After the introduction to the show and the characters last week at Wizard Con, this week the focus of the show changes to Emerald City Comic Con. After the first week of the show I had some preconceived notions about this show, but after this week I can see that this show actually has a bit more depth than I thought that it would. This episode included the introduction of three new cast members - Riki, Monika and Chloe. In a sense it is an reintroduction ti the world of cosplay for all of them. Chloe is more of a reporter, Riki has visited a special effects artist to figure out how to take cosplay to a new level, and Monika is being influenced by a colleague to go for more sex appeal.

Most of the show focuses on the latter, with the industry veterans such as Riki and Yaya Han trying to influence the younger cosplayer to more meaning to the pursuits. It is evocative of a lot of questions which are pertinent to women in the industry as a whole, such as whether to sell out with sexiness or to go with a character and look that is more in line with what a character might actually look realistically look like. There is a somewhat staged meeting between the older characters and Chloe where this is talked about in greater detail. As a side story and one which highlights the questions about Monika's character, Chloe wonders whether cosplay is not just for fun, or if there is something more (with the question of whether a 300 pound man should go as Superman?) I thought in terms of the amount of gravity that this show had, that I was not expecting as much actual conversation about the industry. As the show bills itself beside the purely competition based Face Off, I was expecting a lot more of direct competition, so I was happy to see some discussion here in terms of bigger issues.

That moment out with the other cast members when Chloe recognized that she might have a very different perspective on cosplay was the high point o the episode IMO. I really liked how at the end of the competition she seemed to be validated by how good she felt and how much fun she had competing.

I also was really taken with Wendy Pini as a judge because she was once famous as a Red Sonja cosplayer way back at the early cons in the 1970s. There are tons of photos of her with Frank Thorne in the fading pages of my Savage Sword of Conan. She was a frequent winner and Thorne even immortalized her (and her costuming talents) by including her in a short comic adaptation (along with other Red Sonja cosplay regulars)

@kuonphobos: That was a good point for me as well, though I think the more dedicated cosplayers made a good point. Chloe was able to pull off her costume because she looked the part, if she had been a different body shape and tried to pull that off, she might have even gotten booed.