Cosplay - what's the point of it?

I don’t get it. Is sex involved? I was looking at some of meiguolangren’s photos linked from his blog, and was wondering what the point of it all is. You get dressed, leave the house, go to the designated spot, and… what? Are there winners? How do you know when it’s over? Do people ever get together and have cosplay sex? (That might be fun)

Bit o’ heatstroke there, boss? :laughing:

surely there’s worse things they could be doing?

As the guy who posts anime/manga thread starts on here and never gets any replies, I feel qualified to answer. The reasons for cosplay are (not in order):

  1. Sexual fetishism, yes, in part. Sometimes it’s good to look but not be allowed to touch. Same goes for most fashions.

  2. Taking on the personae of anime characters. Same reason people dress up as Spock and Vader at star trek/star wars conventions. a kind of clothing-based hero worship.

  3. To attract customers and increase sales of anime and manga and related products.

  4. To show one’s dedication to a particular genre, trope or series. Making the costumes takes time, if you’re not a professional.

  5. Last reason, and the most theoretical: to strengthen the ties between Japan, the second Hollywood, to reaffirm the cultural link between Japan and Taiwan, and to make the simulacrum the reality. (That’s right… i’m gonna post it again, baby~ )

Heihachi Edajima FOREVER!!!

So if one cosplay as a hentai character, does that mean that they have to behave like a slut in costume.

Wearing the costume allows you to look like a slut without being obliged to behave like one.

But most people don’t cosplay like hentai characters. They cosplay like characters in mainstream anime/manga, which is inevitably parodied and perverted in amateur anime/manga, aka ‘doujinshi.’ this is what’s known as Rule #33 of the Internet: if it exists, there’s porn of it.

check out my alien octopus costume!

hey, wait, that’s not a costume…

seriously now, i saw a crowd of maybe eight of them in full kit SKIING at Nozawa in january this year… right on top of the mountain, around Yamabiko. not good skiers, but having fun, alright. Even the japanese were looking askance at them.

No, they did not have matching skis. they had rentals.

Askance my ass. Those japanese were SO jealous. They were all like, “Damn, Yousuke, I TOLD you we shoulda brought our Record of Lodoss War Chibi Suits.”

Never played “dress up” as a kid? I loved wearing my cowboy boots, tight jeans, huge belt buckle, smooth button down shirt, handkerchief around my neck, and cowboy hat. Oh wait…I’m from Texas. That’s what everybody wore.

That sounds gay like brokeback mountain… :laughing:

Oh yeah, isn’t that like “Brokeback fantasy mountain game” I call top ! No take backs. nah nah
:roflmao:

That sounds gay like brokeback mountain… :laughing:[/quote]

What can I say? It got lonely up there.

That sounds gay like brokeback mountain… :laughing:[/quote]

Brokeback Mountain’s gay?

Maoman, have you ever been to a science fiction convention in the U.S. or Canada? A Star Trek convention?

Maoman, they got Halloween where you come from? :wink:

Isn’t Star Trek more than just the outfits? I mean, I understand there are people out there who believe in the philosophy of the show, who have memorized the dialogue, who learn to speak Klingon! Is there anything even remotely substantial behind the costumes these people wear?

Chaon, you speak Klingon, don’t you?

Isn’t reality bizarre enough for you?

Anyway, Klingon’s a funny language. It’s all about death and killing and battle and militaria, but there’s no way you can use it to have a quiet chat about little Johnny’s disappointing performance at school this year, and how the local art fete made sooo much money for the church this year that they’re thinking of re-asphalting the car park, and could you please pass another slice of that delicious carrot cake, Warf.

Klingon is vocal cosplay.

Aren’t there conventions of “furries” who dress up as stuffed toys/woodland creatures? Although the sex parties held by those groups are often characterized as being “people who are attracted to people dressed as furry animals” it could just as much be “people feeling that they can get away with doing something they wouldn’t ordinarily do because nobody can see who they are under all that plush-toy fabric”.

My guess is that the cosplay people dressed as Japanese manga/anime characters don’t have to worry about such distinctions because the Japanese tend to draw an endless supply of micro-miniskirted female heros.

The Taiwanese nazis claimed to “just be interested in cosplay” – their get-togethers must have been fun. A room full of Asians walking about denouncing each other as insufficiently “aryan”.

There is as much behind certain animes as there is behind ST. There are people who believe in the philosophies of the shows, have memorized the dialogue, and have learned to speak Japanese just so they can understand the shows without subtitles.

Gundam is a good corollary: like ST, it’s not just one show but a series of shows, movies, comic books, and supplementary materials, with extensive invented physics, and fans who know so much about the series that they get employed by the company that owns the rights so the company can have their own show explained back to them. You can buy Gundam models in taiwanese and japanese 7-11s right now: the same can’t be said of ST models in US 7-11s.