Getting to Know Cosplay, History, and Types

Japafans want to be a character from an anime or movie? This term is called cosplay. Usually, this term is often expressed among young people who are enthusiastic about Japan.

Cosplay is included in one of the Japanese performing arts. This is because cosplay is considered to be able to increase creativity and a person’s self-confidence. But do you already know about the meaning of cosplay and its history? Come on, see the explanation!

What is Cosplay?

The term cosplay is often found on social media. Cosplay is a term for people who play costume games by imitating fictional or non-fictional characters or scenes.

Cosplay from slang comes from the combination of the words “costume” which means costume and “play” which means playing, so if both are combined it becomes a costume game. People who do cosplay are called cosplayers.

Generally, cosplayers will wear costumes that depict anime, film, and game characters. The accessories used are also varied, ranging from wigs, special decorations, to additional properties so that the characters displayed are detailed.

Not half-heartedly, the cosplayers will even play dialogues or imitate scenes of the characters they play. Usually, cosplayers will gather at certain events or festivals.

History of Cosplay

The term cosplay was first introduced by Japanese reporter Nobuyuki Takahashi of Studio Hard. The term was conveyed after Nobuyuki attended the world science fiction convention in 1984 in Los Angeles.

Meanwhile in Japan itself, people wearing these character outfits have been around since the 1970s. In 1975, on December 21st, Comiket was held, which was the first fan convention in Japan.

In the 1990s, the popularity of cosplay increased along with the change of manga into anime or animated cartoons. Of course, this had an impact on the number of visitors attending the Comiket event. What was initially only 700 people, has now grown to 500,000 to 700,000 people.

Types of Cosplay

Even though you often hear the term cosplay, do you know what types of cosplay there are?

1. Standard Cosplay

This cosplay stand usually imitates a favorite character in as much detail as possible. From the costume worn, the cosplayer will usually be easily recognized as the character being played. This type of cosplay, the costume will be adjusted by the cosplayer but does not change the basic shape of the character’s costume.

2. Casual cosplay

This type of cosplay does not seem more casual because the cosplayer will wear clothes inspired by their favorite character without copying in detail. The clothes used are not so flashy that they can still be used even in public places.

3. Closet cosplay

If this type of cosplay usually tries to match the clothes of the favorite character but the cosplayer will do it using the clothes they have. Of course one of the advantages of this type of cosplay is that it is more cost-effective. However, to describe the favorite character is indeed less accurate or detailed.

4. Crossplay

Crossplay is a costume game that does not match the cosplayer’s original gender. For example, a man plays a female character costume. So from the decorations, make up, to the costumes used describe the character and look different from the original gender.

5. Genderbent cosplay

This type of cosplay usually changes the gender identity of the character. Cosplayers are given freedom in character design according to their creativity. Unlike crossplay, genderbent cosplay does not require cosplayers to change their appearance according to the character’s gender but simply wear clothes according to gender and be known as the character being played.

6. Cosplay original

Well, different from some types of cosplay above, this type of cosplay is created by the cosplayers themselves, not from characters from movie series or games. The downside is that the characters are not recognized by others.

Now you know the history and some types of cosplay, right? Are Japafans more interested in playing cosplay?