Academic literature on the topic 'Cosplay'

<p> The focus of this study was to better understand the population known as cosplayers, people that dress up as characters from various media sources, including film, television, comics, and animation, who also attend social gatherings such as conventions (Gn, 2011). This study sought to exhaustively identify all motivations for people to cosplay. Two qualitative instruments were utilized, the first being an online questionnaire, and the second being a semi-structured interview script. Recruitment for participants took place online, with the subsequent data being coded and transcribed by the researcher. </p><p>

Cosplay, the costumed performance of characters sourced from Japanese popular culture, has become an international phenomenon. Today there are Cosplay events held on every permanently inhabited continent, but there has been limited academic research into Cosplay practice and culture on the national level (Brainbridge and Norris 2009, Brainbridge and Norris 2013, Galbraith 2012, King 2013, Langsford 2014, Sagardia 2017) and no prior international comparative studies between Australia and the United States. This volume focuses on a comparative statistical and ethnographic analysis of Cosplayers in the United States of America and Australia between 2014 and 2015 with an interdisciplinary scope. Each chapter addresses a different aspect of Cosplay practice including history, sites of practice, generational hierarchy and cultural capital, psychological motivations, and gendered performance which aim to further complicate understanding of international Cosplay cultures and to establish a new framework for an interdisciplinary approach to performative groups.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T18:12:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Gabriel Theodoro Soares.pdf: 2562292 bytes, checksum: 2cd4c70928b7f3564c4c297898c3ceaa (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-05-10<br>It is necessary to understand how images relate to us and the effects they cause in our bodies. This research analyzes cosplay (costume play, the activity of dressing as characters, generally from games, cartoons or movies) in conventions about Japanese animations, where there is a blend between Japanese pop culture and Brazilian culture. This creates a marginal culture still not well studied in communication, despite being so rich. The images, which are the characters created by that culture, utilizes people s bodies via cosplay to make themselves part of the material world. Why people consume and let themselves be consumed by them is what we want to find out in this research, after all, they are still so mysterious and need more scientific glances at all of their manifestations, so they can be better understood. For this, we will use Vilém Flusser s concept of image and Norval Baitello Jr. s iconophagy, which proposes we are more and more consuming and being consumed. The objectives of this research are to understand how an image can subdue a body, considering its iconophagic features that devours the body and take its place, and analyze how they are closer to us than we often imagine. Cosplays will be analyzed inside Brazilian anime conventions, more specifically in São Paulo, where the biggest conventions in the country happens. The most plausible hypothesis is that people do cosplay in order to be part of a group of Japanese pop culture fans, to be recognized by this group, to find themselves in this group and, as said Boris Cyrulnik, to let themselves be enchanted by it<br>É necessário entender como as imagens se relacionam conosco, e os efeitos que elas causam em nosso corpo. Esta pesquisa analisa cosplays (costume play, a atividade de se fantasiar de personagens, geralmente de games, desenhos e filmes) em eventos de animação japonesa, onde há a uma mistura entre a cultura pop japonesa e a cultura brasileira. Isso cria uma cultura marginal, que ainda é pouco estudada na área de comunicação, apesar de tão rica. As imagens, em forma de personagens criados por essa cultura, se utilizam, por meio do cosplay, do corpo das pessoas para se fazer presentes no mundo material. E o motivo pelo qual pessoas consomem e se deixam consumir por essas elas é o que pretendemos descobrir nesta pesquisa, afinal, são ainda tão misteriosas e necessitam de mais olhares científicos em todas as formas em que elas se apresentam, para serem entendidas melhor. Para tal, utilizaremos os conceitos de imagem de Vilém Flusser, de que estas são superfícies que pretendem representar algo, e a iconofagia de Norval Baitello Junior, segundo o qual estamos cada vez mais consumindo e sendo consumidos por imagens. Os objetivos desta pesquisa são entender como uma imagem pode dominar um corpo, observando o caráter iconofágico dela, que devora o corpo e toma seu lugar, e analisar como elas estão mais próximas de nós do que muitas vezes imaginamos. Os cosplays serão analisados dentro de eventos de animação japonesa que ocorrem no Brasil, principalmente em São Paulo, que tem os maiores eventos do país. A hipótese que parece mais plausível é de que as pessoas fazem cosplay para pertencer ao grupo dos fãs de cultura pop japonesa, para serem reconhecidos por esse grupo, se encontrarem nele e, assim, como diz Boris Cyrulnik, se deixarem encantar por ele

O cosplay traduzido como brincar de fantasiar é uma atividade realizada por algumas pessoas em eventos que reúnem admiradores de desenhos animados e histórias em quadrinhos japonesas. Alguns de seus participantes vestem-se como os personagens veiculados nesses meios e são chamados de cosplayers. Diferente de um baile à fantasia, lá eles podem interpretar os personagens e, normalmente, a escolha é feita com base na identificação com estes. Esta dissertação tem como objetivo principal compreender o fenômeno cosplay, como parte do mundo hipermoderno, que vem atraindo um crescente número de adeptos no Brasil, e que vêm a fazer parte da identidade de alguns desses jovens. Para isso, apresento um breve panorama sobre o contexto atual marcado por novas tecnologias, difusão do consumo, mudanças nas relações familiares, diluição das barreiras físicas e aumento das fontes de informação, que provocaram profundas mudanças nos modos de ser e agir no mundo. Destaco também a importância do papel do consumo, pois com a degradação das estruturas tradicionais que proporcionavam bases estáveis nas quais se apoiavam as identidades, estas foram se tornando incertas e fluidas e, assim, o mundo se prontifica a oferecer uma variedade enorme de objetos de consumo para constituí-la. Como o cosplay envolve o processo de identificação com os personagens do entretenimento japonês, apresento algumas características das histórias em quadrinhos japonesas que são considerados atrativos deste material, e discuto a questão da juventude e identidade, e a importância do imaginário, fatos marcantes deste fenômeno. A fim de entender mais essa dinâmica formou-se um grupo focal com cinco cosplayers, entre 16 e 21 anos, moradores do Rio de Janeiro, que contribuíram significativamente para a discussão de todo o trabalho. Além do divertimento e do aumento das habilidades na confecção das vestimentas, o reconhecimento social apareceu como uma das motivações para realização dos cosplays. Esse dado reitera a importância das interações no processo de formação da pessoa. Um outro dado relevante apontado foi que através de identificação com alguns personagens, os cosplayers acabam questionando suas próprias atitudes, reforçando com isso, o papel ativo desses jovens no consumo dos produtos midiáticos<br>The cosplay translated as "playing to fantasize" is an activity performed by some people in events that bring together fans of cartoons and stories in Japanese comics. Some of its participants dress up as the characters run these facilities and are called cosplayers. Unlike a costume party, they can then interpret the characters and usually, the choice is made on the basis of identification with them. This thesis aims to understand the phenomenon main cosplay as part of the hipermodernity world, which is attracting a growing number of followers in Brazil, and coming to be part of the identity of some of these young people. For this, I start presenting a brief overview on the current context marked by new technologies, dissemination of consumption, changes in family relationships, dilution of physical barriers and increasing sources of information, that caused profound changes in ways of being and acting in the world. Its important o emphasize the role of consumption, because with the decline of traditional structures that provided stable bases on which it supported the identities, they were becoming uncertain and fluid, and the world get ready to offer an enormous variety of objects of consumption that identity can be based on. As the cosplay involves the process of identification with the characters of Japanese entertainment, I show some characteristics of the stories in Japanese comics that are considered attractions of this material, and discuss the issue of youth and identity, and the importance of imagination, facts of this remarkable phenomenon. In order to understand this dynamic, it was created a focus group with five cosplayers, between 16 and 21 years old, residents of Rio de Janeiro, which contributed significantly to the discussion of all the work. Besides the fun and increasing skills in the manufacture of clothing, the social recognition emerged as one of the motivations for achieving the cosplays. This finding confirms the importance of interactions in the process of formation of the person. Another relevant figure has been suggested that by identifying with certain characters, the cosplayers just questioning their own attitudes, reinforcing it with the active role of these young people in the consumption of media products

Made available in DSpace on 2016-10-13T14:10:44Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Davi Naraya Basto De Sa.pdf: 3279609 bytes, checksum: 912b995937cb18636e58475f6048ddda (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-03-24<br>This research aims to study the consumption of games based on mythologies, named mythic games, and its repercussion in cosplay practice. It recognizes the existence of two mythological-narrative matrices as logics to the production of other cultural texts, as for example, the games and cosplays analyzed in this study. The research starts by demonstrating the importance of the consumption of games in the current society by the writings of Mike Featherstone, Grant McCracken, among others. After that, based on studies concerning the mythological structures found in the researches carried out by Mircea Eliade, the first narrative matrix is identified through the evaluation of the Pokémon game and by observing how this game counted on mythological structures to create its own narrative. The second matrix is obtained when evaluating the Age of Mythology, where the use of existing mythology was perceived, as well as its translation, for the production of the game narrative. Such translation is indeed a transcreation, based on Haroldo de Campos studies. In the third part, this study discusses the practice of cosplay, observing how youth get dressed and act as media characters specially when representing mythic games. This research counts on results from fieldwork approaches at anime events, where cosplays get together in the capital of the state of São Paulo, as well as on documents collected in events held in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Here, evaluations followed the considerations proposed by Nunes and by Perper and Cornog. Mythology, it seems, is still nowadays a widely-consumed product. Consumption can be found in tangible, symbolic and media dimensions but also as a sense of belonging and identification propelling, not to mention its link to communication and culture, perceived as memory.<br>O presente trabalho tem o objetivo de estudar o consumo de games baseados em mitologias, aos quais chamamos de games míticos, e a sua repercussão na prática cosplay. A pesquisa reconhece a existência de duas matrizes narrativas mitológicas como lógicas para a produção de outros textos culturais como os games e os cosplays analisados durante o desenvolvimento do trabalho. Para realizar este estudo, primeiramente demonstramos a importância do consumo de games na sociedade atual por meio de autores como Mike Featherstone, Grant McCracken, entre outros. A seguir, com base nos estudos de estruturas mitológicas descritas pelas pesquisas de Mircea Eliade, identificamos a primeira matriz narrativa por meio da análise do game Pokémon, apontando como este jogo usou de estruturas mitológicas para criar sua própria narrativa. No caso da segunda matriz, o game utilizado para análise foi Age of Mythology e, neste caso, percebemos o uso de uma mitologia já existente e sua tradução para a produção da narrativa do jogo. Compreendemos, também, que esta tradução é uma transcriação, baseado nos estudos de Haroldo de Campos. Na terceira parte do trabalho, foi discutida a prática cosplay , em que jovens se vestem e atuam como personagens midiáticos especialmente aqueles vindos de games míticos. A pesquisa conta com resultados de visitas a campo a eventos de animes, onde se reúnem os cosplays, na capital do estado de São Paulo e também se vale de documentos coletados em eventos da cidade do Rio de Janeiro. Aqui as análises foram orientadas pelas reflexões de Nunes e de Perper e Cornog. Entendemos que a mitologia ainda é um produto de amplo consumo na contemporaneidade. Consideramos que o consumo aparece nas dimensões materiais, simbólicas e midiáticas e também como pertencimento e propulsor de identificações, além de se relacionar com a comunicação e a cultura compreendida como memória.

This thesis analyses the concept of cosplay by critically engaging earlier theories that have claimed cosplay to be a form of escapism for fans of Japanese manga and animé. Theories have so far been concerned mainly with identifying cosplay as a type of theatre. By interviewing active cosplayers in focus groups, this thesis instead focuses on the ways in which cosplay functions as an arena for identity-creation. By looking at theories of identity, the thesis has analysed how identity is created, not by an individual, but in a reciprocal relationship with social groups. Cosplay is an element around which social groupings are built and through complex social structuring identity is created by attaching one self to the group. The group is structured by the amount of symbolic capital each member possesses, which is to say that knowledge about the stories within the group, and social relationships are determining the structure of the group. By looking at the structure of the group, we are able to gain insight into the question of cosplay as an object for identity-creation, and by looking at the interactions in the focus groups we are furthermore able to actively analyse the distribution of capital. This thesis thus asserts that cosplay does not function as a simple form of escapism that allows for cosplayer to escape their mundane lives, but that it is instead an important field for the creation of identity for the fans of manga and cosplay.

Conventions featuring anime (Japanese animation), manga (Japanese comic books), video games, and related merchandise have accumulated fandoms (fan communities) through the provision of a supportive environment that facilitates consumption of imported products. Anime conventions in the U.S. and Canada attract consumers from across North America. Attendees frequently utilize cultural and symbolic capital to express their enthusiasm as fans. Some fans create elaborate handmade costumes and perform as their favorite characters during the convention. This activity is commonly called cosplay (or “costume play”). Cosplayers borrow directly from Japanese popular culture media texts and aim to make the best possible realization of the characters. Drawing on Bourdieu’s Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste (1996), theorists of fandom have examined the consumption of popular texts, such as television, magazines, or books, with regards to dominant cultural standards, or taste. Some fan theorists profess that fan subcultures challenge the institutionalized cultural hierarchy. Fans invest time and money in the consumption of devalued products, namely popular culture. Consumption of popular texts and the fan activities associated with them are denigrated by dominant culture. This thesis draws upon Bourdieu’s concept of taste to examine how conceptualizations of “good” and “bad” taste relate to gender and physical attributes, such as body size and skin color. Cosplay is a social activity where fans temporarily assume and perform a fictional identity. However, interviews with cosplayers indicate that a cosplayer’s decision making is informed by dominant social standards of beauty, based on physical appearance, body size, and to some degree, ethnicity. Conventions provide relatively safe places for the transgression of normative concepts of gender and sexuality. Cosplay provides an opportunity for gender ‘play’ and self-invention through the performance of alternative personas. Cosplayers are stigmatized by dominant society for their inordinate interest and consumption of a devalued commodity. The activity involves skill, time, and devotion that mainstream society prescribes for a career or in some way contributing to the economic system. Fan activities, including cosplay, and online fan communities contribute to an alternative discourse about desire, sexuality, and gender that challenges dominant, patriarchal social norms.

Esta tesis se basa en una investigación que realicé durante el doctorado en Artes y Educación (2010-2015); en ella reflexiono en torno a la práctica “cosplay”, particularmente en la performance del disfraz realizada por un fan en su conexión afectiva con un personaje ficticio. Esta reflexión se centra en las narrativas e imágenes de anime y manga desde su relación con cyborgs, animales y personajes abyectos. ¿De qué manera el proceso material de elaboración del traje articula conocimientos, visibiliza relaciones de poder y agencias en la confección de la propia identidad? Para responder esta pregunta realicé un trayecto indagatorio por salones de manga que inició en Barcelona y que finalmente derivó hacia informantes de “cosplay” en México. Mi análisis combina instrumentos de etnografía desde una postura “queer” y performativa, basados en etnografía visual, etnografía digital y entrevista reflexiva, asimismo utilizo modos de interpretación sustentados en la teoría “New Materialism” con la intención de crear un texto performativo que propone a las tecnologías como herramientas en la confección de la identidad, a las prótesis como extensiones que nos acercan a materializar nuestros deseos, así como evidenciar las tensiones y ansiedades que éstas generan en lo social. ¿Qué aporta la práctica “cosplay” desde esta reflexión a la pedagogía crítica como proceso identitario basado en la performance?<br>Performative technologies in costume: bodily recoding in cosplay is the result of an investigation made during the course of the Artes y Educación Doctorate Program (2010 - 2015). In this work, I reflect about the Practice of Cosplay, particularly in terms of the costume performance carried out by a fan in the context of its affective bond to a fictional character. This work centers in the Anime and Manga narratives and imagery from their relation to cyborgs, animals or abject characters. How the material process of preparing the suit articulates knowledge and makes visible the power relations and agencies in the construction of a self identity? In order to answer this question I went on an investigatory journey that took me to manga conventions starting in Barcelona and then turned to Cosplay informers in Mexico. This analysis combines ethnographic analysis instruments from Queer and Performative perspectives, sustained on elements of visual ethnography, digital ethnography, and reflexive interviews. This work also includes interpretation tools sustained in the New Materialism theory with the intention of creating a performative text where I propose that technologies are tools in the making of an identity: where prostethics can work as extensions that bring us closer to materialize our desires, and also to make visible the strains and anxiety generated in the social spectrum by the aforementioned technologies. From this perspective, what does the practice of cosplay brings to the table in terms of critical pedagogy as an identitary process based in performance?<br>Tecnologias performativas no disfarce: Corpo recodificação em cosplay é minha pesquisa para seu doutorado em Artes e Educação (2010-2015), eu refleti-la em torno da prática cosplay, particularmente no desempenho do disfarce por um fã em a sua ligação emocional com um personagem fictício. Esta discussão centra-se nas narrativas e imagens de anime e mangá de sua relação com cyborgs, animais e personagens abjetos. Como o processo de desenvolvimento material articula conhecimento terno, torna visíveis as relações de poder e as agências na elaboração de sua própria identidade? Para responder a esta pergunta que eu fiz uma viagem de investigação, mediante o cumprimento de mangá que começou em Barcelona e, eventualmente, derivou para informantes cosplay no México. Minha análise combina instrumentos etnografia de uma estranha e postura performática, com base em etnografia visual, etnografia digital e entrevista reflexiva, também eu usar modos de interpretação apoiadas pela teoria New Materialismo com a intenção de criar um performativo tecnologias como ferramentas de Texto na fabricação de identidade, para próteses como extensões que nos trazem para realizar nossos desejos e destacar as tensões e ansiedades que eles geram socialmente. O que faz cosplay partir desta reflexão para a prática de uma pedagogia crítica como um processo de identidade com base no desempenho?

Costume play (i.e. cosplay) is a performance of fandom rife with rituals and communication practices. Cosplay roleplaying performances are cultural practices that reveal how cosplayers interact with one another and among non-cosplaying members of their fandoms. This study examines the expectations that cosplayers hold for roleplay, the forms of roleplay, and the ways in which roleplay can become an instigator of harassment. Through the lens of Face-Negotiation Theory, the author discusses how roleplay functions to maintain or threaten the public images of cosplayers and their audiences, and what strategies cosplayers implement to avoid the loss of face.