PhD holder met wife through cosplay

Many people take part in cosplay to express their creativity and to make new friends.

For Dr Peter Ng, who has a doctorate in chemical engineering, he found something extra when he took up cosplaying - his wife.

He met Ms Aeriel New in 2009 through cosplay and the couple got married two years ago.

"The wedding was in a church, but everyone, even the pastor, was dressed as an anime character," said Dr Ng of his wedding.

The pair, who are in their 30s, were among the thousands of cosplay fans who were at Cosfest XIII: The Final Fantasy, which was held over the weekend.

Dr Ng was there as Seymour Guado from video game Final Fantasy 10 and his wife was dressed as Serah Farron from the same game.

The event, held at Downtown East, is the largest cosplay convention in Singapore and had more than 10,000 participants.

The organisers also brought in internationally renowned cosplayers such as Thailand's Yuegene Fay and Japan's Reika Arikawa.

Dr Ng's love of cosplay started when he was a National University of Singapore (NUS) student.

"I needed to get out of the mundane university life. Cosplaying helped me build up my creativity and make new friends," he said.

REACHING OUT

He decided to reach out to other cosplayers through Facebook. Through the activity, he found his wife, who was also an NUS student.

Despite them being in different faculties, the pair started cosplaying at events in June 2009.

A year later, in the same month, he asked Ms New to be his girlfriend and they were married in 2012 with the wedding theme of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Ms New, who has a black belt in taekwon-do, is a motivation for her husband to stay fit.

"Being fit is a driving force for cosplayers. You can't go on stage if you're plump," explained Dr Ng.

He has a beginner's white belt in taekwon-do and his instructor is also a cosplayer.

He appeared to have a tattoo on his chest, but pointed out that what looks like real tattoo ink is actually henna.

He said that his friend suggested using henna to help jazz up his costume while keeping costs down.

Dr Ng and Ms New were not the only couple at Cosfest.

Miss Caitlin Sison, 22, was there with her boyfriend, Mr Ronald, 25, as two characters from the pirate anime One Piece.

Mr Ronald, who declined to give his last name, said he chose to dress up as pirate Monkey D. Luffy because he likes the energy levels of the character.

He added: "I'm lucky I look younger than my age because Luffy is a young guy in the anime."

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Cosplaying is not that popular in Singapore, but I needed to get out of the mundane university life. Cosplaying helped me build up my creativity and make new friends.

- Dr Peter Ng