I've heard time and time again (and know from personal experience) that cosplay can be a huge motivation to get in shape and improve your health. Cosplayer Elffi set his eye on Dissidia's Jecht, and used it as an opportunity to bulk up so to better represent the character at the World Cosplay Summit. Check out Elffi's hard work below.

Who: The Character
Jecht is a tall bad-ass guy who tends to drink a lot. I chose him because I'm also very tall (almost 190cm) and I bet I enjoy beer at least as much as Jecht! I also wanted to choose a character who is very manly this time. I've been doing some more "bishounen" - cute boy cosplays - for a while and wanted to make something different. I've been hitting a gym for a few years now, and I improved my body from 60kg to 80kg. Well, I still need some improvement before the WCS, because this is going to be my parade cosplay in Nagoya. In FFX Jecht is a more muscular and looks older, but in FF Dissidia his body is a bit thinner and he looks more like me, that's why I picked the Jecht from Dissidia. He's also a very tanned guy with black beard and stuff, so I really had a hard time getting my body so tanned. I mixed sun bathing, solarium and self-tanning lotions to make it out.

Why: The Decision
Final Fantasy is a very popular game series, but I've never played those other games. Dissidia is the one that I played with my friend on the PSP, and it's very spectacular game. Jecht is the character I like the most.

What: The Process
It took six days to make this outfit. I think it's a bit weird to make costume so quick, but I've always done all my costumes in 3-7 days. When I start making a costume I can sit and make it 15-20 hours in row. And that continues every day until the costume is finished. This was also nice test for this new material called wonderflex. It was my first time using it and that shoulder armor and gauntlet turned out pretty nice. I've been doing a lot of swords so this one was pretty easy for me, took me only one day to finish it. It's made of cardboard and fake leather, that's how always do my swords. It's also extra lightweight. One can easily swing it with one arm. I think the most difficult task was the yellow-orange waistcoat. I used a yellow cotton fabric and painted it with silk colors. It was my first time using silk colors. When I started painting it I spilled the whole bottle of color and my rug and floor were ruined. And I didn't have any more paint. But well, I managed to mix some other colors and water and somehow it turned out pretty nice. Because Finland is a very expensive country the total cost of the costume was around 400 Euros. I always use around 200-1000 Euros for one costume.

Where and When: The Debut
I wore this costume at Desucon in Lahti, Finland for the very first time. I was the judge of the Eurocosplay semifinals of Finland. When I had a little break we had a photoshoot with my photographer near the local lake. That place had a very nice scene and we took most of the photos while I was standing in a breakwater.

Links: The Cosplayer
You can find me on DeviantArt, Cosplay.com, and twitter.

Deviant Art: http://elffi.deviantart.com/

Cosplay.com account: http://www.cosplay.com/member/99958/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/WCS2011Finland

The Gallery
Photography by Yayagami

http://yayagami.deviantart.com/

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