~Kitsusagi Cosplay Rules~
General Rules
1. Please don't beg anyone on staff for a specific cosplay to be made. Try to get a slot or perhaps bribe to get it!
2. Real life people may not be obtained as cosplays. There are a small number that were allowed in the past but this is no longer the case. A persona of someone may be obtained but not the person themselves. One example is Ziggy Stardust vs David Bowie. Ziggy is a persona and may be obtained but Bowie himself may not. If you're unsure if what you want is a persona or not (for example an on-stage version of a band member) just ask a staff member and we will do our best to determine such things on a case-by-case basis.
3. Be respectful of Gaia's PG-13 rating. Please don't try to get a cosplay of someone that violates this rating.
Cosplay Duplicates
Kitsusagi has implemented a policy where duplicate cosplays - or multiple cosplays of the same character - are allowed! Think of it like multiple people cosplaying the same character at a convention. No one person can literally "own" a character in real life so we don't feel like that should be true in a Gaia shop. There are, however, still some restrictions in place to keep things as fair as possible.
1. Each Kitsu Duplicate, or "dupe", must be altered from the original design by at least 20%, and these alterations must be made to the entire Kitsu. You can't simply change the hairstyle or add an eyepatch and call it good - there must be something changed about the overall design that meets the percentage requirements. In this case, permission from the owner of the original does not have to be obtained - but it is still polite to contact the owner and inform them, if possible.
If a dupe more closely matches the original (below 20%) then all attempts MUST be made to contact the owner of the original cosplay and obtain permission for the dupe. If the original owner is still active on Gaia proof must be shown that an attempt at contact was made. This can be in the form of a PM sent more than three (3) months before requesting the new cosplay. A screenshot must be provided of said PM that shows the sent date. If the original owner has left Gaia and has not logged in for more than three (3) months, proof must be shown of this. Once proof has been shown to staff, the new cosplay will more likely than not be allowed.
For a quick example, let's take Sephiroth! A very popular character. Let's say someone owns FFVII Sephiroth. This is the official design from the original game. Another person wishes to get Kingdom Hearts Sephiroth. These two would definitely be considered different enough that KH Sephiroth could be obtained without requiring permission from the owner of original Sephiroth. The designs are vastly different in several ways. However, if someone wanted to get Advent Children Sephiroth, this would require the permission from the original owner - as it's basically just an updated version of the same outfit/hairstyle/etc.
For ANY DUPLICATES at all, permissions must be posted in this thread before you can obtain a slot to get the dupe.
2. In general, alternate outfits count as a separate cosplay Kitsu, within reasonable limit - there may be a Summoner Yuna and a Songstress Yuna, but not a Summoner, Songstress, Thief, Dark Knight, Gunner, Dancer, Black Mage (and on and on and on) Yuna. We'd prefer to keep the number of duplicates to a reasonable two or three.
3. Genderbent Kitsu do not count as cosplays or dupes, but rather Original Characters. So if someone wanted to get an obviously female Sephiroth where the outfit design is more feminine/"sexy", even if they put "Sephiroth" as the name on the cert, this would be an original character cosplay - not a dupe of an existing Sephiroth. Just a note here - you would NOT be able to ask for the same exact costume design to be used and simply put that the gender is now female. Some alterations would need to be made to demonstrate the genderbend.
4. Commercial cosplays are limited to two per species, one original and one duplicate. For example, you can have two regular Heero Yuys and a fae Heero Yuy, but not three regular or three fae.
5. If an AU is big enough to be established with its own fanbase, any kitsu obtained from it are treated as an original cosplay and not a dupe. For example, a Sans from Underfell would not be considered a duplicate of Sans from Undertale, due to Underfell having its own palpable fanbase. For another example, Albert Wily from the Mega Man games would not be counted as a duplicate of Albert Wily from the Protomen universe. Said AU must have a palpable fanbase for this to stand. These will be determined on a case-by-case basis.
6. Event-released cosplays will never be released in another event, and any dupes must be obtained through custom slots. This is to respect the owners of those cosplays. An exception to this rule is a wildlife or species-based cosplay: for example, a future Final Fantasy event may offer chocobos and moogles because they are a species, but cannot release a duplicate of an individual character.
7. There can only be one unique-lined version of a cosplay. If the original is on unique lines, any dupes must be on at-most edited lines. If, however, the original is on a template, then a dupe can be obtained on unique lines. After that, any further dupes must again be edited-only.
Types of Creatures
For cosplays that are simply a "type" of creature or item from something (i.e. TWEWY pins, Pokemon, WoW mounts/animals, etc) more than one Cosplay MAY EXIST, owned by different people. These are not unique characters, but rather simply a type of creature or thing that doesn't exist in the real world. So they will be treated like they were types of things in the real world. There's no reason why multiple people couldn't get a Kitsu colored like a blue jay, for example. So we do not feel that types of fantasy creatures or items should be any different. IF there is something that makes the creature or item unique to its world (it's wearing a specific outfit i.e. bomber jacket Pikachu, there is only one item of that type in the canon story, etc) those will be considered as any normal cosplay and only one person may get them per normal rules.
