Celebrity Gaymer: Rock M Sakura

Rock M Sakura is the San Francisco-based drag artist who we all fell in love with on RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 12, only to see her exit the show early on very unexpectedly. Her amazing blend of high energy and kawaii looks stunned us all from the start of the season, and we were so shocked to see her go early.

I originally interviewed her for our sister magazine Gayming Magazine, but I thought I would share this here too so you can enjoy what this awesome queen had to say.

Rock M is well known for being into gaming and cosplay heavily inspires her drag aesthetic, so I was super excited when I had the chance to catch up with her for a brief interview about her inspirations and aspirations, and her digital drag show out tomorrow night (9th April).

Robin: Hey Rock M, thanks so much for taking the time to talk to us. When did you start doing drag? 

I started doing drag about 5 years ago. I’ve always been interested in drag because of characters like Jessie and James from Pokemon.

If you had to describe Rock M Sakura in one sentence, what would it be?

Rock M is a high energy weeaboo ball of pure human garbage, desu.

How many times have you auditioned for RuPaul’s Drag Race?

This was my second year auditioning! My first year I fell down the stairs and jumped into a dumpster.

What was your first thought when you got the call that you were in?

When I first got the call, the only thing I could think of was, “DEAR GOD I’M POOR, how the hell…”

How long have you been into gaming?

I’ve been playing video games since I was a small kid. One of my earliest memories is playing on the SNES. I also really just grew up around video games. I lived with my grandparents from an early age, until my grandmother’s passing, and they were never able to play with me, so video games and television became my parents.

How would you describe your drag style and what are your inspirations?

My drag style is battle ready, Tekken 6 customisation card and Guilty Gear Club ready fantasy. I wanted to be a character concept designer when I was in school… regular school, I couldn’t afford art school… so a lot of my concepts tend to be very impractical or highly conceptual. Imagine Final Fantasy with less zippers and more pink!

Your drag blends in a lot of cosplay, what are some of your favorite characters to cosplay?

The first time I ever started out doing drag was as Poison from Final Fight. Her pink hair and cool personality resonated with me and I wanted to really embody her as a character. I also love cosplaying as Princess Peach, basic gay cosplay choice I know, come at me, but I love the colour palette and she was A-tier in melee so she down+jump’ed right into my heart.

We recently paired up the queens of Season 12 with their Pokémon counterparts and you were matched with Pikachu. If you weren’t Pikachu, what other Pokémon do you think you would match to?

I think if I were a Pokémon I would most likely be Sylveon. Fairy type, pink colour palette, and when they were first announced they were meme’d pretty hard with the flesh bows. Another option is Diancie, I mean, she’s a fairy/ROCK so…

We want to see more queens embracing gaming in their shows, have you ever done anything gaming related in a show? If not, what do you think this could look like?

I always talk about this, but I do a number to Utada Hikaru’s “Simple and Clean” from Kingdom Hearts, where I do a wig reveal to a mop, and I mop the floor with my head! Just do a number that resonates with people either currently or is a reference to things people will never forget. Like, if you did “In the Middle” by Zedd and you were Jill Valentine becoming a Jill Sandwich.

What’s up next in your world?

I have digital drag show as part of the PEG Digital Drag Fest 2020 on April 9th at 3pm PDT (6pm Eastern, 11pm BST). It’s called “Rock M Sakura’s Cosplay Fantasy Electric Boogaloo The Sequel with Shrek Hatsune Miku Other People Jpop Green Screen Sugar Pop Blowout Extravaganza Another Adjective Experience” and it features various cosplay green screen performances. Go check out the show page on Stageit for more info. 

How can our readers keep up with you?

You can follow me at @rockmsakura on Instagram and Twitter and you can come watch me at rockmsakura_desu on Twitch, I have some Let’s Plays coming soon!