I'm writing this to bring to light something that happened this last weekend at Ikkicon and call out toxic and fraudulent behavior. As a community we can't tolerate this type of outright deception or allow it to represent cosplayers as a whole. The person in question calls himself Hioshi Jackson. He also calls himself a "professional" and famous cosplayer, but he's the only one calling himself that. He was billed as a cosplay guest at Ikkicon on both their website and printed guidebooks with an official "bio" blatantly filed with transparent lies. Five minutes of google searching can expose almost all of his claims as untrue. Including: - His bio states that he's only been cosplaying for around 1 or 2 years and started doing it "professionally" in the last year, yet also states that he's internationally famous. - He claims to have been a cosplay guest at a number of major cons including A-kon, Anime Matsuri, San Japan, and Anime Expo, which is obviously untrue. Not only was he not a guest at A-kon -- I was -- he actually competed in the cosplay contest. He also competed at San Japan (source: Jesse Thaxton was a judge). John Leigh, owner of Anime Matsuri, has verified that he was not a guest there either. None of these cons have a public record of him as a guest. - He claims to have inspired the late Monty Oum to create the character of Fox from RWBY. This has been debunked by Monty's wife Sheena Oum on twitter and tumblr. The fact that he would claim to speak on behalf of a deceased man and take credit for his creation is disrespectful and appalling. - He claims to have been hired to voice the character of Fox in RWBY season 3. Call-out tweets calling him a liar and fraud were retweeted by Rooster Teeth's Barbara Dunkelman. - At the A-kon cosplay contest, he showed up wearing a skin-tight bodysuit and no dance belt. It was indecent. He told us during judging that there are no dance belts large enough for his penis, which is physically impossible and suggests a hilarious level of insecurity. - He loudly talks about his "agent" in public spaces hoping that others will overhear him. As far as we can tell, his agent is his significant and appears to have no experience in PR, because they're both doing a very bad job at it. - Once the Ikkicon drama started hitting the web, I was contacted by multiple staff members working for the con. They publicly condemned him being a "guest" because he and his group, Samurai Titans, PAID the convention head to call him a guest. Multiple sources can corroborate this. - Ikkicon cosplay staff had no hand in this whatsoever and were forced to include him. They refused to let him judge the contest, although he did give out his own special judges awards including prizes he donated himself. He made them announce it after the best in show and ruined the atmosphere. We attended Ikkicon's contest and watched it. It was cringe worthy. - Most notably, it appears that Hioshi is lying about creating the majority of his own cosplays. His work is mysteriously identical to props and armor created by Aishi Cosplay and Shop. If you look at their page, you can find photos of him wearing these items which are credited as being made by them. Hioshi has posted the exact same photos to his own social media pages, where he claims to have made the same costume pieces. He doesn't have real progress photos to support his claim. He is blatantly lying and stealing credit for costumes he is buying. It's my belief that no one should lie, cheat, and steal in this community in order to get places. We're a community of friends and creators who thrive on positivity and we can't let this kind of toxic behavior represent us. Let's set a precedent of condemning this unacceptable behavior. Being a cosplay guest takes years of experience, dedication, and hard work. It's not something anyone should be able to buy and lie their way into. Let Texas conventions know that we aren't falling for Hioshi's lies, and allowing him as a "guest" only damages their credibility.