Mr Martini was implying that Cosplay was only practiced by anime/manga fans. See the distinction? As someone who hates anime and manga, I think it’s an important one!
Thank Gid.
I was afraid you were linking to Sailor Bubba.
(Personally I tend to think od “cosplay” as being Japanese-inspired dress-up, the same way that “garb” describes Renfaire dress-up. It is a manifestation of the same impulse so it is accurate to say that cosplay is playing dress-up, but I do not think it would be precise to describe all dress-up as cosplay.)
For it to be “cosplay” as opposed to just “dressing up” there has to be some connection to a con or other public gathering.
You can take pictures of yourself in your home in your cosplay costume to show it off, but that’s not really cosplaying in the strictest sense.
No, that’s going to a costume party.
No, that’s dressing up for Halloween.
No, that’s “make-believe”
Yes, see the public gathering clause above.
Once again, cosplaying requires the cosplayer to want to show off their creation in public. Otherwise, you’re just a nut in a Superman costume.
Its not like its really new. I’m 43 and remember doing our version of cosplay at SF conventions in high school. Anime wasn’t big yet, but there was a period of time where there was always a Leia in her bikini. Followed by a time when there was always six or seven Xenas.
The sort of extreme Goth and pre-Goth (white makeup, overdone eyeliner, clothes that start becoming costume) was a form of cosplay.
My only confusion was that I first heard the word “cosplay” in a slightly different context. Yes, it involved dressing up in a costume but definitely not in public. (Well, maybe in public for a few people, but anyway.) This led to a few confused moments when I first heard it in its current usage.
I had a Star Blazers/Space Cruiser Yamato costume I wore to conventions back in the early 1980’s. (I still have it in fact but it has apparently shrunk over the years. Yeah, it shrunk.) We didn’t call it cosplay then (or anime either; it was “japanimation” then). We just called them “costumes”.
Nah, he said “usually involving anime/manga” which implies (to me at least) that other geeky fandoms could easily fall under the umbrella. Consider that to the population at large, you say “sci-fi convention” and the first thing they think of is still “some fat smelly dudes wearing Spock ears.” Drawing a line between one kind of costume and another at the same kind of con seems too pedantic even for fanboys.
THAT’s all I wanted to know; that there is in fact considered to be a distinction from “getting dressed up” which hadn’t been made clear till this post. Because to me, even the kid with the superman cape is “getting dressed up.”
And judging by the different answers in this thread, that there also is a good deal of difference of opinion as to what exactly is cosplay and what is not. I can live with that.
Except “usually involving anime/manga” likely isn’t true. While I don’t have any hard numbers to back it up, I’d wager a guess that “Leia in the gold bikini” is the most popular cosplay outfit.
Seriously…any picture claiming to be ‘bad cosplay’ that isn’t Sailor Bubba, or Man Faye is just pure fail. (Of course, Sailor Bubba and Man Faye are meant to be bad, but still…they set a high bar, even if they do it deliberately.)
While I’m not sure that Leia is still the most popular character, I’d agree that cosplay is not limited to anime/manga characters: it can involve characters from western animation, western live action, western comics, television and video/computer games. However, at an anime convention, you might be limited to anime characters if you take part in the competitive cosplay – though that doesn’t stop you dressing up as Batman or Princess Leia outside the competition.
This bears repeating many times, because I think people in this thread aren’t getting it. Loli is not Cosplay. Loli is not based in anime. Loli is actually subculture fashion, like goth, or preppy, or fruits or whatever.
-Necros, member, Colorado Gothic Lolita Society
Wow. I’ll bet there aren’t too many goths in Golden.
That said, there are some goth loli characters in anime, e.g., Anju Maaka from the vampire anime Karin. (If you’re googling for pictures of her, the protagonist of Karin is Karin Maaka, Anju’s older sister, who has black hair and usually wears her school uniform. Anju has white hair, and usually carries around a doll called Boogie and a parasol, as well as wearing goth loli costume – since Anju is a “normal” vampire, she doesn’t go to school like her older sister.)
More than you think! 
But, again, Lolita isn’t goth, either. There are about a billion types of Lolita out there (we actually held a contest once where people wore as many different kinds as they could come up with), but there are some major categories:
-Elegant Gothic Lolita (EGL): Characterized by lots of black, lace, etc. archetypal example is Mana, lead singer of now-defunct band Malice Mizer: http://www.angelfire.com/nj4/torikago/vk_pics/mana04.jpg
-Elegant Gothic Aristocrat (EGA): Much the same aesthetic as EGL, but with a tophat-and-frock male oriented image: Electronics, Cars, Fashion, Collectibles & More | eBay
-Kodona: Newsboy-inspired, with goth underpinning. A “dandy punk” style: http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s211/luismoon/Kodona.jpg
-Sweet Lolita: Imagine Strawberry Shortcake a la Dangerous Liasons.
Keep in mind that males or females can wear any of these styles, but the Sweet category is pretty much exclusively women, and the scene as a whole is very androgynous-leaning-towards-feminine. None of it is sexualized, though.
ETA for Giles:True, but that is more of a reflection of Japanese subculture, as opposed to the other way around as people in this thread have been implying.
We have them aplenty here in Phoenix, AZ. No wonder they’re so depressed.
http://www.massively.com/photos/final-fantasy-fan-festival-2007/#500339
That’s me being interviewed. It ain’t just for the young folks!
—Maggie, age 39.
Also, on the topic of Loli/EGL fashion - I have a young friend (15) who is very into the Loli look. She socializes on LJ with a bunch of other young women who also enjoy the foofy-dress thing, and they all had a meetup recently.
At the La Brea Tar Pits. Not a place I’d think to go in a $300 dress…but eh, it’s not my scene.
There were about 15-20 of them, the oldest looked to be maybe 26 and the youngest was probably 12-13. Most were 16-18. Some of the dresses were really good, some were meh; some were purchased, some were handmade. If I had a dollar for every yard of crinoline… Anyway, all of them were white girls, except perhaps a couple who were part-Asian.
I’ve also seen girls in Loli outfits just out and about - most recently a cluster of them were in the audience at the Pantages when we went to go see “Chicago”. Again, they were in their late teens, early twenties.
It’s definitely a Thing.
I’ve seen a few people (White and Asian) dressed up in the Harajuku Girl/ LoliGoth style in town, but I cannot remember the last time I saw someone wandering around town dressed as Darth Vader or Batman or Mr. Spock.
Like I said, when I, personally, hear the term “Cosplay” my immediate thought is “People Dressed As Anime Characters” because they’re the ones who go outside in their costumes; ie there’s an element of wanting to “be seen” there.
Well, there have always been people who dressed up for more than Halloween or costume parties, but it was never popular, common or formalized into “cosplay”. I don’t recall anyone dressed in costume for the (only) Star Trek convention I attended in 1975. YMMV.
I’m not against cosplay in any way. I’m a bit bemused by it, but not anti-cosplay. Go for it! But don’t be surprised that not everyone shares the fun or understands the desire to take part in it.
What in the holy blue hell are you talking about?
Read like five posts up from you. Someone spells out, again, that dressing up as a stereotypical goth or harajuku girl is not cosplaying. It’s dressing up to match your subculture. Like punk kids do or grunge kids back in the 90s.
I swear, it almost seems like you’re not getting it on purpose.
Even if we substitute “Harajuku/LoliGoth” with “Anime Characters” (and let’s be fair here, the styles do overlap a great deal, especially to the layperson), I believe my point still stands.