Emerald L King

Emerald L King first started cosplaying in 2007 when she was approached to give a talk on magical girls at her local anime convention. Since then she has created over 40 costumes based on anime and manga by artists such as Matsumoto Leiji, CLAMP and Yamato Waki, and computer games by Koei and Square Enix. Emerald’s work often incorporates antique kimono silks and leather, and focuses on creating garments rather than throw away costumes.

Based at the University of Tasmania, Emerald has cosplayed, judged, and MC’d at events in Japan, New Zealand, and Australia. She is an award-winning cosplayer most notably winning the Madman National Cosplay Championship in 2016, and winning the Australian heats of the World Cosplay Summit in 2023 and representing the nation in Japan in 2024. From 2017-2023 she volunteered at the World Cosplay Summit Finals held in Nagoya as a translator and Japanese/English interpreter. In 2020 she was named a World Cosplay Summit Support Ambassador.

After being “outed” as a cosplayer at an academic conference to Kotani Mari, once considered Japan’s first cosplayer, Emerald has conducted research into cosplay, exploring historically plausible methods for constructing cosplay costumes, identity and gender in cosplay, and the links between global politcs and diplomacy and cosplay.

Updated from Emerald’s entry in the Directory of Japanese Arts & Culture in Australia.