Cosplay

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 A female cosplayer as Sasuke Uchiha, male Genin character from a popular Japanese cartoon called Naruto.
A female cosplayer as Sasuke Uchiha, male Genin character from a popular Japanese cartoon called Naruto.

Cosplay (コスプレ kosupure?) is a short definition of "Costume Play". It's an act of dressing up to be lookalike of anime, manga, video games, jrock, jpop character. A person who does a cosplay is called Cosplayer.

Cosplay can be divided into two parts, a basic cosplay and masquerade cosplay. Basic cosplay means a cosplayer only try to physically look like a character, while masquerading means a cosplayer involves in depth with the character, that includes speaking like the character, memorizing quotes made by characters, and so on.

Eventhough cosplaying is originally from Japan. There are a number of cosplay community also in Malaysia, China, United States, Indonesia, and Phillipine. It proves Cosplay is also popular outside Japan because of Japanese animation, movies, and pop culture influence in those countries.

Cosplay community often hold events such as cosplay party and conventions. Online cosplay community can be found in general cosplay forum such as Cosplay.com where Cosplayers can discuss about anything related to Cosplay, and either specific cosplay site like AnimeTwin.com as "Rate and Show-off" cosplay photos site for cosplayers around the world. Some of the best cosplayer can be very famous and become idol amongst Otaku.