Sailor Bubba

About

Sailor Bubba is a nickname given to a large bearded man dressed in a girl’s colorful sailor suit as Usagi Tsukino, the heroine from 1992 anime show Sailor Moon. He became an early internet icon among fans of the show and, along with Man-Faye, introduced and influenced the style of cosplay known as crossplay^[1].

Origin

According to an August 11th 2011 article by Isaac Sher on website Threat or Menace and entitled Confession of a Con Staffer #1: Enter SAILORBUBBA!^[2], Sailor Bubba came to be at Anime Central, a famous anime convention in Chicago, in 1999, during the convention’s second year.
Sher states that he was a Master of Ceremonies for the Con’s Masquerade costume contest and that, backstage, another staff member, Jason “Jazz” Jensen, introduced him to a large man who was a security staff member at the event and who politely asked if he could take part in the contest for fun, dressed in a sailor moon costume. He went on stage as the last entry with the moniker of Sailor Bubba. The result:

Spread

As his popularity went on, Sailor Bubba Became doing recurring appearances at the con through out the years as is evidenced from photos taken at Anime Central 2002^[3]. In it, people were discussing photos of the cosplay during the 2002 convention. He also became a star on Deviant Art with photos of him taken at the 2004 and 2008 Anime Central conventions^[4].
On internet, this unusual view of a large bearded man doing a cosplay of a teenage magical girl caught attention of several websites, including metafilter in 2005^[5] or 4chan when a panel for the website was hosted at Anime Central in 2006^[6].
A few YTMND sites about him were made between 2005 and 2007^[7], as well as a Facebook fan page in 2008^[8] and he has is his own macro on Meme Generator. ^[9]

Sailor Bubba’s Bobblehead

Because of his evergrowing popularity both at the convention and on the web, the Anime Central staff decided to create and sell Bobblehead figures of the newborn star. It began during Anime Central 2004^[10] and it became a favorite merchandise ever since.