(Akihabara News 2007)
Before attending the Supernova exhibition in Brisbane on 6 April 2008, I was unfamiliar with the term 'cosplay'. To an outsider, this lifestyle first appeared to be strange and amusing at the same time. Cosplay is different to furry fandom. The term is short for "costume play" and is a Japanese subculture centered on dressing as characters from manga, anime, tokusatsu, television shows, video games, fantasy movies, Japanese pop music bands, Visual Kei, fantasy music stories and novels. In some circles like those present at the exhibition, cosplay has been expanded to mean wearing a costume.
Cosplay is seen at public events such as video game shows and pop culture exhibitions like Supernova. The whole pop culture experience brought back memories of my time spent in Tokyo's Akihabara district, with a large number of toy stores devoted to toys and figurines and several cafes devoted to anime fans. "Cosplay teeters somewhere between a healthy, semi-sanctioned way of acting out fantasies and the kind of red flag that's thrown up when you see a kid with a fascination for his parent's knickers," (McCormick in Lipke 2007, 18).
Photographer Elena Dorfman spent a year visiting 160 or more cosplay conventions including Anime Overdose and Yaoi-Con. "This is a new version of Trekkies, but way more sophisticated. It's an internal and external exploration of who they are, and what they'd like to be," (Dorfman in Lipke 2007, 18). This new generation of non-conformists are enamored with Japanese anime and video games in an inordinate effort to dress up as their favourite characters and act out parts of their lives in fantasy mode (Lipke 2007, 18).
The cosplay costumes are extremely elaborate and require the designer to spend months handcrafting their creation (Santoso, 1998). The costumes must adhere to the specific designs of the characters' outfit and the intricate details are very critical (Wikipedia 2008). Other cosplay performers will purchase their costumes from artists or designers in order to participate in costume contents at cosplay events (Santoso 1998). Cosplay can also mean the use of costumes for sexual purposes (Wikipedia 2008). It requires sexual play while dressed up and is also known as sexual role playing or fetishism (Wikipedia 2008).
The trend of cosplay has arrived in Australia and it is mirroring USA in which costumes may be chosen from sources other than just anime or manga (Wikipedia 2008). Any sources including comics, computer games, science fiction, fantasy movies, TV shows and novels provide inspiration for costumes. Cosplay is generally only seen in capital cities, however small social groups often host their own local events in regional areas (Wikipedia 2008).
The majority of participants at cosplay gatherings come on stage as their online avatars (Balakrishnan 2007). Why do people decide to cosplay in distinct online identities? It was found that women avatars created by men were very highly sexualised. Women on the other hand created their avatars to directly oppose the stereotypical female avatars by throwing in short hair and glasses to not present femininity (Balakrishnan 2007). This is a direct online extension of the historical battle of the sexes (Balakrishnan 2007). Web 2.0 assist people to reach online games, dating sites, social networks, blogs and virtual worlds.
In Japan, cosplay has attracted negative sexual connotations over the years and many Japanese people feel that cosplay is reprehensible (Wikipedia 2008). In contrast, Americans and Australians who cosplay often refer to themselves as "geeks" or "otaku" and use this to embody themselves in a sociological group (Wikipedia 2008). An otaku in Japan means standing on the bottom rungs of the nation's social ladder (Wikipedia 2008).
At the conclusion of the exhibition I came away with the opinion that while this lifestyle appears weird and amusing, as with any lifestyle or sexual choice it must be respected and not subject to mockery or ridicule.
References
Akihabara News. 2008. Latest news. http://www.akihabaranews.com/ (accessed 2 May 2008).
Balakrishnan, R. 2007. Proximity peeps into e-branding age. Knight Ridder Tribune Business News. June 21.
Lipke, D. 2007. Compass fresh perspectives on style. DNR. 37 (17): 18.
Santoso, W. 1998. What is cosplay?http://www.nyx.net/~wsantoso/cosptext.html (accessed 30 April 2008).
Wikipedia. 2008. Cosplay. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosplay (accessed 22 April 2008).
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