What is Cosplay?

One of my favorite hobbies, which I don’t really share with a lot of people in my life, is Cosplay. Something I wanted to blog about, giving anyone interested a little idea into the world of Cosplay and what it is…

Cosplay, short for costume-play, is a performance art. Cosplayers (people involved in the hobby) don costumes, wigs, accessories, body paints etc. to get into the role of a character, because of this a certain amount of acting and skills are required to pull the art off successfully. Cosplay has been around for many years, but has only spread worldwide in recent years. It originated in Japan where people dressed up as characters from manga (Japanese comics), animes (Japanese animation) and games. It has spread across to the western world since then, now incorporating not only Japanese characters but those created in other countries through their own cartoons, movies, TV shows and developed games. Anything whether from the real or virtual world can be created through costume and characterisation. Even inanimate objects and animals can be interpreted into humanised forms. 

 Comparison of Cosplayer in Japan a few years ago with the character she is portraying.

The wonders of the internet has enabled the worldwide community of cosplayers to grow by the day, raising awareness of it as a hobby as we are able to share stories of our creations and travels, photographs of our costumes, news on the latest products or how our latest project is going and tips to help one another out. Because pictures of cosplay are finding their way to spread out all across the internet, there has been a massive growth in the number of people that are taking it up as a hobby. In 1990, had you gone to an Anime or Pop Culture Expo and dressed up, you were one of the few that did and if you had gone out in public in a costume, any day other than Halloween, you would have been very weird. Now, that isn’t the case at all, photoshoots for cosplay in local parks or in a city is completely normal in the cosplay community and generally highly accepted by the public, now they admire costumes. Because of this change, cosplay has become extremely influential in popular culture.

The Costumes

Cosplay costumes range in all different types and difficulties, from something simple like a Japanese school style uniform to something highly detailed, like a gown or even ranging to a costume created to look like mecha (robots/machines) or armour. These costumes are different to ones worn at costume or Halloween parties; they are intended to replicate the character. Attention when cosplaying is on every last detail, from the fabrics used in the creation of the costume to the way beading along a hemline needs to sit. It’s difficult, it takes time to learn and build up skills to work on costumes; cosplayers need to educate themselves on crafting as they work with a lot of different materials, from cotton to latex, wood and expanding foam. Often costumes, parts of costumes or props can be difficult to create and a lot of time and thinking goes into the problem solving process to create the replica in the best, most realistic looking way possible. The whole creation and crafting process can often be a stressful experience, but for cosplayers, the end result is what really matters to us. There is no better feeling than slipping into a completed costume, getting into character and performing for a day.  

 Guild Wars 2 Original Concept Art (above) compared to a cosplay of it (below)

Aside from just costumes being created to replicate a character, cosplayers often make props and accessories that the character uses as well. These can be just as complex as a costume and range from something small like a necklace or a pair of boots to a sword over 2 meters in height.  Sometimes the prop or accessory makes the costume.

 Full scale buster sword from the Final Fantasy series

 Dizzy from Guilty Gear cosplay, all I can say is those are some impressive wings.

The replicate appearance that cosplayers go for is built on further by styling their hair. Almost all cosplayers wear wigs with their outfits to resemble the character even more closely. This becomes particularly necessary when cosplaying an anime, manga or game character where their hair is often unnatural colours, like blues, pinks and greens and the style of it just about defies gravity. The wigs cosplayers use are bought specifically for cosplay, the hair is made of fibers that can withstand heat as it will be styled to suit the character. Often cosplayers will have to weft multiple wigs together to pull off the hair, sometimes making it heavy and hard to move.

Example of some of the gravity defying hair created using wigs. (Character: Sora from Kingdom Hearts II)

Why do cosplayers do it?

 Most cosplayer’s have several reasons for taking up cosplay as a hobby:

• One can be that this is a way to express their adoration and passion for a character or series. It’s their way of showing their love for a character.

• Another reason some get involved in the hobby is because they love the attention cosplaying a certain character can bring, being recognised for the details they put into their cosplays makes them feel good and gives them the confidence to go and perform on stage.

• Many people love the creation process and the achievement felt at the end of it. Being able to pull together something that takes time, skill, patience and money is an incredible feeling.

• They get to be someone else for the day.

• Having other fans of the shows come up and have a chat about the show or character, sharing their love with the cosplayer. It’s a great way to make new friends and being appreciated for your work by other fans is always nice.

•  It’s FUN. My favorite days of the year are days I spend at pop culture and anime conventions.

 Yes, believe it or not, this is a costume! An incredible one. Sourced from: Kotaku

Conventions and Competitions

Since popularity for cosplay has grown so exponentially, especially in the last 10 years, anime/manga, gaming and popular culture conventions and expos have come to hold cosplay contests that are often one of the main attractions in the events. Contestants compete on-stage in front of an audience and panel of judges, usually made up of highly successful cosplayers. There can be different kinds of performances, a catwalk onto the stage, posing for some photos before briefly being interviewed by an MC or skits where contestants have a few minutes to impress the judges and entertain the audience. The skits can consist of performed dialogue, sound recordings and dance as well as be accompanied by video and audio on a screen overhead. These skits can be done individually or in groups.

The costumes entered into contests, where the cosplayer is in competition for an award, must be self-made and sometimes evidence of the creation process may be required.

Different conventions give different awards to its cosplayers, but here is a general list.

• Best in Show (overall winner)
• Best Group
• Best Cosplayer
• Runner-ups

Sometimes there will be categories too:

•   Best novice/intermediate/advanced
• Most humourous
• Journeyman award
•   Master sewist
• Master Prop
•   Master Armourer
•   Master stylist etc.

Christie Lee, a successful Austrialian cosplayer, performing onstage at Supanova Sydney, 2009.

The most well-known and prestigious competition known to cosplayers is the World Cosplay Summit (WCS), which is seen as one of the ultimate honours to be selected for. A duo of cosplayers is selected from 20 countires to compete in the final round of competition after a year’s worth of qualifying rounds and competitions, such as Animania’s WCS Competition (final round held in Sydney) and Euro Cosplay (final round held in London), to be selected and months and months of preparations for WCS. The WCS is held in Nagoya, Japan and is filmed live then broadcasted in some countries afterwards. Including Australia at their anime convention, Animania and it is found all over Youtube.

The countries that compete:

• Australia
• Brazil
• China
•   Denmark
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Indonesia
•   Italy
•   Japan
• Korea
•   Malaysia
• Mexico
• The Netherlands
• Russia
• Spain
•   Taiwan
• Thailand
• United Kingdom
• United States

The Australian representatives for WCS 2011, Jess and Tess, (who I have had the honour of meeting before, it was so exciting!) did Australia so proud, coming 4^th overall and winning the Brothers Award, which is the award for best costumes. You can see their amazing costumes below.

 

 The Australian representatives for WCS 2012, Will and Tsubaki, have continued on Australia’s growing passion for cosplay by coming 7^th overall and looking incredible (as you see below).

 

So, hopefully that opened up the door to cosplay for you a little. As something that is growing exponentially in popularity, I am so excited to see more new faces joining the cosplay community where I have already met an amazing bunch of people and can’t wait to meet more and see where this creative, artistic and under-rated hobby will take us in the future.

-Laura

P.S. I’ll just leave this here…it’s too cool, I had to share it
Incredible IronMan Cosplay