Tag: Cosplay

Cosplayers Take A Walk In The Park

Editorial Team

Tsuruma Park, located in the city of Nagoya, was once a popular locale for O-bon dances, bird watching, and performing morning exorcises.  Though in the last few years, the park has attracted a new breed of visitors: Cosplayers.

If we look at the reasons why this new fad has sprung, we may wonder why Tsuruma Park hadn’t been used for cosplayers sooner.

For one thing, we’ve got the World Cosplay Summit which began in 2003, and has since been held annually in Nagoya; a week-long event where people dress-up as their favorite anime and video game characters, marching in a parade and holding a championship to vote on the best outfit.

Then, we’ve got Tsuruma Park nearby, a large open space which features a mixture of both old and modern Western and Japanese-style buildings.  A perfect location for a photo shoot, just waiting for the right models.

Cosplayers Take A Walk In The Park

Then one day, it finally happened.  Word got around of Tsuruma Park’s ideal background for picture taking, and what began as an event surrounding the World Cosplay Summit, has now become a summer-long fad.  Wearing a mecha outfit?  Try posing in front of the Civic Assembly Hall and water fountain.  Dressed as the ninja Kazumi from Dead Or Alive?  Why not use the Japanese garden?  “It’s boring to take photos on the concrete streets,” says one cosplayer.

And besides, considering all the effort these fans and otaku put into creating their costumes, why wear them only during the World Cosplay Summit and Tokyo Game Show?  The summer may be hot and humid, but dressing up as your favorite anime and video game character while posing in Tsuruma Park is cool!  (Well, interesting at least)

written by Damon Finos

From Japan: The Mysteries of Japanese Cosplay!

Editorial Team

Having been to the Tokyo Game Show on “business days,” I can say that the experience is satisfying. No crowds, no pushing and shoving, no long lines to play a game. Unfortunately, that also meant no Japanese Cosplay.

So who are these Cosplayers?  What are they?  Why are they?  So many questions…

Japanese CosplayIn Japanese, kosupure is a hybrid of the English words “costume” and “play.”  In a nutshell, these are fans who enjoy dressing up as manga, anime and video game characters.  I like to think of it as a kind of Halloween-like sub-culture, as you don’t usually see Cosplayers on the train or buying Big Macs at McDonald’s.  Rather, they usually get together at specific events – such as the Tokyo Game Show.

While it’s possible to buy these outfits at shops in Akihabara and other places, most Cosplayers I spoke to during past TGSs said they made their costumes themselves.  There’s “mecha” Cosplayers who dress as robots made of cardboard, a billion Final Fantasy characters, I even saw a Sega Saturn running around.  Hair is either dyed and stylized, or they use wigs.  The outfits themselves are either hand-crafted, or put together using an assortment of clothing.

Makuhare Messe, where the Tokyo Game Show takes place, is made up of three ginormous rooms.  In between are these narrow, outdoor alleys – where the Cosplayers mainly hang-out.  They each find themselves an area near a wall, and a line is formed by the otaku anxiously waiting to take their pictures.  The Cosplayers make several poses, while the otaku click away on their cameras (sometimes requesting specific poses) until they’re satisfied, and the next person in line moves up for their turn.

Japanese CosplayI personally wouldn’t call this sub-culture a form of role-play, as the Cosplayers don’t usually “play their role.”  I’ve never seen a Solid Snake act out a battle with a Liquid Ocelot (maybe because there’s no room) and if you speak to a Cosplayer, they talk like a normal human being (usually) and not in character.

So why do they do it?  Maybe for the same reason Westerners have fun dressing up on Halloween.  Because it’s fun to dress up.  And having people line up to take their picture gives them a day of fame.

Though I did enjoy the lack of crowds visiting the TGS on a business day, I felt that without the Cosplayers, there was something missing.

 

written by Damon Finos