kinda want to get into kigurumi ngl but idk how
Admittedly this is one of those things where everyone's journey is a bit different but I can at least share what I did and what I've picked up over the years~
(this might get a bit long, but I'll try and keep it as brief as possible whilst still giving the fullest picture I can) (Hi, this is Contrast from an hour later, I'm so so so sorry at how long this has gotten. I can only hope it is helpful)
I suppose to start off, what actually is considered a "proper" kig by the community?
By and large, popular opinion leans towards it requiring two things; A fully body covering zentai suit (called a Hadatai within the community) and of course the mask itself. The latter doesn't even have to be anime styled, there's also quite a few kigs these days that have "BJD" (Ball Jointed Doll) and hard shell furry kig masks.
There admittedly is a little controversy around whether a hadatai is strictly necessary, still often being discussed/debated, so it's definitely not set in stone. Ultimately it's up you what you want and how you want to do things, with or without the bodysuit, with a silly carboard box on your head instead of a mask, go wild if it makes you happy.
The world is yours!
With that out of the way, assuming you do want to go the route of anime mask and/or bodysuit, it's a good idea to decide what kind character you want to be.
It's of course not a problem if there isn't any one specific character you want to be, there are options out there for OCs and even these things called "generics" which are a mask maker's own designed characters that you can change the hair and eye colours.
The Masks Themselves (Structure and Designs):
After this, it's a good idea to know what kinds of options are available to you in terms of how the makers design the masks around what you want and also the typical different kinds of mask "shells" you can choose from.
Starting with the physical shells, there are primarily two ways masks are made, to the limits of my very limited knowledge: •Injection moulding It's the older method that's generally more expensive but also has been argued to be more durable. Most makers who use injection moulding almost always have a focus on Semi-Customs and/or Generics but are willing to do full customs for high prices.
•3D printing With the recent boom in popularity and affordability, it seems to be that most masks these days are made via printing, especially from the newer makers. It's a ton more versatile on average and designs tend to be much more 1 to 1 with the references you provide. On top of this 3D printed masks tend to be significantly cheaper than their injection moulded counterparts.
Beyond this though, there is also the design of the shell itself. This is a ton more fluid and varies a lot from maker to maker but the three general "baselines" the community generally talks about are: •Half Masks These tend to be small sized masks that only cover the front of your head with the mask itself, the back usually having a strap/net of some kind to keep it on your head. This is then covered by the wig.
•2/3rd shells These tend to be roughly what the majority of masks fits under. Less a strict measurement so much as a vague community definition but the idea is it's a mask that covers roughly 2/3rds of your head, often with a bit of netting/elastic/padding going around the lower back part of your head. •Full shell Exactly what you'd expect, these are the kinds of masks that completely covers your head, usually in two or more parts, two of which that hinges together and clamps around your entire head and is quite popular for both people who like to move around a ton without worrying about the mask coming off and also people who just enjoy the total enclosure. It is also not uncommon for lewd kigs to order a full mask with special lock fitted so that it wont open unless you have the key... Full shell masks also sometimes come with the option of different face plates so you can have multiple expressions for the same mask.
Now, to get into how the makers generally design your mask, once again the community has come up with general categories:
• Generics As mentioned before these are the own-brand designs of the makers themselves. You are usually limited to just changing the eye and hair colour but sometimes you can do a bit more like pupil/eyebrow design as well as even choose from slightly different hair options in some cases.
•Semi-Customs As the name suggestions, these masks are literally semi-customisable. The maker will start with a face shape from a bunch of options they give you and from there they will completely change the the eyes, mouth and sometimes rarely the nose in order to match that face with your character. •Full Customs Once again fairly easy to understand. These masks are made from the ground up, fully custom to what you've asked for. Often a ton more expensive but it's generally possible to communicate with the maker over changes and things you want during the creation process.
Well...that was a lot alas, but that should be pretty much everything important to know right off the bat.
Hadatai, the full bodysuit thing:
Thankfully a lot less to say here. The major thing really is that there are three well known places to get a hadatai:
Cantillon, MWF and GKO.
All are generally considered solid, have somewhat differing prices and offer slightly different things. There are links to all three in the guidebook below and more besides too.
Cantillon and MWF are Taobao stores though so can be a bit difficult to order from without an agent. If you don't mind the increased price for the increased convenience, DAME is a UK mask maker that offers Cantillon and MWF hadatai on their website. I believe in GKO in particular offers nonstandard skin colours too so if you wanted a blue skinned character or such, that's definitely an option available. Last I heard they also offer patterned hadatai as well so could even have tattoos or body marks. Just make sure your measurements are as accurate as you can get them, it helps an absolute ton to get someone to help if you can. It's not a deal breaker if not, no worries, but accurate as possible really helps prevent things like seams breaking if too small or baggy fabric if too big.
Kigurumi Resources:
With all that out the way, now seems like a good time to share these:
Start here: the basic components, common first steps, and what to know before buying a kigurumi mask or hadatai. Get started with Kigurumi.
An informative site dedicated to kigurumi mask culture.
A website dedicated to the Kigurumi animegao cosplay. Here we share ressources on how to find most of the masks and bodysuit makers. You wil
💬 1 🔁 13 ❤️ 19 · Makers - Google Drive · Oh yeah I keep forgetting, a while ago I made this picture dump as a mildly helpful resource for
The former three are general guides, including a list of most of the known mask makers with price ranges and descriptions of what kinds of things they do. The latter is a small resource I made of pictures of the kinds of mask a fair few of the makers produce to give some idea of their style, since every maker tends to have their own design styles and quirks.
On top of these, one of the more well known community spaces is the Kigurumi International Group discord server. If you ever wanted to chat with others and ask more specific questions to the community at large this can be a handy place to be. If you are european based, there is also the Kigging.com discord server. It's less of a general community space and far more focused on arranging kigurumi meets at conventions, hotels and more besides. Often you don't even need a kig to show up to these, we're always in need of more photographers and handlers~
Outside of these there is increasingly more kigs than ever before, many of us are more than happy to answer questions so never hesitate to reach out for questions and advice~ Twitter (regretfully) probably has the highest amount of kigs in one place but we're generally all over the place these days, there's even a kigurumi reddit community (although sometimes pictures shared there can be a bit nsfw, just a heads up).
Shout out to @lyria-kig, a dear friend and also a friendly tumblr kig who's happy to help out and answer questions herself if you want another perspective on things. If you've read all this thank you so much for justifying the time I spent on this.
I once again cannot apologise enough that it got so wordy.
orz
