Cosplay

Instead of evaluating another anime this week, I decided to write about cosplay which is a short for "costume roleplay." Cosplay is the act of dressing up as a character to express one's fandom or for one's enjoyment. Many people draw their characters from manga, anime, video games, and musicians. There are those who even create their own characters or come up with a new costume for an existing character. The overall point is that I find cosplay fascinating. Fascinating because people can freely dress the way they want, regardless of gender. A great example is Damon Evans also known as Man-Faye. He’s most famous for crossplaying as Faye Valentine, a female character from the Japanese anime series Cowboy Bebop. Many people may find this disturbing, hilarious, or shocking, but in Japan, this is normal. I'm not saying every guy in the country crossdresses as a woman but rather than that so many people do it that it's become less surprising. In fact, a profuse amount of women cosplay as men.
Another reason why I'm interested in cosplay is because it's artistic. People will come with the most intriguing costumes and even their props are captivating; it never ceases to amaze me. Most of all, I admire those who make create their costumes by hand. We can all find anime costumes online or in stores, though it's rare, and purchase them. When someone actually goes to the store to buy the materials to sew his or her apparel, now that's an effort. It may or may not be as good as the ones you can purchase, but a lot of people applaud cosplayers who attempt to make their own outfit. Plus you get a better response when you tell an admirer you made it instead of buying it on the web. If you're wondering where you can see cosplay for yourself, there are plenty of conventions that are held in California where plenty of people dress up.