by 5 people |
What is cosplay exactly ?
The Term "Cosplay" was born around the mid of the 90s in japan and it's the contraction of the words "costume" and "play".
Basically it's a hobby where people recreate costumes in order to mimic some characters they love from Japanese animation and comics, but during the last years there has been a lot of contamination of cultures, so it's no strange to see cosplays taken from videogames or western comics and culture in general.
In the picture: Oscar from "Versailles no Bara" cosplayed by Ryuki
Once a Subculture now is a growing hobby
Once a subculture, it was given public recognition thanks to Gainax's "Otaku no Video", one anime depicting anime Otaku (Otaku is the japanese generic word for "fan").A lot of time has passed but during those decade, the hobby was spread outside the japan boundaries thanks to the success of the japanese comic and anime culture.
Infact, there are strong cosplay communities in most of Europe and America. Italy in particolar, being exposed to anime and manga (japanese Comics) since the middle of the 80s has produced an impressive number of Cosplayers and almost every comic fair has his fair cut of people strolling around in costumes.
Being a cosplayer is a state of mind: there's more than simply create or buy the costume. Usually people know deeply the characters that they are going to portray: it's almost necessary because you have to win the approval of the other cosplayers. Almost always people ask you to take some picture and you're required to copy the "signature positions" of the character you are playing.
It's not required to act, unless you decide to create a gag for the audience, but you should at least mimic some of the expressions and poses of the character.
In the picture: Sermemole is Sorceress from "HE-MAN". Link to her site
Useful resources about cosplay
People and events
- Otaku no Video
- The first public appearance of cosplayers, widely distributed
- World cosplay summit 07
- The upcoming World Cosplay Tournament.
- Yaya Han
- Probably the most important cosplayer of USA (and she is also very cute)
- Giorgia Cosplay
- The site of Giorgia "Cosplay" Vecchini, one of my favourite cosplayer (winner of Cosplay summit in 2005).
- Francesca dani
- Part time Cosplayer and part time fetish netmodel, Francesca can't be ignored. She is also quite a skilled webmaster and webdesigner.
- Romics : comics in Roma
- One of the most important comic fair of italy, choosen by the japanese representatives of W.C.S. as the trial place for italian candidates of W.C.S.
- Sermemole
- One cosplayer that kick asses. Literally: she does kickboxing in her freetime. Gropers are warned.
- Ryuki
- Ryuki is a cosplayer from Parma (Italy) and it's a human chameleon. She has done dozen of characters, both male and female, with stunning results!
- Wolverine Cosplayer
- You may think that he is not wolverine, but he could get very very very angry :)
- Nadia SK
- The home of page of "Nadiask", one of the italian candidates for World cosplay summit 08!
Videos about cosplay
More lenses about cosplayers
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Nadiask, one of the best italian cosplayers!
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Nadia Baiardi, better known worldwide as "NadiaSK" in one of the italian cosplayers that will try to win the World Cosplay Summit 2008 in Japan. But who is Nadia ? Let's find out!
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Cosplay Who's Who: Francesca Dani
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Interviews, previews, trailers, is dedicated to Francesca dani! It's really difficult to describe who is Francesca Dani, because she is everything she want to be. She could be described as a netmodel: She studied as stylist in Tuscany and she appear...
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Cosplay Who's Who: Giorgia Cosplay
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Everything you always wanted to know about the famous italian cosplayer Giorgia "cosplay" Vecchini is right here! During the last 10 years, cosplay has expanded its fan base in italy. One of the most influencial cosplayer is the beautiful Giorgia Vec...
Buy or make ?
Some cosplayers prefer to buy the costume in shops (called "Cospa Shops" in japan) or from sites like cosplay.com . Other people prefers to create it from start to end. (but also them have to buy twigs)During the contests there is much debate about what should be more important: although i appreciate artisan works, i think that sometimes a good acting performance could supply for less-than-excellent materials.
Picture by Mcicco (Wolverine) : website
The top resources of cosplay
Contribute to this list of links by adding something new about cosplay :)
PLease don't spam with useless links, because i will cut them down mercilessy :)
FrancescaDani.com :: Official Site Of Italian Model & Cosplay Performer
Francesca Dani Official Site-Italian Netidol Cospl more...1 point
Lord Sesshomaru Costume
Need help creating a Lord Sesshomaru costume? You' more...1 point
Are you a cosplayer ?
Do you wanna get linked ? subscribe to squidoo and leave me a message :)
Pastiche wrote...
W00t! I'm featuring this cosplay lens on Masquerade Costumes and Masks - *****
Posted October 14, 2008
EelKat wrote...
I just made a new group, for CosPlay-Anime-Manga type lenses. Sending along an invitation to come join it! http://www.squidoo.com/groups/CosPlay
Posted March 29, 2008
EelKat wrote...
I've lensrolled this lens, and added your lens as a featured lens on my Lord Sesshomaru Costume lens. Here is the URL if you want to see where I put the link: http://www.squidoo.com/LordSesshomaruCostume
Posted March 10, 2008
by garethjax
Gareth Jax was born in italy during 1971. Somebody says that he was already connect and it was disconnected for the first time when they cut his umbil...
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