An Introduction to Cosplays

Cosplay, also called costume play, is an art form where the players wear dressy clothes to match certain ideas or characters. Cosplaying may get transformed to performing art, where the cosplayer demonstrates the personality of a character. Alternately, it could be considered as a kind of artistic expression minus the performance feature. It is different than dressing up for events - such as masquerade balls or Halloween - though cosplayers may put on outfits and makeup for such like events; it goes along with a very distinct subculture.

Communities have been putting on costumes since centuries. However, the practice of cosplays started taking shape in Japan during 1980, when the public started dressing up like characters from their much-loved manga and anime series. Apart from dressing up like famous characters or perceptions, they also participated in plays where they acquired different guise. In due course of time, this trend got extended to other parts of world. Now, cosplayers bring to life a wide range of characters, from Harry Potter to Princess Mononoke.

Cosplayers may spend a considerable amount of cash and time on costumes. They heavily focus on exact details, so that the costume will be close to known details as possible. It is quite likely for a cosplayer to dye the fabrics himself, if they are unable to get a perfectly matching color. Likewise, they may fabricate pieces of jewelry by hand if the exact replicas are not available. These players really work hard to practice behaving and speaking like the original characters they are trying to imitate.

Tokyo's Harajuku district is well-known for cosplaying plus sweeping overall youth fashions. You can witness cosplays at important conventions, gatherings, and shows purposely arranged for that. Competitions are also organized, where performers are evaluated on the strength of their acting talents, costumes and understanding of the character being played by them.

At times, public mixes up cosplay with role-playing games or fetishism. This is because a number of cosplyers dress up like characters from the opposite sex.

Actually, cosplay is different from such subcultures, though many cosplayers like participating in role-playing games, while some may indulge in obsessive communities. The ultimate objective is to have fun in a variety of clothing and jewelry to bring live historical or fictional characters, and to interact with society in that role-playing. These players may also animate ideas or incarnate non-living items, like the renowned railway trains.