MYXtv's Call to Cosplay

MYXtv (US Asian TV channel) is having their own cosplay-based show, which is also airing on Crunchyroll (first week is subscribers-only, it'll go open to everyone the next week). I'm watching the first episode as I type, but from what I hear, it's kinda an Iron Cosplay-meets-Face Off competition show.


The first episode seems to be an introduction episode, where we're being introduced to the participants, judges, and rules.

The rules for this are that they have 8 hours, a $100 budget, and can have 1 assistant. They're also going to be given a "mystery item" that they have to incorporate into their build. The judge (apparently there's only 1? the show kept using "judges" but she was the only one we were introduced to) says that she's made sure that all of them can be used, and uses plastic clothes hangars or a can of beets as examples of what they might be. Each week'll also have a theme (sports anime, armor, etc)

The judges are judging on 4 criteria:
Craftsmanship - How well the costume's put together
Creativity - Both how the costume's made and how the "mystery item" gets used
Authenticity - How much does it match the character
"Wow" Factor - In-character personality, attention to detail, and making judge fangirl (not "gimmick" as HoC defines it)


According to the Variety article I found, there'll be 6 episodes with 2 people competing against each other. It looked like there were 8 participants (I wasn't counting, but it looked like 6 girls and 2 guys), so I'm guessing the first 4 will be "elimination", and the finale the final 4 on a bigger project (since episode 1 was intro).


Nothing really happened yet, but already it seems to be more about the "spirit" of cosplay (many of the cosplayers pointed out that they cosplay characters because they like them as characters and like their personalities, not because of how they look, as well as cosplaying to have fun) than Heroes of Cosplay, as well as going to show much more about making stuff than what little we get on HoC.

I believe it airs on Mondays on MYXtv, and Tuesdays on CR, with a week delay for non-subscribers.

Just now finished watching the first episode. Junkers is probably the biggest name of the group because of his League cosplays that you see everywhere and he does commissions for a lot of other fairly well known cosplayers. I like the format in which they have a time limit, set budget and the mystery item that has to be incorporated into the costume. So we'll see how resourceful and productive they are under these constraints.

At first, when various footage was being shown, there were very well known cosplayers (Vampy, Electric Lady and a few others) that I saw and at first, I thought some of them would be on the show.

I honestly don't know any of these supposed "famous" cosplayers, on either C2C or HoC. I'd only heard of Yaya Han because of the crap she pulled at Katsucon the other year. I only attend one convention, and they don't pay for non-industry guests of honor. The cosplayers I know are ones I've met personally at con, and none of them would be on either of the shows, because we all like putting lots of time and effort into our costumes (or, they cheat and import the official Tokusatsu clothing from Japan because they have the money for it... stupid Bandai robbing our wallets for all our fancy trinkets!).

Second episode is finally up on Crunchyroll. Today is Miss Macross vs Yirico, challenge is "Shounen Manga", mystery item is an electronic desk fan, they have $100, and 8 hours.

It seems like they're doing the contest in 2 parts. Part 1 is "creation" and is worth 40 points (20 each creativity and authenticity), and the final episode will be the "showcase", and it's worth 60 points (20 for one, and 40 for the other category).


Looks like the costumes are Yura from Inu-Yasha (that's shounen?) and Anemone from Eureka Seven.

Amusingly, the judge gave the girls this challenge to try to get them to crossplay or be the "hero" instead of the "damsel in distress". And both picked female villains.

They are showing a lot of the construction of the costumes, which is awesome, and very much appreciated, compared to HoC.

Oh, hey, we have more judges now!

Anemone turned out really nice.

Yura I'm assuming probably looked nice, but we never saw her in it, which was a shame. I get that it was "finished", but if you can't have it on by the deadline, because paint is drying, I'm not really sure I'd consider it finished.

I am 8 minutes into the first episode and I don't know if I can watch any more of this. Their voices are almost as annoying as their inability to give a good interview. They are all loaded with 'Uhm' and 'Like' and 'Uh.'

Watching episode 3, we've got a Magical Girl challenge, $100 budget, 8 hours, and canned beats as the mystery item.

Looks like the costumes are an original costume vs Sae from Mahou Tsukai Tai

Not entirely thrilled with the judge comparing magical girls to "girly power rangers" and how it has "pink and glitter and frills".

Also not happy that one of the competitors is buying a store-made witch hat, unless she's using it as a base for something else and needs it for the stuff in the rim to hold it. I mean, I get you're on a time limit, and I have no problem myself with using existing clothes (which someone's using as well), but for a competition like this? I'd frown on it as a judge. Also worried that someone's doing the competition sewing by hand. I hope that she can get it done.

I really disagree with the judges on Wednesday's costume. I thought it was mostly adding fabric onto existing clothes (not creative), and if her only real use of the canned beets was to shove it into a (poorly made) cloth bag to give it "shape", that's just lazing out.

Interesting to see them do a "non-Japanese" theme, and coffee and filters can be very useful (still 8 hours/$100 for the limits).

Harley Quinn and a version of American McGee's Alice are the costumes being done.

OHAI DER, SHOPPING AT JO-ANN! I haven't seen those signs... since I got off work 3 hours ago.

This episode is pleasing me a lot more than last week's, with miss "I don't use a sewing machine, so I'm just gonna hand tack fabric onto existing clothes" (that still bothers me, a week later).

Painting over hot glue is an interesting trick, I'd never thought of doing that before.

Overall, I'm still enjoying this a lot more than HoC. Yeah, it's obviously low budget, and it's awkward since people aren't used to being on camera, but it doesn't feel fake and set-up like HoC does, and I like watching them actually make the costumes.

I will have to subscribe to this thread and check out the show.

Alpha Proto said:

I will have to subscribe to this thread and check out the show.

Click to expand...

There are 2 more episodes to go. The final head-to-head (I believe it's likely to be armor-themed, since both the remaining 2 were said to do a lot of armor/mech costumes), and then the final episode where they actually present their costumes and are judged on their showmanship.

Every time I read the title to this thread I think it says "MTVx's Call to Coldplay," which is very, very confusing.


Carry on.

2nd to last episode. Hey, we've got our only male competitor this time! Fantasy character, tupperware container, and the usual $100/8 hours.

Vincent (Final Fantasy) and an original character

Bondo got mentioned, so we're gonna get builds this time, rather than just fabric. And another "let's use existing clothes as a base". Normally it wouldn't bother me (I do it, too), but in a competition it bothers me, especially when the judges don't mark it down as compared to the ones making everything from scratch.

Wow, shopping at something other than Jo-Ann...

KITTY! Okay, sorry, got distracted... He's sure got a nice space to work in, though.

Using the fire on the cape made it turn out really well. I love that the Vincent costume's being put on a dress form, too, so we can actually see it put together.

The original character... looks like a closet cosplay. It doesn't look like 8 hours of work, and it's clearly not done. She didn't finish it, though, so she should be disqualified for not finishing.

So, we're to the final week, where we get to see the costumes in action.

First up: Vash Fanatic as Alice from American McGee's Alice. I think she's pulled it off pretty well, despite not knowing the character. The costume looks good, and she seems to pull off the character pretty well. Her final scores are Creativity 18, Authenticity 19, Craftsmanship 18, Showmanship 37, for a total of 92/100

Second: Celeste Orchid as Sei from Magic Users Club. I don't know this character either, but it just feels like a generic "geeky girl" to me. My roommate's seen the show, and feels that her costume's falling off her too much. Her final scores are Creativity 19, Authenticity 18, Craftsmanship 16, Showmanship 36, for a total of 89/100

Pre-CM says there's a "mystery cosplayer" being added in, dunno what this is about. Post-CM says that it's Johnny Zabate, who had a theme of Heavy Metal Armor, mystery item of play dough, and the same 8hrs/$100 as the others. Playdough is an easy "mystery item". He's picking Guts (from Berserk). He's getting pvc foam to work with.

Third up is Miss Macross as Yura the Hair from Inu Yasha. Her "shirt" isn't nearly as full as it should be, and I'm not enjoying seeing her boobs every time she moves. Her scores are Creativity 18, Authenticity 19, Craftsmanship 16, and Showmanship 40, for a total score of 93/100.

Fourth is Wednesday as an original character witch. I think she's one of the ones who just modified existing clothes, which I didn't like, and I hope they mark her down for in craftsmanship. Her scores are Creativity 17, Authenticity 17, Craftsmanship 12 (yes, they marked her down for store-bought stuff), and Showmanship 32 (marked down for nervousness), for a total score of 78/100.

It's neat watching him actually make his armor, seeing him shaping stuff and carving out his wood for the sword.

Fifth is Kimba Sprite as Harley Quinn from Batman. I dunno if this is an original design or not, since I haven't seen it (I don't follow comics, though), but it is cute, and recognizable as the character. My roommate commented that she felt "static" in her acting, though. She got Creativity 19, Authenticity 18, Craftsmanship 18, and Showmanship 36, for a total score of 91/100.

Sixth is Deanna as an original fantasy character. This was another "use existing stuff" costume, and she's getting called out on it. Her scores are Creativity 17, Authenticity 17, Craftsmanship 12, and Showmanship 36, for a total score of 78/100.

I'm very glad that they're calling these people out for just modding clothes in a competition like this.

Again, watching him making the armor (especially so fast) is inspiring.

Seventh up is Champ as Vincent from Final Fantasy VII. This was one of the best costumes, IMO, when they were making the costumes, especially how they did the cloak. His scores are Creativity , Authenticity , Craftsmanship 19 (they gave him credit for the armor pieces and the weathering of the cloak), and Showmanship 39, for a total of 96/100.

The one who I mentioned didn't finish last week? Isn't here. Which means that they did disqualify her, and Johnny is likely here to replace her so that they still have 8 people. His costume looks really nice, especially using the playdough for grunge and battle damage. He got Creativity 19, Authenticity 20, Craftsmanship 19, and Showmanship 40, for a final score of 98/100.

Nippon Ichi Software (NIS) was one of their sponsors, and gave prizes, as well as prizes from Kotobukiya, and sponsor/prizes from Epic Cosplay.



Overall, it wasn't a bad show. I know it's just about beating a dead horse at this point, but C2C was very much more about the costumes and the creativity than HoC, which was pretty much "famous" cosplayers showing off (Yaya was the only one on either show I'd ever heard of, and I'd only heard of her because of the fiasco at Katsucon the other year). Giving them the challenges as a timed exercise, rather than "oh, I have a convention in a week, I'd better make a costume" is a much nicer set-up. With this one, the time limit is because of the challenge. With HoC, the time limit ends up portrayed more as the costumes being a last-minute thing. Plus, especially with Johnny and Champ's armor pieces, the judges pointed out that that was amazing that they could get it done in such short of a time frame. Rather than HoC, which makes it seem like giant, elaborate costumes can easily be done quickly.

Now, I know people complained about the personalities. There's really 3 groups to speak of: the host, the judges, the contestants. The host... he didn't strike me either way. The "ganbare faito!" at the beginning of each episode bugged me a bit, but I don't think he either did an outstanding job nor a poor one. I'm not sure if it was lack of experience, or not. The judges, I felt, had a good camera personality. They felt comfortable on camera, and explained their parts well. The contestants... yeah, most of them felt incredibly uncomfortable on camera, and lost in explaining their costumes and what they'd done. However, unlike the shiny, polished persona on HoC, this felt more natural, like they were "real" people. They didn't feel like celebrities, they felt like they were just normal cosplayers, who happen to be really good at making costumes, that you could meet at any con, and they'd fit in.

Overall show quality was low. This is very clearly a low-budget show made by a small network, and yes, it was likely done in response to/to capitalize on HoC. Is this a bad thing? Not necessarily. Like with the contestants, this felt far more like a convention event than a "production". Many cons even hold Iron Cosplay contests, and this wouldn't feel at all out-of-place being held completely at a con.

Now, he mentioned "first season," so I'm hoping they get a second season, and improve on things. Assuming that it'll be another 6-ish episode series, this would be my recommendations for improvements:
1) Ditch the first episode "introduction". I know a lot of people were turned off by that, and I was bored with it. Especially since they "reintroduced" the competitors and rules each week anyway.
2) Change the intro of the episodes to include the rules. Instead of giving us the splash page including the 8 hour time limit and $100 budget every week, in the intro where he's saying what Cosplay is and all, have him say "Each week, [X] competitors will have 8 hours, $100, and a mystery item, that they will use to make a costume to fit their theme". Then you just have to introduce the theme and mystery item.
3) More competitors. 9 wasn't bad, given their first year, but a few more would be nice. See point #4 on how I see to do that.
4) Expand to an hour. When you're only a half hour long (minus commercial breaks), and you have opening, introducing the competitors, introducing the rules, preliminary scoring, AND credits, that takes away a lot of time. If they expand to an hour, then they can have 3-4 competitors for each challenge.
5a) Take the judging off of the individual competition episodes. The individual competition episodes should be just the designing and crafting of the costumes. Less non-costuming stuff means more costuming stuff.
[see below for 5b and it's following ideas]
6) Make the finale a 2-part. Part 1 would be the pre-judging-style part. That's where they get scored on Creativity, Authenticity, and Craftsmanship. Part 2, then, would be the stage performances for Showmanship, where we can actually see their performances for the judges (the judges kept commenting on people using the characters' lines and such, which we never got to hear).

5b) Alternatively, restructure it as a tournament. 4 people each week, they get judged, and the winner from each week goes on to the finals.
6b) Still a 2-part finale, but part 1 would be the 4 finalists being given their assignment and making the costumes, and part 2 would be the performance and judging.

I am hoping we get more of the show. It's not bad, and I think it does a lot more to "reveal" the world of cosplay than HoC does.

I just wanted to say that the person missing is actually Yirico, the blonde from the shounen challenge/first episode.
She just wasn't able to attend the filming of the finale so they just didn't mention her in the finale.
They didn't disqualify the girl from last week, Deanna, despite the fact that she basically made a completely different costume from the one we saw at the end of her episode.

I also agree that although the show is very low budget, I hope there's more of it-- Even if only for that fact that the selection of cosplayers is a lot more realistic and relatable than HoC.

Aaaa, thanks for correcting me. If I have to give HoC any credit, I at least can tell the people apart. Of course, it's also the same "cast" every week, so...

You know, I wonder if the reason she wasn't disqualified (she flat-out said that she still had to finish multiple pieces at the end of her 8 hours) is because they could only get one person at the last-minute, and they wanted to keep it 8 people for the finals.

Yeah, with HoC sometimes you're just so slapped in the face with everyone's names each episode so it's definitely easier to tell everyone apart ahaha~

You know I was really suspicious as to why they paired off that Deanna girl was with Champ in the first place. Cause I also feel like she's not even actually a cosplayer...?
Correct me if I'm wrong but I can't seem to find her anywhere while doing research on the cast. I think that Deanna was the one who was the last minute addition to the show and they just tried to hide it by putting her in fifth episode and paired her off with Champ instead of the last episode so they could spice things up in the finale with Johnny I guess?

In truth, I don't think this show ever actually wanted to enforce the "DQ" rule. They just added it to make the show seem more "tense" or something I feel like.

Well, they went ahead and did a second season of this. Looks like there's 6 episodes (or, at least, there are right now, but they started in April, so if there's going to be more, it's less often than once per week).

Just from looking at the preview pics on Crunchyroll, it's definitely got higher production values than last season. Instead of having people work in their homes, they have an actual set, Iron Chef-style. I'm assuming the time limit will be more strictly enforced this time, as well as them not being able to use pre-existing clothing (unless they've brought it with them, at least).

Looking at my "what this show needs" from last year, it seems that at least a few of them have been done, before I start the show:

1) Ditch the first episode "introduction".
>>This has been done. I've got it paused at the start of episode 1, and it's titled "Nathan x Ali", so it's definitely a competition episode.

2) Change the intro of the episodes to include the rules.
>>It seems like this is being done. They at least said that it's 4 hours and mystery element, in the opening. Given that they're in a studio, this obviously isn't going to include a shopping trip, so the budget part was obviously scrapped.

3) More competitors.
>>All 6 episodes seem to have the title of "Person A x Person B", so either they're doing it as an elimination tournament, or they've got 12 competitors.

4) Expand to an hour.
>>Episode is being listed as 40 minutes, so that sounds like it was an hour (when you factor in commercials)

It remains to be seen how they're gonna do the judging, since I'm just starting the episode.


Episode comments are below.

Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate is sponsor. Host is the same.

Nathan Wiggins (7-8 year vet, no competitions). He likes using "real" materials (actual leather, etc).

Ali Williams (runs a business for characters going to kids' parties). Doesn't sound like she's as experienced specifically in cosplay.

Ugh, we're introducing the rules again. I guess it is the first episode, though. They've got a pantry for supplies. Huh, "DJ Wednesday" is the host's assistant. Wasn't she a participant last year?

Categories are even in worth this year. Craftsmanship, Creativity, Photoshoot, and Runway, 25 points each.

Judges are Lindsay Elyse, Marisa Lynch, and Brook Lee.


Theme: Monster Hunter 4 ultimate.
Mystery item: Leather and feathers

Well, the guy already has an advantage, since he works with leather regularly.

Ali is doing Kirin armor. Nathan is doing Ace Commander.

There's a lot of audio problems in this. The show's announcing is loud, the host and other staff are normal, but the competitors are really quiet. I don't think they put mics on them.

Ali's talking about playing to her strengths (due to time restraint), so she's doing a costume without pants or sleeves.

Umm... there are pencils in your bucket. Why are you trying to work out your design using crayola markers?

Nathan's using the leather for belts and a jacket, and the feathers for "fringe" on the gauntlets. I like how he's realizing that "imperfections" will just look like damage.

Not liking that he's taking all of the fur and feathers, to "barter" if need be later, when the feathers are a required item.

They should probably give each person their own "pantry" of materials, or at least their own stash of the mystery items.

They don't have much feathers total, definitely not enough to make a decent costume.

It would be nice to know if they brought their own kits, or if everything is provided by the show. Also, it not only looks incredibly dangerous for him to be working with the metal right there, but also incredibly distracting to be in the same room as someone cutting metal like that. Also, Nathan is a bit of a jerk.

Ugh, the fumes from that spray paint has got to be horrible. Since the judges are pointing out that the spray paint is a) toxic, and b) flammable, he SHOULD NOT have been allowed to do it in there. As soon as he pulled out the spray paint, the show should have not allowed him to use the spray paint inside like that. They definitely need a separate space for "dangerous" things.

I don't like this whole "trying to sabotage the other person" aspect that's going here, either.

And MORE toxic spray paint going on inside, in a questionably ventilated space...

I do like that the judges are actually watching the competition live, instead of watching what I'm assuming was tape (and was it the full 8 hours for each competitor?).

Wow, that was a sudden end to the competition... They didn't even have a warning (for the benefit of the audience) or anything.

Yuri Araujo from Capcom is a special guest. They're talking about what Monster Hunter is about. And he's talking about what the judges should be looking for for each outfit/character.

We're back to the 2 categories for this round (Craftsmanship and Creativity), so it looks like it probably will be the format from last year, of so many competitions, then a finale. Creativity is broken into 2 sub-categories, how well they use the mystery items, and how close it looks like the character.

Nathan's costume looks good, but he seems to be bragging about his use of metal too much (when you can hear him. My typing is louder than he is, because they didn't mic them). Judges are impressed by the metalwork. Felt the rest of it was lacking, and didn't like the leg armor. Creativity score is 21. For Craftsmanship, they liked how they used the feathers and again were impressed with the metal, though wished he had've gotten more of the costume done. He got 21 in Craftsmanship also, score of 42 after this round.

Ali's costume, honestly to me, looks better. She's pointing out how she wanted it to look "natural", so she used suede and tried to age the appearance. She used the feathers for a pink trim under the edge of the collar (it looks good). Judges loved the use of the fur and that she even made a pouch. Creativity score is a perfect 25. For Creativity, they were amazed by the costume as she came out, and how much detail she put into it. Creativity score is 24, giving her a score of 49 after this round.

We've got 10 minutes left, so we might be getting the second round now, Photoshoot and Runway. Yup.

Photoshoot round is that you get 1 minute to get as many photos as you can done with the photographer.

Huh, when did he get a second sword? Judge's thoughts on the photoshoot is that he didn't feel as big and imposing as the character was. He got 18, he's up to 60 points total.

I do think that Ali needed a prop of some sort, it's hard to pose as a semi-original character without a prop of some sort. Huh, now it looks like they have a mic on her, not that you could tell from the audio earlier. LOL. Judge said that it's fun to watch her photoshoot, because she doesn't take a bad picture and you want to punch her in the face! Seemed to really like her. Gave her a perfect 25, giving her 74 of 100. At this point, she has to get 15 points lower than him on the runway to lose.

Runway is scored on showmanship, and how they bring the character to life. I kinda think that they could've combined Photoshoot and Runway, and took them outside to a park or something to perform in-character, and take photo and video, instead of "here, let's do a bunch of poses for pictures", followed by "here, let's do a bunch of poses and moving around on the stage."

Okay, can Nathan do anything other than swinging his sword? I know that that's his "big thing," but it's rather boring to watch. Judges still felt that he didn't feel "big" enough for the character. He got a 20, for a final score of 80.

At this point, if Ali doesn't get at least 7 points, she's won. She's definitely playing with the camera more than he did. It's obvious that she's photogenic (well, if she goes to kids' parties, she's used to performing), and she's using the full runway, as well as the cameras, to her advantage. I'm expecting either full or near-full scores from the judges. Judges were very impressed, and gave her the perfect score. She got 99/100 (much better than anyone from last year).

No clue on what prizes are for her, and which are for him, but it's the Monster Hunter 4 3DS, the game (looks like standard and LE, so he probably got the standard), a figure, and that Mmmmmm, So Tasty~! plush meat that Crunchyroll has been posting pics of from their office (I want one!).

LOL, the credits have footage of both of them eating the plush meat (they probably both got one, then). And fighting each other with the meat. He seems really bored, but she's definitely into it.


Overall, much better than last year, with the exception of them using dangerous materials inside in a rather small enclosed space (they should have set up a separate workshop for metalworking and spray paint.


Don't have time for more episodes tonight, but it seems week 2's is "Quinn x Shana", with a theme of "bishojo," so should be interesting.

I haven't seen the show but these cosplay shows always worry me as they get the most unpleasant people to be on them and go for the well known cosplayers instead of folks who don't do this as a profession or money making hobby. It reminds me of game companies getting youtube "celebs" who stream to talk about their games instead of normal folks.