In just a couple of days, Heidi and McKayla Russell will be flying to Japan to represent the United States at the 2025 World Cosplay Summit.
They fly out Sunday to Nagoya, where they will compete in the World Cosplay Championship alongside forty or so other countries.
It’s an exciting time for the Russell sisters, who can still remember when they first got into cosplay.
“It started about eight years ago,” Heidi recalls. “Our friend invited us down to Fan X for the first time, and we’d never been before. We decided we wanted to make our own costumes… So, we got together with my sisters, and we made our costumes, and had a great time there. There were so many people in cosplay and the community was so inviting. And ever since then we’ve been hooked.”
But Fan X in Salt Lake City wasn’t the only option for the aspiring cosplayers to be involved in the community. Mckayla says right here in southeast Idaho there’s a growing anime and cosplay scene.
“There’s definitely a community here for it and it’s definitely exploding in the past few years. Like we’ve got our own little local convention now, Retro X. There are so many people there that cosplay and have fun and the passion is just growing and it’s so much fun to see it. “
That community is where they gained the experience and confidence to go compete at anime expo in Los Angeles, a qualifier for the world championships in Japan.
“It was really nerve-racking, I’ll be honest,” says Heidi, McKayla’s sister.
“(We’d) never really been to LA before, let alone traveled with a costume. Just getting it all there, hoping it’s not broken once it arrives. It’s a big, checked bag. So, you know, we’re maxing out the limits and hoping the airline doesn’t get mad at us.”
Not only did they manage to get their costumes to anime expo, but they also managed to win.
“We ended up winning. And now we get to go to Japan to represent the United States,” McKayla says.
The Russell sisters’ winning costumes are the characters Princess Hortensia and Prince Alcryst from ‘Fire Emblem,’ their favorite video game. Each costume is hand-made, and in addition to demonstrating their craftsmanship, the competitions also have a skit segment, where cosplayers show off their character’s personalities.
“(They’re) two characters that are pretty opposite of each other,” Heidi says. “It’s really fun to try and portray their personalities when we do our skit.”
Heidi and McKayla will face stiff competition in Japan, but they’re more excited than they are nervous.
“I think it’s pretty cool that we’re from Pocatello,” says Heidi. “You know, little Pocatello, and we’re going to represent the United States.”