Cosplay: What is it and What to expect from it

The term “cosplay” comes from the two words “costume” and “play.” Most people will do this for fun but some have be able to find a career through it.

Cosplay originally started in the United States during the 1930s. The main purpose of cosplay was to not to dress as characters but the genre the convention was themed on. Today cosplay is the act of dressing as characters from tv, movies, books, and video games. This trend first started when Japanese college students dressed as their favorite characters from an anime when they went to a convention.

The reasons why people participate in this could be almost anything, for fun, a career, or just because they can.

Dylan Schaefer says, “it’s fun to dress-up as your favorite characters and pretend to be someone else for a while.”

Now knowing what cosplay is and why people take part it in, its might be best to know where someone will most likely see cosplayers showing off their outfits.

“Most cosplayers show off their costumes at conventions like A-Con,” said Dylan.

A-Con, or formally known as Anime Central is a convention that is surrounded by anime. There are many different conventions around the United States, but the most known and probably most popular would be Comic-Con. When a cosplayer goes to a convention be prepared to bring backups for your cosplay, no one knows when a outfit might fall apart or break.

For the most part, when first seeing a cosplayer, you might want to know if they had bought their costume or hand-made.

Dylan said, “I think most cosplayers buy their costume in pieces to create one that is unique to them.”

Being unique when cosplaying is one of the most important factors of the act, beside being in character. Three important things to consider when making a cosplay look good would be the attention to detail, creativity, and confidence.

When it comes to wanting to meet a cosplayers or take a picture of them in their costume can be nerve racking. With anyone when it comes to wanting to a picture of someone, you must always ask for permission first, and most cosplayers will be okay with it.

Dylan said, “I’ve met many cosplayers and they are really fun people to be around.”

There are many risk factors of cosplaying, and that shouldn’t stop anyone from cosplaying. Most risks are found when making your costume, like short deadline, it goes over your budget, and it’s too big for traveling. Other risks that would take place more at conventions, and those would be judgment from friends, family, and strangers. Then there’s a risk of sexual harassment, and that could be for almost any cosplay, and most risky for revealing costumes. Just always be careful when cosplaying.