New costume under construction- Yuma from Claymore

In September we are going to attend to Tracon and again I felt that I could use a new costume to debute. Actually I started my current project last spring when I was waiting for a confirmation that I could compete in Eurocosplay Qualifiers. I had Amira half ready and needed something to craft while waiting the reply from my manager. I wanted to make an armor costume to balance out the embroidery heavy Amira.

I returned to series called Claymore. It’s basically a shounen manga with half-human, half-monster warriors who all are female, have huge swords and are more or less kick-ass chicks. The warriors called Claymores work for The Organization, where all the leading positions are taken by men. The Claymores are deployed from requests to destroy Yomas, human eating demons who can take the form of a human being.

The character I chose is Yuma, ex-Claymore who is one of the independent warriors who fled from The Organization after truly devastating encounter with more developed Yomas. The conflict had really shady traits which made the seven surviving Claymores to hide their presence and to evade confronting The Organization. The Claymores in The Organization named the seven warriors who vanished from the battlefield as Seven Ghosts, because their bodies were never found.

Yuma was ranked as number 40 in her time in the Organization. And with 47 ranks in the troops there were only seven Claymores who were weaker than her. Yuma feels insecure and powerless amongst the group of ex-Claymores she travels and trains with. After the seven year time skip from the decisive battle it’s made clear that she can easily fight with higher ranked Claymore’s with ease. The underdog setting Yuma has is also one reason why I like her so much. She gains skills and confidence during their encounters, but also remains bit awkward with people and still sometimes underestimates herself compared to the other warriors.

As the opposite of the white uniform the regular Claymore’s wear, The Seven Ghosts have black outfits with light armor with individual looks and styles. I think that they each chose how to equip themselves based on their fighting abilities and self-confidence. Yuma’s outfit is one of the more conservative ones in the group and she has many pieces of armor even if in real life they wouldn’t protect much, but I guess that is just how fictional armors work. Yuma is also a defensive type fighter, which might refer to her “heavy” armor compared to the offensive types who have only few pieces of armor for agility and speed.

Wow, that was probably the longest introduction of a cosplay character I have ever written. But Yuma deserves it! As I said, I like her a lot! Maybe that’s why the costume is almost done already...

I’ve made the armor and the bodysuit and styled the wig. I also did an early make-up test and have started with the sword, which is something I have never done from scratch! I’ve even used some crazy powertools! So I have sword making ahead, sewing the cape and buying new contact lenses. Then that should be it!