【#4-Part 1】Keekihime – Austrian cosplayer with a love for Japan –

～World Cosplayers～4th issue is about Austrian cosplayerKeekihime.
She is a very well known cosplayer in Austria and Germany.
Even though she prepared for her current life in Japan for 5 years, the current situation makes it quite difficult for her.

Keekihime is trilingual, being able to speak German, English and Japanese.
Actually she even has been translating the World Cosplayers articles to English, but she has many other talents aswell and active in many ways.
This article will be divided into 2 parts, in which she talks about all her activities and future goals.
Let's support charming Keekihime who came all the way to Japan to work as a cosplayer!

Activities in Austria

Yes.
Whenever I say I am from Austria, people would get excited thinking I mean Australia, but I am from Austria!
Sometimes I even meet Japanese people who don't know the existance of Austria, which saddens me a bit.
Vienna, where I lived until recently, is known as the capital of music, so many Japanese university students come for studies - but other than that there aren't many Japanese people living there.
Sometimes I get very excited hearing someone speak Japanese in the train, almost wanting to speak to them!

In the beginning I was active in Salzburg, and went to big events in Austria and Germany from there.
Austria is a small country, but there's also many events here, visited from anyone who has an interest in Japan or Asia.
Most of the Austrian cosplay community knows about me.

I was invited as a guest to an event in Brasil before, but actually in my own country I only was invited as a guest one time.
Even though people know about me, apparently they want guests from abroad.
I said "Thats unfair!! I am working in Japan so it's almost as if I am from Japan, so if you would invite me I am sure I could entertain well!" but I was told that it's just the rules... (laugh)

Speaking of work, I was a guest 2 times at Brasils biggest Anime convention "Anime Friends", which lead to me becoming an official cosplayer.

Other than that, I am the German and English voice actor and official cosplayer of a mascot called "Mesoko" from a company called Classmethod.
Classmethod is a Japanese company but they also have a base in Germany and Canada. It's a company which is pretty big in the AmazonWeb Service's business.
In the beginning I just did some translations for them, but since I also work as a singer and cosplayer, I sooner or later just turned into Mesoko completely and did everything as that character.
I was also invited to AWS Summit in Japan, where I was wearing Mesoko's outfit and representing the company.
We also released music on Amazon Music (and other music services), so please give it a listen.

Of course there is a huge difference in numbers of visitors, and Japanese conventions have many booths from corporations or independent circle booths, it's quite different overseas.
Usually they import stuff like plushies or food from Japan and sell them at the booths, but they are very expensive.
Ramen is also often being sold at the food stalls but they don't taste like real ramen at all. (laugh)
There's also cosplay shows and other program on the stages but it's a very different atmosphere from Japanese stage program.

Also, I usually don't even buy a ticket for the entrance, enjoying myself infront of the venue mostly.

Also, there's barely any rules about the costumes.
In Austria it's normal to change at home and go to the convention in full attire.
This is much easier than Japan! There's no stress involved.
In Japan you're in a tiny space inbetween hundreds of other cosplayers and have to do all your makeup and outfit changing with barely any movement possibilities... It's so difficult and gets me so stressed out!

In Austria they also don't do costume checks, you don't need to put on tights under your cosplay. If you are okay with what you are wearing, then there's no issue. (laugh)
It's not like I want to show more skin, but it's much more fun when there aren't too many rules.

To be honest it's extremely embarrassing for me.
Going all the way from home with the train or a bus in full cosplay, you get a lot of attention from other people. (laugh)
Overseas only people who are interested in Japan understand what cosplay is, there's a lot of people who don't get it. There's nothing you can do about the embarrassment when going to the venue, you just have to endure it. (laugh)

For big events like Comic Con, there's often advertisments in the city beforehand so many residents know that something is going on and they might see costumed people in the city, but for small events residents are often surprised when they see a cosplayer and say "What the heck are you wearing?"

For big events, some cosplayers who live far away on the country side or other cities come in costume riding the train for hours even. (laugh)
I asked my friends if they don't mind it, but apparently I am the only one who is so embarrassed by it.

In Japan everyone knows about cosplay, and events like comiket are always in the news, so I feel like there would be no issue with people going to events in costumes like overseas, but it has been forbidden for many years here.

Learning Japanese through Nico Nama

When I was around 14 years old my mother gave me a game called "Tales of Symphonia" for christmas.
I was so young back then and it seemed a bit scary and difficult to me so I only watched my brother play it, but I soon fell in love with the graphics and the character designs.
I looked it up on the internet and found out that it's a Japanese game, which made me interested in Japan.
From there on I grew fond of Japanese anime and music, and drawing art in the style of Japanese anime became my biggest hobby.
I liked everything about Japan, so in order to understand it better I decided to learn Japanese, but I am a very lazy person so I didn't want to take actual lessons.
I want to learn the language naturally!
There's a website called Nico Nico Douga which I found online, it's like Japanese Youtube. I thought if I stream there, I could find Japanese friends and get better at Japanese, so I started live streaming there.

Yes! But this is 10 years ago. (laugh)
Back then, the only foreign streamer was me, and all I could say was "Hello" or "Thank you" in Japanese. Even so, my first streams got 1,000 viewers!
Without knowing the language, with horrible streaming quality, from the beginning! (laugh)

But I didn't want to admit that I couldn't speak Japanese well yet.
I had some weird pride when I was 14. (laugh)
So during my streams I opened several tabs, and whenever there was a comment I couldn't read, I would copy it and paste it into my other tab to look up the reading and meaning of it - but act as if I knew it already.
Then everyone would react like "Wow! She can speak Japanese! She's so intelligent! Why can you read this?" - they told me I was smart which made me very happy!
Even though it was all fake. (laugh)

But thanks to that, everytime I read a word it wouldn't leave my memory.
I couldn't speak Japanese at all, but with every translation I picked it up naturally.
It's amazing right? I even thought it myself. (laugh)
Being complimented so much during my streams got me so excited so I got addicted to streaming.
I was sreaming every day, got very popular and was fluent in the language 1 year later.

I have many friends who try to learn Japanese.
Some even go to university for it many years and usually get fluent after like 5 years, but it only took me 1 year. Even I am fascinated about that myself. (laugh)

After all, it's very important to use the language you want to learn every day.
The way I learned the language might be close to doing a school exchange to overseas, since I was communicating in the language every day - I am sure that is the best way to learn a language.
But I also picked up many weird slang phrases and words, so in the beginning I often was told my Japanese is dirty...
Well, that's what you get. (laugh)

Origin of cosplaying was "Asuka"

This actually happened during my streams too, but there was a time where I had orange-ish long hair that looked like Asuka, and I even spoke German like her. So many people called me "Asuka!" because of that.
Then, a fan sent me a cosplay of Asuka to Austria.
I wore it in my stream, without a wig or lenses - but everyone told me "It's the real Asuka!" "Real Asuka!".
That is how I started cosplaying.
I was doing it every now and then, but I got really actively into it when I moved back to Austria after quitting my idol job in Japan.

Yes! Originally I got into Japan through games, but the reason I completely fell into weeb-hell was Japanese idols! (laugh)
I was especially into Hello!Project and was a real Otaku.
Everytime I went to Japan I would buy tickets off of Yahoo! Auctions, get the best seats and went to the concerts. There was a lot of money involved (laugh).
The best seat I got until now was second row!!!
Back then I was a bit famous in the Hello!Project fan community so sometimes people on the seat next to me would ask me "Are you Keekihime by any chance?". (laugh)

10 years ago I wanted to start making "odotte mita" (dance cover) videos - but since I was a smart child I knew I shouldn't use my real name. (laugh)
I tried thinking of a name that hasn't been used yet but can be remembered easily, so I connected my love for cake and my wish for becoming a princess. So with age 15, I decided on the name Keekihime.
I also thought of the chance that if I get famous, maybe someone will prepare a studio full of cakes and I would be able to have a photoshooting there!? After the photoshooting I could eat all the cakes!! (laugh)
This never came true though.
Maybe this year it will become reality.
It would be fun to be in an advertisment for all-you-can-eat-cake restaurants!

Summary

In the first part we learned about the Austrian cosplay community, Keekihimes activities, and the surprising story about her Nico Nama streaming days and Hello!Project Otaku phase.
Keekihime collaborated with us on our Youtube channel, so you can check out her fascinating Japanese skills picked up from Nico Nico Douga there!
In the second part she will talk about working as an idol, troubles of her first visits to Japan, and the things she wants to accomplish in her during stay in Japan - please look forward to it!

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