Cosplay Girls Daily

People about cosplay...

I have already emphasized elsewhere that I count cosplayers into the pretty small circle of subcultures that I consider “my tribe”. And that I will never hesitate to defend them from detractors and ridicule, be it online or offline, wherever the need arises.

That said, my personal stance regarding the enjoyment of cosplaying is a bit more complicated than that. Because… well… personally, cosplaying doesn’t really “work” for me. At least not in a certain sense.

See, right from the beginning of my anime career, I have always had this habit that I keep anime and real life strictly separate in my mind. In all sorts of ways, and for all sorts of good reasons.

As a result of this, I can admire the people and their awesome costumes, but I have a really, really hard time seeing the actual character “in it”.

Two worlds…

Mind you, it’s not the fault of the people. Originally my authenticity demands when it came to character reproductions were insanely high, anyway. Never mind cosplaying. For the longest time, I couldn’t even accept 99% of the released anime figurines because deep down, I felt that “they didn’t look right”.

These days? Well, as far as authenticity is concerned: you only need to look at my shelf with several figures on it to realize that this demand has dropped at least somewhat… but yea, I still keep the worlds apart so strictly that it prevents me from emotionally accepting the “cosplay illusion”.

Needless to say, I never discuss this with cosplayers. Because I fear they could misunderstand it as me disregarding their efforts. Or worse, as criticism of their designs or even their hobby. Which couldn’t be further from the truth. On the contrary.

Because I find it awesome what they do. I always have and always will deeply respect cosplaying for the amount of underlying fandom that it expresses, as well as for the effort people put into it.

Whenever I see someone with an elaborate/authentic/cleverly made costume, I cannot help but doff my hat at the driving passion behind it. Perhaps I’m even a bit envious about it. Either way, if I see that someone is willing to invest that many hours into designing and creating something like that… then that gives him/her my respect and a boatload fan cred. In short, it basically earns you the status of “card-carrying elite fan” in my book.

So no, when I look at cosplayers, I don’t see the character. But it still makes me happy – because I see a fan whose passion and efforts I wholeheartedly support and admire.

I think it is just fashion modeling in disguise. (pun intended)

Overall it is a harmless fun. As a creator (artist or writer) there is no greater honor than someone loving your show so much they would dress as your character and even try to be like them. Even against the possible ridicule.

Playing pretend can be fun. And it’s something everyone even families can engage.

But if you look at the most famous and successful cosplayers (as in Twitter famous) they are either:

A) People that could be modeling in mainstream modeling agencies.

This one is the category that gives more envy and disappointment to your average cosplayers. Of course they will get more attention even if your costume is more “comic/book” accurate or well done.

Like I said, cosplaying is basically fashion modeling. They look amazing and it’s nice to see models having a nerdy side.

B) People with awesome disguises that resemble the original show or movie.

In this category you’re judged by your amazing sewing skills.

So for being ultra famous you need to be one of those categories. But if not it’s just harmless fun you do with friends.

Think of it as early Halloween.

Sadly as a lawyer it isn’t professional for me to do this. But I respect people that do.

Coming from a movie production background, you put on the parts of your costume that would interfere with makeup – possibly rubbing on your face when donning the apparel – before you put on makeup. None of the rest of your costume should be worn until it is just before “showtime”.

And costumers (both hobbyists and professionals) should be planning for makeup application and making a costume that can be put on without having to go over the head like a T-shirt does. Aside from the fact that this is easy to make, there really isn’t a good excuse for designing a costume that ruins makeup, or alternately, has to be worn while makeup is being applied.