Cosplay Queen lives the life
Jessica Nigri has gone from strength to strength since making Pikachu sexy nearly 10 years ago, writes Dani McDonald.
lives, with their businesses, with their bodies. I think a woman should be entirely 100 per cent in control of their body and they should not think negatively about expressing them-selves sexually MATT BARNES PHOTOGRAPH or whatever. ‘If you are over 18, you should be able to do whatever you want with your body.’’
Her sexualisation of Pikachu whipped Cosplay into the mainstream, she’s gone on to MATT BARNES PHOTOGRAPH sexualise traditionally male characters, including Freddy Krueger, Mario (from Mario Brothers) and even even Ziggs – a cute little Gremlin-looking troll from League of Legends, an online battle arena video game.
She has also feminised Nathan Drake, a video character created for the Uncharted video game series.
‘‘There are so many video games where these male characters are the main character and I relate so much more to the main character than I do with any of the side female characters,’’ Nigri says.
‘‘And I’m like, ‘why can’t I do Nathan Drake?’ I know there’s the equivalent like Lara Croft, but I really like Nathan Drake and I wanted to do Nathan Drake.
‘‘Likewise, there were no female assassins in the Assassin’s Creed franchise, until two or three years ago. ‘For the longest time, that franchise was predominantly male and I was like, ‘that’s not cool – I love Assassin’s Creed, I can’t relate to this, so I’m going to make it my own’.
‘‘So it was very much a relatability/empowering thing, because I feel like there should just be a little bit more representation of strong female women in video games industry.
‘‘IT’S actually been happening more lately and I love it. but at the beginning, people were like, ‘what are you doing?’ I’m like, ‘having a good time, leave me alone’.’’
Nigri was born in the United States to a New Zealand mother, but spent her formative years on this side of the world. She is now based in Arizona, but still comes ‘‘home’’ to visit her cousins.
Her sudden rise to fame has never quite sunk in for the now 28-year-old, who is returning to New Zealand to feature in