Cosplay Queen lives the life Jessica Nigri has gone from strength to strength since making Pikachu sexy nearly 10 years ago, writes
Dani McDonald.
It was the costume that made Jessica Nigri one of the biggest international cosplay celebrities, and she burned it to ash. The yellow Pikachu outfit that earned Nigri international status, the title ‘‘Queen of Cosplay’’, 4.7million Facebook fans, 2.8 million Instagram acolytes and 745,000 Twitter followers, was the first costume she had ever made.
‘‘Sometimes I’ll look at old outfits and I’ll just be like, ‘what was I thinking’?’’ she says.
‘‘I remember the first costume I made, I did a ceremonial burning because it was so bad. I was like ‘goodbyeeeee’.’’
Nigri wore her two-piece ‘‘sexy’’ Pikachu outfit to the San Diego Comic-Con in 2009 after being invited to the event by a friend.
At just the tender age of 20, Nigri, a former St Albans Catholic School student in Canterbury, was studying to become a nurse.
Those plans flew out the door and Nigri, with her bright yellow antlers, yellow bra and tiny skirt, became the most controversial cosplayer of her time because she made a genderless and children’s character sexy.
‘‘I know, it’s so weird, what are they getting mad about?’’ Nigri says when we discuss the idea of her sexualisation of traditionally male and non-gendered characters.
‘‘For me, I feel like women dominate the cosplay world and that’s amazing. Women are creative – men are creative, too, but because I’m pro girls doing anything they want with their 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 themselves sexually 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 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 Wellington’s Armageddon over Easter weekend.
Though she doesn’t realise the date when we talk on the phone.