Final Fantasy VII Aeris Gainsborough Cosplay
So it’s been a while since I tried out the VS. cosplay articles with you guys. I really like the idea of “who wore it best” because I think it’s fun. I hope you do too! This time around we are going with Aeris Gainsborough, my all-time favorite character from Final Fantasy VII.
The funny thing about Aeris is that you can spell her name in two ways and not be wrong either way. In America, her name was spelled Aeris, while in Japan her name was spelled Aerith. Why the difference? Who knows, but Japanese developers have stated that Aerith is a near-anagram for Earth so perhaps that has a little to do with it? It can get confusing, but both ways are correct! Since I happen to live in the USA, I will use the American spelling of her name – Aeris – when I refer to her.
Aeris is a beautiful flower vendor with a kind heart and green eyes that symbolized the connection she has with nature. During gameplay, you can choose her as your love interest as well… which of course I did when I played through. While the other love interest Tifa Lockheart was a pretty yet tough gal, she had nothing on Aeris in my opinion. Something about Aeris’s character was just so pure, innocent, and full of love to me. I instantly loved her and still do. The developers really did a superb job with the character creation in Final Fantasy VII and it shows how popular the game was within the franchise. Final Fantasy VII even had a CG movie made for it where no other Final Fantasy game has.
So here we have our two cosplay contenders, each having lovingly crafted their Aeris costumes with their own hands. One thing I looked for in particular was hairstyle when I chose these two. I felt it was important to capture the large sweeping nature of her bangs as they were shown in both artwork and the game itself. I saw some costumes that were nice, but the hair just fell… flat. You can’t have flat hair as Aeris! The rest of the details I was much less of a stickler about.
I cannot say how much the death of this character truly affected me, it broke my heart, to be honest, and words don’t fully capture the hurt I feel. This sounds silly I am sure as she is a video game character, not a real person. However, something about her struck a deep chord inside me and to this day I cannot hear her theme without tearing up and starting to cry. Hers was the first meaningful death of a video game character I had ever experienced. She was a fully developed character with a history, emotions, and a hero’s heart. Unlike other characters that were just there to be used and abused, she felt as though she should be cherished by me… and then she died! So although it brought tears to my eyes I sought out her theme to include here for you. It’s beautiful, just like she was.
I also wanted to include this cosplay image as well… it touched me as I remembered poor Aeris sinking to rejoin the Earth’s lifestream in the game and this photo really captures that moment well. This image comes to you from ExileFayt.
I was not the only one so deeply affected by the loss of Aeris as many high-ranking gaming publications have held polls to confirm that the vast majority of fans have all felt her death was a staggering blow to them. IGN ranked her death scene at #1 in its list of Top 100 Video Game Moments, GamePro considers her death sequence to be the greatest of all gaming moments, and Screw Attack has added Aerith’s death in their “Top 10 OMGWTF Moments” referring to it as one of the “touchiest moments in video game history.”
Shall we take a moment of silence for Aeris? I will be.
[Banner Artwork Left – Banner Artwork Right]Final Fantasy X Lulu Cosplay
Lulu from Final Fantasy X is a sexy character with a complicated costume to cosplay in. Let’s compare cosplay costumes to see who wore them best.
Due to the fantastical costumes characters in video games, anime, and books/comics have, cosplay can be quite difficult. A person needs to have quite a bit of sewing skill, an expressive imagination, and a wealth of creativity to make characters come alive while still looking at how they were originally designed. Often a person’s lack of budget or lack of proper materials can be a hindrance to creating the perfect cosplay outfit.
This head-to-head contest is not meant in any way to defeat other cosplayers out there who simply aren’t able to achieve the end result they intended due to a lack of either funds or materials. This contest is meant to celebrate the ingenuity of costume creating at its finest.
While we may not be official judges, it sure is fun to pretend! I always love looking at duplicate cosplay costumes and determining for myself which one is better. When I say better, I mean the one that is better made, more accurate to the character, and best “pulled-off” by the modeler.
Before you judge these costumes too harshly please take note that I found two of the closest competitors I could and both of the costumes show great skill and workmanship. I felt it would be unfair to pick one really bad costume and one really good costume, as that would be no contest at all.
Links to Cosplay Photos: Left | Right
If you like the artworks in my banner please visit the DeviantArt profiles of Lithriel, DarkSerena, Dahlieka.
We have more guides on anime cosplay for Abarai Renji, Morrigan Aenslaed, Left 4 Dead, don’t forget to check them out!