From Cosplay to Career: Rithe’s Journey from Humble Beginnings to Inspiring a Community.

Updated: 1:30pm (GMT+8) June 7, 2025 Gabriel Duldulao

Singapore-based cosplayer, Rithe waves to fans during the first day of Fanfes 2025, May 17, at One Ayala, Makati City.

From snacking on Dynamite (the food), to knowing her alternate fate as an Interior Designer, Kuhaku Media and other media organizations partnered for Fanfes were granted exclusive interview privileges with Rithe, a Singaporean cosplayer who also became the representative for Singapore at the World Cosplay Summit (WCS), cosplaying as Saber. The email sent on May 20, granted Kuhaku Media and other organizations permission to provide three interview questions with Rithe personally giving her responses.

Kuhaku Media later received her response on June 2, Monday, where it contained answers to both our and other organizations’ questions.

In our batch of questions, Kuhaku Media asked about their challenge as an international cosplayer, how the industry changed her as a person, and her wisdom to those starting out in the hobby.

What has been your biggest challenge as an international cosplayer?

For Rithe, they mentioned that staying confident around the people they're surrounded with is considered a challenge for her.

"There's a lot of awesome people out there and a lot of time I fall into a spiral of 'am I good enough to be standing beside them?' the reality is sometimes yes, sometimes no, and sometimes it doesn't matter, but it does get hard to keep yourself in check."

In a social media landscape where people are exposed to other talents that show skills one may not have, Rithe sometimes prides herself in her capabilities, while sometimes she doubts her capabilities believing there's other people better than her compared to what people think of her.

How has cosplaying or the cosplay industry shaped you as a person

Part of our special interview segment during Kuhaku Media's Fanfes coverage, we asked cosplayers, photographers, idols, and influencers about their journey on how the cosplay industry changed them as a person.

Rithe provided her take on the question where they mentioned that she started the hobby following her friends when she was 16 years old.

"I was just turning 16, all my friends are cosplayers, my first solo overseas trip was due to cosplay, and now I dedicate all my time to it, so of course it made me who I am today."

She also mentioned that cosplaying has become a key part of her life where she takes time to dedicate her talent to the hobby.

Rithe speaking during a panel session with Diane Sabandeja and Pomponmy to discuss their experiences in the international scene during the second day of Fanfes 2025, May 18, at One Ayala, Makati City.

What are the tips or words of wisdom can you share to those starting out in their influencer / cosplay hobby

For Rithe, the joy and the love for what you make is something that she thinks whenever attends conventions or creates content by herself or with people she meets during conventions and fan meets.

"I always like to tell people to take lots of photos, as a hobbyist you can look back and remember all the good times. People and experiences come and go and in the cosplay circle there is a lot of 'once in a life time' experiences and photo is one of the best ways to always remember it."

"I think the cosplay circle is friendly, we hear drama here and there, but it's not a normal thing, majority of the people are chill and just here in the community to have fun. Costumes nowadays are also much better quality and abit more affordable than before, we have lots of tutorials online as well. You will be able to find all the help you need even before you start your first cosplay, there is nothing to worry about!"

Keeping track of improvements and strategies that worked and didn't are the wisdom she gave to those that are planning to take their hobby or journeys as cosplayers and influencers to a profesional field (or those making it their career), she added.

 Rithe (Center) speaking during a panel session with Diane Sabandeja (Right) and Pomponmy (Left) to discuss their experiences in the international scene during the second day of Fanfes 2025, May 18, at One Ayala, Makati City.

Additionally, Kuhaku Media was able to secure other questions asked by other media representatives which places a deeper spotlight on who is Rithe.

Saber, Saber and Saber

Cosplaying Saber has been Rithe's favorite cosplay that she goes into lengths on cosplaying multiple versions of her outfit and plans to cosplay more variations of her, she mentioned.

"I'd like to say yes, I love saber and I will always cosplay her, but to be honest I think [a] cosplayer’s 'dream' character do change very often, we are just constantly adding more characters to our cosplans."

Even with Saber being her favorite cosplay, it also led her to some challenges especially with Saber's HUKE Alter version which was a challenge for her to transport and wear, she noted.

"Its the pure complexity of the costume, and even when it's done it was almost impossible to transport and walk in, but was so worth it."

She added that Saber became a key part of her journey at the World Cosplay Summit which she had to construct her costume of saber that would win a competition, not just for the sake of cosplaying her.

"Its a lot of new techniques to make costumes that I never tried, and since we were going for a competition, it not just any costume i'm making, it was a costume i'm trying to make for a win, and that was very stressful."

Rithe also told the media, that she plans to cosplay Saber's Honkai Star Rail version where she herself chose the quality of the fabrics and mechanics that go onto the costume. She also added that aside from cosplaying as Saber, she plans on cosplaying and making cosplays that include Mecha in their form.

Rithe tells her journey and answers questions by her fans during the first day of Fanfes 2025, May 17, at One Ayala, Makati City.

Experiences as an international star

Rithe's experience with cosplaying has been a fruitful journey filled with joy, challenges, and memories. In her response to media questions, she cited that her family were once skeptical with the hobby turned into her career. As if she has not turned the hobby into a career she would have taken interior design.

"I honestly wouldn't say there was a hard time in my cosplay career itself, it's [my] family that's against this hobby turned career… so it's the pure love for cosplay that kept me going."

Rithe added that managing her time has become a challenge to her as taking cosplay as a career made her into business owner herself, which she handles her own promotions, sponsorships, and corporate dealings.

"There are many ways to go about being a full time cosplayer, patreon, gank, live stream, boothing, guesting, endorsements, sponsors, etc. as full timers we are not only the cosplayer, we are also our own manager, product designer, photo editor, social media manager, for some even making wigs, costumes, and many more. Everything in cosplay takes up so much time, it's really truly the hardest part to manage our time wisely."

Image of Dynamite (Photo: Kawaling Pinoy).

For her, it's not all hardships as she also shared memorable experience and notes to the media which she considered, creating funny videos and fans giving her gifts being the times she felt belonged in the community.

On the topic of food, she mentioned during her stage segment during the first day of Fanfes that out of the snacks in the Philippines, she grew love for Dynamite. Dynamite is a snack in the Philippines containing a chili pepper (usually green chili) that's stuffed with ground meat or cheese, and wrapped in spring roll wrapper.

For Rithe Cosplaying may be something that is challenging and leads her to burnout, but with enough rest and love from her fans she continues her mission to providing inspiration to people around her, where she aims to make people think that cosplaying is an act of creativity and passion.