To roughly categorize COSPLAY, the most common is to play the role of ACG (anime, comic, game) in the role; followed by playing some of the members of the Japanese visual band, the current popularity of the band is more popular by the cos of the medieval aristocratic style of the MM (Tragedy and Malice) band; in addition to certain characters in the movie, such as Harry Potter; the most special to count some alternative COSPLAY, the most important thing is to be able to play a role in the game. Special to count some alternative COSPLAY, from cos robots, to cars have, some celebrity cos is also regarded as alternative, because there are obvious traces of spoof. From here we can see that the positioning of COSPLAY contains a wide range of space to play, and we can even say that as long as there is a COSPLAYER in the place, this field is absolutely the mainstream of today's youth pop culture.
To say the least, COSPLAY has a long history. It can even be traced back to ancient stage performers. They wore special clothes and played mythological characters, which is similar to the spirit of modern COSPLAY, but the difference is only the occasion and characters of COSPLAY. The birthplace of modern animation COSPLAY should belong to Mickey Mouse's hometown - the U.S.A. In the 50's, the "Mickey Mouse" dresser in Disneyland is the real ancestor of the world's COSPLAYers in the present era. It can be said that it is the COSPLAY as a commercial means of promotion, COSPLAY itself may get a long development and understanding.
Cosplay began to take shape with the rapid maturation of the GAME industry and the proliferation of visual bands in the Japanese ACG industry, and became a very large-scale subsidiary culture of the ACG industry. Whenever the Japanese ACG industry organizes anime and manga exhibitions and game shows, the manga and game producers at each booth will hire booth girls to cosplay as their own company's ACG characters in order to attract the audience. Take the Tokyo Game Show as an example, the Miss Comic Show is always an essential part of the scenery, and there are even magazines that select various Miss Show awards every year.
There are two popular idols in the Japanese cosplay world: Tokio Sakuraba and Sakuya Shiina. Please note: Sakuraba is a girl, and Shiina ...... is also a girl! Sakuraba's role as a male character in a game, such as FF8's Scorcher, would make most guys jealous.
The development of COSPLAY in China is led by Hong Kong and Taiwan, which are not only the earliest to appear COSPLAY, but also the highest level of COSPLAY in China now. In contrast, COSPLAY appeared later in mainland China, until 1998 when the country started the Comic-Con to have some sporadic spontaneous individual COSPLAY show. 2000 August successfully organized the first mainland China COSPLAY contest. In the following year, Huayi Company started the "2001 Stone Age Best COSPLAY Contest" under the name of its main product "Stone Age" with the help of its great influence on online games. At the same time, due to Shanghai, Guangzhou and Beijing and other areas in the past few years in the frequent opening of the Comic Con and the exhibition of the same person, so that today's mainland COSPLAY also has a certain degree of scale.
With the global growth of the ACG industry, COSPLAYers are frequently seen in large and small game and comic shows. For example, in South Korea, where online gaming is prevalent, the level of cosplay is directly comparable to that of Japan, the leading cosplayer. In fact, there is no shortage of cosplayers in western countries. Every year, cosplay is an indispensable part of the E3 exhibition in the United States. White people have a physical advantage in cosplaying some roles, and the costumes are basically very sophisticated, treating cosplay meticulously. In addition to the United States, Canada, Europe and other countries and regions have a certain number of fans, and most of them have their own website.
By cosplaying, you can get closer to your favorite anime characters, from the production of costumes to accessories, each set of costumes is the work of the cosplayer's heart and soul; more importantly, incarnated into their favorite characters of the moment, the sense of accomplishment that every cosplayer is addicted to.
It is worth mentioning that cosplayers can play not only characters, but also anything in anime games. As long as you put your heart and soul into it, you can say: Cosplay, only what you can't think of, not what I can't play!
Cosplay was introduced to China late in the year, and the first Cosplay in Taiwan was held on August 27, 1995, on the first floor of the SAGAWORLD in Kaohsiung, but it was rumored to be not very large, and the characters were mostly based on those in the video game. After that, on October 13, 1996, a fall party was held by the "Super Orange Group" at Taipei's Bear Bao Restaurant, but although it was widely publicized before the party, and a lot of people knew about it, the scale was still on the small side. This situation continued until mid-February 1997, when three events were held in a row, and only then did the number of cosplayers start to increase, and from then on, the characteristics of Taiwan's cosplay community were also formed. Since then, the number of COSPLAY events in Taiwan has been increasing year after year, and the number of venues organized has also been developing from the north to the south, so the popularity of COSPLAY activities in Taiwan can be seen.
And Hong Kong appears COSPLAY time seems to be earlier than Taiwan, allegedly the earliest in 1993 Hong Kong has its own COSPLAY. at that time, Hong Kong has not what the homunculus that will be on sale, generally speaking homunculus associations are through the then Hong Kong will be held annually art festival venues for exhibitions and sales, and it is that year (i.e., 1993), a named "four hundred feet". It was in that year (1993) that a group called "Four Hundred Feet" put on the uniforms of the Allied Forces from "Legend of the Galactic Heroes" and appeared at the venue, thus they became the first COSPLAY in Hong Kong, and in the same venue the following year they played the role of the Allied Forces, but this time they brought along another group called "UVRZ", which was a group of people with the name "UVRZ". This time they also brought another group called "UVRZ" to play role-playing with them. The female members of UVRZ dressed up as Japanese witches and prayed for the visitors with their wands, and in '95, Shikuru played the role of "Sweeney Todd", while UVRZ started to play the role of "Sweeney Todd". In '95, "Shikaku" played the role of "Mobile Police", while "UVRZ" started to play some famous ACG characters, such as Righteous in "Chaos 1/2" or Belodendi in "My Love God". From '96 onwards, the "Four Hundred Feet" group retired and stopped doing any more cosplay, but at the same time, the rest of the cosplay groups started to play with costumes one after another, which made the number of people in Hong Kong's cosplay community climb higher and higher. Shortly after this, Hong Kong's first (and only) cosplay sale was organized by "UVRZ", "ComicBabies" and "Fire Dog Workshop". The event was the only one of its kind in Hong Kong, and there have been no more such appearances in Hong Kong since then, but of course, it was a great opportunity to expand the influence of cosplay in Hong Kong.
Because of this growing influence, the Hong Kong Comics Association began organizing the first true comic book convention for comic book fans from July 30 to August 3, 1998, with an entrance fee of HK$25 at the time. The cosplay at this convention was said to be one of the hottest ever, with many people taking on the roles of characters from fighting games such as Yagami and Kusashi. The winner of Hong Kong's first cosplay contest, the "Funfun Costume Costume Contest", was a girl dressed as King Gandharva from the Sacred Tales. After that, SE Corporation, TG Place and the Hong Kong Art Supplies Professional Center held the first ComicWorld on August 30th, 1998 at the MacPherson Indoor Stadium in Mongkok, and for the first time ever, a "Costume Photo Zone" was set up in the venue for the participants to take photos of the event. What was quite surprising was that some people were already cosplaying Inuyasha at that time! In recent years, university clubs have also begun to show up and become an active part of the Hong Kong cosplay scene.
In contrast, the mainland appeared COSPLAY later, until 1998 when the domestic start of the Comic-Con there were some sporadic spontaneous personal COSPLAY show, and before that there was no certain scale of the homage to the sale. Therefore, even if there is COSPLAY, the number is also extremely rare. But because of Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, three places COSPLAY maturity, mainland COSPLAY to rapid and steady growth, and in August 2000 successfully organized the first mainland China COSPLAY contest. In the following year, Huayi Company, with its great influence on online games, started the "2001 Stone Age Best COSPLAY Contest" under the name of its main product "Stone Age". At the same time, due to Shanghai, Guangzhou and Beijing and other areas in the past few years in the frequent opening of the Comic Con and the exhibition of the same person, so that today's mainland COSPLAY also has a certain degree of scale.
Costume (noun) = a character's costume
Costume (verb) = to make clothes
Costumer = a person who dresses like a character, similar to a cosplayer.
cosplay-origin: a shortened version of the English word "CostumePlay" by Nov. Takahashi. Takahashi was inspired by the International Masquerade Ball in San Francisco, U.S.A., and his enthusiasm for cosplay, expressed in an article in the Japanese magazine "MyAnime" (1982), sparked the cosplay movement in Japan in 1982-83. Although cosplay did not originate in Japan, current cosplay in the United States has been heavily influenced by Japanese cosplay.
cosplay (noun) = dressing up in costumes about anime characters.
cosplay (verb) = to put on a costume about an anime character.
cosplayer = a person who wears Costume
Crossplay (verb) = part of cosplay: to play the opposite sex in a cosplay.
Crossplayer = a person who plays the opposite sex in a cosplay.
Crossdressing=Wearing a costume of the opposite sex. When a person is crosdressing, it doesn't mean that he is crossplaying (i.e., if a guy is playing a guy, and the latter prefers girl's clothes, then the former is crossdressing, but not crossplaying). crossplaying doesn't have anything to do with cosdressing, and it only has to do with the playmaker's It only has to do with the gender of the person playing and the gender of the person they are playing.
Examples: (sorry, the names don't translate: P)
Boys cosNuriko, KamatariorMana is not crossplaying but crossdressing. crossplaying but not crossdressing.
Boys cosUtenaorSakura is crossplaying but also crossdressing.
Girls cosKenshinorVash is crossplaying but also crossdressing.
Crossplaying and crossdressing don't fully describe a person's gender orientation. You can't conclude whether a Crossplayer is gay (lesbian) or bisexual. As for crossdressing in life, it is more or less suggestive of a person's gender orientation, but please don't assume, you could be completely wrong.
Glomp
Definition: an embrace that expresses congratulations or greetings (and sometimes aggression)
For COSPLAY, the most important thing is not how one looks, but depends on how the costume is made. Generally speaking there are four ways to get a COSPLAY costume, which are: to send it to someone else, to buy it in a specialty store, to make it yourself or to have it tailor-made in a tailor's store.
1: other people to send
This of course have to have a good relationship with the line, usually in the Comic-Con or the life of some of the COSPLAY will recognize the service friends, and so he (she) they do not want to COSPLAY clothing when you can ask him or her to come, but relatively speaking, this opportunity is very few and far between.
2: go to the store to buy
This is a very rare thing in Japan, for example, there are OFFCIAL COSPLAY clothing sold in Japan, COSPA is a good example, and their clothes are officially recognized. In addition, there are some stores that make COSPLAY clothes, because they are privately made so they are not OFFCIAL, while in Taiwan there are basically unofficially recognized COSPLAY clothes stores, but in both of these areas there are second-hand stores for COSPLAY clothes that are both money-saving and convenient. As for Hong Kong and mainland China are even specialized in COSPLAY clothing stores are very rare, generally need to be customized.
3: Do-it-yourself
In fact, the greatest joy of COSPLAY is to make your own costumes and props. Of course, if you want to make your own, you must first know how to tailor, and it is best to have a sewing machine at home. Generally speaking, it takes one month for a person to choose materials and design until the production is completed. During this time, you need to have the skills and tools, but also the mental concentration is also very necessary. It's not easy to make a garment from the first pattern to the finished product. But the same clothing can be completed when they can feel the thrill of others can not be reached.
4: tailor store tailor-made
To tailor store tailor-made is generally Hong Kong and mainland COSPLAYER practice. The advantage of this is that one in the price is cheaper, on the other hand, it is also easy to put forward their own requirements. In the mainland generally speaking, the tailor store is very good to find, but really will make COSPLAY clothing is indeed not much. Usually in mainland China, after you pay the order, you can receive the clothes in one to two weeks. If you have any complaints about the costumes at this point, the store owner will usually change them on the spot for you.
In fact, the price of a COSPLAY suit can be quite high, with specialty stores usually charging nearly a thousand dollars for a finished suit. The first thing you need to do is to make sure that you have a good idea of what you're getting into, and that you're doing it right. For this reason, COSPLAY in Taiwan has been called by some people as a laborious and costly thing. But for the majority of COSPLAYER, it's all worth it.