Nineteen-year-old Marina emerges from a nearby bathroom. Downer shouts up the stairs to Shannon, “That reporter is here!” There is heavy emphasis on the word that. She talks to the cat in a high-pitched baby voice. She introduces me to a housecat stretched out on the carpet.
Two shiny crucifixes hang around her neck. Downer wears a full-length denim skirt and a plaid blouse buttoned all the way up. Downer, Shannon’s mother (who does not offer her first name), answers the door after one knock and ushers me inside. Everything looks identical in Shannon’s Spring Valley subdivision, all beiges and stuccos, with the types of yards that gardeners maintain. I have a hard time finding the Downers’ home. “You can come,” she said, “but you need to be at my house at 8:00 a.m. Nevertheless, I managed to talk Shannon into following through with the interview. Loaning out costumes is not something they do. Anime fans dress the way they do because they are passionate about it. According to Shannon’s cosplaying friend, Marina MacDonald, “That is just not how cosplay works.” She said this with a heavy sigh, making it clear that I just don’t get it. As a result, on Friday night, with less than 12 hours until the cosplay event, she called off our interview.
“So I can be part of the experience,” I explained.įrom the tone of Shannon’s written response, it was clear she was not pleased with my request. Of course, I should be dressed as an obscure Japanese comic-book character, like everyone else at the Balboa Park cosplay meeting.įive days earlier, I’d emailed 19-year-old Shannon Downer, a diehard cosplayer (“cosplay” is short for “costume play”) who agreed to allow me to tag along with her at Saturday’s event. When I asked my husband what he thought, he said, “If you’re trying to look like a kindergarten teacher, or one of those freaky twins from The Shining, it works.” Last night, I scoured my closet, the goal being an outfit that may or may not be read as a costume. A large bow decorates the neckline - I am going for an Alice in Wonderland look. Fleet Science Center among a group of costumed anime fans, and I am wearing Mary Janes paired with a powder-blue dress in an old-fashioned bicycle print.
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