Costume-play took off in a massive way in Japan. Fan conventions in Japan commence as early as 1975 but expanded after 1980’s. While attending the World Science Fiction Convention in 1984, Nobuyuki Takashashi was fascinated by witnessing the hall full of costumed and dressed up people. As soon as he arrived back to Japan, he enthusiastically wrote about costumes and the convention’s masquerade in his magazine My Anime (1984). After a lot of struggle he came up with a term that could sum up costuming which was cosplay. コスプレ (kosupure) is a combination of the Japanese words “costume” and “play” (Winge, 2006). Though, manga characters appeared in the US years before Nobuyuki’s visit. During a San Diego ComicCon convention in 1979, six fans led by Karen Schnaubelt (Fig.2) dressed up as Star Blazer characters (Bainbridge, 2013). However, manga and anime characters didn’t become popular until after Nobyuki’s visit to …show more content…
One explains, ‘Through cosplay, I can become these characters. I could live vicariously with how cool they are’ (BuzzFeed, 2014). Taking on a persona of a manga character allows the cosplayer to express their interests and act in ways they may not normally behave. Heroes and villains help us learn different ways of navigating through life (Manifold, 2009). Fig.8 Peter Pan cosplayer
Kristen Lanae (Fig.9), a cosplayer, is an example of a shy woman who thanks cosplay for helping her build confidence. In an interview she states, ‘I have always been very quiet and shy, but when I am in costume I come alive. I would say it’s because of all the positive reactions I get in costume.