Cosplay is the short form of “costume play” as first coined in Japan by Nobuyuki Takashashi, referring to fans who would dress up as their favourite anime, game or comic character. In recent years, cosplay has garnered more attention within cultural studies as well as within the mainstream media. Far from a childhood Halloween, cosplay has become a way for fans of many ages to share their interest in fandom, dress and identity at any age and during the years. Being introduced to Japanese’s culture at a young age and surrounded by similar preference people gave rise to this dissertation topic. The fascination expanded while reading more about this sub-culture and specific case studies. The amount of time put in while making the art of costume and costume-play is beyond impressive. It’s is also interesting to examine the psychology behind costume-play and to understand the fandom through their eyes.
Cosplay has
…show more content…
It is necessary to understand this complex form of costume making as it is more than fervent celebration of a favourite fictional character. The key aspects of this research are to understand and differentiate between fandom vs. obsession and expression vs. escapism with respect to cosplay.
Cosplay promotes practice in which gender diversity is practiced resulting in a display of crossplays and genderbend cosplays. This dissertation also intends to analyse the phenomenon of cosplay that helped in sustaining diversity of gender expression and the social stereotype faced by cosplayers in the society. This study explores cosplay as a community and cosplay practiced around the world. As the costume play is relatively current and still evolving, online sources provide prompt information about cosplay therefore the influence of media on cosplay will also be studied during the
Disney’s Pixar has always had a traditionally “alpha male” role for its leading male characters, but there is possibly a “new male model” concept that has overtaken this predominant alpha male role as portrayed in the article, “Post-Princess models of gender: The new man in Disney/Pixar” by Ken Gillam and Shannon R. Wooden. Within the article, Gillam and Wooden use a well-structured article with supportive examples that effectively strengthen their ideas and theories. The observation in Disney’s Pixar promotes a new male model in their films which expresses more feminine traits is effectively reinforced by the author’s success in organizing the evidence and examples which support their ideas: also the authors effective use of structuring the article to draw your attention to the main issues being discussed to successfully connect to their thesis. Effective introduction of their topics and ideas in a sufficient orderly fashion and present these ideas which give a lot of their theories and ideas strength in persuading the readers to think a certain way about the topic. The authors succeed in addressing their theory that in Disney’s Pixar films there is a new male model which has transformed the previously “unambiguous alpha” male role.
Cosplay which is short for “costume play” allows an individual to basically be someone else, typically an anime, cartoon, or even video game characters to name a few. Along with the costume they take on that character’s personality and role play as them. Some will make the costumes themselves while others will buy pre-made ones. There is quite the amount of work and dedication that goes into doing this, not just for the sake of the costume looking accurate but the
Decora girls in Tokyo and Cosplay girls in america have a varying amount of similarities. Cosplaying is when people wear accessories or costumes and dress up as their favorite anime or comic book character. Very similar to Decora where these groups wear accessories and express themselves while standing out in society. Cosplay is a form of expression for this small group in american culture that is very similar and can fit into american culture very well.
We usually pay more attention to the inner core of human beings, but clothing is not simply an outfit that covers out bodies—it indeed delivers a strong message to the society. A particular style of clothing marks the fashion of an era or a culture, but sometimes there is more historical context and material politics behind it. Clothing is not superficial; it represents identity and dignity of a group of people. According to Miller’s “Why Clothing is not Superficial”, clothing gives us “such dignity, glamour and refinement”, and they “actually were what made us think what we think we are” (Miller). It sometimes may have a unique appearance but it could be a powerful challenge to the public memory and hegemonic forces.
This essay focuses on the history and the culture of character design, comparing the character design from the early 1930s to the present. By analysis those differences to explode what is the main element of effecting the character design, and to prove the homogenization of character over the world. Through the interview with professional character designers from all around the world, this essay enables the reader to think deeper and further, about the future trend of character design. To discover the culture of character, the history of character design will be studied, character like Snow White from old Disney animation will be used in this essay. By comparing the new character and the old character to find out the chancing of character design. And to comprehend the future
First you have your normal, casual cosplayers. You’ll see them in what looks like a discounted Halloween costume with a couple of additionally accessories. They just want to become their favorite superhero or anime character for a day and don’t care how screen accurate it looks. Just being able to represent one of their favorite characters is more than enough for them.
It only takes a second to attach a strong feeling or idea to a character in a movie, advertisement, or video game. Many characterization used are based on the assumed stereotypes, and are usually one-dimensional characters. Typically, these characterizations usually come from inherited family values, education, and the media. While stereotypes existed long before mass media, the media machine certainly helped to accelerate the cultural growth of all kinds of stereotypes. It is beyond this paper to answer why magazines employ these gender stereotypes, instead this research is designed to analyze
The fashion industry is rapidly growing and constantly generating new fashion trends almost weekly. Fashion for some may seem ridiculous and unnecessary; but fashion is not just a meaningless usage of article of clothing or farcical materials sew together for coverage. There is more to fashion than meets the eyes, fashion is precious and significant. It is a reflection of self-image, it speak the ream about who we are and how we review ourselves. Not only is fashion the reflection of self-image but also the reflection of our history as Coco Channel have said, “Fashion is not something that exist in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.” Fashion
‘style, branding, colour and fashionability’ of the clothing as a tool for the audience to
Dressing up as fictional characters for comic book conventions looks like fun and games from the outside; and although it's mostly about people coming together and celebrating characters and pop culture icons, people like me have found something in it that sparks an interest. This interest is something that goes so deep it’s something that has changed my work ethic. It has improved on how i work toward deadlines, Learning how to get through challenging tasks, and working hard toward an end goal that i want to make the best i am capable of. The social aspect of this hobby is something that has expanded my social skills and brought me out of my shell. Cosplay has opened up my eyes to a world that i can build for myself.
During our life we construct many different identities of who we want to portray ourselves as to the rest of society; fashion plays a vital role in generating who we are. With the ideas from Storry and Childs they state that “the way that we dress can either serve to confirm or to subvert various facets of our identities, such as our gender,
Throughout the world women are depicted to be oversexualized among forms of media such as video games and comic books. The idea of oversexualization towards female characters is that they have been often drawn and animated in hypersexual ways. Even going as far as viewing them as a sex object, their revealing body images are eye candy through the eyes of men. Hence women found in comic books and video games are frequently emphasized by their excessive physical appearances, objectification, portrayal, and character role.
“BEFOR I CAN TALK TO YOU, PEOPLE SHOW THEIR SEX, AGE, CALSS, POSITION, WITH WHAT THEY ARE WEARING. ALL THIS IS REGISTERED UNCONCIOSLY“ Those words said by Alison Lurie in the language of clothes (1992), reflect perfectly the main point of my research. The society we are now living is an extremely conscious society regarding body image and the way we are presented to the exterior. We found an obsessive trend on wanting to look like celebrities by having certain items or looks and in relation to that a fear of not being percepted the tight way. This is where we found relation to how clothes are part of a conversation we haven 't started and are a form of expression. As there will be explained further on, we use clothes as a sign of our identity,as a way of representing ourselves and stand out from the crowd and also influence on how we appear in front of others making them (clothes) a huge part of our non verbal communication. This essay will discuss the ideas behind self -expression and the role of clothes has changed in that mater thought time.
This paper will be discussing the cosplay, or costume play, subculture. In this paper, it will also go over who makes up this particular subculture, what it takes to be a cosplayer, what this subculture does for society, how society sees those who participate in it, how and when it came to be, most famous cosplay costumes, and what this subculture provides for those who take part in it.
Statement: Cosplay’s popularity growth is fast and there are lot of questions in the mind of people about cosplay. It’s meaning and reason varies from person to person and there are negativities to it.