Cosplayer of The Week-Tsukino

Cosplayer of The Week-Jimmy

A little about Cosplay

                                                                                           The Origin

The term cosplay originated from Japan, it is taken from the Japanese pronunciation (kos pu reコスプレ).  Many say it is an abbreviation for the word costume play. They refer to the practice of dressing up in a costume to reassemble and anime, manga, sci-fi and video game characters. It is cultures that originate from Japan itself.  Since 1998 Tokyo's Akihabara district has contained a huge number of cosplay cafés, catering to devoted anime and cosplay fans. The waitresses at such cafés dress as game or anime characters; maid costumes are particularly popular. In areas outside of Japan, cosplay is primarily done at manga and anime conventions. Besides that, cosplayers used to gather in Harajuku, Akihabara, and Anime Conventions around the world. It is a famous gathering place for cosplayers. Cosplayers typically come from the fans (ota-ku) of Japanese comic books (manga). The largest event for cosplayers outside Asia is the annual San Diego Comic-Con held in the California city in the USA.

What is Cosplay?

According to other website definitions of cosplay it is specifically, is the act of dressing up as a character, person, or creature from an anime, manga, movie, music group, or other Japanese pop culture genre. People who cosplay “take on the role of” their character for an entire day or weekend. This usually means they theatrically portray the character they are emulating throughout their day, much like an actor in a large-scale play. The construction of the costume is done by the wearer and involves very little purchasing of items from stores if one is considered a “core” practitioner. Many people refer to cosplay as a hobby, an art form, a youth clique, fashion movement...You name it.  But to me, it is a form of expression art. Just like how people play their act on the stage, we cosplay to portray the character we chosen. What is important to note is that most cosplayers truly LOVE what they do. It's more than a hobby and in many ways immerses them in a passion for design and expression in a craft that emulates the characters they love from their chosen media. 

    

Cosplay in different countries

For almost fifty years, cosplay has had extensive following and continues to experience growing popularity in North America and Europe, and has more recently spread throughout South America and Australia.  In the United States, cosplaying is rarely seen outside of anime and sci-fi conventions. However there have been growing in popularity over the years. In each year, the conventions held had increased and the numbers of people who attend also increase. Star Trek and Star Wars characters have always been top choices among cosplayers at science fiction conventions in America, but with the increase in popularity of Japanese anime on American television, more people are becoming interested in cosplaying Japanese characters at anime conventions as well. Otakon, Momocon, Anime Boston, DragonCon are some of the large conventions. In Hong Kong, citizens and non-citizens of Hong Kong all gather around to cosplay. For local Chinese citizens, the multimedia started to keep an eye on cosplayers. Most of the universities in Hong Kong also launched their own cosplay events, and the most popular one is the Cosplay Party by Hong Kong University. Nowadays there are almost 20 events held with cosplay sessions every year in Hong Kong. Some of the anime conventions are like comic world, ACGHK and Asian game show. Besides that, cosplay is also getting more popular in Malaysia; we have events like Comic Fiesta, ACM and many more events that are held yearly to bring all the cosplayers from Malaysia to gather for the event. Each university and college also has their own cosplay clubs.  Besides that, in Singapore, they also have international events like AFA and CosFest that features international cosplayers and performers from Japan. Cosplay is also rising in Indonesia, Philippines, and Thailand. You may even consider attending a convention in Japan, where you can truly learn what it means to cosplay from the nation that invented the word.

Costumes and the Cosplayer

Many people are confused with cosplay and say that it is the same with Halloween and Mardi gars. The object of cosplay is one attempting to become one's character much as a stage actor inhabits a role. The costumes of a Cosplayer can be simple to complicate. They get their costumes from online stores, shops, homemade or tailored. Frequently purchased items are the wig and contact lenses because they are so difficult and costly to make without proper supplies. Making their own costumes enables cosplayers to create a costume that precisely resembles their favourite character, as well as to take pride in the fact that they made it themselves. Costume contests are often the show up of many conventions, for it gives cosplayers the chance to finally be remunerated for all of the hard work they put into making their costumes. Winners show that they can not only look like their favourite characters, but also talk and act like them as well. Accessories and weapons are usually the most difficult part of a costume to make or complete with accuracy. This is because many anime and video game characters wield weapons or other accessories that are difficult to replicate and some are massively huge in size. Furthermore, conventions have rather strict rules regarding swords and other weapons. The weapons can’t be real and sharp. Each country have their own rules on what are allowed and not. So, most cosplayerscosplay exist in their own right and are not distinctly a part of the cosplay community. For example, a member of the hip hop group becomes one because they wish to be a part of that community every day, whereas a Cosplayer of someone from the hip hop community is only doing so for a few hours, or days to express an ideal they do not actually live in their everyday reality. When they dress up they take on not only the full appearance, but also the complete personality of that person or thing. In a way they are like actors playing parts in their own version of a community-wide, completely improvised play.

We also have to pay attention to the different people and the different culture that we have today. They might have a thinking of the "ideal" practices of cosplay as something completely different from another. Of course, is that people are uniting around the concept of cosplay as a hobby that becomes a significant part of one's lifestyle, and therefore sharing ideas and information across language and cultural borders that might not have been crossed by those people and in those ways, were it not for cosplay.~spread the love~

sumire-signing off