Heroes of Cosplay returned tonight with a brand new episode, picking up where last season left off. This episode takes everyone to Stan Lee’s Comikaze, a convention that’s really taken off these last few years. The episode quickly caught us up with, and reintroduced us to some of the individuals from last year, and some new individuals as well, expanding upon what’s been built.

In general, I enjoyed last year’s season, especially with its honesty of the cliquish nature of geekdom. There were villains, there were heroes, and yes, there were a lot of costumes. Part of the show’s appeal was seeing what goes into these amazing costumes, but at the same time it lifted the veil at how cutthroat it all is at times. But what was more fascinating was the gender roles, and sexualization at times of non-sexual characters.

This second season dives right into all of that, having numerous individuals from last season prepping for the next competition. A new “character” is Indra, a former cosplayer who is returning back to competition after some time off. Indra seeks out Yaya Han’s advice, Yaya being one of the most well-known cosplayers out there. Thankfully some of the poorer (ie “sex it up”) advice from last year wasn’t given by Yaya, instead we see an encouragement, a sign of the positive cosplay community that exists.

Jessica and Holly have interestingly teamed up with Chloe for a cool Pokemon group entry, and last year’s Jesse is going with Mega Man. All of them should be impressive if pulled off. We get to see what goes into creating the costumes, and that’s a draw for the series, much like it is for other SyFy shows Face/Off and Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. I did have some issues with Chloe’s burlesque characters based on websites. Why does it have to be burlesque? Body positive is mentioned, but how about just creative cosplay instead?

Also shown off is Yaya Han who travel’s to Argentina for an impressive convention that’s more about photos and showing off one’s creation.

But really, this comes down to the competition at the convention, which usually ends the show and the costumes on display are impressive. Beyond what these individuals put together, there’s some others shown that are truly amazing. And that’s a fantastic part of the show, there’s numerous times when none of the individuals followed win. To see their wins AND losses is excellent, and I think one of the strongest narrative parts of the show.

That truly is a great thing about the show. For all of the catty nature at times. For all of the questionable sexing up of characters. There’s a positive community vibe, and that’s what keeps me coming back….. that and the awesome cosplay.

Overall Score: 7