Cosplayer and Gravure Artist Allea Akari Shares Her Artistic Experiences
Disclaimer: Photos may contain sexy images and skin showing, viewer discretion under 18-years old is advised.
Ever wonder how does it feels like to do both of the things you love the most at the same time?
According to my searches, “cosplay” is the practice of dressing up as a character from a movie, book, or video game, especially one from the Japanese genres of manga and anime. Gravure on the other hand, is a printing method that was once commonly used in the production of illustrated magazines.
However, “Gravure idols (グラビアアイドル gurabia aidoru) also known as gradol (グラドル guradoru), are mostly Japanese females who model for magazines usually marketed for men often wearing swimsuits or revealing clothes to emphasize their sexual attractiveness. In which in my opinion, is a total power move. Not all women can pose in front of the camera while being almost naked for publications. There is a level of confidence and self-love for a woman to be able to do something like gravure modeling.
As for Allea Akari also known as Yuka Tokito on her social media, she started gravure modeling a few years after being in the cosplay community. To her, gravure modeling is an expression based on concepts or themed photos in a mature and sexy way. There are times where anime and other characters can also be associated in these photo sets. She believes that cosplay with a mix of gravure is not an issue as it only depends on the artist herself. This shows that cosplay and gravure can both be as flexible to produce a form of art.
Allea’s interest on gravure started out when she stumbled upon other artists’ pages which pushed her curiosity. With her husband who is in charge of the photography and photo editing, Allea was able to practice her posing and confidence in front of the camera during the pandemic.
As a body positive advocate, Allea insists not to care about what other people say about her or her craft. This includes her cosplays as well. She believes that gravure is for everyone just as much as cosplay is. Given that we own our body, skin, and over all appearance, we are entitled to do whatever we want to do with it. To her, what matters most is you love what you do.
She also stated that being body positive doesn’t mean supporting unhealthy lifestyle. Body positivity to her is being confident and healthy at the same time. She understands that there are people who couldn’t lose or gain weight due to medical reasons, but as long as their living their lives in their own healthy lifestyle, that to her is an example of body positivity.
We also had the privilege to ask Allea about body modification. A sensitive topic like this gets a lot of attention from supporters and non-supporters of the idea of modification. She insisted that body modification is okay and there is nothing wrong with wanting to change something if that’s what makes a person confident of herself. She also believes that as long as the person is happy with it and does not go against his/her belief, then it is completely fine to do modification as well.
Cosplay made her realize that being in her favorite character means she could be whoever she wants to be and that gave her the confidence as well as the happiness of dressing up.
During her childhood, Allea suffered from bullying due to her appearance and body weight, but after seeing herself on photos that she took herself while in a bikini, this became her first realization that she is more than what they think she looks like. This started her journey on self-love and acceptance. She loved what she saw and appreciated it despite what the society thinks about people who should or shouldn’t be wearing bikinis or two-piece.
Allea works hard to improve herself and her physique not because that is what the society thinks as the definition of beauty. She does what she loves because that is exactly what she wanted for her own. A powerful statement that everyone should realize. Creating something good or to be better doesn’t have to fit someone else’s definition. It could fit your own just as how you wanted it for yourself.
Back in May, a personal attack on Allea became her turning point to stop bringing herself down even more just to please people. Because of this, she stood stronger and showed everyone that there could be nothing more that could hurt her in terms of how she looks and feels like in her own skin.
“I don’t want to be the biggest bully to myself.”
Muichiro Tokito from Kimetsu No Yaiba is one of her favorite cosplay as she was the one who acquired everything for herself. Most of her cosplays are sponsored by her husband which is why it has a sentimental value to her. Working with the best cosplayers and photographers she knows during the photoshoot just add the value in it.
Allea believes that everyone is free to cosplay whoever and whatever they want to be. But she also wanted to warn those interested to jump in the hobby that cosplay is expensive. It could take a huge amount of money to do one character as accurate as possible. She also insisted that there is no budget price or student price in acquiring costumes, which is why she noted that cosplaying is an expensive hobby.
In addition to that, she also noted to make sure that to be aware and safe in the community by knowing who you are going with and who to trust. As there have been tons of people who were victimized by predators as well as inconveniences in the cosplay scene.
For her takeaways, Allea reminds everyone that it is okay to be below average when doing something you love for the first time as it takes consistency and effort to get better at it. Makeup, for one is her biggest improvement as the pandemic gave her enough time to practice putting makeup on. This also applies to gravure modelling and to take inspiration from local and international gravure models while picking their facial expression and poses in front of the mirror.
This goes to show that acceptance and self-love could really create the biggest impact to our confidence as well as creativity. Allea Akari, is one of the living proof of someone who was able to conquer her fears as an artist.
So, how does it feels like?
FULFILLING.
We want to thank Ms. Allea Akari, for letting us have her on The Counterpart Mag, and for sharing her stories and experiences with us.
Visit her pages on the links listed below to show support to Allea Akari.
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AkariAllea
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/AlleaAkari
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/AkariAllea
Ko-fi: https://www.ko-fi.com/AlleaAkari
Gumroad: https://www.gumroad.com/AlleaAkari
