Phil Mizuno
Phil Mizuno
Early Life
Mizuno hails from Canada. He went to his first anime convention back in 2013, and had no idea what cosplay was. He thought it was a little strange that people were dressing up as characters from Naruto, Attack on Titan, and League of Legends, but he also thought it was really cool. He had always loved Japanese pop culture, and he felt that cosplay would be a great way for him to meet friends. He only had less than a handful of close friends at the time, and he just really wanted to be able to meet people who had the same Interest and hobbies as him.[3]
Career
Phil Mizuno has been cosplaying for five years, and currently lives and creates his costumes in Toronto and Ontario.
Throughout 2016 to 2017, he has had the privilege of being a cosplay guest at conventions in Canada, United States, Asia, Mexico, Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East. He has international WCS/Yamato Cup experience, MC experience, and loves to hold panels about cosplay display. He has been a judge for the most renowned cosplay competitions in the world, which include qualifiers for the World Cosplay Summit, Cosplay World Masters, EuroCosplay Championship, and European Cosplay Gathering.[4]
Throughout 2018-2019, he has had the privilege to be a cosplay guest at over 60 different international conventions. Phil's ultimate goal for cosplay is to be able to inspire, and support others when they first start to embrace cosplay.[5]
Convention Guest Appearance
So far, he's had 31 guest appearances from October 2016 to January 2020
2016
Anime 2016 - October 27-29, 2016 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
2017
Anime NYC 2017 - November 17-19, 2017 in New York City.
Senshi Con 2017 - September 30 - October 1, 2017 in Anchorage, Alaska.
AkaiCon 2017 - August 4-6, 2017 in Nashville, Tennessee.
Toronto Sailor Moon Celebration 2017 - June 24, 2017 in Toronto Ontario, Canada.
Anime Impulse 2017 - January 14-15, 2017 in Pomona, CA
2018
Holiday Matsuri 2018 - December 14-16, 2018 in Orlando, Florida.
Saboten Con 2018 - August 31 - September 3, 2018 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Cosplay Matsuri 2018 - August 18, 2018 in Toronto Ontario Canada
AkaiCon 2018 - July 27-29, 2018 in Lebanon, Tennessee.
Tokyo in Tulsa 2018 - July 13-15, 2018 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
DoKomi 2018 - May 19-20, 2018 in Düsseldorf, Germany.
Anime St. Louis 2018 - May 4-6, 2018 in St. Charles, Missouri.
Nadeshicon 2018 - April 6-8, 2018 in Quebec City, Canada
Anime Shogatsu 2018 - January 20, 2018 in North York, Canada.
2019
Holiday Matsuri 2019 - December 13-15, 2019 in Orlando, Florida.
Daisho Con 2019 - November 22-24, 2019 in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin.
FanExpo Canada 2019 - August 22-25, 2019 in Toronto Ontario, Canada.
Festival Kawaii 2019 - August 17-18, 2019 in San José, Costa Rica.
Animethon 2019 - August 9-11, 2019 in Edmonton, Canada.
Tokyo in Tulsa 2019 - July 12-14, 2019 in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.
Anime Expo 2019 - July 3-7, 2019 in Los Angeles, California.
MegaCon Orlando 2019 - May 16-19, 2019 in Orlando, Florida.
Anime St. Louis 2019 - May 3-5, 2019 in St. Charles, Missouri.
Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo 2019 - April 25-28, 2019 in Calgary, Canada
International Fan Festival Toronto 2019 - April 19-21, 2019 in Toronto Ontario, Canada
ConComics Tour Guadalajara 2019 - April 6-7, 2019 in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Japan Weekend Madrid 2019 - February 16-17, 2019 in Madrid, Spain.
Anime Shogatsu 2019 - January 19, 2019 in North York, ON, Canada
2020
Anime Shogatsu 2020 - January 18, 2020 in North York, ON, Canada[2]
"Cosplay Friday Night" with Phil Mizuno
Favorite Character to cosplay
Mizuno's favorite character is Koga from the Series Inuyasha which was his gateway to anime and cosplay. The only reason he tried cosplay at that time was because he loved Koga as a character.
Dream Cosplay
His two dream cosplayers are "Full demon amor Naraku" (from Inuyasha) and "Berserker Cu Chulainn" (fromFGO)
Difficult Cosplay so far
Phil's hardest cosplay was the second cosplay he ever made, which was Vincent Valentine from FF7.
He decided to be ambitious and make him from scratch, and he almost pulled all his hair out trying to complete him.
It almost took him 2 months to complete.
Most Memorable Convention Moment
His most memorable convention moment was 2017 Anime North.
I was dressed as Beast from Beauty and the Beast, and, while at the con, people kept asking me “did you see the Belle?” I was really excited that someone else was cosplaying from Beauty and the Beast, and I looked around for her for around 2 hours.
It got really hot outside, and I gave up looking for her to go back and change.
While on the way back to the car, a mother walked up to me, and kind of did a pointing motion at me.
I was confused, but then I saw two little girls hiding behind her legs, and one of them was dressed as Belle.
She was really shy, but as soon as I held out my rose she came running towards me.
We took some really cute pictures, and everyone was really happy that we finally met.
This moment for me really made me realize that cosplay goes beyond just ourselves; cosplay really is just another vehicle in order to make other people feel good, and give them really nice memories like this one.[3]
Social Media
Phil has been able to share his cosplay with people from all over the world.
With a large following on his social media platforms, he is able to influence others from all corners of the earth.
He has over 1500 tweets with 24.4k followers on Twitter, over 180k followers in Instagram and over 139k followers on Facebook.[6][7][8]