The world of cosplay

A parallel life by pop culture enthusiasts

A young woman in an anime character disguise

By definition, popular culture reaches the general public. A huge proportion of Halloween costumes are based on well-known characters. But some people don't wait for the end-of-October festivities to dress up. In parallel with their professional lives, men and women create costumes, wear them for social networks and go to various public events where they can parade around. Cosplay is a phenomenon in which people dress up as characters, often from video games, films or cartoons.

These people spend hours designing the make-up and elements of their costumes to resemble the characters as closely as possible. This trend originated in Japan, but has now become international. As a result, some spend a good part of their lives creating costumes and displaying them on social networks and at conventions, gaining popularity, subscriptions on platforms like Twitch and earning more money from their passion.

Many of them, who are more introverted, have been able to develop friendships and even romantic relationships by sharing their interest in multiple gatherings where they can play completely different protagonists. Because the idea of costuming is also to have fun interpreting the character, in part, to bring him or her out of the screen so to speak.

Running time: 30min31

Image: Didit Permana from Pixabay

Learn more about this resource

See more resources from this institution