Secret Identities: Seibatooth
Scoop: Please introduce yourself!
Seibatooth: Well my real name is Jules, but I go by Seibatooth Cosplay online. I’m a born and raised northern Jersey girl and I still currently live there. By day, I am a public high school culinary arts and sewing teacher, while at night I spend my time watching TV with my cats and starting DIY home projects I will most likely never finish. My social life is non-existent, like most teachers, but whatever free time I have I try to use towards cosplay.
Scoop: What was your first introduction to cosplay, and how did that make you want to get involved?
Seibatooth: I’ve been going to conventions since San Diego Comic Con 1991 with my dad, so I’ve seen cosplay around me ever since I was a little kid. It was nowhere near as common back then, but around the late ’90s I started noticing it becoming slowly more popular. Seeing my favorite characters from anime, like you would see your favorite characters at Disney World, was pretty exciting for a little kid. When my dad explained to me it was a hobby for people just like me I wanted to jump right in! When I was 10 I told my dad I wanted to make my first costume, and he told me, “good luck.”
That was it, so I was on my own figuring it out. My mother eventually showed me how to use a sewing machine and I was self-taught with it after that. Later Dad would help me with props here and there and found it to actually be pretty fun. He still goes to some conventions, but never has cosplayed. I’m still determined to this day to make him a Genma suit from Ranma 1/2 eventually.
Scoop: What is your personal approach to cosplay?
Seibatooth: I tend to do all my own sewing and crafting, unless a friend helps out or makes it for me, which I’ll usually state in my online costume descriptions. Props are either done by me, or my dad will help out if he likes the project enough. When it comes to what I cosplay, it can vary. Sometimes I do it because I’m very much in love with a character or series, or sometimes it’s because a friend has asked me to please join a group because they are passionate about that series. In the end I try to be as connected and informed about the character as possible. I’m a big stickler for gathering as many reference images as possible and printing them out, so I can scale everything to size on paper. I really am a paper and pencil kind of gal, and I like to figure it out hard copy as well as write my materials list. I then do a list of things to make and check them off one by one as I create them. It feels good to check them off and have them set aside!
Scoop: What was one of your best experiences while in cosplay?
Seibatooth: When I was about 17 years-old I was dressed as Saber from Fate/Stay Night (hence the nickname that stuck, Seiba). While walking around the con I had two girls stop me and ask me if I was Seibatooth. When I said yes, they expressed how they loved my Saber cosplay, and the one girl had said she was using my cosplay and description as a reference for how to make her own. I was ecstatic that I was helping someone else out with this crazy hobby!
Scoop: What kind of issues do you feel cosplayers currently face?
Seibatooth: Just like any other “strange” hobby, in the public eye I feel that cosplayers do face criticism and are stereotyped based on assumptions. We face criticism from both sides, with other cosplayers and with those outside the hobby. Internally it’s like a rehashing of high school, where everyone is placed into cliques and honestly everyone suffers from it. A more tangible and day to day issue would also be time and money. Cosplay is such an expensive and time consuming hobby, but if you love and enjoy it, it’s worth it!
Scoop: What do you feel that cosplay adds to the overall convention atmosphere?
Seibatooth: Since I’ve been going to cons before it really became a thing for almost everyone to do I feel it’s just overly popularized a subset of the con scene. There are honestly pros and cons to it. I love cosplaying, I love being able to meet others through this hobby as well as express myself and my love of certain fandoms through it. Being a creative person it’s a perfect outlet. The part I don’t like was it sometimes downplayed the actual fandoms and geeking out with just a popularity contest. It becomes less about which Gundam series is the best and more about who could get a great boob job or become the most popular on the internet. That wasn’t its main intention when people started dressing up, but it’s what it is now. It’s expected at conventions now when before it was a bit of a rare treat to see a cosplayer.
Scoop: What are your upcoming convention plans?
Seibatooth: I plan on attending Katsucon, possibly Colossalcon, AnimeNEXT, and San Diego Comic-Con. It always depends on work and what I have going on at the time. I plan on doing a few large cosplays in the next year or so! Just need to watch my page to watch progress and see what I actually get done!
Scoop: Anything else you’d like to add?
Seibatooth: I’m all over social media! You can follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Deviantart, or Tumblr.
Previous articles in this series:
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Secret Identities: Seibatooth
Scoop: Please introduce yourself!
Seibatooth: Well my real name is Jules, but I go by Seibatooth Cosplay online. I’m a born and raised northern Jersey girl and I still currently live there. By day, I am a public high school culinary arts and sewing teacher, while at night I spend my time watching TV with my cats and starting DIY home projects I will most likely never finish. My social life is non-existent, like most teachers, but whatever free time I have I try to use towards cosplay.
Scoop: What was your first introduction to cosplay, and how did that make you want to get involved?
Seibatooth: I’ve been going to conventions since San Diego Comic Con 1991 with my dad, so I’ve seen cosplay around me ever since I was a little kid. It was nowhere near as common back then, but around the late ’90s I started noticing it becoming slowly more popular. Seeing my favorite characters from anime, like you would see your favorite characters at Disney World, was pretty exciting for a little kid. When my dad explained to me it was a hobby for people just like me I wanted to jump right in! When I was 10 I told my dad I wanted to make my first costume, and he told me, “good luck.”
That was it, so I was on my own figuring it out. My mother eventually showed me how to use a sewing machine and I was self-taught with it after that. Later Dad would help me with props here and there and found it to actually be pretty fun. He still goes to some conventions, but never has cosplayed. I’m still determined to this day to make him a Genma suit from Ranma 1/2 eventually.
Scoop: What is your personal approach to cosplay?
Seibatooth: I tend to do all my own sewing and crafting, unless a friend helps out or makes it for me, which I’ll usually state in my online costume descriptions. Props are either done by me, or my dad will help out if he likes the project enough. When it comes to what I cosplay, it can vary. Sometimes I do it because I’m very much in love with a character or series, or sometimes it’s because a friend has asked me to please join a group because they are passionate about that series. In the end I try to be as connected and informed about the character as possible. I’m a big stickler for gathering as many reference images as possible and printing them out, so I can scale everything to size on paper. I really am a paper and pencil kind of gal, and I like to figure it out hard copy as well as write my materials list. I then do a list of things to make and check them off one by one as I create them. It feels good to check them off and have them set aside!
Scoop: What was one of your best experiences while in cosplay?
Seibatooth: When I was about 17 years-old I was dressed as Saber from Fate/Stay Night (hence the nickname that stuck, Seiba). While walking around the con I had two girls stop me and ask me if I was Seibatooth. When I said yes, they expressed how they loved my Saber cosplay, and the one girl had said she was using my cosplay and description as a reference for how to make her own. I was ecstatic that I was helping someone else out with this crazy hobby!
Scoop: What kind of issues do you feel cosplayers currently face?
Seibatooth: Just like any other “strange” hobby, in the public eye I feel that cosplayers do face criticism and are stereotyped based on assumptions. We face criticism from both sides, with other cosplayers and with those outside the hobby. Internally it’s like a rehashing of high school, where everyone is placed into cliques and honestly everyone suffers from it. A more tangible and day to day issue would also be time and money. Cosplay is such an expensive and time consuming hobby, but if you love and enjoy it, it’s worth it!
Scoop: What do you feel that cosplay adds to the overall convention atmosphere?
Seibatooth: Since I’ve been going to cons before it really became a thing for almost everyone to do I feel it’s just overly popularized a subset of the con scene. There are honestly pros and cons to it. I love cosplaying, I love being able to meet others through this hobby as well as express myself and my love of certain fandoms through it. Being a creative person it’s a perfect outlet. The part I don’t like was it sometimes downplayed the actual fandoms and geeking out with just a popularity contest. It becomes less about which Gundam series is the best and more about who could get a great boob job or become the most popular on the internet. That wasn’t its main intention when people started dressing up, but it’s what it is now. It’s expected at conventions now when before it was a bit of a rare treat to see a cosplayer.
Scoop: What are your upcoming convention plans?
Seibatooth: I plan on attending Katsucon, possibly Colossalcon, AnimeNEXT, and San Diego Comic-Con. It always depends on work and what I have going on at the time. I plan on doing a few large cosplays in the next year or so! Just need to watch my page to watch progress and see what I actually get done!
Scoop: Anything else you’d like to add?
Seibatooth: I’m all over social media! You can follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Deviantart, or Tumblr.
Previous articles in this series:
Popular Topics
Overstreet Access Quick Links
