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Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece are three of the most-watched anime of all time and are known as the big three. It comes as no surprise that a lot of people have done a cosplay of a Naruto character. Yours truly included. Today I am going to take a deep dive into what makes a good Tsunade Cosplay, what you are going to need, share some creative Tsunade cosplay ideas, and what you need to know about her background and personality.
Naruto cosplays are perfect for beginners. A lot of pre-made costumes are available online and there are tons of cool characters to choose from. There are also a lot of couples and groups of friends you can cosplay with. It is also very recognizable. While Tsunade is one of the more obscure characters of the series, she is still more famous than the majority of main characters from other anime.
Who is Tsunade: Background and Personality and Quotes
Background
Tsunade grew up in a very powerful family. She is the granddaughter of Senju and Uzumaki. Both are very strong characters in the Naruto universe. She has nicknamed the princess due to her grandfather (Hashirama) always treating her as such.
She has had quite a tragic life before becoming one of the Hokage. In the Second Shinobi World War, she lost the love of her life, Dan Kato. She had the luck of having amazing allies to fall back on at the time, namely Jiraiya and Orochimaru.
However, the death of her loved Dan left her scarred emotionally. She decided to focus on other things than medicine and combat.
Personality
Tsunade is a very kind person with a rough edge. She is what we call a Tsundere in anime. Before meeting Naruto, she was very cynical. However, due to Naruto his personality, hard work, cheerful attitude, she can smile again.
Tsunade despite acting emotionless and not caring for anyone, would gladly give her life when her friends are in danger. When she became Hokage, she had no problem putting herself in danger to try and save the Hidden Leaf Village.
Quotes
These are a couple of Tsunade quotes that give a lot of insight into who she is. I also included some that are easy to remember, so you can use them when you are cosplaying.
“It’s because to be Hokage… is your dream… isn’t it, Naruto? One last time… just one last time… I place the odds on you.“
“Grow up… Death comes with being a shinobi… There are times when death is hard to accept, but if you don’t get over it, there’s no future…”
“I am the Fifth Hokage… You’ve trampled on our ancestors’ treasure… their dream… And you will pay the price! As the Hokage, I will put a stop to you here and now!”
sandals
As you see, Tsunade is quite the badass that has no trouble trusting those she believes in!
What do you need for the ultimate Tsunade costume cosplay?
Green robes
Tsunade wears a green robe with a black border finish. You can make these yourself from scratch, but it is quite difficult to do. There are ready-made robes available you can buy online. This will save you a lot of time. When you have to make these yourself from scratch, it won’t be easy. If you want to make something from this costume from scratch, I’d highly recommend you pick something different.
The green robes are an essential part of this costume and are one of the few unique features she has, so swapping it out, or choosing low quality is going to impact the costume.
Grey shirt or robes
Under the green robes, Tsunade wears another pair of robes. While this is a must for the perfect cosplay, it is extremely hot wearing 2 robes over one another in the summer. A good idea is to wear a gray shirt instead. This does not impact the cosplay too much in my opinion, and it is also a great budget option.
Blond Wig
If you do a lot of cosplays you should seriously consider investing in a wig. Almost every single cosplay – no matter female or male – has hair. Anime is also known for having some pretty eccentric hairstyles. This means you will get to use a good quality wig a lot. Get a wig that you can style in different hairstyles and maybe dye with a 24h hair dye.
Kunai
These can be plastic. You do not need to buy iron or steel Kunai. These are quite heavy and can be dangerous. It is also not a must to have for this costume. Tsunade only uses them occasionally. If you bring them, you should attach them to your belt.
Black Sandals
Tsunade wars black sandals with low heels. Normal black sandals can work for this costume. You should not wear sneakers or shoes in another color. This is probably going to break the immersion quite a bit. A good ready-made costume has the shoes included. If you can not find them online or you think these will be uncomfortable, you can use regular sandals too.
Pendant Necklace
You can make this yourself with resin, however, I strongly advise you to just buy it online. This is going to save you quite a lot of time, and buying a premade pendant necklace is going to be a lot easier and will save you a massive amount of time.
Blue Bermuda shorts
You will need to have some dark blue Bermuda shorts to make this outfit work. It is a pretty important part of the cosplay, and swapping it out is just not going to work. You can buy it separately, or you can get it by buying a ready-made costume.
Buying a premade Tsunade costume
You can get the entire Tsunade costume online. I recommend you to buy it this way. As you see, while the cosplay is quite basic in terms of accessories, Tsunade is not very well known and is hard to recognize.
A premade cosplay is often cheaper than buying separate items. It also saves a lot of time. You won’t need to spend hours sewing clothes. You could also make the cosplay cooler by personalizing it.
The downside about using a premade Tsunade costume is that multiple people could be wearing the same thing. However, I think the odds are pretty small of that happening unless you go to a Naruto-specific convention.
What is a good co-cosplay when going as a couple?
Since Tsunade doesn’t have a living love interest, I would say that a Jiraiya cosplay is the best option. While Jiraiya is not her love interest, they are very good friends and are often seen together on the screen. Jiraiya also has feelings for her, so that works out.
I would strongly advise you to buy the ready-made Jiraiya cosplay. Jiraiya has a lot of separate items and add-ons that are complex and will take you a lot of time to make yourself. The price for the costume is also very fair for all the things you get. You get Jiraiya his vest, the shirt, a net shirt, pants, handguards, arm guards, leg guards, and a sash. The headband is also included. This means all you will have to do is apply makeup.
The reviews of the costume are great, too, so I am not the only one who thinks it is a very good deal. Of course, nobody is stopping you from trying to make some things yourself. You can try to make e.g. the headband yourself. If it doesn’t work out, you can still use the one from the costume as your backup!
Frequently asked questions about Tsunade and Tsunade cosplay
Question: Do I need to buy a wig for the Tsunade costume?
Answer: This depends on if you have long hair or not. If you do not have long hair, you will probably need to buy a wig. Tsunade with short hair just does not work. You will make the costume even harder to recognize.
• If you have long hair, you have three options. Option one is that your hair is already blond. Then you just have to style your hair in the same way as Tsunade.
• The second option is that you have long hair in a different color, and you do not want to buy a wig. Then you can dye your hair. Dying your hair for cosplay is best done with a 24h hair dye. These wash off very easily in the shower.
• Third, you just buy a wig because you do not want to dye your hair. This is a great option, as dying your hair does take quite some time, and having a good wig will open up a lot of extra cosplay options character-wise.
Question: Does Jiraiya love Tsunade?
Answer: Yes, Jiraiya loves her. However, Tsunade does not love him back in the same way. While she would likely give her life trying to defend him, she has no romantic feelings towards him. This can make for either a great or an awkward couple of cosplay, depending on how you roll with it.
Jiraiya and Tsunade is the best option for a couple’s cosplay in my opinion. Dan, Tsunade’s actual love interest, did not get any meaningful screentime and has nothing that makes his outfit stand out. It would be a long night of nobody having a clue who you are cosplaying as if you are going as Dan.
Question: Does Tsunade wear a hat?
Answer: For most of the series, she does not wear a hat. It is only after she becomes Hokage that she wears the Hokage hat. This is a great way to make the Tsunade costume more recognizable, as she is the only female Hokkage in the show, so it is hard to mistake her for someone else. You can easily make this hat yourself by painting a classic Chinese straw hat white and then adding red kanji on the front with paint.
Question: Do I need kunai for this cosplay?
Answer: No, this is completely optional. Tsunade seldom uses Kunai. However, since she is a ninja she pretty much always has them with her. So if you want to have a perfect cosplay, you should bring 3 or 4 kunai with you.
To not get into trouble, or have quite some weight hanging on your belt, you are best off just using plastic toy kunai. You can also make these yourself out of resin or 3D print them. You will only have to paint them after you printed them or the resin has dried.
Cosplaying as Tsunade – My Final Thoughts
Cosplaying with a Tsunade costume can be pretty difficult. If you are planning on making a lot of things yourself, they will need to be very high quality. Tsunade is not one of the most known characters from Naruto, she also does not have a lot of eccentric props. This all makes her pretty difficult to recognize. Even more so when people have not seen the anime recently or only saw a few episodes with her in it.
The ready-made costume is high quality and has everything you need for a decent price. That is why I would recommend you buy it and just make some small props that are a nice bonus to the cosplay yourself.
Tsunade does not have a living love interest and is Dan does not have a costume, since he had only a few minutes of screentime. This makes it hard to do a couple’s cosplay with Tsunade. A good alternative is just going as Jiraiya and Tsunade. Jiraiya is very recognizable. This helps the Tsunade cosplay costume to be recognized a lot easier, too.
Did we miss anything? Or do you have a great idea to make this cosplay even better? Let us know so we can add it to the guide and help people perfect this awesome Tsunade cosplay!