Cosplayer of the Week: Zerstoren

Cosplayer of the Week: Zerstoren

Coming into 2017 I made a promise to myself that I would expand our reach to other awesome parts of the world in order to interview other dope cosplayers! One of those areas in particular was Russia! My jaw crashed to the floor at the mere sight of their cosplay community due to the amount of hard work and dedication they all seem to put into their costumes! Also a lot of them seem oddly handsome or beautiful as if they were born, floating down from the heavens above.

One of the cosplayers that I found was Zerstoren! She specializes in both video game and anime costumes and looks incredible and a lot fo her photos have great photography! I hope you enjoy our interview! I do want to warn you that this interview took place over email and Alisa’s first language is Russian so if some answers seem short or odd, this was why!

The Geek Lyfe: There may be a few Geek Lyfers who have not seen your work before, would you be alright introducing yourself?

Alisa Astahova: Hello, guys! My nickname is Aki and I’m cosplayer from Russia ^з^

TGL: How long have you been into cosplay and what led you down this path?

Z: I’m into cosplay almost for 6 years. Well I began to watch anime in 2008 and a few years later my friend suggested me to try to cosplay one character, and I thought “Why not? It seems really funny” XD

TGL: What has been your favorite moment?

Z: My favourite moment are performances. You know in Russia we have a little bit different concept of cosplay, because we create costumes, after we create performances (like WCS and others) and the last thing is a perform, and for me it is the most attractive thing, because you can feel and demonstrate you character.

TGL: What was the worst day for you in your cosplay career, what happened, and how did you deal with it?

Z: Well, I think I didn’t have the worst day, yep problems could be, because you were nervous before some performances, or you couldn’t do at stage what you wanted, or you had problems with your costume, but this never made me a deep sadness, because cosplay festivals are like happy holiday :3

TGL: When you aren’t doing this, what do you do in your spare time?

Z: Well, I study, watch films, listen music ;D doing quite normal things ahaha.

TGL: What geek medium(Video Games, Comic Books, Novels, Movies etc.) made the biggest impact on your life and why?

Z: Really, now I can’t imagine any one, because my favourite characters are characters that I would like to be

TGL: You can bring one fictional character to this world to be your best friend for life. Who is it and why?

Z: Anime of course :DD because you watch and sometimes feel character and then think “Oh, I want to be him! Oh I should cosplay him!” ahah

TGL: Do you have any projects in the near future we should be excited to see?

Z: Well, my future plans are League of Legends and Love Live ^^

TGL: Out of the costumes you have done in the past, which one has been the most difficult and why?

Z: I have 3 the most difficult cosplays. The first one was costume of Kuroko (KNB), based on arts. It was hard and nervous work with costume, but I love it! The second one is Hakuryuu (Magi), because I perfomed with hem so many times + had some his costumes. And the last work is Tracer (Overwatch). Many friends helped me with this cosplay. It was nervous because we have little time to do all things, and this costume is hard to wear and perform but at the end I had masterpiece result ahah

TGL: What advice do you have for any aspiring cosplayers out there?

Z: Never give up and improve yourselves ^-^ everything is in your hands. Good luck!

We want to give a huge shout out to Zerstoren for taking the time to answer a few of our questions! She is so cool and so so sweet! I hope to one day get to travel to Russia to interview folks in person! 😀 Be sure to check out more of her stuff here!