Cosplay: a Freak Show or an Absorbing Hobbie?

COSPLAY:

A FREAK SHOW

OR

AN absorbing HOBBIE?

‘Costume Play’ more known like Cosplay it’s an activity very famed in the events of Japanese culture and Manga. But, what is Cosplay? when did it started? what is attractive about it for young and not so young? 

First of all, as its name says, Cosplay is a kinf of play which could be consist in dressing up like your favourite characters from television, cinema, manga, books, comics... 

There are several types and levels of Cosplay: there are some which are incredibly gorgeus  and other not so much, ones which are hand-made and other which are bought, everything depends on the skills of the ‘cosplayer’, the person who are under the costume. It is important not only the appareance of the person, even his personality, people have to act like the character, to interpret their role.

This phenomenom started in the 70’s in the Comic Markets in Japan, where people dressed up as their favourite comic and manga characters, which is still celebrating nowadays. It has been spread over the world and nowadays this phenomenom could be foun in every ‘Salón del Manga’ here in Spain. There are some events in which you can even enter free thanks to your cosplay. There are contests in every event and some of them are very important over the world such as the Yamato Cosplay Cup, in which take part one participant from every country.

I started doing cosplay last year when I made an Alice in Wonderland’s costume for the ‘Salón del Manga’ of Albacete. My group , who were dressing up such as characters of the Lewis Carroll’s work too, won the prize for the best group cosplay. It was really funny representing an scene about the Tim Burton’s film over the stage. This year my sister and I have participated as a two comic characters from Batman comics: Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy. It was such a awesome experience. I’ve been in the ‘Salón del Manga’ of Valencia too and this year we’re planning to go to the Alicante’s and Murcia’s ones.

In conclusion, I would reccomend it to everybody because is a marvellous opportunity to meet new people, have a really awesome time and stop being shy, which is very useful for Enlglish classes and oral exams.