Debate on Cosplay
 

First off, to the Mods, if you think this belong to the "Fashion" section, please kindly move it

Participant, please keep it clean, and don't attack others, I really want to hear people's opinion toward this.

I am just wondering, if anyone here know someone or had experience yourself in cosplay? If you do, what goes through the mind of a cosplayer?

I went through a period of self doubt when I was younger (much younger), but I never dream of dressing up like character from video games or animate, to me there is a clear cut between that world and reality.

Do you think, or is there anything solid (proven) that this cosplay culture is related to self esteem or someone in need of attention? Or is it a pure act of "getting away from reality"? I can see the later with the general Japanese society, given the stress level and pressure the nation is under.......

There's already a thread for this
http://www.japanforum.com/forum/japa...g-%5Eo%5E.html
if this is what you wanted to talk about...?

Thanks. Not exactly, that thread was for people that do it and show off about it.

I want to talk about whether people think its related to self esteem, lack of attention or if they think that its purely an act to get away from reality...

In my opinion, I think people sometimes look at the reasons too deeply. Maybe for some people it's to do with self-esteem or a form of escapism, but for most people, it's just a bit of fun. Like any kind of dressing up, a lot of people just do it for fun and enjoy creating their outfits or socialising with people wearing outfits of characters they like. I don't think in most cases there is some deep and hidden motive as to why a person would want to cosplay, certainly not in my case.

for fun.

it's kind of like asking if people dress up at halloween because of self-esteem issues.

people are able to cosplay because they have self-esteem & they can deal with the crap people give them about their hobby. need of attention? cosplaying doesn't necessarily get people to notice you. especially when you're going to a convention where you're just going to blend in.

& getting away from reality? well..all i gotta say to that is..if a change of clothes will help me escape reality then somebody better show me how it's done 'cause i want a break!

oh & i have never cosplayed before. but i will be next year at the convention, though. WHY? 'cause i like to have fun.

I think you're looking too much into this. I can't speak for everyone, but for me cosplay is just fun. I enjoy testing my skills when I make my costume and I enjoy showing it off by wearing it. To me it's wearable art. I don't think you have to have a self esteem problem or have to want attention. Personally, I could care less if anyone takes notice, however it is rather nice when someone comments nicely on your work. :)

Is it an escape from reality? Hmmm...no more than a vacation would be, I think. As I've said, I cosplay for fun (even if my first time was rather forced.) and I only cosplay at cons. I love going to an anime con because it's like a mini vacation for me. I really don't count that as an escape from reality, just an escape from everyday stress.

Again, please don't take any offense, I am just trying to understand that culture, because right now, it seems to be the norm among a lot of young people, but i still look at it and think that its, well.. different......

Ok, so Halloween and your Convention, people dress up because of the event.. i am asking about people who just do it on a regular basis

like harajuku?

but some people take pride in the fact that they're different, no?

okay, how about this. it isn't about escaping reality, low self-esteem, or attention-seeking. it's because dressing up the way they do is just their means of expressing themselves.

I'd like to know where this is a norm? Even in Japan, out the total population very few do this.

Maybe I shouldn't use "norm", but ok, so what make these nich population of people deisre to be in a costume?

I do accept the explantion of people taking pride in themselves for being different. But as far as "expressing themselves", expressing what?

That's what I was thinking. I haven't seen an actual real cosplayer in my entire life besides myself!

You're looking too much into it. People dress in cosplay for fun, that's how it is. People don't wear cosplay everyday. If you mean people who dress in an unusual style all the time, that's something else.

It seems like the majority of the time, cosplayers are fat, ugly Japanophiles dressing as characters that are way out of their league. Kind of an escape from their dull, socially retarded lives into a kawaii world of pocky where the ramune flows like water.



Other people really make the characters come to life.



Either way, both groups have a ton of self-confidence - if you can cram your 300 pound frame into a Haruhi school uniform, hey, at least you're not shy.

LMAO, tell me about it:



Hmm. I have so many gripes about cosplay. Bad hair, outfits that don't suit... shiney fat pvc sakuras 0_0; man.

But when it's good, it looks great.

Let's keep the conversation civil. Sweeping and insulting statements do not add to a decent discussion.

c'mon guys be nice... I just want to know what people think... so let me ask the question differently

I guess I've heard the voice of those who will either perform or support cosplay. What about those who don't? What goes through your mind when you see a cosplayer?

Just about everything fashion related that people do is attention seeking.
We all want to be noticed a little bit.
That's perfectly natural.
I've noticed a lot of these people attending cosplay events like cons, are just regular boring old people in the real world.
Whether their dressed as a character or some sort of original style.
They're all expressing themselves in away that they want in a place where they won't be made fun of.
It's a nice escape from reality and a real chance for someone to show off their eccentric side.

Although I admit some cosplay can be ridicules.
Let's take the cat girl crave for example.
These girls are dressing like hussy's it's ridiculous.
It doesn't matter if you're cosplaying or not.
That's not an excuse, have a little self respect Jesus Christ.
You'll go to anime conventions and see these girls with everything all out and a bunch of ten years olds in the same room.
really urks me.
Same goes for men.
Cosplay does not mean strap a leash around your neck wear short shorts on your hairy butt.
It's funny, but acknowledge the kids come on guys.
Like wear that shit at a hentai fest or something if you really want to.

Wow Misa I'm really surprised you'd be that rude.

She should've modified the outfit so it fit her better.
But the fact is, if she were tubby or skinny.
It doesn't make a difference.
Someone who's skinny is just as guilty for wearing something that skimpy in public.

People usually work really hard on their cosplays.
God knows how long making that took her.
It's actually really accurate.
it's just not right to make fun of someones hard work like that.
You should know better.

I dunno.
I have friends who Cosplay and stuff.
To me, it's just a big waste of time and money.
But to others, it's fun and creative.
It's just like asking why people watch TV, play video games,
hang out with friends, go out to eat.
They like to.

No no it wasn't the fact she was a large lady! It is a good piece of work, I just think she should have picked a better outfit to suit her body type. Her shorts are too short, to the point it wouldn't suit anyone. Yuna from Final Fantasy is not the best choice in my opinion. In fact, I've seen a lot of larger women pull off some beautiful cosplay, the same as I've seen some slimmer people do bad ones. I just don't think a cosplay that skimpy is suitable on barely anyone, that's the point I was making - I'm sorry, it probably seemed like I was mocking her weight and whatnot and I apologise for that.

My actual key point was *Pick a character that suits you and an outfit that would flatter your body type.*

The funny thing about Cosplay is that characters from popular series and movies that usually get cosplayed aren't realistic looking to begin with.

So true. Who has a 12 inch waist? No person is going to look exactly like the body of the character they are imitating because most anime characters do not have real human body structures.

Cosplaying looks like it'd be fun, although, as MisaMisa mentioned, it's best to go with something that suits your body type or whatever. Personally, I'd love to pull off a Lulu cosplay. I always liked her outfit, but, there really aren't too many things a person like me could pull off. I'm overweight and African American. Not too many "blacks" in most anime/manga series, I've noticed, so probably no matter who I dress up as, I'll get teased no matter what.:p I remember one year, me and two friends were planning on dressing up as school girls and treat the convention as a "school festival", but decided against it a few years ago.

That aside, I don't think that people cosplay as much as the OP is proposing and that only a small amount of people do so outside of a convention setting in probably places like Harajuku like once a week or something.

Wow, a lot of mixed opinion. As a photographer, i look at cosplay as a subject myself, I mean, to me, I was in heaven when I was in Harajuku and Akiba, simply because there are so many "things" that I can take a picture of. Its a real challenge to take good picture of cosplayer.

But outside of photography, as suggested by some, I look at it as almost something ridiculous

MMM, if I am remember correctly and according to relatives in Japan, the Otakus are somewhat a target of discrimination in Japan am I right?

You don't necessarily have to cosplay as a character that looks exactly like you.
I don't see why you'd be teased.
There's just as many black people dressed up as white characrers as there are white people at the conventions near my house.
My brother does it all the time and no one says anything to him
Hell he even did it with his fro.
Lol.
People loved it.

By " suit" you.
It means find a character that's not going to make you look like shit or a hooker.
Or, modify a character's costume.

This wouldn't had been any less cool,
If she had worn something over her popping out boobs and made the part where the skirt splits, not at her vagina.



It's really simple the modifications that could be done to some cosplays.

Well I didn't want to say anime because some people cosplay things that aren't in animes but from other series. Either way it's true though.It makes it hard to look at someone's effort as a whole. Like the poor girl above. It's a great costume and great detail but what I think really throws it off is the expression on her face, it really looks sad.

That goes back to what I brought up. Because cosplay and anime's subject mater mainly s derived from games and anime you're basically saying large people shouldn't cosplay because for every character that suits (I'll use por Yuna again as my example) her body type that's a desirable character to cosplay there are thousands more that look like what she'll probably never look like.

Well, I guess that was a bit harsh, but, seems that no matter what an overweight person dresses as, whether it's perfect or not, that person will get ridiculed or mocked for it. Look at the pic of Yuna. It wouldn't surprise me at all if she got ridiculed in some way for her size, even if the outfit was good (imo). This world still isn't the nicest where overweight people are concerned.

That aside, I pretty much agree with what EveV said, which was pretty much closer to what I originally meant as far as "suiting" goes, "It means find a character that's not going to make you look like shit or a hooker.
Or, modify a character's costume."

I have a friend who does it occasionally... I think it's just a past time. I mean, a lot of people enjoy making the costumes and then wearing them... I guess it could be an escape from reality, but I think for many people, it's just a past time.

"Target of discrimination" might be a little wordy, but anime and manga otaku are not made fun of because they like manga and anime (that would be like making fun of someone for reading the newspaper) but because they tend to be socially inept, obsessive and not always very hygienic.

YouTube - Cartoon KAT-TUN Ep.80/20081015[1]

Go about two minutes into this video and you can see the two guys on the left are dictionary-definitions of manga OTAKU in Japan.

I agree that it's such a nice target for photography :) Love Harajuku on sundays (and well, other days too).

Otherwise, I don't see it as being "ridicilous" AT ALL. Some people are interested in doing it. They have fun doing it. That's all that anyone should have to say about it.

Judging and saying that it's worse than other hobbies/interests or whatever is just lame IMHO.

I agree, people do all kind of things to have fun, and this can very well be one of them, we shouldn't judge because we don't understand it... I am trying to understand it myself too, i mean, I don't do any cosplay stuff, but i don't see it as anything bad, don't get me wrong.. i am trying to understand it (again :))

MMM, thanks for clarifying it, but isn't it a general assumption or stereotype that cosplayers ARE otaku? At least, thats the impression i get when talking to my uncle and cousin, but then they are a bit old fashion

SHOKOTAN is a very popular otaku cosplayer on TV these days, but it doesn't hurt that she is very cute. The cute factor goes a long way.

http://xorsyst.com/wp-content/upload...a-shokotan.jpg

Her blog is one of the most popular in the world.

I think that opinion might be more extreme in the US than in Japan, but cosplayers are considered otaku

YouTube - cartoon KAT-TUN Ep.69/20080730[1]

”すみません分かりません”　”えっ！”
haha, stupid kat-tun :D

Just wondering, where is this Mandarake?

It's in Nakano, not far from Shinjuku.

I remember walking around Akiba seeing someone sniffing a new toy he just bought... Otaku!

Different isn't always a good thing.
It's not rude to say that these two people are, in nearly every way, rediculous. Sure, being a fatty may be an issue, but that's an issue only with dieting habits. And look at the girl's face in the picture; you can't tell me with a straight face that even she thought her costume was a good idea.

Back on the subject, people cosplay for various, individual reason, but the blanket reason seems to have been stated already: it's fun to do. For Americans (for those are the only people I can really speak for), it's like another Halloween, where instead of candy you get your picture taken. This, of course, leads to half-assed cosplay like the photo's above and the one below:

For me, wearing the coat's fine enough, even though my friends were egging me to dye my hair blonde. More or less though, it's a way to express your like for your hobby.

What I do know though is that the Japanese have a very different way of looking at Cosplay, and you'd have to do a good amount of digging to see it. Of course, there is nearly no bad cosplayers over there, which explains their difference in opinion on the subject.

I think, in general, its a case of "one thing leads to another". As MMM pointed out, Otaku's are beling looked as being someone with hygiene issue, and the obsession is being judged. Cosplayer are being considered as Otaku so therefore it was stereotyped to be the same as these other otakus?

Yup. I bathe regularly, but if I'm wearing something odd at a convention, I'm an Otaku.

Same kind of thing happens a lot for various things. I was in a fraternity, and I had a hard time getting friends and family to believe that I wasn't a crazy party-goer-get-crunk kind of guy. I also play WoW, which means that I'm addicted to it, never go outside, and would choose that over hanging out with friends any day of the week :rolleyes: .

People are more than willing to lump something into a stereotypical category to explain something foreign, unknown, or strange. This seems odd though, since you can't judge someone based on their hobbies.

Sadly, those Otaku that never bathe, are a bit obese, and believe they're fluent in Japanese and martial arts put into question the validity of the above statement.

Interesting topic. The first time I attended a con and saw cosplayers I thought the whole thing was quite laughable too, although some of the costumes were undeniably awesome and very well constructed. I changed my mind after a while that day when I realised how much more fun they were having than I was - they were really getting into the spirit of the event and participating completely. The next year I cosplayed, took photos and helped run a group art stall, and it was a really great experience. It comes down to different things to do different people, but for most people the main reason is for fun!

For the record I am not overweight, like to think I'm not unattractive, bathe often, have developed social skills and my life doesn't revolve around anime =P Considering the fact that I do cosplay and create doujinshi/fanart I suppose I would be classified by most as an otaku though.

I do know of some people who wear cosplay outside of these events, and personally I find it the same as wearing alternatives clothes, or dressing up to the latest fashion, or whatever you choose to wear. It's about self expression in the end, and just because mainstream fashion is considered more 'normal' doesn't mean that people don't have the right to be a bit different.

kewl thanks I might go there ^_^