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If anime editor, publisher and promoter Nobuyuki Takahashi is remembered
for anything, it'll be for inventing "cosplay," the term that describes
the popular practice of anime fans dressing like their favorite characters.
It's a bilingual term, a blend of English and Japanese, and it has American
roots. |
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In the early 1980's, Takahashi attended the World Science Fiction Convention,
World Con for short. He marveled at the masquerade of people who made costumes
so they could play their favorite characters. There were people dressed
as Star Trek, Star Wars and Ghostbusters characters at that event, and
the vivid memories stayed with Takahashi when he returned to Japan. Around
the same time, the Comic Market - Comiket for short - was getting started
in Japan, with a few thousand people gathering to trade and sell self-published
manga. Some of Comiket's fans began wearing costumes depicting their favorite
characters, and Takahashi saw an opportunity. |
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At the time, Takahashi wrote for My Anime Magazine, and decided to start
a series of articles on masquerades and costumes. The idea was easy, but
the name was difficult. "One of the problems we have in Japan is that if
we don't have a cool name for a production, it won't sell. It has to be
a really simple name," said Takahashi. |
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Modern Japanese is full of loan words taken from English and shortened
into simple phrases. Takahashi considered the possibilities: "manga Halloween,"
"manga action" and "costume action" were rejected. He decided the new phrase
needed a form of "costume," to show its purpose, and "play," to show the
practice was fun. The winning combination was "costume play," contracted
to "cosplay." Two years after Takahashi started using the made-up phrase
in his articles, "cosplay" became a common catch phrase among Japanese
fans, and now the phrase is in mainstream use. |
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American anime fans take their costuming cues from Japanese cosplayers,
but there's a difference in the presentation. At most Japanese events such
as Comiket, cosplayers only attend the event and walk through the halls.
In American conventions such as Animazement, a costume contest sees fans
dressing in costume and performing skits on stage. Takahashi prefers the
American practice. "I'd like to launch a cosplay contest in Japan where
they have sketches on stage," Takahashi said. |
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One of Takahashi's favorite costumes at Animazement was this Zeiram effort,
an award winner at the costume contest. American costumers spend months
creating their costumes, as do most Japanese fans. However, cosplay's popularity
has grown in Japan to the point that companies have sprouted which create
and sell cosplay costumes. Japanese fans can now buy clothes that make
them look like their favorite characters - and Takahashi doesn't like that
trend. "The original spirit of cosplay is to get involved in all aspects,"
said Takahashi. "Any real cosplayer should enjoy making their own costume.
This (buying costumes) is not something I can endorse." |
