_________Anbu Naruto
_________Costume Stats
Character Name: Anbu Naruto
_________Reference
Series: Naruto
Specifics: original Naruto Anbu
Cost: $175 (total)
Time: 65 hours (total)
Started: June 2005
Completed: August 2005
Worn: CN Anime 2005
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_________Information
A groups of us wanted to do Anbu Team 7 for CN Anime, and to prepare, Sakura, Becky and I made Random Anbu costumes that we wore earlier in the summer. To get ready for CN, all we had to do was turn our Random Anbu costumes into our Naruto characters. Amanda joined our little group, so there were five of us in total by the time of the convention. Our little Anbu group was: Blue Rose as Kakashi, Sakura as Sakura, Becky as Sasuke, Amanda as Iruka and yours truly as Naruto. There were only a few things I had to do to turn my Random Anbu costume into Naruto, but all of them took large amounts of time.
_________In Progress
The wig was tricky. It's really hard to find a decent Naruto wig, and I debated on what shade of blond to go with for a long time. I eventually settled for a bright and cartoony yellow. I trimmed the wig down a bit from its original length. The wig is perfect for Naruto, but it doesn't look half as good without the headband. Sakura bought herself, Becky and I metal headbands. After that, the wig looked great.
The pouch on the back wasn't too hard to make. I made a pattern and we all ended up hand-sewing the pouches together. The pouches open and close with a snap and are surprisingly practical. We covered a button with fabric to make the detail on them.
The biggest detail we added was the masks. Blue Rose made her Kakashi mask first and we followed her prototype. We bought sacrificial wig heads, covered them with vaseline, then used plasticine to shape the mask. (I got help some help from Amanda for this part, since I have trouble with symmetry. ^^;) After we built up the basic shape of the masks, we plastered them.
After this step, my wighead was destroyed in order to get my mask off. I used paperclay to smooth out the mask and fix up the edges and some imperfections. Then I sanded down the paper clay to get a smooth surface. If I ever make a mask again, I'll make sure my paperclay layer is thicker so I have more to sand down, and therefore a smoother mask.
Then came time to paint the masks. My mask was based off a nine-tails fox, so I tried to reflect that. I had some trouble with my own mask, but thankfully, Blue Rose came to the rescue and fixed up my mask. I worked on Becky's and Sakura's masks instead, and I love the designs I came up with for theirs.
My mask is rather lightweight, and I attach it to my costume with nice red cording with tassels on the end. I think the masks are my favorite part of these costumes.
I made my orange Naruto scarf out of a strip of hemmed orange fabric. It wasn't the fabric I originally wanted to use, but it was what I had to work with at the time. I wrote "Naruto" on the scarf with fabric paint, because I think that Naruto is the kind of character who would write his name on his belongings. Heh. Blue Rose ordered us kunai off the internet to use as weapons, and then our costumes were complete. ^^
_________Misc
It was fun to wear this costume at CN when the group of us were together. Amanda joined us only on Friday and Becky only on Saturday. This lead to many "Becky, you traitor" images of the rest of us attacking Sasuke. Heh.
_________Images
Personally, I don't think I make a great Naruto, but it was really fun to cosplay him. ^^
CN Anime 2005
Darknight Photoshoot (August 2005)
