Cosplay

Cosplay idea

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past decade or so, you have probably heard the term cosplay a time or two. Do you know what it means and how much a hobby like this could end up costing a cosplayer? If not, read on as we are going to explain the ins and outs of cosplay and what it takes to get started.

Cosplay is literally the combination of the words “costume” and “play” and it is the dressing up as one’s favorite characters from comics, video games, anime, manga, movies and television shows. The origin of the word says that in 1984, Nov Takahashi, founder and writer for the anime publishing company Studio Hard, was sent to Los Angeles to cover the World-Con science fiction convention. He was impressed by the fans' costumes and the elaborate displays at the masquerade, and when he returned to Japan, he coined the term to describe what he saw.

Today, almost everyone that attends a Comic Con event participates in cosplay and just as the people vary greatly, so do the costumes. Some resourceful cosplayers repurpose clothing and props they already own while others can spend hundreds of dollars to get just the right look.

The cosplayers who choose to go above and beyond to create something totally unique have been known to commission costumes from specialists or shop costume retailers online and get the costumes and accessories they need for their upcoming “adventure”.

One example of a cosplayer who went a little out of the way to get the costume she wanted is a woman who wanted a Giselle costume from Disney's animated movie "Enchanted." She requested a price quote from an online commissioner asking for specific, high-quality materials and hand-embroidered flowers and soon discovered that the price would be upwards of $850!

Now that may seem exorbitant, but cosplayers take their craft as seriously as golfers take their game and they don’t have any problem spending the extra money to pull it off. For cosplayers, the experience is nearly always worth the

stress of choosing a costume and dropping the money. It's an opportunity to be a hero, princess or otherworldly creature for a while and it might even be considered therapeutic to many of the world’s more serious cosplayers.

Now that you know what cosplay is, the costs that must be endured and the seriousness of the players, maybe you can see yourself as the next great cosplayer saving the galaxy from the evil squirrel horde from outer space. Or maybe just dress like your favorite TV character and have less of a back story.

Cosplay has a couple of meanings, but the most relevant is the merging of the words ‘costume’ and ‘play’. If you want to wear a costume while attending an event (perhaps to compete or to perform a short sketch), then you have arrived in the exciting world of cosplay.

Cosplay is the combination of the English words "costume" and "play". It is a Japanese subculture centred on dressing as characters from manga, anime, and video games. However, in some circles, "cosplay" has been expanded to mean simply wearing a costume.

One anecdote about the origin of the word "cosplay" was that Nov Takahashi (from a Japanese studio called Studio Hard) coined the term "cosplay" as a contraction of the English words "costume play" while he was attending the 1984 Los Angeles Science Fiction Worldcon. He was so impressed by the hall and masquerade costuming there that he reported about it frequently in Japanese science fiction magazines. This ultimately triggered Japanese cosplay.

Cosplay is a hobby where like-minded people gather to see other costumes, show off their own elaborate handmade creations, snap lots of pictures and perhaps partake in best costume contests.

In the United States and Europe, it differs from Japanese culture in that cosplay concerning Sci-Fi films and TV shows along with Renaissance-era characters and historical re-enactments, especially at science fiction conventions, are far more popular in the West than they are in Japan.

Cosplay is a favourite habit of Comic Con attendees, which fans attend in droves. There, you will see dozens of Batmen, Iron Men and Wonder Women, in addition to niche costumes, like characters of the Japanese manga series "Attack on Titan" and '90s throwbacks like Freakazoid and Hey Arnold.

The costumes vary greatly in intensity. Some crafty cosplayers get imaginative and repurpose clothing and props they already own. For example, to cosplay as Katniss Everdeen of "Hunger Games”, you only need a black t-shirt, green cargo pants, lace-up boots and hair tied into a braid. You can buy a Mockingjay pin replica and use brown eye shadow for dirt and grime smears.

For cosplayers, the experience is nearly always worth the stress of choosing a costume and dropping the dough. It's an opportunity to be a hero, princess, or otherworldly creature. It takes courage to put on a costume and go into public. But cosplayers enjoy celebrating the characters that they love and embracing their fandom.

Have you cosplayed yet?