BDC 925: Fandom -> Cosplay

What is a "Fan"?

Definitio

n: Fan
-Noun
A person who has a strong interest in or admiration for a particular sport, art form, or famous person: I am a fan of Charlie Chaplin.

Origin:

Late 19th century (originally US) abbreviation of fanatic.

Synonyms:
supporter, enthusiast, partisan, booster, addict.

-Oxford English Dictionary

Fans who participate in "Fandom"can be described as: "highly active, textual participants, [who] create self-proclaimed interpretive communities and define their activities in relation to specific texts... fans demonstrate their response to an artist's productions by generating their own texts and performance acts." (Lewis. Fandom, Living Experience, and Textual Use)

Popular types of 'fandom':

Fanfiction - (Also Fanfic, Fic., FF.): "The name given to stories peopled with characters, places, and situations of a show/movie/book/comic written by a fan of the show/movie/book/comic for no monetary gain. (romanticsgarden.com)

Cosplay - "Short for 'costume play'... cosplayers take their inspiration from games, manga (comics), anime (animation), and movies... Cosplay provides new avenues for fans to express their interest in ... popular culture creatively" - (Hjorth. Game Girl: Re-imagining Japanese Gender and Gaming via Melbourne Cosplayers.)

History of Fandom & Cosplay

The history of fandom is difficult to trace as the very act of fandom is the actualization of "sub-culture", and as long as humans have lived, there has been culture, and thus some aspect of sub culture.

The existence of Cosplay as a sub-culture can be seen publicly as early as 1939 with the start of "Worldcon", a science fiction convention (http://www.worldcon.org/). However, in the 1970s with the explosion of science fiction, Cosplay as a sub-culture activity (and fandom as a whole) exploded publicly to what it is today part of the mainstream.

Not to be confused with...

RPG (Role Playing Game)
LARP (Live Action Role Playing)

World of Warcraft
Dungeons and Dragons
Vampire the Masquerade
Epoch (Toronto based "live-action role playing game set in an apocalyptic time of swords and sorcery" http://www.epoch-larp.ca/)

Differences:

RPG/LARP characters/roles are:
- Not based on preexisting characters/roles.
- Created by the player following a set of rules or instructions.
- Designed to fit into a specific game based around an alternate reality.

Cosplay:
- Based on preexisting characters.
- Created by the original artist, emulated by the fan.
- Not a game so much as an activity/hobby/pastime.
- Not necessarily involving an alternate reality (although invoking some of a character's sayings or behavioral traits can be relevant).

Who is the average "Cosplayer"?

"Richard Dyer (1979) has noted that fan activity is most intense among social groups for whom role/identity conflicts are most acute. The members of these groups carry the baggage of socially marginal identities, and include adolescents, women, and participants in gay "ghetto culture"... people who deviate from the "norm"." (Lewis. Fandom, Lived Experience and Textual Use.)

Sailor Moon

But what about this guy?

- the white, middle class male with an affinity for technology?

Star Trek

Is there a definite answer as to who Cosplays? Or can and will everyone and anyone?

Main Cultural Groups - Japanese and Western:

Japanese:

Manga (Fruits Basket, Bleach)
Anime (Sailor Moon, Naruto)
Video Games

Western:

Television & Film (Sci-Fi - Star Wars, Star Trek. Other - Harry Potter, Daria, Kill Bill)
Comics (Batman, Superman, Tank Girl, Scott Pilgrim)
Video Games

- http://www.cosplay.co.uk/

So Why Cosplay?

Enjoyment, community, creative expression, identity, escape, entertainment.

Break away form the norm/create a new norm: Pop-culture to Sub-Culture.

Why Do I Cosplay? NintendoFanGirl video journal...

(1:25)

Where? Comic-Con: Cosplay at Conventions

Meet Some Cosplayers---
...and pay attention to "what kind" of people they are...

Cosplay in North America
Comic-Con (also known as the San-Deigo Comic-Con Intentional) is the largest fandom based convention in North America, with an estimated 140, 000+ attendees in 2010.

It Showcases:

comic books
science fiction/fantasy and film/television
horror
anime
manga
animation
video games
web comics
fantasy novels

Cosplay is often the dress code...

Cosplay in Europe
France is where America and Japan seem to merge with an equal mix of manga/anime based Cosplayers to comic book and Sci-Fi/Fantasy Cosplayers.

France is home to Le Festival International de la Bande Dessinee d'Angouleme (The Angouleme Internantional Comics Festival), which is the largest fandom based convention in the world...

It is also home to the The Paris Manga Convention

Cosplay in Japan
With a heavy focus on anime, manga and video games, here are some examples of Japanese Cosplay...

Grimmjow Jaggerjack - Bleach

Sakura - Naruto

Lucy Misora - ToHeart2

Note The Different Demographics?

Can you pinpoint the "main" group?

Is there one?

Cosplay Controversey: Intellectual Property

Intellectual Property:
"The art of cosplay is that it highlights that the boundaries between fans, players and creative producers are blurring and transforming mainstream culture. Once fans were believed to break down boundaries between text and reader, now the roles of player and co-producer—or what Axel Bruns calls 'produser'—have been transformed. Pointing to the rise of Web 2.0 and its emphasis upon 'participatory culture,' Henry Jenkins argues that fans are increasingly impacting mainstream culture, policy and intellectual property." (Hjorth. Game Girl: Re-imagining Japanese Gender and Gaming via Melbourne Cosplayers.)

Cosplayers Discuss Intellectual Property Suits:
- According to the U.S. copyright office, you can't copyright a costume because it falls under "useful goods"(since it is clothing), thus movie costumes generally aren't under copyright. It's more complicated with anime or video games because you're converting a 2D-image to a 3D-costume.

-With regards to movie costumes, the copyright problem actually occurs when you're selling something and associating it with the movie/character because the characters are under copyright.

-For example, selling a dress that bears a striking resemblance to one that Arwen wears in Lord of the Rings and calling it "Elf Princess Dress" is technically legal. However, selling a dress that is virtually identical to one that Awen wears and calling it "Arwen's Dress" or "Lord of the Rings Dress" is not.

- Still, Lucasfilm (Star Wars) has sent cease and desist notices to sites that sell "White Body Armor" that bear striking resemblances to Storm-Trooper armor.

(CienDragon. www.cosplay.com.)

NOTE: Lucasfilms has not enforced any of the Cease and Desist orders that have been sent.

Scholars on Cosplay

Laissa Hjorth

In order to understand why cosplaying has become a vehicle for young females to enter the male-dominated games industry we need to comprehend how gender within Japanese technocultures provides alternative spaces for performativity, creativity and expression. Technocultures are never neutral, and like games themselves, are subject to localization, adaptation and translation. The specific role of gender within Japanese technocultures, and specifically gaming cultures, has long been a site for alternative exploration within the global games industry over the last thirty years. But more recently, as the technocultures of Japan have shifted, so too have the gendered connotations and performativity associated with gaming.

- Game Girl: Re-imagining Japanese Gender and Gaming via Melbourne Female Cosplayers

Christopher Bolton on Susan J. Napier's Book "Anime"

The author begins by invoking Joseph Nye's notion of soft power, the political capital that accrues from the appeal of a nation's aesthetic and cultural productions. For Napier this idea not only highlights the global influence of Japanese popular culture, but also the possibility of non-coercive relationships between East and West that involve choice negotiation on both sides. ... [Napier's] conclusions are about the appeal of Japan and the pleasures of fandom as a tool for self-discovery by individual artists and fans.
[...]
The second-half of the book turns to anime and manga fandom, with extended discussions of fan conventions and 'cosplay'... Napier suggests a process of identification through which fans use anime and manga to achieve growth or self-actualization.

- From Impressionism to Anime: Japan as fantasy and Fan Cult in the Mind of the West

Sub-Culture to Pop-Culture to Norm

So what does this have to do with us? How does "Cosplay" translate to "every-day"?

---

The average person is a Cosplayer.

Ever dressed like a celebrity you admire? Musician? Actor?

Ever seen a "how to get this look" page in a magazine?