Cosplayin’ around

By Sean Frame

Halloween is a chance to dress up and be someone you are not. Unfortunately, for those who want

to dress up all the time, Halloween only happens once a year. But hell if Mr. Dressup can do it all
year round why can’t everyone else?

Costume play or ‘cosplay’ is the act of dressing up as a character from fiction or even reality,
though is mostly popular for science fiction, video games and anime genres. The term cosplay
comes from the Japanese portmanteau which in English translates to costume play. This term was
coined in 1984 by Nobuyuki Takahashi, who was so impressed by the costumes at Worldcon in
Los Angeles that a story of this portmanteau was published in the Japanese magazine My Anime. It
is popular for people who attend geek conventions and also popular on the Internet.

Cosplayers sometime participate in what is known as role playing, which is a sub-culture where
people act-out characters using storytelling and dialogue on site forums.

Mckenna Roberts became interested in cosplay when she heard of an anime convention just
across the river in Detroit, called Youmacon. She had always been a large fan of anime and when
she heard about Youmacon, she wanted to dress up for it immediately. She soon found out cosplay
is very time consuming. Not only does it take up a long period of time if you independently design
and create your costume, but it does not come cheap.

“The more pieces associated with the costume, the more money it will cost,” said Roberts, who is
currently working on a new costume. “Half of it is stuff you don’t even see. For example, the hair
piece for her (the costume she is currently working on). People think ‘Oh okay, money for a wig’,
but in reality her hair is so big that it requires one very long wig, plus three extensions, along with
EVA foam for shape,and pins, and glue. That is just the hair. Everything adds up very quickly.”

Despite the long process of creating a costume, Roberts says the best thing about cosplay
is it’s always a learning experience. Great detail goes into each costume, unlike Halloween
costumes you can just buy for $50. The more she talks to different cosplayers, the more she learns
like which materials work best and how to shape things using different techniques. The work is
never over for Roberts; she said as soon as she finishes one costume it is on to the next. She has
currently completed two costumes and has another four in the works.

Convention organizers usually lay out rules and regulations for cosplayers, which can make some
costumes difficult to finish. Some rules include no folded steel weapons– usually prop-weapons
are made of wood– and limited prop sizes as to not take up too much convention space. This year
Youmacon made it a rule that while at the convention on the Renaissance Centre premises there
were no weapons allowed and no masks that covered faces. These rules sparked some outrage
for several Youmacon attendees, according to Roberts.

Her advice was “Rules for costumes change based on the event organizers and venues, so before
attending a convention, everyone needs to familiarize themselves in order not to cause any
problems.”

CEO and founder of Z-Day Production Micheal Reeve is well-known in Windsor for his very
detailed costumes. He was recently featured on The Comic Book Syndicate sporting his
Deathstroke costume. For Reeve, cosplaying is having fun and paying homage to characters you
enjoy.

“I got into cosplay from expanding my enjoyment in dressing up for Halloween to other events that
allow me to have more fun and more often making and dressing up in costumes,” said Reeve.
“Generally I wear my costumes anytime I have a justifiable reason for it. Any costume party, event
or anything that can be construed as a reason to wear one. ”

According to Reeve, most of the time he spends working on a costume goes into research.
Research for Reeve is watching the source material, finding a design version of the character and
deciding whether to stay true to the source material or make his own version.
Instead of dressing up and celebrating due to a holiday, cosplayers truly try to replicate their
characters. Replicating these characters is more than just specific detail on the costume, they also
reflect the characters movements and mannerisms. Cosplayers are truly dedicated to playing dress
up.