"Cosplay"
is an English-language phrase that was coined in Japan to encourage anime
and manga fans to make costumes in support of their favorite series. The
appeal of Anime Expo has drawn a few of those costumers to cross the Pacific
and travel to California each summer, and those cosplayers have amazed
American fans with their outfits. This year, Nomi displayed an astonishing
18th-century-style formal dress based on the Legend of Galactic Heroes
series, with a custom-made wig that's built around a basket. Nomi said
this outfit took one month to make and cost 300,000 yen. "This costume
was my dream, so that's okay," she declared. What go to all of this trouble?
"We want to be our favorite anime character. Isn't that the reason you
guys cosplay?" they asked - and the audience applauded in response.
While
costumers such as Barbie and Kaie have developed a reputation as being
the ultimate in cosplayers, they said they're increasingly impressed by
what they see each year at Anime Expo. "We're afraid that the U.S. cosplayers
have surpassed Japanese cosplayers," they said. "We don't see many Japanese
cosplayers at this level," even though there are costuming events nearly
every weekend in Japan and only a couple of dozen anime conventions each
year in North America. Convention fans in the U.S. are kinder than Japanese
fans, they said. "In the U.S., people say `Nice costume' and we get to
hear the compliments that are nice," they said. While in Japan, someone
actually criticized Nomi's elaborate formal dress as being "gross."
That
criticism might be one of the reasons that these cosplayers tend to keep
their hobby a secret from the people they know in the real world - fellow
office workers for most of these women. Yet there are lots of people in
their costuming group, as many as 50 of them ranging in age from junior
high school students to a women in her 40's. It's hard to keep their secret
if you visit their apartments; one woman said they only space that isn't
covered with costumes is the chair in front of her sewing machine. Another
said she has two sewing machines and has to keep one of them in her kitchen.
And they manage to find each other; one of the women joked that she discovered
another cosplayer when she "smelled otaku on her."
"Cosplay"
is an English-language phrase that was coined in Japan to encourage anime
and manga fans to make costumes in support of their favorite series. The
appeal of Anime Expo has drawn a few of those costumers to cross the Pacific
and travel to California each summer, and those cosplayers have amazed
American fans with their outfits. This year, Nomi displayed an astonishing
18th-century-style formal dress based on the Legend of Galactic Heroes
series, with a custom-made wig that's built around a basket. Nomi said
this outfit took one month to make and cost 300,000 yen. "This costume
was my dream, so that's okay," she declared. What go to all of this trouble?
"We want to be our favorite anime character. Isn't that the reason you
guys cosplay?" they asked - and the audience applauded in response.
While
costumers such as Barbie and Kaie have developed a reputation as being
the ultimate in cosplayers, they said they're increasingly impressed by
what they see each year at Anime Expo. "We're afraid that the U.S. cosplayers
have surpassed Japanese cosplayers," they said. "We don't see many Japanese
cosplayers at this level," even though there are costuming events nearly
every weekend in Japan and only a couple of dozen anime conventions each
year in North America. Convention fans in the U.S. are kinder than Japanese
fans, they said. "In the U.S., people say `Nice costume' and we get to
hear the compliments that are nice," they said. While in Japan, someone
actually criticized Nomi's elaborate formal dress as being "gross."
That
criticism might be one of the reasons that these cosplayers tend to keep
their hobby a secret from the people they know in the real world - fellow
office workers for most of these women. Yet there are lots of people in
their costuming group, as many as 50 of them ranging in age from junior
high school students to a women in her 40's. It's hard to keep their secret
if you visit their apartments; one woman said they only space that isn't
covered with costumes is the chair in front of her sewing machine. Another
said she has two sewing machines and has to keep one of them in her kitchen.
And they manage to find each other; one of the women joked that she discovered
another cosplayer when she "smelled otaku on her."
