As it is the Japanese season of summer festivals, here's a continuation of the Japanese-related editorials thread.
Cosplay
Although the term itself is of Japanese origin, the culture of dressing up as a favourite character was actually popularized by westerners, especially Star Trek fans ( popularly called Trekkies) and Star Wars fans who dressed in costumes during annual gatherings or conventions during the late 70s and 80s.
With the rise in popularity of Japanese animation in the 1980s, Anime fans began to have gatherings of their own, both in Japan and in America, where they dressed in costumes of anime or manga characters.
Now, however, the term "Cosplay" ( Costumed+Players) has grown to include dressing up as movie characters, favourite artiste/band members, game characters (Mario brothers anyone?), maids and Gothic Lolita looks. Contrary to belief, cosplay is not limited to Japanese based characters.
Popular live action cosplay sources include Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and The Matrix.
Girls, do we remember this? It's Jem and the Holograms.
Hogwarts, hogwarts, hoggy-warty Hogwarts, Teach us something new...
Our friend Amy will love this, Disney Princesses. All pictures taken at San Diego Comic Con.(Pic source: Mandy's Cosplay)
I was priviledged to witness some live cosplaying when I went for the Japanese Fair in conjuction with Haha no Hi (Mother's day) in 1 Utama on 3rd May.
EMiNA ( the Japanese visual art society) of MMU cyberjaya was there to promote their annual festival called DaiCon.I managed to take some pictures...
This guy was really friendly. Actually they all were. He's cosplaying...
Chouji Akimichi from Naruto.
This young lady is playing Mana of Malice Mizer, dressing in Gothic Lolita style. This girl mentioned to me rather sadly that her costume was incomplete because the mall was a public place and management doesn't allow make-up that they considered over-over. I really felt bad for her.
Here's a pix of the real Mana. He's (it's not a typo, he really is a He) the pioneer of the GothLoli subculture.
(Pics courtesy of Jasmine Ng)Here are all the cosplayers. I don't know who the extreme left is, but the middle two are cosplaying Riku from Kingdom Hearts.
Jasmine and Yee Min were there too. Jasmine is shocked...ahaha.
But she was busy snapping away on her LOMO camera anyway.
Cute bleach dolls.I grabbed some Japanese snacks in between waiting for cosplayers to get ready.
There were other girls in lolita costumes too.So that's that.In my opinion, cosplaying allows young ppl a creative outlet, and I'm wary of judgmental ppl who label them weirdos.
If you observe the details and effort they put into their costumes and props, you've really got to respect them.
What do you think?
Before we end, a bunch of Kawaii stuff:
Kurita-kun. He's actually an Anpan from Baker's Cottage. Had him for dinner..mwahahaha.
Few days ago I caught this Neko-chan napping outside my bedroom window.
Let's all be happy-chan (copyright:YUPI locks byElkikino)Until the next post.
What's in my mp3 player Now:
