Otaku Cosplay - Anime Comes Alive With This Fascinating Hobby!

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 19:40:35 EST

In Japan, cosplay is an extremely popularpastime and can be commonly seen at public events such as video gameshows, cosplay parties and nightclubs. In the more recent years since1998 and beyond a great deal of cosplay cafes have begun to turn up inthe Japanese Akihabara district and have grown drastically inpopularity.

One of the biggest parts of the cosplay hobby is the creation of thecharacter costume itself. The more intricate and accurate the detailsof the costume are the better the cosplay is considered. To this endeven a person’s hair, skin and physical features may become part of theoverall cosplay costume. Many anime events even hold contests wherecosplay costumes are judged for accuracy and creativity.

Very much different than Halloween costumes, the goal of a cosplaycostume is to literally become the character that is being depicted.For this reason cosplay costumes tend to be extremely elaborate andeven simple costumes may take months of research and crafting to makeproperly. Many costume makers will employ many doctrines ofcraftsmanship to get the proper texture, look and feel of the specificcharacter they want to cosplay as.

Cosplay trends change on a monthly and yearly basis as pop culture andanime changes. Due to the international success of some major filmfranchise in the past years some fantasy and sci-fi characters havebecome very popular cosplay figures. Characters from Star Wars and theHarry Potter series are among some of the most popular non-animecharacters to see featured as cosplay.

Within the hobby of cosplay there are even some subgroups. Crossplay isone subset of cosplay in which the player dresses as a character of theopposite sex. Crossplay does not necessarily mean cross-dressinghowever as many anime characters wear clothing that is not necessarilygender-specific.

Cosplay in recent years has drawn a great deal of media attention.Every modern anime convention features a wealth of photographers whoeagerly follow and photograph cosplay costumes to put online or catalogfor cosplay magazines and publications. These photographers are usuallyreferred to as “cameko” or “camera boy”.

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Otaku Cosplay - Anime Comes Alive With This Fascinating Hobby!