Ann Hoang, known by her pseudonym, ‘Annchirisu,’ is a cosplayer, a freelance model and a You Tube artist, making and starring in her own humours and quirky videos. The rising star from London of South East Asian descent is gaining massive popularity, illustrated by nearly 6 million views on her new channel, and her videos going viral in places such as China, amongst others.

Nee Hao Magazine catches up with Annchirisu to find out more about her and what’s she currently doing.

By Joseph Wu 

Where did your interest in cosplay and modelling come from?

My interest cosplay started when I was about 10 from the animé, Cardcaptor Sakura. At the time I didn’t know dressing up as a character from an anime/manga/video game was called cosplay. I just thought it was dressing up. It wasn’t until I got the Internet when I was 15 that I found out that there was a big community of cosplayers.

As for modelling, it was my friends who encouraged me to go for it as I was quite tall for an Asian girl. My modelling career started with a scam agency! Funnily enough, if it wasn’t for those photos, I wouldn’t have won a modelling competition and got even more great photos done, which was where my part time modelling career took off.

Do you think fashion has made a big influence on your life?

Fashion doesn’t influence my life. It’s just fabric to cover your naked body with! Hahaha. That’s so bad to say since I studied fashion design and I’m always browsing online for nice clothes. I guess it’s a part of my life but it doesn’t influence it!

As a versatile model, do you ever find yourself shocked or surprised when looking at final photos of yourself?

I do find it surprising to see the final photos of myself because I look really different. Make up and lighting can really change the way you look! I went to an opening event of a new brand called Agese Oils whom I modelled for, and when I saw the images on the wall, I didn’t realise it was me until my boyfriend pointed it out. It was so funny! You can check the photo out on www.ageseoils.co.uk.

Which anime or game character are you most like? Which one is your favourite?

I think I am most like Tifa Lockhart from Final Fantasy VII. Not because a lot of people say I look like her but because she’s caring with a strong personality and she’s a fighter (I enjoy boxing hehe) and she’s the only character I can think of at the moment because it’s been a while since I’ve watched any anime or touched any games.

What is the most challenging aspect of cosplay?

The challenging part is the ‘figuring out’. I can take ages to figure out how to make certain parts of a cosplay. For example, the outfit itself. The characters I choose have such complicated outfits, so I have to draft weird patterns on the mannequin. The most complicated cosplay I did was Dizzy from Guilty Gear. Her outfit was quite revealing and I made massive wings but I couldn’t figure out how to hide the ugly bits of the wings, so in the end I cosplayed without the wings, sadly.

Your YouTube channel is gaining massively popularity with some of your videos even going viral even in China, where does your inspiration and/or ideas come from?

The inspiration for a  lot of my videos are just ‘jumping on the bandwagon’ to be honest. For example the challenges and videos that are already viral, such as Gangnam Style.
As for my sketches, I’m inspired by things that happen around me or things I’ve experienced and as a result everything is just exaggerated in the video.

How long does it take you to make a video? Do you have a team who helps with editing? 

I work solo! So pro, heh. It’s just me, my camera and my tripod and it takes me up to 4 hours to film and up to 4 hours to edit, depending on the context of the video. So it’s less than a day for a video to be produced.

What do you do to relax?

Sometimes I take a stroll in the park on a sunny day and feed the ducks and squirrels but when I’m feeling really lazy, I play online games with my friends and watch One Piece, which is the only anime I’m watching at the moment. I would say I exercise but that would be a lie. It’s been a while since I’ve worked out LOL

What stuff do you like to eat? 

My favourite foods..I like too many food/cuisines! Anything with spice in it! I love spicy food.

What’s in the pipeline, anything exciting happening?

What’s in the pipeline..? o_o erm, sewage and mucky stuff? Ok I just had to search the idiom up on Google. I plan to make more awesome videos and cosplays. I also want to get all my old cosplays photographed nicely so I can start selling prints and merchandise. Lots of people have been telling me to do that so I shall!

You seem to have a really good sense of humour which comes across in your videos, can you tell us a joke?

I AM SO BAD AT JOKES. There’s FUNNY people and then there’s funny people. FUNNY people have a collection of jokes stored in their brain which can automatically be fired like my farts. I am one of the funny people you laugh at, but I don’t mind being laughed at. I always make a fool of myself heh ;D

 

Check out Annchirisu’s You Tube Channel and Facebook 

www.youtube.com/oNYANNo

www.facebook.com/Annchirisu