Japan, What Have You Done?

Japan has, indeed, come up with some of the most innovative inventions that forever changed the course of history. They invented the first bullet train in 1964, the first portable calculator in 1970, and the realization of something so fictional – the android robots back in 2003. However, Japan has also come up with some of the strangest products, services, and concepts known today, with one of which actually becoming a worldwide phenomenon.

Cosplay (short for costume play) is a hobby in which participants (called cosplayers) wear costumes and fashion accessories to represent a specific character. Wait, before moving any further, you might be wondering: how is it any different from wearing a costume during Halloween?

The aim of cosplay is to replicate everything about a specific character, as opposed to simply celebrating and demonstrating the culture behind an annual holiday. As such, when in costume, cosplayers normally adopt the body language, speech, and mannerisms of the character they are portraying. The characters chosen to be portrayed are oftentimes fictional, typically from a video game, comic book, movie, an anime character, and so on.

Not only is cosplay unorthodox, it is also expensive. Depending on the intricacy of the costume of their preferred character, cosplayers could easily spend thousands of dollars on trying to perfect their costume just so they could replicate everything down to the smallest detail.

All these are reasons why cosplaying isn’t for everybody. Yes, it can be very cool when you see a cosplayer in full battle gear, but unless you are passionate about cosplaying and have the money to afford it, you’d best stick to the Spongebob Squarepants costume you saw in your local toy store.