Flashy and extravagant outfits, multi-colored hair, wings, tails and flashing cameras are a com-mon sight at a comic or anime convention, but not everyone knows what all of this is.
“[Cosplay] is everything,” sophomore Jordan Pollard said. “Cosplay is dressing up as your favorite characters and being part of a community. It is just fun to be with a group of people who all share the same interests.”
Sophomore Aiden Williams has similar feelings toward cosplay.
“[Cosplay is] not just dressing up, it is more than that,” Williams said. “When you cosplay you are sort of being that [character].”
Cosplay, short for “costume play,” is when someone dresses up as a character from fiction. Most of the time it is from anime, manga and comics, but it can also be from books, television and movies. Cosplay is a hidden popular hobby of many Northwood students.
“Cosplaying makes me feel better about myself because I am a different person and I am not the person that I am usually,” sophomore Ashlynn Davis said.
For some students, cosplay serves as an outlet.
“Cosplay is more of an escape because you get to be a different person and if you really get into a character it is a lot more fun than if you just dressed up to dress up,” junior Sarah White said.
Most of the cosplayers interviewed said that they started cosplaying during middle school. Each student had a different reason why they began cosplaying.
“My aunt loves to cosplay. She will actually make all of her costumes and she will cosplay for Halloween and fly out to DragonCon and all these other conventions,” freshman Cameron Wheeler said. “She just started talking to me one day and we found something in common.”
Cosplayers on the Internet who post videos and photos of themselves in their cosplay also influenced students. White was inspired by a group of cosplayers called “FightingDreamersPro” who posted YouTube videos.
“I fell in love with their Naruto cosplay and that was the first cosplay I did,” White said.
For those who cosplay, they know that it is not a cheap hobby. The cosplays themselves can range from $20 all the way up to $400, and that is not including the accessories.
“The most money I have spent on one (cosplay) is about $200 for the fabric and accessories because I have to get good quality materials, not low quality stuff,” Davis said.
Williams has similar feelings.
“I spend too much money on cosplay,” Williams said. “I literally emptied my bank account.”
Cosplay is not always expensive, as some students have discovered.
“Last year I found this cosplay that was for $20 on the Internet and it was really good,” Pollard said.
One way these cosplayers get to show off their creativity is by attending anime and comic conventions, such as DragonCon. Within these conventions there are contests, games, shows, a dealers’ room and an artist alley. Cosplayers can enter contests to be chosen as the best cosplay or skit. Fans can join games such as Cosplay Chess in Animazement (an annual anime conven-tion held in Raleigh), where the fans are the pieces of the game.
“I met my friend Nova during the last Animazement and I have been talking to her over the Internet for forever,” Davis said. “We were cosplaying together and she hugged me from behind and started ‘squealing’ when she saw me.”
The experience at conventions and cosplaying in public can range from good, to bad, to strange.
“At MomoCon, which is in Waynesville, there were some really mean people,” Davis said. “I cosplayed Jane (from the webcomic Homestuck) and people were so mean to me when I was into Homestuck because they thought that Jane was a terrible character and so they took my wig. I never got the wig back.”
The reaction range toward the cosplay world is a wide one, many thinking it to be a rather unusual hobby.
“I usually do not say that I cosplay much because there is some very negative aspects to it,” sophomore Eliza Griffin said. “There are always those people that think that it is full of pedo-philes and creepy people.”
White had a similar comment.
“The first time I cosplayed my mom did not know what to think,” White said. “Her true reac-tion was, ‘At least she is dressing up as other characters and not being one of those kids who go out and party and stuff.’”
According to Pollard, the most common reaction to the phrase “I cosplay” is, “what is cosplay?”
Whatever you think cosplay is about, you can tell the cosplay community is passionate about what they do.
“Cosplaying is the best; if you are not cosplaying, you are not living,” Williams said.
– By Valentina Moreno & Morgan Yigdal