Why Do a Ninja Cosplay/Fan Art Stream?
Seveal weeks ago, my community on Twitch completed a community challenge that would require me to do a Ninja cosplay stream. This past Saturday I fulfilled that request, performing my entire 12-hour stream as Ninja, but with a luxurious long blue beard (to match the blue hair). This post discusses the behind-the-scenes of why I wanted to do it, my motivations, etc. But first, if you missed the stream, you can at least see the beginning of it, which is now immortalized on my YouTube channel in the following video:
The Motivation Behind It
I expect there’s a chance that people are going to assume this was purely an attempt to piggyback off of Ninja’s success, or that I’m clout-chasing, or whatever. That’s understandable, but it’s definitely not why I did it.
The primary reason I did it was in the vain of fan art. I’m not a particularly talented person when it comes to drawing and such, but fan art can come in many differnt forms, and one form I felt most comfortable with is dressing up and making a fool of myself in a cringy-acting sort of way. Why would I want to make fan art of/for Ninja though? Ninja was the very first streamer I started watching back in 2019. From his content I discovered DrLupo and TimTheTatman (and eventually many others). But from those three, I started realizing I might have a chance to start streaming and be able to have some success with it. Even more so, when the pandemic started, Ninja’s streams (on Mixer at the time) were instrumental in providing some peace and enjoyment at the start of the pandemic. Even when he wasn’t streaming Fortnite, or while he wasn’t live after Mixer shut down, his throwback Fortnite videos on YouTube continued to be immensely helpful. So when a fellow streamer, Khristmas, suggested (probably just in jest) that I do a Ninja cosplay, I latched onto the idea and decided to create the community challenge to get them onboard with the idea.
Preparing for the Stream
I never intended for there to be so much time following the completion of the community challenge to when I would perform the cosplay. But, I’m the type of person that wants to go all out. So I had lots of ideas flowing through my mind, the biggest of which is that I wanted to be able to do the Pon Pon after my first Victory Royale of the stream, just like Ninja used to do before DMCA concerns became overwhelming. To try and avoid a DMCA issue, I set out to find someone that could take the Pon Pon song, and create a similar, but different, song that would remind everyone of the actual song, but without (hopefully!) infringing on it. This was the part that took the longest, because it’s not exactly a simple request. I first tried to work with creators on Fiverr.com, but that ended up being a bust after a few weeks. I then tried to use someone I knew that produced music, but the scheduling and timing didn’t work out. Lastly, I tried to see if I could do it myself. Sadly, I just don’t know music production tools well enough to recreate it on my own. So what I ended up doing was trying to find an NCS song that I could splice the audio from Fortnite’s Ninja-style emote into, and make that my DMCA-safe Pon Pon. It didn’t end up being exactly what I wanted, but I made do with it.
Separate from the Pon Pon, I also needed to make sure my hair was a vibrant blue color. That would be the major indicator that I was cosplaying as Ninja. However, I’m currently on the hunt for a job, and in my field, dying my hair (and BEARD!) blue was going to impact that in a way I couldn’t risk. So I did some research and found a product that claimed it would wash out after a single shower, and the numerous reviews supported that claim. So one of my mods, SivanTheVixen, was super kind to purchase this from my Amazon wishlist. When the product arrived in the mail, I was actually very worrie because most of the language on the box was in japanese or chinese (I’m not sure which), and the part that was in english wasn’t very grammatically correct. That only concerned me because you hear of a lot of counterfeit products coming out of foreign countries. But in the end, I just went for it, and the result was AMAZING!
Lastly, I wanted the cosplay not to just look like Ninja, but I wanted to try and talk/act like Ninja as well. That is NO EASY FEAT (credit to him!)! I already had a lot of exposure to him, but I watched a lot more of his content, especially Fortnite content, and wanted to make sure I referenced major parts of his public life (like certain phrases he’s known for, when he called Epic Games in an attempt to get a hacker banned immediately, when he said he would buy the bank and foreclose on a person’s home, etc.). I wanted it to be fun, and positive, so I didn’t dwell on those moments, and I tried to skip out on ones that would reflect poorly on him. Additionally, I wanted to reflect him in a way that builds up his wife, who he clearly cherishes and has been a major factor in his success.
Speaking of Jessica!
I’m a very optimistic person and I like to “shoot for the moon, because even if [I] miss, [I’ll] land amongst the stars.” With that being the case, when I went live with the cosplay stream, I posted it to my various socials (like I always do), but I tagged Ninja and Jessica in all of them with the hope that they might see it. As the stream went on, I got too into it and basically forgot, but one of my mods, DrunkDadGam3r, tagged them again in reply to a tweet and within a minute or two, Jessica ACTUALLY CAME TO THE STREAM and chatted for a minute! It literally hyped me up so much that she took the time to check it out. She even interacted with “Ninja” in support, “You got this babe”! You can see it in the chat messages within this Twitch clip.
The funniest part of the whole exchange was the timing. Jessica showed up just as I was eliminated off-spawn, and made a joking comment about controller players and whether they even have fun playing the game. Following that, I saw a message in chat from someone mentioning that they were hyping themselves up to propose to their girlfriend in less than an hour. Off the cuff, I responded to him saying, “Make sure you have some specialtiness to it… You gotta have something that makes it memorable in a good way… I did not go to Jess and be like, ‘What’s up, Momma? You want a… you want the blue hair for life?’ I didn’t do that! I made it special.” Little did I know that Jessica had JUST come into chat and said “Well this is epic”. The timing was absolutely INSANE and hilarious!
Will There be More Cosplays?
Absolutely. I may even do another Ninja one someday, but I want to do an even BETTER job. Looking back at this one, I’m happy with how I did and how it went, but I did want to do more quotes, more impressions, more Ninja. But there will be more also. In fact, this wasn’t actually my first cosplay. All month, last December, I dressed up as Santa and cosplayed for the entire month. I didn’t have to put nearly as much into it, but it truly was a cosplay and a ton of fun!