# Cosplay - I don't get it. Can someone please explain? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 2, 2010, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cosplay-i-dont-get-it-can-someone-please-explain/538002 "2010-05-02T02:50:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cosplay-i-dont-get-it-can-someone-please-explain/538002/21 "2010-05-02T05:27:17Z")
> [@Noel\_Prosequi](#): > > What, in the name of all that is holy, is a “weaboo”? Someone that thinks Japan is really _sugoi_. ---
**Author:** ![ToeJam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cosplay-i-dont-get-it-can-someone-please-explain/538002/22 "2010-05-02T05:29:36Z")
A tasteless/offensive site, but it defines the term. [Weaboo/Wapanese](http://encyclopediadramatica.com/Wapanese). ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cosplay-i-dont-get-it-can-someone-please-explain/538002/23 "2010-05-02T05:31:31Z")
I beat you to the punch! Ha! ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cosplay-i-dont-get-it-can-someone-please-explain/538002/24 "2010-05-02T05:38:26Z")
> [@Noel\_Prosequi](#): > > What, in the name of all that is holy, is a “weaboo”? Someone who isn’t obsessive enough to be an Otaku. 😉 A Weaboo is a Japanophile, or someone who is interested in Japanese culture, particularly pop culture. There may be an element of ‘wannabe’ in the use of the term. An Otaku is someone who is so into Japanese pop culture that they learn Japanese and develop a near encyclopedic knowledge of their obsession. There is an element of social awkwardness thrown in. Think D&D geeks in the 70’s or 80’s, but they know about Inuyasha instead. How’s that. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cosplay-i-dont-get-it-can-someone-please-explain/538002/25 "2010-05-02T05:42:05Z")
If I were dictator of the world I would have all the weaboos rounded up and put into death camps. Did I say death camps? I meant happy camps. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cosplay-i-dont-get-it-can-someone-please-explain/538002/26 "2010-05-02T05:58:09Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > If I were dictator of the world I would have all the weaboos rounded up and put into death camps. > > Did I say death camps? I meant happy camps. Please, elucidate what it is that makes them so loathsome to you. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cosplay-i-dont-get-it-can-someone-please-explain/538002/27 "2010-05-02T06:01:42Z")
Happy death fun camps. ---
**Author:** ![Lucky\_13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucky_13/32/13209_2.png) [@Lucky\_13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucky_13)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cosplay-i-dont-get-it-can-someone-please-explain/538002/28 "2010-05-02T06:12:49Z")
OK, so I’ve been watching anime (oh excuse me, “animu”) since I was little and they were airing dubbed Speed Racer, and collect Hello Kitty since I was 10. I’m not gonna stop just because someone with even less of a life than me is being disrespectful of my tastes. How would they like it if I started disparaging their precious vintage record collections and rotisserie baseball leagues? How come anime fans are inferior in the fandom ladder to juggalos and Trekkies? (calms down) Sorry, I’m just in a pissy mood because I had dental work earlier today and am hopped up on painkillers. I’m just wondering what these so-called weeaboos ever did to **AClockworkMelon** that inspires such hate in him. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cosplay-i-dont-get-it-can-someone-please-explain/538002/29 "2010-05-02T06:12:52Z")
> [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](#): > > Please, elucidate what it is that makes them so loathsome to you. I despise their slavish devotion to Japanese culture, literature, etc, which I often suspect is because it’s fashionable among nerdy circles to be a Japanophile. The rest of it is more or less simple prejudice. But it is a prejudice which I shall brutally drive home when I have installed my New World Order. The weaboos shall be exterminated. Except for the females who like to dress up in cosplay, obviously. There’s no need to worry. I’m not _completely_ insane. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cosplay-i-dont-get-it-can-someone-please-explain/538002/30 "2010-05-02T06:14:28Z")
> [@Lucky\_13](#): > > OK, so I’ve been watching anime (oh excuse me, “animu”) since I was little and they were airing dubbed Speed Racer, and collect Hello Kitty since I was 10. I’m not gonna stop just because someone with even less of a life than me is being disrespectful of my tastes. How would they like if if I started disparaging their precious vintage record collections and rotisserie baseball leagues? How come anime fans are inferior in the fandom ladder to juggalos and Trekkies? > > (calms down) > > Sorry, I’m just in a pissy mood because I had dental work earlier today and am hopped up on painkillers. I’m just wondering what these so-called weeaboos ever did to **AClockworkMelon** that inspires such hate in him. 1.) Thank you for reminding me. [I hate Juggalos, too](http://www.theinfamousnick.com/blog/icp.html). 2.) There is a difference between a “fan of anime” and a weaboo. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cosplay-i-dont-get-it-can-someone-please-explain/538002/31 "2010-05-02T06:41:54Z")
> [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](#): > > Someone who isn’t obsessive enough to be an Otaku. 😉 > > A Weaboo is a Japanophile, or someone who is interested in Japanese culture, particularly pop culture. There may be an element of ‘wannabe’ in the use of the term. An Otaku is someone who is so into Japanese pop culture that they learn Japanese and develop a near encyclopedic knowledge of their obsession. There is an element of social awkwardness thrown in. Think D&D geeks in the 70’s or 80’s, but they know about Inuyasha instead. > > How’s that. Pretty accurate … I collect certain items of eastern art, Japanese, Chinese and some Thai pieces … I was taking a piece to an appraiser in NY and got literally jumped by a couple of them on the street in front. The idiocy of then thinking someone carrying a [chinese bronze tripod](http://www.sianshop.com/Art-gift/Bronze-Ding-Traditioanl-Chinese-Bronze-Tripod-or-Cauldron) similar to this, though from the 1600s having _anything_ to do with Naruta is amazingly stupid. Although them wanting to buy it as an _incense burner_ sort of boggles the mind. I have to wonder what they have bought and are destroying by mishandling :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Scrappy\_Hero\_Pup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ea5d25/32.png) [@Happy\_Scrappy\_Hero\_Pup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Scrappy_Hero_Pup)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cosplay-i-dont-get-it-can-someone-please-explain/538002/32 "2010-05-02T08:14:56Z")
[QUOTE= AClockworkMelon] Don’t question cosplay. [/QUOTE] Situationally hot. Not actually hot. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cosplay-i-dont-get-it-can-someone-please-explain/538002/33 "2010-05-02T12:30:05Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > You’re ignorant of a serious part of American (and Japanese, etc) culture. Um, I think you are seriously overselling the influence of cosplay in American culture. It’s something extreme geeks do at conventions and even then, it’s never the majority. As someone else, it’s extended Halloween. That’s it. > [@Lucky\_13](#): > > How come anime fans are inferior in the fandom ladder to juggalos and Trekkies? No one is lower on the fandom ladder than juggalos. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cosplay-i-dont-get-it-can-someone-please-explain/538002/34 "2010-05-02T12:45:24Z")
My younger daughter is pulling together a costume to be “Ukraine” at Connecticon this year. This might not be Japanese (and I really don’t care enough to find out) but I recognize it as being exactly the same impulse that made me wear a blue long-sleeved tee-shirt and black pants to Star Trek conventions back in the day. She doesn’t wear costuming or garb in daily life, unless you count random accessories like the RenFaire bodice she likes. But that is no more cosplaying than my wearing a vest and pocketwatch makes me Steampunk. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cosplay-i-dont-get-it-can-someone-please-explain/538002/35 "2010-05-02T14:33:16Z")
Dressing up is fun. Dressing up as something obscure to the general public is more fun. Dressing with a bunch of other people, who will get your obscure costume and whose obscure costumes you’ll get also, is more fun yet. Sounds pretty straightforward to me. ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cosplay-i-dont-get-it-can-someone-please-explain/538002/36 "2010-05-02T15:38:16Z")
Wow, for the first time in a long time I feel _younger_, or at least more “with it\*,” than someone else. That someone being most of the people on the thread. But that’s only because some of y’all are posting some strangely grumpy / narrow-minded stuff. But seriously, since when is “cosplay” restricted to youth? Or for that matter, since when is it a new/current thing? People have been dressing up in _Star Trek_ outfits and going to Renaissance Faires bedecked in doublets and tights for decades. Then there are those incredibly newfangled things called _costume parties_ or _masquerades_. Playing “dress-up” isn’t just a delight for kiddies – it’s a chance to be someone else, to play a role, to look wild or weird or fabulously glamorous or just _different_ from the everyday. I don’t have any costumes or anything, and I’m not a participant in this particular hobby, but I used to perform in musicals and plays in my younger years, and can remember the difference in going from regular rehearsals to full-dress rehearsals: suddenly everything felt more real for the character I was playing, whether it was Anna in _The King and I_ in the gorgeous satin ballgown or Anita in _West Side Story_ with a slinky tight-fitting negligee or Lilly/Katherine in _Kiss Me Kate_ with the Shakespearean gown. So much fun! So I don’t see what the big deal is. What’s the mystery? What’s wrong with people immersing themselves in whatever fictional universe they love for a couple of nights a month? Is the “omg what freaks!” reaction just due to the particular fans being of _anime_, which I guess for some people here is still considered something new and unfamiliar? (Though it’s hardly new anymore…) - and I know is a saying that automatically makes me sound old again! Ah, cool-dom is a fleeting thing! ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cosplay-i-dont-get-it-can-someone-please-explain/538002/37 "2010-05-02T15:51:29Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Dressing up is fun. I suspect that a lot of us stop being able to follow this reasoning right here at step one. ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cosplay-i-dont-get-it-can-someone-please-explain/538002/38 "2010-05-02T16:16:02Z")
> [@](#): > > But seriously, since when is “cosplay” restricted to youth? Or for that matter, since when is it a new/current thing? People have been dressing up in Star Trek outfits and going to Renaissance Faires bedecked in doublets and tights for decades. Then there are those incredibly newfangled things called costume parties or masquerades. Playing “dress-up” isn’t just a delight for kiddies – it’s a chance to be someone else, to play a role, to look wild or weird or fabulously glamorous or just different from the everyday. Actually, for _me_, this is exactly the source of the bewilderment. So, by what you and others in this thread are saying, “cosplay” is just a new hip happ’nin’ word for “putting on a geeky costume and going out and having fun in your costume like people have been doing for, oh, like, centuries”? That’s it? Christ. I thought there might be something different and esoteric to it that I wasn’t getting, seeing as how it required the invention of a new word and all. I dressed up as Dr. Who for two different parties last Halloween and didn’t even know I was engaging in “cosplay.” ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cosplay-i-dont-get-it-can-someone-please-explain/538002/39 "2010-05-02T16:22:58Z")
> [@Noel Prosequi](#): > > I know there have always been little cliques that get together in public to impress each other. Greasers with motorbikes and ducktails, mods, rockers, punks, Teddy Boys, Goths and so on. But I grok the idea that the motorbike kids are trying to project menace and rebellion, like the others, and that there is a sense of sneering at the “straight” world for being conformist and so on in all that. It’s a way of a way of using visible tribal signs that exclude others from the group as a way of forging group (and personal) identity. > > What I don’t get is what these cosplay kids imagine they are projecting. It seems the exact opposite of rebellion and oppositional defiance identity establishment. There is no sneer. There is no non-conformity. If anything, it involves extreme conformity. > > So - somebody enlighten me. What are these kids thinking? I used to live in Japan, and the “Lolita” look there is just one of the more extreme youth fashions. There are certain neighborhoods in big cities where teens and 20-somethings who are into the look will go (usually on Sunday, because teens are in uniform for school and club activities the rest of the week), dressed up in their best Loli-style outfits, just to hang out and see and be seen. I don’t think the Japanese Lolitas display any more in-group conformity than other youth subcultures. Quite a few of them make their own outfits, so they’re unique in the specifics if not in the overall style. The Loli-girls I saw around Amerika-mura in Osaka seemed pretty much like the Goths I remember from my teens, and probably much the same as the punks, Teddy Boys, etc., of earlier eras. They all dressed alike too. If the undertone of sneering, and the hint of potential violence, is missing, it’s likely because we’re talking about a bunch of Japanese girls here. But I’m sure they think they’re a lot cooler than other Japanese girls who just wear the clothes their mothers picked out for them. I’ve always understood “cosplay” to refer to dressing up as a particular character. In Japan at least I don’t think it has much to do with the Lolita fashion or other street fashions. In the West it probably is the same general group of people who’d want to either dress up like anime characters or emulate extreme Japanese youth fashions, though. I’m sure people who like to dress up like anime characters have much the same motivations as people who like to dress up in Starfleet uniforms or Princess Leia costumes. They’re big fans of the media in question and think it’s fun to dress up like the characters. I knew several people in college who did cosplay, but it was always associated with either fan conventions or more general costume-wearing events like Halloween parties. I’ve never seen people just hanging around in anime costumes for no special reason. I think most anime fans would consider someone who dressed up like Sailor Moon on a daily basis to be a real whack job. For some anime fans their fandom extends to interest in (or obsession with!) certain aspects of Japanese culture, and some of them like to dress up for conventions and other special events like they’re Japanese kids rather than as specific fictional characters. I suspect that at least some of the people who do this think they’re cooler than those who dress up as cartoon characters, or that their behavior is showing a much deeper and more admirable understanding of Japanese culture. My reaction to this would be :rolleyes:, but it would not surprise me at all if some people seriously believed this. But for many it’s probably a lot simpler than that, more “[This girl](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Black_lolita.jpg) looks cool, I want to have an outfit like that, my friends will think it’s cool too.” In many cases there’s probably also a good dose of “And my mother will HATE IT!” in there. So pretty typical teen behavior, they’re just going for a Japanese-influenced look rather than some other youth fashion style. ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cosplay-i-dont-get-it-can-someone-please-explain/538002/40 "2010-05-02T17:42:23Z")
> [@Jenaroph](#): > > Actually, for _me_, this is exactly the source of the bewilderment. So, by what you and others in this thread are saying, “cosplay” is just a new hip happ’nin’ word for “putting on a geeky costume and going out and having fun in your costume like people have been doing for, oh, like, centuries”? That’s it? Basically, yep. > [@](#): > > Christ. I thought there might be something different and esoteric to it that I wasn’t getting, seeing as how it required the invention of a new word and all. I dressed up as Dr. Who for two different parties last Halloween and didn’t even know I was engaging in “cosplay.” Heh. Well, the word is Japanese in origin, as I understand it, and I guess it’s now being used because it’s an easy umbrella term to include all sorts of different costume-wearing cultures, from anime/manga to Renaissance Fair types to LARPers and Civil War re-enactments. Honestly it sounds like fun to me. If I were really into a fandom that lent itself to this type of massive social gathering (unless there are any Jane Austen conventions out there that I don’t know about), I’d be tempted to give it a try. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cosplay-i-dont-get-it-can-someone-please-explain/538002.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cosplay-i-dont-get-it-can-someone-please-explain/538002.md?page=3)