So What Is Cosplay?

Let Your Inner Child Become Your Favourite Fantasy Character

Every kid is born with the heart of a Cosplay champion, since they so stubbornly insist on wearing their Spiderman, Batman or Tinker Bell costume to the local Spar. Once there, shelves become skyscrapers, your trolley a weapons launch platform and those breadsticks are magical wands and look out at evil villain fellow shoppers.

Genevieve ‘KomboKitten’ Lesch, one of SA’s ardent cosplayers, explains: “Cosplay (costume play) is a form of fan art, where one wears a costume of any character or concept one is a fan of. The character/concept can be existing, or even made up by the Cosplayer. We can even make our own adaptations/interpretations of characters. There are no rules!”

What draws adults into this world of dress-up?

“It’s that look you get when a kid recognises you in full gear and rushes towards you at full steam thinking you are the real Ash Ketchum from Pokémon. Or when an adult guy in full business mode sees you and he reverts back into childhood excitement mode because you’re Cosplaying his favourite character from when he was a bit younger, ” says Miguel Lima (also a local Cosplayer).

It sounds complicated. But actually, there are just four things an aspiring Cosplayer needs to succeed:

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• Passion and a strong desire to really “become” their chosen character. “We go into the finer details: The accessories, the fabrics worn by the character… the mannerisms, the poses, the character’s demeanour, ” explains Lima.
• The time required for the creation of a fabulous costume (some taking months to complete!).
• Because it can cost thousands to source the fabrics, buttons, latex bits and zips needed to create a really accurate costume rendition of one’s favourite pop culture icon. “If you want a flashy intricate costume to win a contest you can look at a cost of over R2, 000.” In the absence of cash, clever recycling of household items (including the back of a sofa!) is useful. “Costumers gather materials over time so sometimes we have things in stock already which can save us costs, ” says Lesch.
• Crafting, sewing, wig-styling, painting and makeup skills… After all, these skills allow the Cosplayer to really create magical costumes. But the good news for those who don’t have these skills is that the Cosplay community is all about “Ubuntu”. “A Cosplayer doesn’t necessarily craft their own costume pieces or all of it. We can commission from other crafters if we wish – there are no rules unless one has entered a competition that has set rules, ” explains Lesch.

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It’s every Cosplayer’s dream to compete at an international level. But local competitions – like the Cosplay competition at the annual rAge expo – give our local Cosplayers the opportunity to strut their stuff. The competition has seen entries doubling and tripling in the last few years, and it’s one of the most anticipated Cosplay events on the Cosplay calendar.