Wacky costumes win hearts at fest

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From fancy superheroes to quirky manga characters, one could see colourful faces and bright costumes everywhere at Dilli Haat this weekend. At the recently held annual Comic Con India convention, reportedly over 20,000 fans gathered to watch the special cosplay (costume display) by young comic enthusiasts.

Apart from the regular Spiderman, Superman and Batman, this time a lot of participants turned up in exotic Japanese manga and anime characters. Monica Smriti, a student who came all the way from Dwarka, decided to dress up as Sasuke from Naruto Shippuden series. Speaking about her black and white outfit with pointed hairdo, she mentions, “I wanted to be Sasuke Uchiha, one of the main characters in the Naruto series. He was originally introduced as a protagonist but later became an antagonist. He has a lot of fans all over the world.”
Whereas Rajat Mishra, a product manager from Faridabad, was seen flaunting his cardboard and wooden silver swords as he depicted Killer B from Naruto. Speaking about his love for cartoon characters, he says, “This is the third year of comic festival, and I participate each time religiously. This time I decided to be the deadly ninja fighter.”
Similarly, Soumya Singh, a student of Maac Animation Institute, donned a bright red dress and wings to look like anime beauty Card Captor Sakura. She says, “It took me one week to prepare this costume. This is my second time participation at the comic costume play, and I really enjoy doing this. I will do a small trick with the cards at the stage as my character Card Captor’s superpower is vested her magical cards.”
However, a few cartoon movie buffs came dressed as Wolverine, Captain America, Thor, the Joker, Miss Harley Quinn and Dark Knight. Chaitanya Vats, who enjoyed a lot of attention as hammer- wielding Thor, mentions, “Thor is very popular American superhero. I wanted to be this superhero because he has a huge and powerful hammer as his weapon. The red and blue costume with a cape is very fascinating.”
Many youngsters also opted for offbeat characters like Snow White, Apollo astronaut and robotic machines. Aakanksha Singh, a NID student, who designed her own costume of a Sorceress of Castle Grayskull, mentions, “I love reading He-Man comic books, and my character Sorceress is one of the fanciest female characters in the history of comics. It took me a month to design this costume. The robe and wide wings with the spear of this superwoman is really cool.”