Thursday, July 3, 2014

What Is Cosplay?

When I think of Sailor Moon, I think of a lot of things, but one of them is cosplay. Cosplay is a compound word created from "costume" and "play" (as in role-play). It's when someone dresses up as a specific character from a movie, book (particularly comic books, graphic novels, and manga), video game, or TV show. I've heard it referred to as Halloween but more intense, because you're supposed to get your costume as accurate as possible and stay in character as best you can. Cosplay is huge at places like Renaissance Fairs and conventions like San Diego and New York Comic Con. (Fun fact: I'm totally cosplaying at NYCC this year!)


Sailor Moon cosplay (from here)

There's sort of a sense of pride that comes with great cosplay, because the best costumes are handmade. So now that I've explained what it is, I'm just going to share some of my favorite examples of cosplay.

Awesome Cosplay!
Green Army man! (source unknown)

Kick-Ass and Hit Girl (MTV's list)

top-10-kick-ass-cosplay-3
...and Red Mist (same list)

These terrifying bastards from Silent Hill (from deviantart but I don't know who)

General Grievous (found on Reddit)

I particularly love this one...
Ramona Flowers from Scott Pilgrim (imgur)
because that's who I'll be for Halloween this year

And finally, proof that cosplay doesn't have to be intricate/difficult:
Leela from Futurama (found on Reddit)

Do you cosplay or wish you did? As whom and from what?

2 comments:

  1. I am so jealous of all of you going to NYCC this year. I really want to go to an event where I can cosplay. I guess I'll just have to go all out on Halloween this year. Although I don't know when I'll have time to make a costume. :)

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    1. I'm going fairly all-out on Halloween, too. I'll be so excited to cut my hair short after being Margaery Tyrell (it's already driving me crazy) and then two weeks later I get to dye it BLUE to be Ramona Flowers!!! And this is only for dressing up at work... I don't have a party or anything I'm going to.

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