Every year, a tiny, beautiful part of Los Angeles gets transformed into a fantasy realm for the annual Labyrinth of Jareth Masquerade, produced by Sypher Studios. The event occurs in just one week, on August 5th and 6th, 2016,

Now in its 17th year, the masquerade ball is in its second year at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel, a storied historic building in downtown Los Angeles, built in 1923 in the Renaissance and Mediterranean Revival style, and home to the early years of the Academy Awards ceremonies.

We are giving away a pair of tickets to both Friday and Saturday of the masquerade! See bottom of article for how to enter!

Finally, the 80s mashup we didn’t know we were waiting for!

ChubbyBunny Michelle and Yume Ninja organized this group of rock star mutants for an X-Men and Jem mashup photoshoot! The same team that was behind the Sailor Moon Biker Gang Cosplay and the Gotham Playboy Bunnies group has brought together yet another group of totally outrageous cosplayers for “Jazz and the Hardlight Projections,” inspired by the art of Rage Gear Studios, and photographed again by Greg De Stefano.

Hit play on our Behind the Scenes video of the magic! More photos and credits below!

Asuka Langley, Evangelion – Saffels Photography

From the moment I happened upon her instagram account 2 years ago, I’ve been a fan of ItsLiviaChu aka Olivia Chiu. Her amazing makeup skills, prolific fun cosplay choices, and openly goofball personality have definitely helped propel her into her much deserved “Cosplay Senpai” status at Anime Expo.

I had the chance to sit down and derp around with Olivia during Anime Expo to talk more about what got her into cosplay, the cosplay community, and her experiences as a guest at Anime Expo 2015.

When it was announced that Sony was attempting a remake of the 90s cult classic “The Craft” last month, the internet let out a collective groan.
Who can blame them after seeing that watered down outrageously bad Jem trailer?

However, the announcement did get my nostalgia wheels turning.
What else has witches with traits that can be divided into four?
Motherfuckin’ HOGWARTS.

It amazed me that I had actually never come across a Craft x Hogwarts mash up before. I am sure it exists.

I enlisted the help of my two Potter friends (who were free) in recreating ‘The Craft’ movie poster in a Potteresque fashion.

Photo by Ngan Phung

If you’ve known me for at least five seconds, you’ll know that Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion is one of my favorite anime.  It is the beautiful yet explosive heartbreaking tale of an exiled prince-turned-terrorist and his best friend. And Pizza Hut. What’s not to love? And you have to have a lot of love to cosplay Code Geass. From the student uniforms to the elegant ballgowns, one has to do a lot of work to put into bringing the outfits to life.

I could honestly do a cosplay showcase for every character from this show because there’s so many stunning and thoughtful photos but here’s just a snippet overall:

photo by vicissijuice

Attack on Titan took the cosplay world by storm when the 2013 anime broke onto the scene and it hasn’t let go since. Cosplayers all over the world devoted their hearts to the colossal task of bringing the series to life and it was a long arduous journey full of blood, sweat and tears for many. I know this because I cosplay Mikasa and I felt like getting eaten by a titan might have been less painful than creating everything from scratch. The costumes and props themselves require so much attention to detail – from the maze of a full body harness to the daunting Three Dimensional Maneuver Gear – that seeing people produce such craftsmanship fills my heart with great pride. As a fellow Attack on Titan cosplayer, I SALUTE YOU!

Check out a slice of the cosplay that blew my mind below!

This summer marked the return of Sailor Moon to tv, both across Japan, and internationally via streaming sites like Crunchy Roll and Hulu.

Growing up with Sailor Moon, plenty of us here at Defective Geeks, along with our friends from Skirts & Swords, could not resist doing a causual variant cosplay for Sailor Moon Day at Anime Expo.  So we got to brainstorming and decided it would be awesome to be Sailor Moon Cheerleaders.