When anime (Japanese animation) was first accepted in the mainstream in Japan in the 1980s and proceed later to become a worldwide success, a new form of art was born along with it. The realm of animation is coloured with the most extensive conglomeration of wild and wacky characters. From the colour-changing haired saiyans of Dragonball Z to the world of ninjas in Naruto, these distinctive personas may seem out of reach of the fans. That is until the birth of the new art in the form of 'cosplay' as mentioned earlier. The term 'cosplay' may seem unfamiliar to many but it is certainly no stranger to those anime fans.
Let me begin by explaining what the term 'cosplay' is. For those who do not know, cosplay is a conjunction of the words 'costume' and role 'play'. It is a type of hobby and performance art in which participants don in costumes, make-up, and accessories to emulate a specific character and adapt its personality, in other words, they make their idols come to life. These participants are basically named 'cosplayers'. Originally, cosplayers portrayed only characters from anime and manga (Japanese comic), but due to its increasing popularity, the list now expands to the portrayal of characters from video games, movies, action figures, and many others.
It is usual for people with limited knowledge about cosplay to refer to cosplay as just 'dressing up'. Most, if not all cosplayers dislike being addressed that way. Cosplay is not just your typical dressing up as it is in Halloween or like an entertainer in costume at the theme park. It requires more effort, not to mention money, to be put into cosplay rather than just simply dressing up.
For better understanding, during Halloween, a person can just buy a couple of scary looking mask and wear it to win the best costume award, but in cosplay, one will need to carefully study and understand the characteristic, personality, details and the way a character act and more time will be spent on researching and finding the proper outfit and accessories. In short, it is more towards the mindset rather than just plain dressing up.
Conserving in fashion is of crucial significance for contemporary people. Your taste and persona get expressed by the garment you pick out. This statement too applies to cosplaying. It is true and normal that many people will like to cosplay as the most well-known or most-liked character from the best-selling anime or from any other sources. However, that may not produce the best cosplay as maybe that particular character is unsuitable for them.
A serious cosplayer will always explore many aspects before cosplaying. First they may look into the budget on how much they are willing to spend on that character cosplay. Then only after that they will bombard themselves with lots of questions such as; what are the similarities between the cosplayer and the character - the body size, skin, facial structure and height? Are they willing to cut or dye their hair or wear a wig? Will they be able to buy or create their own on what they are planning to wear? And the list goes on. In some occasion, they might even have to consider on whether they are willing to cosplay as another gender.
Having said that, it is not uncommon to spot a girl cosplaying as goku from Dragonball Z series or seeing a boy walking around as a female character, in the world of cosplaying. This form of cosplaying is known as 'crossplay', a word play between 'crossdress' and 'cosplay'. There is a slight difference between crossplay and crossdress. Crossplay is a subset of cosplay where either a girl is portraying a character who is a guy, or vice versa, while merely dressing up as the opposite gender is known as crossdressing. There are many reasons to why a person crossplay, but the most obvious would be that they admire the characters and hence they do not let their gender stop them from cosplaying as the character. Although common, it is still being banned or discouraged in some parts of the world as it is seen as inappropriate.
It is important to note that neither crossplaying nor crossdressing be a sign of anything about a person's sexual orientation, nor is it something done to offend a moral, belief or religion. It is just another form of art of cosplay, just like actors in the movies portraying as characters of different genders. Additionally, it is also worth noting that when a person cosplaying as an animal, be it real or virtual, it is known as 'Gijinka'. The most famous gijinka cosplaying will be of Pokemon, the Japanese-based anime virtual combating pets.
By Guan Ang via Borneo Bulletin Weekend dated 28th May 2011
You can also check my previous post about an interview done by Brunei Times HERE, I also provide some link to past cosplaying events there... so check it out...
And here are some of the cosplaying activities that took place between the Brunei Times post and this post:-
And here are some of the coverage done by Sham Hikari
Lastly, a video project with dudetrooper4
And if you have Facebook, do Like the Brunei Cosplayers Page... cheers... :)
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