The Alt Black

Something that you may not know about me is that I am a fan of anime and I have been since I was a child. Anime is defined as a style of Japanese film and television animation, typically aimed at adults as well as children. Anime has created such a huge following that some people take it upon themselves to dress up like characters. This is called cosplay, many of these cosplayers meet at conventions to delight in the company of one another. They work very hard to create their outfits and create their props look as real as possible. I met Londoun Jackson aka Black Crystal through Instagram and she agreed to share her story as a black woman who cosplays.

 

What is your name?

• “My alias? Or real name?……haha, just kidding. My real name is Londoun Jackson. My first name is pronounced just like ‘London, England.’ My cosplay alias is ‘Black Crystal.’

 

Where are you from?

• “I am from Seat Pleasant, MD located in PG County.

 

If you want to disclose your age as well? How old are you?

• “I just turned 23 this past May.”

 

So you do cosplay that is so sick!

• “Cosplay is slowly becoming my entire life. It’s insane. If you could see what my room looks like….Jesus Christ. It’s filled with so many of my arts & crafts supplies, props and even work in progress cosplays.”

 

How were you introduced to anime?

• “The only memory that I have in regards to being introduced to anime, is watching Sailor Moon on my mother’s old TV….you know, the TVs that had the gigantic backs on them. I watched Sailor Moon faithfully during the weekend. It’s crazy because no one introduced me. It just came on TV and I remember liking how colorful and super animated the show was.”

Sailor Moon made me feel like I was a magical girl. That show made me feel like I could fight evil by moonlight and win love by daylight. xD that was so head*ss but I couldn’t help it.”

 

What are some of your all-time favorite anime and why?

 

 I love InuYasha, My Hero Academia, Code Geass, Wolf’s Rain, Hellsing, Tokyo Ghoul, DBZ, Naruto (Shippuden as well), Neon Genesis: Evangelion, The Seven Deadly Sins, and many more. All of these shows for some reason struck a nerve in my heart several times, whether it was because of a happy moment, sad moment, dark moment, or when a character gains their resolve. They all just had extremely memorable moments for me and represented different memories throughout my life with certain friends.

 

When it comes to cosplay, how much preparation goes into making a look?

• “It honestly depends on the cosplay that one is working on. I know for a fact that I’m a HUGE procrastinator. DON’T BE LIKE ME. The lack of time and patience you have for a cosplay will reflect in your work. I’m speaking from experience and noticing how many flaws some of my cosplays have because I didn’t take a lot of preparation time. One should consider their skill set, the amount of time until the next convention, how much money should go into bringing the character to life, how many different pieces that need to be made, etc. One should map out EVERYTHING at least a month or two before the convention.”

 

Which look has been the most challenging to date?

• I honestly believe that Kirishima was the most challenging to me, mainly because of the FREAKING WIG. Oh my god….I was so frustrated trying to get the hair to spike like I wanted to, matching the color of the hair to the actual character’s hair, EVERYTHING. I honestly don’t like my Kirishima cosplay at all and I am definitely gonna start over and take more time on him.”

Could you describe your experience going to Otakon?

• “Otakon was fun, mainly because of the fact that all of my friends in my different friend groups were there. I got the chance to really hang with all of them this time because I only cosplayed one day during the weekend instead of cosplaying all three days like I usually do for other conventions. To add onto my experience, the DBZ tour was just……beautiful. I freaked out the minute I saw the giant Shenron on the ceiling. I got the chance to take photos with life sized versions of some of the characters, “fake eat” a huge meal like Goku, and even ride on the Nimbus cloud. Otakon was fun also because it was not elitist nor was there tons of favoritism shown to much famous cosplayers that were there. Fresh beginner cosplayers received a lot of love and it was a beautiful feeling. Lastly, I remember going to the 18+ panel about tentacle hentai and it went into detail about how unrealistic it was, all the way down to the anatomy of everything. It was so graphic but interesting to watch. I was really buzzed off of booze, so it heightened the experience in its entirety.”

 

What does it mean to be a woman of color doing cosplay?

• “Being a woman of color doing cosplay means beating the lies, hate, discrimination, racism, ALL OF THAT by just being you. I don’t know how to put it into words but I will try and I will just speak for myself and what I feel. When I am living my everyday life and just being myself (black), can’t nobody tell me shit because I love myself and I do what I want. When I am black and in my cosplay, no one STILL can’t tell me sh*t because I still love myself, I do what I want, and I’m doing what I love. So if you are a black woman or a woman of color, just DO YOU. Don’t let anybody steal your shine nor your energy because we are winning this year. Especially in the cosplay world. Continue to love and embrace yourself and other women of color who are blerds because we also have little boys, girls, or whichever identity they prefer, who look up to us and need more heroes that look like them. 

What has watching anime taught you about yourself?

• “Anime taught me that I am not normal. At all. And that it is okay to not be normal. Anime also taught me how to beat the odds or to find myself out of tough situations by believing in myself because I am the only one who knows all of my strengths, weaknesses, fears, desires, all of that. Anime taught me to value friends…you only get one really good set of friends in this lifetime. Anime taught me how to deal with grief. Anime taught me about how to forgive and accept. Anime just….taught me about life and what I could do to make the most of it and salvage things that may seem unable to be fixed.

 

Which anime has impacted you the most?

• “InuYasha impacted me the most because it was the second anime that I’ve EVER watched in life and it also made me want to watch other genres of anime. On a deeper level, it taught me about love….the good kind of love and the downside to love. It taught me about trust. It taught me about friendship and what it’s like having people depending and counting on you because they know that YOU can do it.”