Cosplay, which is short for “costume play”, is a type of performance art where members dress up with elaborate costumes and accessories, and take on the role of a specific character. According to Kinko Ito, “game designer Takahashi Nobuyuki is credited with originating the term [cosplay] in the 1980s” (47). Characters are often based off of various Japanese medias such as anime, manga, comic books, video games, fantasy movies, and graphic novels. Cosplay participants or “cosplayers” dress up in costumes and reenact scenes from their characters role and behave in the way that particular character would. The performance aspect of cosplay is divided into two types of categories, there is basic cosplay and then there is Masquerade. While basic cosplay is simply dressing as a certain character and displaying their character in public or on stage at a convention, Masquerade cosplay is more intense. “The "masquerade" is arguably the official instance of performance, in which cosplayers, who often travel from convention to convention, perform in a formalized setting-generally a stage with lighting and audio accompaniment-and compete for prizes” (Duchesne 21). Masquerade cosplayers attempt to act and perform exactly as the character would. For example, when photographed masqueraders will pose in a position from their characters movie or comic strip. For either type of cosplay, cosplayers spend a lot of time, money, and dedication to their costumes. According to Suzanne Scott, “cosplay is expensive, but it is precisely this expense (the purchasing of items such as fabrics, materials, and makeup), as well as the tactile nature of the product within material fan production, that allows it to be more culturally legible as a form of labor.” Some cosplayers chose to make their costumes by hand investing their own money and time into the process.
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