Everywhere I look, there are beautiful angels and stunning warriors carrying huge swords and machine guns with recent scars from a supposedly menacing battle.
Everyone looks as though they’ve been dragged out of the comic/ fictional world, out of their time zone, and into the present times.
They all have multi-colored wigs and dramatic make-up to capture a certain look: distant and deadly, or warm and cuddly.
Their outfits are the main show of the event, (at least for me), clothes that belong in another dimension; clothes that we can’t pull it off on the streets without people calling us mad.
Cosplaying is a job.
But I sense that it’s more than that.
It’s their life.
I do have my idols and might have expected myself to jump into fangirling mode if ever given the chance to meet.
However, this is another level of obsession.
Some cosplayers do it for fun, as a hobby, but I’m talking about the serious ones.Those that devote their whole selves into becoming the character of their choice.
They dive into every minor detail, memorize every line from their favorite anime film, practice all those movements from video games until they have perfected their impersonation. Until they become the character themselves.
It’s a serious craft.
They go to workshops on video production, props and costume creation, educate themselves on make-up tutorials, all done to sharpen their crafts and turn themselves into the exact character from comics, films or games.
Why?
There must be something inside that particular character that we can relate to, something that triggers our empathy and compassion for the need to be as close to the character as possible.
Maybe it’s the actions portrayed by sacrificing oneself to save the universe.
Maybe it’s a secret between an angel and a demon that are madly in love, and kept this secret from their abandoned child.
Maybe it’s the sad backstory that made the character who he was today.
Or maybe it’s just as simple as adoring that wonderfully designed outfit that we couldn’t help but to join in the craze just to make up an excuse to wear that winged glow-in-the-dark cape.
Cosplay does have a history, and it doesn’t surprised me that it still aligns fashion and storytelling till this day.
I can’t quite put cosplay into that ‘a form of escape from reality’ checkbox.
Unlike travelling or bungee jumping, cosplay is a job.
It is a job that is hidden by so much passion in a twisted way.
A job fans gladly hire themselves to be someone that they aspire to be, someone that has all the traits that they wanted, and yet couldn’t be.