Japan Documentary

The Cosplayer (2018x15)

Fecha de emisión: Dic 19, 2018

At the TGS there are the paid cosplayers at the booths of many game companies - but at the Public Days also hundreds of (mostly) amateur cosplayers in symbiosis with (mostly) amateur photographers. Cosplaying has a long tradition in Japan, even though the term is only about 35 years old. The hobby of dressing up like the fictitious character of a cinema film or another template was never born in Japan - fan conventions for SF and fantasy films have been around for a long time in the USA, for example. But like many cultural (or food) imports, the Japanese not only copy the original, but change it and make it their own until it has become something special, in this case a whole pop culture trend. Cosplay including Crossplay (girl mimes man, boy mimes woman) goes hand in hand with Maid Cafes, the Moe- and Kawaii culture, the omnipresence of mascots (practically every prefecture, big city, institution has one), the mainstream popularity of manga comics and animated cartoons. Cosplay even affects everyday fashion: Most men still walk the streets in business attire and most women in pastel or office costumes. But you can also see men in extremely eye-catching clothes or ladies dressed as Lolita or schoolgirls doing their shopping. At the TGS 2018, Jörg had arranged to meet a streamer and cosplayer to simply hear from her and experience how this cosplaying works from her perspective. Why do you do something like that, and how does such a day at the fair work? The amateur cosplayers don't get a stand or a stage, they have to show themselves and their costumes on their own. And that's what they do, even if it's windy and rainy...