On 25th November our media correspondent was invited by Garena Singapore to attend an exclusive interview with Eki Holic, held at Garena Carnival, a 2-day Garena gaming festival.
Photograph courtesy of Fariz Azuka Photography.
These are the various questions/exchanges we had with her in this session:
Q: What are the greatest sources of inspiration for you?
A: Everyone around me, be it cosplay friends or family, have been great inspiration for me.
Q: How many years have you been cosplaying?
A: From my first cosplay, it has been about 4.5 years of cosplay experiences so far.
Q: Do you play League of Legends? If so, which is your favourite character?
A: Yes I play League of Legends, and Ahri’s my favourite character!
Eki’s Ahri Cosplay photos, from her WorldCosplay.Net account.
Q: How did you come up with the cosplay alias Eki Holic?
A: I actually came up with it from my email address which involves eki holic.
Q: We see that you’ve cosplayed a multitude of characters from your published cosplays on Deviantart/Cure/Worldcosplay.net, about a third of these are male characters and two-thirds are female characters. Is it true that you really prefer to cosplay female characters?
A: Actually, I don’t really have a preference for male or female characters, it just turns out that way. I do find that cosplaying male characters is fun too! 
Her cosplay as Gilgamesh from the Fate series, from her WorldCosplay.net account.
Q: How can your fans or people who are interested in communicating with you contact you?
A: I can be contacted via email, although sometimes I do not have enough time to read through my emails ^.^
Q: Do you prefer cosplaying more with a team, or individually (Solo Cosplay)?
A: Cosplaying in a team is very fun, but sometimes it feels competitive, so I prefer to cosplay individually more as there is more FREEDOM! 
Q: What is your favourite kind of food in Singapore so far?
A: MEAT! MEAT AND MORE MEAT! To be honest, I haven’t had much time to explore Singapore yet as I’m really tired after the event, but it’s definitely meat dishes I’d like.
Q: As you come from Korea, this is definitely a question to ask: Do you have any favourite Korean boybands or bands in general?
A: I don’t have any favourite boybands, my favourite is Girls’ Generation actually!
Q: Besides those you like to cosplay, what types of games do you like to play?
A: I don’t really have any preferences when it comes to games, but lately I have been playing League of Legends a lot!
Q: Do you like communicating with your fans?
A: I would love to talk to my fans on my Facebook page, but I just don’t have the time because of cosplay! T.T
Q: What do you feel about taking up paid/commercial cosplay jobs?
A: I don’t like commercial cosplay jobs as I would very much prefer to perform for an audience and let them see and enjoy my performance.
Q: How long do you take to make your cosplay costumes?
A: It differs according to difficulty, but it’s about a maximum of one month for a costume; some costumes take me 4 days only! I’m a student, so I don’t really have lots of time to spend on making costumes, hence the long time taken.
Katrina cosplay by Ekiholic, from League of Legends, from her WorldCosplay account.
Q: Do you have any favourite costume?
A: I don’t.
Q: When you first started cosplaying, did you have a hard time cosplaying?
A: My biggest support for cosplay actually comes from my family, my friends don’t know that I cosplay!
Q: As a role model for younger cosplayers, what advice can you offer for them?
A: *Laughs* I’m not really considering myself as a role model, so I’m really surprised with this question and am not sure what to answer.
Q: I’ve met Aino and Minimes, your CSL team members in China last month, as well as Kong1, Kong2, Dangerous Man and Caruto in Singapore, they are all really nice and fun people! How exciting is it for you to work with CSL members, do you face any challenges as well?
A: Everyone’s cosplays are really, really good. It’s like a family of cosplayers! But as the team recruits more people, it gets bigger and I don’t really like that as I get lesser chances to perform.
Team Cosplay Stage Laboratory (CSL) from Korea: Part of the cosplay team that Eki’s in! From their official website at http://cslcosplay.com/
Q: You mentioned that you are a student, what do you study?
A: I major in industrial design! But I don’t have any idea why I chose this major.
Q: How’s the cosplay community like in Korea?
A: I hope it gets better.
Q: Do you have any cosplay idols that you look up to?
A: *Stunned* Hmm, I don’t really have any idols…Myself? *Laughs jokingly* I was really impressed in Japan when I was involved with the World Cosplay Summit though, as the mayor was in charge of organising one of the cosplay events and he was really enthusiastic!
Q: What does the concept of cosplay mean to you?
A: I’m not really sure about this; I do what I want!
Q: Does cosplay earn you a living while you’re a student?
A: Definitely!
Q: Do you do overseas collaborations with other cosplayers for shoots/events?
A: I’d love to, but no one actually calls me out, its so sad!
Q: For photoshoots, do you prefer to let your photographer do the editing, or would you do them yourself usually?
A: I have certification in Photoshop, so I usually do the editing myself!
Q: What keeps you coming back to Singapore? (She’s been here before!)
A: I suppose one factor’s the weather, I don’t have to worry about bringing winter clothing here as it’s always warm!
One of her cosplays in Singapore when she was invited here previously for a cosplay event, Cosfest. Credits to Brian Lim Photography.
Q: Do you have any personal dream cosplay project?
A: My dream cosplay project is to organise a cosplay event, invite people to the event and watch me perform!
Q: Any message you’d like to leave for your fans in Singapore?
A: Everyone is so sweet and nice over here, but you need to call me back! I love it here!
You can also check out her works at:
Deviantart: http://ekiholic.deviantart.com/
World Cosplay: http://worldcosplay.net/member/42752/
Cure: http://en.curecos.com/picture/list?id=782796
Do take note that many of her interview replies(by translator) were pretty short in length as she seemed pretty nervous too.
Eki Holic, we do hope you come back to the region too, plenty of your fans sure do!
Signing off,
Kosmo
Media Correspondent, Cos Lenses
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