form, it'll wait until Version 2.0. Make sense?

I would LOVE YOU TO DEATH if lots of the people who will read these words would take the time to add a few characters to the spreadsheet using this form. Yes, it is indeed stupidly long, which is why I hope that many many of you just add a couple of characters each, which would mean I'd have many many many many characters in there!

I figured out how to make a separate Google Docs spreadsheet that contains just a few columns from the original spreadsheet so I could make it public (I'm guarding the other one because it has potentially identifying info from submitters in it, which I will not make public), in order that you could tell what characters are already in there. I am not sure how often it refreshes, so it may be a few minutes behind the actual spreadsheet. You can find that lurking behind this link.

If you need more clarification on what I mean by a particular entry on the form, or if the character has an edge case that you can't decide one way or the other on, feel free to let me know.

And, really, THANK YOU VERY MUCH. I truly do appreciate any time you may give to this project. THANK YOU!

Comments

[affreca.livejournal.com]

Signal boosting to a couple of my cosplaying friends.

[wistfulmemory.livejournal.com]

This is a brilliant idea. I've passed it on and will be adding to the list.

[golden-bastet.livejournal.com]

I have never cosplayed, but I just wanted to say that this is an *awesome* idea.

...And now I have to figure out costumes for Abenobashi Magical Shopping Arcade, LOL.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Yes, Utena's uniform is different in the manga and anime versions -- similar cut but different colors. And then there's the movie version which is yet another design...

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

OK, after playing with this new version, a few thoughts for 2.0:

For "character role", maybe add in a neutral/background/DNA option? Some very minor supporting characters are popular enough to get cosplayed but are difficult to class as protagonist/antagonist -- they may not be actively opposing the heroes, but they're not really helping them, either; they're just sort of there. (In A:tLA, which is what made me think of this, Chong, Lily and the hippies could fit into the protagonist slot, since they do try in their spaced-out inept way to help the Gaang; and Cabbage Man can technically count as an antagonist, since in his first appearance he does try to get the Gaang tried for damaging his cart; but how would you class someone like Foamy (http://avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Foaming_Mouth_Guy)?)

Secondly, since you've now split character gender identy and outside perception of their gender presentation into separate questions, for clarity's sake you might want to put in something for the identity question specifically mentioning canonical trans characters. (For examples, Yoshiki Kitazawa in Gravitation and Aoi Futaba in You're Under Arrest, both MtF, Yellow has a couple of MtF characters as well. I can't think of any likely cosplay-bait FtM characters off the top of my head, alas, and for trans characters who don't explicitly identify as binary male or female the only suggestion I can think of is maybe Asia the Invincible from the wu xia film The East Is Red/Swordsman III. (Originally male-bodied character, magically physically transformed as a side effect of a magical Scroll of Ultimate MacGuffin Powah, switches back and forth between male and female dress, etc. -- other characters refer to post-transformation Asia as a woman, but IIRC it's rather ambiguous as to whether Asia's own sense of identity is male, female, or neither/both/other...)

Also, FYI, you've got two typos in the new "gender-confounding" section at the end -- "counfounding" in the bit about Count D, and "enver" in the bit about Leon.

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

That's a cool idea and I'll definitely get cosplayinamerica.com to link to it (at leas ton Facebook or something) once you get it up ;)

[lenina.livejournal.com]

Hello, I found your link through a friend and just wanted to let you know this is an awesome idea. I'll pass it on to my cosplaying friends. :D