WATCH C2E2: Yaya Han takes us into the world of cosplay

In the world of cosplay, Yaya Han is one of the biggest celebrities. Han is a self-taught cosplayer whose popularity and skills earned her a place on SYFY's Heroes of Cosplay a few years ago. Now, Han rarely enters cosplay competitions, but she still demonstrates her craft at conventions and is also a judge for this year's C2E2 Crown Championships of Cosplay. On the first day of C2E2 2019, SYFY WIRE welcomed Han to the Live Stage to take us deeper into the cosplay realm.

Han explained that this was her first convention of the year and offered some background about her current cosplay character.

"I really wanted to be frilly and pink and cute today, so I brought my Sheryl Nome costume," said Han. "It's a galactical idol from the anime Macross Frontier, and [it] has not been licensed in the U.S., which means that not many people know about it. But it's one of my favorite Macross series, and Sheryl is one of my favorite characters of all time. She's a singer and very confident. This is basically one of her concert outfits. She has a million different outfits. She's like a fashion icon."

Han noted that it took two weeks to make her current costume. She also told us about making the transition from contestant to judge and how she picks the winners of cosplay competitions.

"It's not about being critical," noted Han. "For a lot of people, a high-end contest like this can seem very intimidating ... but for me, it's not critiquing anybody or looking at a flaw. It's about understanding the effort that went into the costume and not missing a detail. If you finish even the inside of your costume, I don't want to miss that, because that took extra effort. So in the end, we will be choosing the person that had the most well-rounded execution and the most clean [finish] ... the most variety of techniques used ... We just want to see the person that is most deserving."

For more details from Han, check out the entire video!