Hey, My name is CourtoonXIII, and I’m a cosplayer.  I’m also horrible when it comes to grammar and organizing my thoughts, so please excuse the following post. 

About six or so years ago I was upstairs in my room and I came down for a snack.  I was a freshman in high school with very little going for me besides theater.   I came downstairs to see my brother hogging the TV watching something that looked like anime.  I scoffed at him for watching this ‘show’, but sat to watch it with him for I had nothing else to do.    

This show was Avatar The Last Airbender. Specifically ‘The Waterbending Scroll’ which is probably why I was such an avid Zutarian.   I watched one episode and I was gone.   I needed to involve myself in this show.  I wanted to find out more about it, I downloaded every episode that was out at the time, which wasn’t very many and watched them all.   

My life flipped upside down that day.  I was astounded to see a cartoon tell a story like this, I always loved cartoons, but I had never seen something like this on television.  Before that, the only Anime’s I had seen were Pokemon and Sailor Moon.    Though Avatar is not technically an anime, western cartoons didn’t seem to have much of a flowing storyline.  I was absorbed.

I wanted to see if other people liked the show, I wanted to talk to everyone about it.   But sadly I didn’t know where to do that.  I started looking up Avatar clips on youtube, and to my surprise I found something called AMV’s.   Animated Music Videos, these really beautifully edited montages that brought back every feeling from watching the show.   So obviously, I wanted to start making these.  I went under the name PhantomZuko.   Phantom because I was really into Phantom of the Opera, and Zuko… well, that one is obvious.  I made a bit of a name for myself in that world, and in doing so I discovered a site called deviantart.    In deviantart I greeted the fandom.  

Fandom: The best and worst thing that will ever happen to you.

I started drawing fanart, and was having a blast.  Of course I was awful, most of my fan art from way back then has disappeared from the net.  I keep some of it to remind myself of how much further I have to go, but yet, how far I’ve come.    But at the time I was just having fun, and getting to know awesome people who I still talk to today.  

Through deviantart I discovered cosplay, and while that is a huge part of who I am today, that is a different story.

Being a part of this fandom, making AMV’s, drawing fanart.  It was the happiest I had ever been.  I was never that unhappy before, but I didn’t know something could make me this happy all the time.  It made me feel like how I felt on stage.  I knew I wanted to be a part of this for the rest of my life.  I wanted to work  in the creation of cartoons.   

I started taking art more seriously,  I was not born with that gift, but I’ve been working really hard.    I know my artistic skill alone probably won’t get me far, but I have this drive, this passion, so overwhelming that my dreams aren’t easily crushed.  Who knows if I’m just stubborn, or if I’m actually meant for something.   But I’m following a path, who knows where it will take me, but I’m traveling without much of a map.

So pictured above are the finished cosplays I have from this series.  I have two more costumes that are still to be photographed (Skoochy and Fire Nation Katara).  I obviously have a thing for water tribe girls.

So I just wanted to say thank you to Avatar.  It’s going to be a long road, and it’s going to be a challenging one.  But I look forward to the challenge, because I know this is what I want to do with my life.  I want to tell stories.  I want to affect other people like you have affected me.  I look forward to the day I can come into work… and that is what I will get to do.   Be a part of that family that inevitably happens, and bring characters and stories to life.