History of cosplay

Who do you think is the most popular people in Disneyland? The person who in Micky’s body! Play a role as Micky actually is the behavior of early cosplay.

Cosplay is a word short of costume play, which created by a Japanese animator named Nobuyuki Takahashi in a meeting of World Science Fiction in Los Angeles in 1984.Cosplay is an activity in which people wear costumes, wigs and other accessories to play a character from a fiction book,a movie, a mystery story, a history story, idol groups or a game,it is a kind of Non-mainstream culture. People who have this activity are called cosplayer, I am a cosplayer, for this opportunity, I would like to let all of you know what is cosplay, who is playing cosplay and how fun of it!

Everything has its own history, cosplay is no exception. In fact, there is just about 30 years that contemporary costume play appeared. But if we focus on the past time and retrospectively, we can find many information in the Internet, indeed, cosplay has a long history. In an article we can learned that the earliest cosplay activities appeared several centuries ago, like the Troubadour in Ancient Greek, they advertised Odyssey and Iliad by play a role from those Epic. In contemporary cosplay, the first cosplay character is Micky Mouse in Disneyland. Micky born in 1928 and when he successed ,he became a part of childhood in most people’s life. A host of Disneyland thought that: ”why don’t we let Micky become a real person that kids can touch them and play with them?” then, we have the guy in Micky’s body! Thereafter Micky of cosplay’s appeared, it gave Disneyland huge economic benefits. With the success of Micky, people found costume play was interesting. With the flow of information, we know so many excellent comic books, mystery movies, novels all over the world, messages from social media, as a consequence，costume play onto the world’s stage.

In 1947, God of Comic----Japan cartoonist Osamu Tezuka’s comic book, " New Treasure Island" hard-edged, set off a hot wave of contemporary comics. Thus creating the Japanese ACG market boom. Just at that moment, the kind of activities that Disney made, have been introduced to Japan. And now, cosplay become a norm activity in Japan.

In Japan, the earliest Cosplay appeared in about 1955, when many children are dressed costumes from characters from " Moonlight Mask " and " Youth Jeter ”. They made their costumes by themselves, or drew costumes on a paper and asked tailors help them to make it. Because that time, Japan did not have 

companies do those things.

This situation has continued for nearly 20 years, until the late 1970s to the early 1980s, after exploring and growing, Japan’s ACG became bigger and bigger.

The general Cosplay including animation, comics, games , video games, novels, movies, TV series , tokusatsu(like a superman fight with a monster, both of those character are player by a real person), idol group , occupation, historical stories, social stories. People want to play a role, want to act the character, so they dress in some similar costumes, have make-ups, build body language, wear wigs, and so on.

 This is a short video from YouTube，it shows some interesting cosplay photos.

Heroes of cosplay——a revolution brought by the mass media

Cosplayers and cosplay contests are a fixture and highlight at the many comic book and genre fan conventions around the world. These conventions provide an international stage for fans to showcase often spectacular handcrafted costumes and portray their favorite characters from sci-fi movies, video games, anime and more. In Heroes of Cosplay, nine passionate fans put their imagination and skills to the test to make a name for themselves in the competitive world of cosplay. 
The series follows cosplayers of all levels, from legend Yaya Han, to rising stars and newbies, as they make a splash at comic book conventions around the country. The series will dive deep into their lives, following their process as they create extravagant and visually arresting costumes each week. These nine constantly defy odds and race against the clock to transform themselves into amazing fictional characters that push the boundaries between fantasy and reality, all in hopes of impressing the convention judges to win a cash prizes and take their cosplay stardom to new heights. (Quote http://www.syfy.com/heroesofcosplay )

Yaya Han in the TV show---Heroes of cosplay
Image from：http://movie.douban.com/photos/photo/2095806936/

Heroes of cosplay played by NBC's syfy channel in August 2013 to start playing a file cosplay reality show, the program once aired immediately got wide acclaim from cosplay enthusiasts around the world, this show is to showcase the cosplayer's work process, as well as in the process of preparing the mentality. One of the judges is the Asian cosplayer and designer - Yaya Han, as previously mentioned Yaya in the past post, she is famous from her elaborate costumes and restore the gas field in the cosplay community.

Cosplay's popularity and mass media propaganda are inseparable, used to have an early paper media ----like the newspaper------propaganda cartoon show, now we has twitter, facebook, weibo (China), renren (China) and other social media as a propaganda media, more and more people gradually learned about cosplay. Today, heroes of cosplay can be said that is a milestone in the history of cosplay. Cosplay through television media gradually approaching the wider population. In my opinion, the appearance of this television programs and social media are inseparable, as a channel, if you want to get some information of the ratings have a certain audience groups, and as a channel, how to determine whether a particular topic get enough ratings it, they can get that message through social media, through the keyword search volume analysis, the analysis of hot topics, television stations can get a very clear understanding - there is no particular show is aired value, because of that, we could watch a Tv show named heroes of cosplay.

Cosplayer Holly and Jessica
Image from：http://movie.douban.com/photos/photo/2095806695/

Cosplay Is Not Only Dress-up

How many people think that cosplay is just wearing clothes for a character？ How many people think that cosplay is an activity which inseparable with the "show"？How many people think that cosplay is just a waste of time does not make any sense?

For these questions, cosplayers cannot just laugh. With the recent popular of cosplay activities , Comic-Con various cities and in various countries all over the world， misunderstanding of the popularity of cosplay for more and more , I think it is time to respond to those questioned.

Cosplay is not only just dress-up can be completed， at the beginning of a cosplay event, like shoot cosplay photos, participate in cosplay competitions , and so on. Before we start to those event, we need to prepare for long-term work , including an analysis of the role of personality , as well as decomposition Costumes props composition, selection of suitable fabrics and materials, researching the role of makeup and hairstyle(sometimes we wear the wigs, sometimes we use our ture hair), choose a suitable place to take photos and a suitable time ,and to prepare in advance to create an atmosphere of shooting tools ( for example, for night shooting we may need an external flash , flash color film , tripod and smoke cakes and some other things), coordinating groups of cosplayers’ time about when to take photos. If we need to prepare the cosplay competition, the props and clothing of cosplayer would be more sophisticated, in order to cope with emergency situations on stage, we have to consider what can be done large props lightweight and easy to damage, what kind of materials and pigments can show a better result with different stage lighting, make-up in the stage also are different form the make-up which we use to take photos, because the stage lighting is very strong, we have heavy make-up in order to show better results. Complete the visual effects interpretations, cosplayers will begin to consider auditory effects , we often say cosplay stage performances is a visual feast , so in order to complete the so-called audio-visual feast proper mission, we need to performances with the right music in the stage, if it necessary we will cut some of those music clips , making the stage effects become better and better.

For me, the basis of cosplay is for an anime or game works of love, this love drives us to produce the character whom we love deeply in the real life. When we love a character, we just want to cosplay him or her, that is the reason why we cosplay. Some people will ask us, what is the point which take you carry out this activity in the end? Can you become a famous people or can you make money? I want to say that there is no need to us to live so utilitarian, I think there would have been sufficient reason to love this , and we can count the number examples of active and successful cosplayers – the first person I want to talk about is Yaya Han, she is a famous cosplayer in the United States and one of the world 's most famous cosplayers , her make-up, clothing, and props almost createed by their(Yaya and her boyfriend) own hands. Through the TV show named cosplay heroes (I will have a post of this TV show in the future), we come to understand more clearly the cosplayer----Yaya’s excellent skills in her props and on the role of interpretation , we can deeply feel her love of the character and her understanding of the character . And Yaya now also has her own brand of her cosplay. Now, Yaya Han, as a veteran cosplayer, make the success of the development of her hobby became her job, I think it's very consistent with American values ​​- doing what they want.

Yaya's cosplay photo
image from:https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151606410516608&set=pb.232604901607.-2207520000.1378960674.&type=3&src=https%3A%2F%2Fsphotos-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net%2Fhphotos-ash4%2F1002172_10151606410516608_1372755366_n.jpg&size=396%2C600

Image from:https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151578539811608&set=pb.232604901607.-2207520000.1378960725.&type=3&src=https%3A%2F%2Fsphotos-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net%2Fhphotos-prn1%2F1097971_10151578539811608_1573972635_n.jpg&size=700%2C788

The second cosplayer is Xizhen, a female cosplayer from Taiwan China, she has entered the fourth decade of this year, as a teacher (She is working in Beijing now) , she used to work spare time , cosplay photo shoot will combine tourism and complete the many excellent cosplay works , and she also served as cosplay competition judges across China’s Comic-Con, each appearance , fans will be excited and shocked by the detailed of props and powerful gas field of Xizhen.

Xizhen's cosplay photo
Image from: http://photo.weibo.com/1910842591/talbum/detail/photo_id/3617936901857298?from=page_100505_home&wvr=5.1&mod=albumsingle#3617517261589727

After completing cosplay photos shoot , we will use Photoshop to make our photos better, such as changing the picture tone , remove the photo through the material ( through physical means should not appear in the photo among the buildings , people, and some do not meet the character traits things ) , changing the cosplayer facial details ( such as pupil color ) , fine adjustment . At the end of these processes, the photos which contain cosplayers’ love and brave are complete.

Thus, cosplay role than just wearing clothes, cosplayer cosplay a character not just wearing clothes and posing to let photographers taking many strange pictures. Cosplay starting point is love, our interpretation of a role in the real world in order to restore the role of our love life , our passion will always continue, we will deal with practical action to challenge outside of cosplay .

COSPLAY & COSPLAYERS’ A to Z

Welcome to the cosplay world! Cosplay is actually a world language. When you come to another country, you maybe feel like a fish out of water, but if you have a friend who have the same hobby with you, you would not feel lonely anymore, everything would be changed, you will adapt your new life and enjoy it，hobbies are world language！For me，cosplay is a world language，even if I am living in a country which has different culture with my hometown，when I am a cosplayer，I already have friends！

The meaning of costumeplay is，you can play a role from ANIME, COMIC or GAMES which you love！Then I would like to tell you something about cosplay. If you finish this article，and would

Like to join us, I would say :”Come on buddy! Just do it! Let’s have a party!”

A-DVENTUROUS

Some cosplayers believe that cosplay is an adventure， so do I. Cosplay is like a person from the real world into the animation world, we understand the emotions  of the role, we have experienced the growth of the role, we treat the role which we do love like a real man, and someday，you make a determination , cosplay the role which you love！ Such a decision is risky, because maybe there are thousands of in this world people do love that role, once you can not get everyone's interpretation of recognition, there is the risk of being criticized, there will be violent language against your self-confidence, but even encountered such a situation, you could not stop your steps in the cosplay world, and you should become better and better to prove that you are a awesome cosplayer！

ONE PIECE    character：luffy     cosplayer name：CHANA（From CHINA）
Image from:http://tieba.baidu.com/p/2536670385?pid=38418528507&cid=0#38418528507

B-RAVE

Cosplayers also need to be brave, cosplay adventures experienced while being a cosplayer, you need the courage to accept the challenge, you need courage to face your family (after all, some families are not supported), you need the courage to meet new friend. Cosplayer’s courage comes from the infection of the role, you want to get to know from friends with common interests eagerness, and it is the courage, contributed many excellent cosplay works and excellent cosplayer appearance.

C-HEERFUL

Don’t you think cosplay is a cheerful thing？when I have been a cosplayer， I feel very cheerful to play roles with my friends，we take coaplay photos，upload them to the Internet， share our emotions to our friends all over the world.  cosplay is a sharing process, we share our cosplay skills, we share our interesting encountered in the process of cosplay, we share our love for the role…We feel cheerful when wet share something in the cosplay world.

MAGI   character：Alaji   cosplayer name：HUOTUO（From CHINA）
Image from:http://tieba.baidu.com/p/2531290447?pid=37310725997&cid=37468490230#37468490230

D-EVOTED

When we cosplay，we devote ourselves to do something. Like make-up, make clothes which the role dress, do props by ourselves, take photos. When we do those things, we have been focused on it. Because of we are absorbed in cosplay, we do well in it and have so much fun.

BRAVE10   character：Yuri Kamanosuke cosplayer name：Asami-Mio(From CHINA)
Image from:http://tieba.baidu.com/p/1974141819?pid=26756333789&cid=26767047696#26767047696

E-NERGETIC

The fact is ，all the cosplayers have the endless energy！When we have energy，we could do everything we want！we can play the role from a comic book anytime！we have energy，we have enthusiasm，even if some people do not understand us，we always use our energy beat them，we just do what we love to do.

 

F-AITHFUL

When we cosplay,we always faithful to the original，even if your cosplay is a built on your own design，you also need to be faithful to your role.If you do that，you would be commended，and feel good about that.If you do not faithful to the original,maybe you will in a doghouse.

those are one cosplayer play the same role in different year.When she has a different mind，she does a better job.She lost her weight,had a make-up study,so she can do well in this job(CHANGANHUANYE   character:Shiyeguang   cosplayer name:Asami-Mio)
Image from:http://photo.renren.com/photo/354668418/album-645390348#page3

G-ENEROUS

Cosplayers love to share other people with their skills, knowledges, experiences.We can find many gorgeous cosplay tutorials, they will tell us about how to fit the role of make-up, how to cut paper patterns, how to make an awesome stage property. When we find those tutorials and learn something from them, we deeply appreciated their sharing.

H-ARD-WORKING

When we are just getting into this field，the cosplay field，we need to learn a lot of different things.Because of that, most of cosplayers are  hard-working persons. When we learn more things, we will get better and better.

I-NDEPENDENT

Cosplay needs ability that we can do all the things by ourselves, we cannot expect that there always have someone to help you accomplish something, so cosplayers need to be independent.On the other hand, cosplay is a huge overhead hobbies, in real life, we should have the ability to live independently and can afford this cost themselves, or through our own labor to get something which plays a role we need.

J-UDICIOUS 

Sometimes we need to face our ture life. When your study, work, life and your hobbies have some conflicts (if your hobbies is your life or work, you need not to worry about the conflict between your hobbies and life), we must make a choice, after all, we live in a real world, when we only play a good role in real life, we can play a good role in the virtual world. Many cosplayers have a good performance and stable income which prove when they face their lives and interests they make a judicious decision.

K-NOWLEDGEABLE

As a nice cosplayer, we need to learn so many things, such as we need to know how to make better use of some building materials to make a props, we need to know how to use the body structure to shot a better photo of this character , we also need to know how use natural light and reflector light to make your face looks like the character.

MAGI   Character：Morugiana   cosplayer name：ECHO（From CHINA）Image from： http://tieba.baidu.com/p/2531290447?pid=37310725997&cid=37468490230#37468490230

L-IKEABLE

Most of cosplayers are cute people.How can you say someone who love animation, comics, games, are not cute people ? We have a childlike innocence heart, we have a desire to learn, we believe that the world is as good as comic books where have full of friendship, strength, courage and never give up.

M-OTIVATED

Cosplay is a stimulating and challenging hobbies. Whenever we completed a seemingly impossible task, we will have a deep sense of satisfaction, and accomplish this one task in the process is very exciting, we often need to break the routine, empathy, in order to obtain the most satisfactory results.

N-AMELESS

In the cosplay world, we do not always use our ture name.We will call ourselves a unique name, that means, in the cosplay world we are all people with no name. Sometimes some of the cosplayer's family or friends will think when two guys communicate with each other and understand each other without real name, there is no way to become a true friend, and sometimes people do not have a real name is malicious. But what I want to say is that the vast majority of cosplayers are holding sincere heart to make friends, maybe the cosplay world  have a traditional--- without real name, but time will tell, no name will not hinder us to become friends, and friend is not deceive each other.

O-PTIMISTIC

The ACG world has taught us so many optimistic things.As mentioned above, such as friendship, passion, dreams, convention,and so on.We have learned these things  from ACG, and we will bring the spirit of optimism to the real world, so that our life better, let our joy infect more people.

MAGI   Character：Jaafaru  cosplayer name：Inofan（From CHINA）Image from：http://tieba.baidu.com/p/2531290447?pid=37310725997&cid=37468490230#37468490230

P-ERSISTENT

When people who love anime met cosplay , they fall in love. Cosplayers love cosplay deeply, so we can stick to it, do not care about other people's eyes, I think when we prove our worth and at the same time we feel well, that is enough. Cosplay is just what I want to do.

Q-UICK

Cosplayers are often making ​​decisions quickly. When we have plenty of time, plenty of experience, we will put effort into cosplay, we will  complete our work quickly and efficiently , and in a  short period of time we will present our ideas in front of the other who have the same hobby with us.

 

R-ARE

Many people think that cosplayers are rare persons, do you think so? In my opinion， maybe in 10 years ago, cosplay is not the mainstream hobby, but a decade later, today, cosplay culture has been integrated into the mainstream culture, more and more people begin to understand, people who wearing strange clothes , strange wigs,strange make-up are cosplayers, the reason why they look strange is because they play a role in the anime!

ONE PIECE  Character：Ace  Ccosplayer name：conerlia（From CHINA）Image from：http://tieba.baidu.com/p/2536670385?pid=38418528507&cid=0#38418528507

 

S-OCIABLE

Cosplayers are not traditional OTAKU（is a Japanese term that refers to people with obsessive interests, commonly the anime and manga fandom--FROM WIKIPEDIA）.We do not regard ourselves everyday in the second element of the world, we also carried out extensive social activities! In my experience, cosplay gives me more oppotunities to interact with others and more courage to communicate with others. Cosplayers sometimes have stronger social skills than other people, because the people involved in cosplay activities have great age differences, with people of different ages exchanges, we can better enhance social skills.

T-ALENTED

As mentioned above! cosplayers are genius! We can change waste into treasure, for example, PVC, plastic beverage bottles, wire, cardboard, bicycle handlebar make excellent props.

U-NUSUAL

Many people ask us what the point of cosplay？Play a characters in the game or anime will make your life, learning, working become better? I think cosplay may not change our lives, but make us happy, and this is the meaning of cosplay

V-IVID

One of the goals to cosplay is in real life vividly shows your role. We need to draw the right makeup, choose the appropriate scene, make the appropriate adjustments of Photoshop, and then with the appropriate expression, only by that we can restore our role vividly.

GINTAMA   Character:Takasugi Shinsuke  Cosplayer name：Asami-Mio    Image from：http://tieba.baidu.com/p/2230059047?pid=31082658597&cid=0#31082658597

 

W-ISE

We will not say people who are good at learning are not a wise person.Cosplayers are the group  consisting of  people who are good at learning. Through our own exploration, learning from others, many of us have mastered the techniques of taking pictures, making-up,using image editing software, and we are applied those things to the actual life. 

“X”-NUMBER

Cosplay is full of unknowns and is full of x-numbers.In the cosplay process, we will encounter unknown challenges and unknown knowledge, but as long as we insist on learning, insist on exploring, we will have unlimited possibilities.

Y-OUTHFUL

Someone once said this: "The people have hobbies forever young." Cosplay is such a hobby that makes people forever young .In China, Taiwan's first generation cosplayers have now entered the fourth decade, they still continue the not old legend with this hobby of their own, representatives are Xizhen, Dengdeng, some of them who have married and have a nice job now, but because of the same hobbies, the same dreams, their heart are as young as ours.

PILI   Character:Beigou  cosplayer name:Xizhen(From CHINA)  Image from:http://ww1.sinaimg.cn/bmiddle/71e524dfgw1e87nepjgezj20rs2acb29.jpg

Z-EALOUS

Cosplayers are warm-hearted persons. We are very happy to help people who just entering the field, as long as you have a thirst for knowledge, we'll do our best to help you improve your cosplay skills. After this blog post, I will share  you with some make-up, photoshop and photography skills, and I am looking forward to the exchange!