Kosupure In Japan

Kosupure in Japan

Introduction & Background

      “All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” This line from renowned playwright, William Shakespeare, is said to be a reflection of the classic notion of Theatrum Mundi which means ‘Life as theater and theater as life’. Every person is viewed as an actor who plays out his or her everyday role in life assigned to him or her by divine design.[i] Eventually, this belief of natural order was disrupted when ‘actors’ started acting in ways unexpected of them.[ii] I am thus going to write on Kosupure, also known as Cosplay, in Japan, as I believe that it is one of the activities people engage in to escape the natural order in modern societies.

      Cosplay, short for “costume play”, refers to a type of performance arts whose participants intricately dress up as specific imaginary characters and act out their fantasies.[iii] More often than not, the characters are selected from manga and anime '   Japanese comics and cartoon respectively. I think the reason behind the origin of Cosplay and its rising popularity is more than just the proliferation of Japanese manga and anime market globally[iv]; it is both a product of Modernization and Alienation which results from Industrial Capitalism.

      This case is chosen as I feel that cosplayers are actually trying to seek and/or invent different identities through their portrayal of different characters because their realities do not match their desires. I want to understand reasons behind why people participate in Cosplay and how Cosplay can actually develop from a Japanese cultural product into a transnational product. Before I go on, I would like to proclaim that manga and anime are closely related to Cosplay since this performance arts has gotten its very first ideas from them. As such, this discourse will also include the data and analysis of manga and anime.

Data

      No nation has come half as far at such fast speed as Japan in...