Asuka – Plugsuit
Source: Neon Genesis Evangelion
Made for: Anime Expo 2003
Background: Back then, it was in your official cosplayer contract to do at least one Evangelion plugsuit costume at some point in your career. (Image on the banner above from Orobouros!)
Journal Entries: Read more at my Asuka tag
Related Costumes: Misato 2002, Misato 2019
Bodysuit:
I bought a red bodysuit online. I cut the sleeves off, and made new ones out of black spandex. I kept the upper part of the red sleeves and padded them with batting to make the shoulder “armor” and sewed that back down onto the top of the black sleeves. I bought a pair of red gloves, and made black palm pieces out of the black spandex and attached them with heatbond. I used the upper part of the gloves as the lower arms and sewed that onto my black sleeves. The stripes on the legs were ribbons (also attached with heat bond), and the smaller stripes were drawn on with a fabric marker. Added the blue collar (made of some scrap blue knit fabric), and made the green chest stripe (also knit fabric) separately and sewed it onto the suit.
“Armor”/Hard Pieces:
The armbands I made out of upholstery foam, covered in red fabric. The chest pieces were shoulder pads covered in leftover pleather from Misato and sewn onto the suit. All of the silver round pieces were painted wooden discs – I glued black spandex to the back that was slightly larger than the disc, and used that overlap to sew it onto the suit. The backpack was made out of styrofoam, sealed, painted, with attached straps made out of my red fabric with a vinyl interior.
Shoes:
The shoes I made out of an old pair of shoes I had laying around – I cut them up and covered them in red fabric, and added the little black parts using some scrap black pleather.
Accessories:
The wig and sync clips were both ebay purchases. I wish I knew who made the sync clips to credit them but that info is lost to time.
Sundress:
I’ve also added a photo of my Asuka sundress from 2001. I bought it on ebay and wore it to a couple of cons before selling it.
History:
This was so great to wear! The best part was getting pictures with Ainslye, PsychoShinji and Eurobeat King at Katsucon 2004.
In 2025 I finally dragged this out and shot it on the white backdrop. It was NOT in good shape… and I could just BARELY squeeze my hips into it LOL. A lot of the heat bond is failing, especially the black stripes on the legs – they are starting to come off. The fabric marker has bled. Biggest issue though was the pleather, of course. The pleather has about run its’ course – especially on the shoes, the pleather on the shoes was peeling and flaking. The red pleather on the chest pieces has held up better, but it had some transfer from the silver paint on the discs.
I’m so glad to finally have this shot on the backdrop – and now that I have it categorized, it’s destined for the trash soon unfortunately,
Please note that none of these costumes are for sale! This is my personal portfolio.