What is Cosplay?

Hello! Some people cosplay as a part of their lives and this cosplay section will be used for sharing information about cosplay and even some tips as to how to cosplay. Feel free to comment about your thoughts or if you think there are any areas for improvement :>

Cosplay (コスプレ kosupure), short for costume play, is a performance art in which participants, called cosplayers, wear costumes and fashion accessories to represent a specific character or idea that is usually identified with a unique name. This is usually done as a hobby.

  A cosplay of Elsa from Frozen.

Favorite sources include manga, anime, comic books, video games, and films. Any entity from the real or virtual world that lends itself to dramatic interpretation may be taken up as a subject. Inanimate objects are given anthropomorphic forms and it is not unusual to see genders switched, with women playing male roles and vice versa. There is also a subset of cosplay culture centered on sex appeal, with cosplayers specifically choosing characters that are known for their attractiveness or revealing costumes.

            Cosplay of Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII Advent Children by Famous Japanese cosplayer Kaname.

Cosplay costumes vary greatly and can range from simple themed clothing to highly detailed costumes. Cosplay is generally considered different from Halloween and Mardi Gras costume wear, as the intention is to replicate a specific character, rather than to reflect the culture and symbolism of a holiday event.

                                                    An example of a simple costume

                                                                 Kagamine Rin from vocaloid. 

                                                   An example of a complicated costume

                              Cosplay of Queen of blades from starcraft by famous korean cosplayer Tasha

Because of the difficulty of replicating some details and materials, cosplayers often educate themselves in crafting specialties such as textiles, sculpture, face paint, fiberglass, fashion design, woodworking, and other uses of materials in the effort to render the look and texture of a costume accurately.Cosplayers often wear wigs in conjunction with their outfit in order to further improve the resemblance to the character. This is especially necessary for anime and manga or video game characters who often have unnaturally coloured and uniquely styled hair.

In order to look more like the character they are portraying, many cosplayers also engage in various forms of body modification. Contact lenses that match the color of their character's eyes are a common form of this, especially in the case of characters with particularly unique eyes as part of their trademark look. Contact lenses that make the pupil look enlarged to visually echo the large eyes of anime and manga characters are also used. Another form of body modification that cosplayers engage in is to copy any tattoos or special markings that their character might have.

However, Cosplay in Singapore is not as common as overseas due to Singapore having a conservative society. Cosplay is often deemed as “weird” or “strange” and it is even frowned upon at times.

                                         So what do you think about cosplay after reading?

                                                         Share your thoughts with me by commenting!

     -Chermaine :>