By DEXTER CABALZA
HIS hair was not spiked; it was flat. His face was not as white as paper; it was brown. He breathed not through gills; he had lungs. He did not wield a large sword; his best friend was his laptop. Most of all, he was not a member of an assassin organization, yet he said he was Kisame Hoshigaki—then disclaimed it.
“That’s what they say. It does not come from me.” He laughed—very ironic for a villain character of Naruto.
Michael Jan E. Silva, 30, of Marikina, has been cosplaying (costume playing) for a year now, dressing up as characters from his favorite anime and enjoying it. But cosplaying is more than just putting on the armor and swinging the katana (traditional Japanese sword) to get noticed. Silva has put cosplaying to a good cause.
Myk, as his friends call him, has loved anime since he was a child. Voltron, Dragon Ball and Samurai X were favorites. However, he admitted that he was picky in choosing animes to watch.
“I’m very particular with the story and the values of the characters. I do not watch an anime just because it has powerful characters or to conform to being an anime lover,” he said. “I was an ambitious kid. I would relate myself to the anime characters. Naruto, for instance.”
He thought deeply, closed his eyes but continued to type something in his laptop. “When I was a kid, I did not have friends. People did not want to mingle with me because I was so fat. I had low self-esteem. Everyone teased me.”
How Silva got into cosplaying was the offshoot of curiosity—and boredom.
A self-employed event organizer and entrepreneur selling a range of products, from his mother’s fashion accessories to hardware supplies, Silva was scheduled to work in London with his wife.
“I had to wait for three months. I was so bored and curious that when a friend of mine invited me to cosplay, I accepted it,” he said.
That was November last year, and the cosplay was hosted by the University of the Philippines Anime and Manga Enthusiasts.
How could a newbie survive his first ever cosplay? Silva didn’t have someone to cosplay. Spiderman? Too fit.
Transformers? Silva loved them, but who would have the persistence to make the block armor? Naruto? Too short, too good. Kisame Hoshigaki? Perfect. So perfect that Otaku House, an international cosplay merchandising company, dubbed Silva the best Kisame cosplayer in the Philippines.
“I just went there and had fun. As much as possible, I portrayed my character the best as I can,” he said.
Instead of feeling competitive with others who cosplayed the same character, Silva treated them as family. “I approached them. I befriended them. I gave them tips on how to improve their Kisame character,” he said.
Silva dreams of creating ‘Hoshigaki Family’ fan page where every Kisame cosplayer in the country is a part of the family.
An idea was already forming in his mind at the time. “What if through cosplayin we can inspire people to do good things around them?” he asked a friend.
And that was how Naruto Cosplayers Philippines, later called National Cosplayers of the Philippines (NCPH), an organization that cosplays for a cause, came into being.
Co-founded in October 2010 and presided by Silva, NCPH was ridiculed at first, not only by other people and cosplayers but also by his family, particularly his father.
“My wife was angry for letting an opportunity pass. My dad didn’t understand why I gave up business over managing an organization which cannot change anything,” he said.
“Some people thought I was absurd. ‘Cosplaying for a cause? What do you do? Do charity works while in your costumes?’ But I made them realize that when we cosplay, we do not just put a smile on peoples’ faces. We also inspire other people, set example and create a significant change in our society,” he added.
Now with its growing members, NCPH has become Silva’s second family. He keeps in touch with members through Facebook in its own page (https://www.facebook.com/NationalCosplayersPh). It is where he and his officers would announce their cosplay events as well as their “cause-play” events.
Cause-plays are the realization of Silva’s “having fun while helping others” philosophy. They usually involve the members of the organization cosplaying in events to raise funds for its different outreach programs. Last March, the organization cosplayed for the benefit of the patients at the Manila Children’s Hospital. The NCPH also organized a feeding program to the children of the fire victims on Barangay 143 in Pasay City last September.
“It is always my dream that somehow, someday I can do something,” Silva said, recalling Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s famous words to the late Steve Jobs: “You were right all along. One person can change the world.”
Said Silva: “The quote was for a person. We are not one person. We are an organization. So if one person can change the world, how much more if it is an organization?”
(The writer is a journalism student at the University of the Philippines-Diliman who submitted a version of this story to her Journ 101 class under VERA Files trustee Yvonne T. Chua.)
