Phoenix Japanese Cosplay

Phoenix Cosplay
Cosplay pictures will enlarge by clicking.

What is Cosplay?

"Cosplay" is a "Japan-ized" English word which has its origins in the phrase "costume play", meaning to play dress-up.
In the narrow sense of the term, it refers to the act of dressing up like an Anime character.

A person who does Cosplay is called a "Cosplayer".
Among enthusiasts the term is commonly abbreviated to "Layer".

What do Cosplayers do?

The enthusiasts of anime, manga (Japanese comics), games, singers and so forth wear clothes made to resemble the outfits of their favorite character and behave like that character.
In other words, they pretend to be their favorite character.

They take cosplay photos. By taking pictures, and even more so for the cosplays that have widespread friend networks,
they become not a simple method of communication, but through the internet, the more appealing the photo, and to what extent its appearance is attractive and resembles a character, the more impressive it will be perceived as.

Perhaps they are "otaku", or perhaps not, but everyone, not matter who you are
("regular" people included) has some desire to be seen by others as "amazing".

Why do Cosplay?

Perhaps it is an obsession with changing one’s appearance.
Additionally, expanding one’s circle of friends is also a very common reason.

Who does Cosplay?

"Cosplay is girl culture". Cosplay users as a whole are 90% female. So, cosplay is "girl culture".

The creation of cosplay costumes is a something women excel at, and it seems that the obsession with changing oneself to resemble a favored character is also very strong. Because men enjoy looking at their favorite character, they collect figurines and so forth.

By age group, women occupy 90% of the 10-20 year olds.
Recently, perhaps due to the drop in costume price, the number of middle school aged users has begun to rise.

Most popular Cosplay characters?

Whether inside or outside of Japan, "Naruto", "Bleach", and "Prince of Tennis" are popular characters.

Where does Cosplay take place?

The "Comic Market", commonly abbreviated to "Komike", or else "Komiketto",
is one of the world’s largest display and sale of "doujinshi" (or "fan comics")
sponsored by the Comic Market preparatory committee.

Various events which kick-off the Comic Market, where cosplayers and devoted fans of anime characters and related genres gather,
as well as Visual Kei band performances, can all be found there.