Mai Valentine

Irvin loved Yu-Gi-Oh! back in the day - still has the thousands of cards in a binder to prove it! - and his favorite character was always Mai Valentine.  For many years, he'd wanted to cosplay her - and when nothing topical struck his fancy in 2022, he decided to make good on that wish and pull together a Mai costume.

To be specific, Irvin wanted to cosplay Mai Valentine from Season 4 - the Orichalcos Saga, where Mai breaks bad and ends up in a love triangle between Joey and Valon.  So Irvin set about assembling a deceptively detailed costume!

Mai has a very specific costume, and Irvin wanted to get every aspect of it right.  The fingerless elbow-length black gloves, the silver armband, the two belts (one pink and one black) winding through purple shorts, the big hoop earrings, the way the black tube top laces up in front... it took some determined shopping!  The trickiest part actually proved to be the popped collar on the purple vest - Irvin had to make that out of foam, and trust to the voluminous wig to keep it up.

As for all the Orichalcos accessories - Irvin got some black ribbon to make a choker, and added a bright green "gem" made of fabric.  He got a sticker of the Seal of Orichalcos on Etsy to put it on Mai's forehead.  And he'd had the Orichalcos Duel Disk from his childhood (told ya, big fan!) so it could finally be put to good use after so many years.

And for the finishing touch, Irvin pored over his Yu-Gi-Oh card collection to take out all the ones that appeared in Mai's deck, crafting a deck for the Duel Disk of "Harpie Lady," "Elegant Egotist," and all of Mai's other signature cards.  This attention to detail suitably impressed the Yu-Gi-Oh fanboys that Irvin ran into during Halloween; unfortunately, the cards had to be put away during the parade once it started raining.

Irvin was out and about as Mai for two days, and it was one of the most comfortable costumes he's ever worn on Halloween.  Other than the bare midriff (practically a calling card for his Halloween costumes!), the outfit was actually quite warm - and the enormous boobs kept his midriff nice and dry when a torrential downpour began during the parade.

Irvin took many photos as Mai Valentine before marching in the Halloween Parade with his friends - the outfit really popped on a beautiful fall day! 

Irvin's friend Jillian joined in the fun as another fabulous antagonist from Yu-Gi-Oh, Yami Bakura.  Upon looking it up, turns out that the romantic pairing of those characters is "Conceitshipping" - so named for their common lack of modesty.  Seemed like an excellent fit for Irvin and Jillian!