COSPLAY
Cosplay (コスプレ, kosupure?), short for "costume play",[1] is type of performance art in which participants don costumes and accessories to represent a specific character or idea. Characters are often drawn from popular fiction in Japan. Favorite sources include manga, anime, tokusatsu, comic books, graphic novels, video games, hentai and fantasy movies. Role play includes portrayals of J-pop and J-rock stars, Taiwanese puppet characters, science fiction characters, characters from musical stories, classic novels, and entertainment software. Any entity from the real or virtual world that lends itself to dramatic interpretation may be taken up as a subject. Inanimate objects are given an anthropomorphic forms and it is not unusual to see genders switched, with women playing male roles and vice versa.
Cosplayers often interact to create a subculture centered around role play. A broader use of the term cosplay applies it to any costumed role play in venues apart from the stage, regardless of the cultural context.
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Terminology
The term cosplay represents a contraction of the English words costume play. The term was coined by Nov Takahashi of the Japanese studio Studio Hard while attending the 1984 Los Angeles Science Fiction Worldcon.[2] He was impressed by the hall and the costumed fans and reported on both in Japanese science fiction magazines. The coinage reflects a common Japanese method of abbreviation in which the first two moras of a pair of words are used to form an independent compound. Costume becomes kosu (コス), and play becomes pure (プレ).
[edit] The Practice of Cosplay
[edit] Venues
"Jingūbashi" passes over Yamanote Line south of Harajuku Station, Tokyo, at the Meiji Shrine gate. It is a famous gathering place for cosplayers.
Cosplayers typically come from the ranks of otaku--that is, fans of Japanese comic books, known as manga. They gather at public events such as comic-book and video game trade shows, as well as at dedicated cosplay parties at nightclubs or amusement parks. In Japan teenagers gather with like-minded friends in places like Tokyo's Harajuku district to engage in cosplay. Since 1998 Tokyo's Akihabara district has contained a large number of cosplay cafés, catering to devoted anime and cosplay fans. The waitresses at such cafés dress as game or anime characters; maid costumes are particularly popular. In areas outside of Japan, cosplay is primarily done at manga and anime conventions.
The single largest event featuring cosplay is the semiannual doujinshi market, Comiket. This event, held in Japan during summer and winter, attracts hundreds of thousands of manga fans. Thousands of cosplayers congregate on the roof of the exhibition center, often in unbearably hot or cold conditions. The largest event for cosplayers outside Asia is the annual San Diego Comic-Con held in the California city in the USA.
Cosplayers in Japan refer to themselves as reiyâ (レイヤー?); pronounced "layer". Those who photograph players are called cameko, short for "Camera Kozo" or "Camera Boy". Originally the cameko give prints of their photos to players as gifts. Increased interest in cosplay events both on the part of photographers and cosplayers willing to model for them have led to formalisation of procedures at events such as Comiket. Photography takes place within a designated area removed from the exhibit hall.
Cosplay at fan events likely originated in Japan in 1978.[3] Cosplay nevertheless gets a mixed reception in Japan even today. Events in districts such as Akihabara draw many cosplayers, yet there is no shortage of people in Japan who regard cosplay as a frivolous endeavor.[4]
[edit] Costumes
A cosplayer as Eve from Parasite Eve (video game)
Cosplay differs from Halloween and Mardi Gras costume wear not only in existing independent of any particular holiday, but in its goal. The object of cosplay is interpretation: one attempts to become one's character much as a stage actor inhabits a role. Costumes are expected to adhere meticulously to the attire known to be worn by the character represented. Even more generic costumes get an elaborately artistic treatment. Cosplayers may purchase or create costumes through fan labor. Cosplayers often educate themselves in crafting specialities such as sculpture, face paint, fiberglasswork, fashion design and the like in the effort to render the look and texture of a costume accurately.[5]
Once in costume, cosplayers adopt the affect, mannerisms and body language of the characters they portray. Cosplayers often gather to view the costumes of others, show off their own creations, take pictures, share tips, and participate in contests. This activity is maintained between major events through participation in online forums.
[edit] Gender roles
An animegao cosplayer ("doller") in Taipei, Taiwan.
Portraying a character of the opposite sex is "crossplay" while portraying a character who dresses as the opposite sex (from the cosplayer) is called "crossdress". Examples may serve to clarify the distinction. A female cosplayer representing a male character who wears standard masculine attire is both crossdressing and crossplaying. A female cosplayer who dresses as a male character who wears unisex clothing or feminine attire is crossplaying but not crossdressing. A man portraying that same character would be crossdressing but not crossplaying.
The practicality of crossplay and crossdress stems in part from the abundance in manga of male characters with delicate and somewhat androgynous features. Such characters, known as bishounen (beautiful youths), are an Asian version of the elfin boy archetype represented in Western tradition by figures such as Peter Pan and Ariel.[6]
The animegao, or "dollers", represent a niche group in the realm of cosplay. Their approach makes them a subgroup of what is called in Japan kigurumi--that is, "mascot"-style role players. Dollers are often male cosplayers representing female characters. Female dollers are also found who represent male characters, especially male characters that lend themselves to the treatment, such as robots, space aliens and animals. Dollers wear bodysuits and masks that completely hide their real features so that the original appearance of their characters may be reproduced as literally as possible. Their costumes display all the abstractions and stylizations characteristic of the cartoon art, such as the oversized eyes and tiny mouths so often encountered in manga.
[edit] Cosplay in Western culture
Canadian cosplayer Liana K as Power Girl.
The popularity of cosplay in Japan encourages the misconception that cosplay is specifically Japanese or Asian hobby. The term "cosplay", though Japanese in origin, described a phenomenon which was witnessed in the United States. For almost fifty years, costuming has had a widespread following and continues to experience growing popularity in North America and Europe, and has more recently spread throughout South America and Australia.
Western cosplay's origins are based primarily on science fiction and historical fantasy as opposed to animation. It is more common for Western cosplayers to recreate characters from live-action series such as Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who, The Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter than it is for Japanese cosplayers. Similarly, animated series may be the origin for many recreations. Western costumers also include subcultures of hobbyists who participate in Renaissance faires, and historical re-enactments such as Civil War battles.
The increasing popularity of Japanese animation outside of Asia during the late 1990s led to an increase in American and other Western cosplayers who portray Japanese characters. Anime conventions have become more numerous in the West in the last decade. They now compete with science fiction, comic, and historical conferences in attendance. At these gatherings, cosplayers, like their Japanese counterparts, meet to show off their work, take photos, and compete in costume contests.
Differences in taste still exist across cultures. Some costumes that are worn without hesitation by Japanese cosplayers tend to be avoided by Western cosplayers, such as outfits that invoke Nazi-era uniforms.
[edit] Trends
The appearance of cosplayers at manga events makes such events a popular draw for photographers. As this became apparent in the late 1980s a new variant of cosplay developed in which cosplayers attended events mainly for the purpose of modeling their characters for still photography rather than engaging in continuous role play. Rules of etiquette were developed to minimize awkward situations involving boundaries. Cosplayers pose for photographers in designated areas removed from the exhibit hall. Photographers do not press them for personal contact information or private sessions, follow them out of the area or take photos of exhibits in the hall itself without permission. The rules allow the symbiotic relationship between photographers and cosplayers to continue with the least inconvenience to each.[3]
Recent cosplay events in Asia show an increase in the popularity of non-Asian fantasy and science fiction characters. This reflects the international success of films such as The Dark Knight, The Matrix, Star Wars and Lord of the Rings and their associated books. The Harry Potter characters created by J. K. Rowling are popular with female cosplayers in Japan.[citation needed]
[edit] Cosplay in Chinese Culture
As Japanese animations is becoming more popular in China, Chinese started to involved in cosplay, like what the Japanese and the Western countries do. But different with the Western ones, the Chinese is mostly cosplays on originally created characters in Japanese animations.
[edit] Taiwan
* Beginning–1990
Taiwan's first cosplays with the form similar to present statred in this year, but the people involved is only for temporary, and without specializes, and there is too few people to participate cosplay, so there were not so much details being recorded.
* 1991–1997
Between this period, most of the cosplayers started to make their costumes themselves. But it's still too few professionals.
During 1992-1993, the time was harsh, but this allows them to make costumes by themselves, even the accessories.
In 1994 to 1997, the environment of cosplay began to grow. There were almost a few hundred cosplayers in Taiwan.
In 1997, the once a two-year doujin event started, and cosplay has becoming more popular.
* 1998–2005
This is how cosplay become more popular and well-known. Cosplayers' community rises sharply. Most of them started to go private photo takings, other than public events. The Yam blog and Wretch blog for assembling people with the same interest rise abruptly. At the same time there is the launch of the discussion on the differences between several splendid attire culture such as cosplay dressing and various styles of lolita fashion.
* 2006–present
A magazine only introducing cosplay COSmania was first published in 2006 February. Cosplay becomes much popular then. Most of the Taiwanese was well-known with the word cosplay, but the animadversion on cosplay's concept still exists.
[edit] Hong Kong
The cosplay sphere in Hong Kong are separated as two sides, with one mainly including Chinese citizens (sometimes Japanese also included) and one mainly including non-Chinese citizens (such as Europeans and Americans). The ambience between two sides are different at all, since the status of Chinese-citizen-mainly side has been turning.
* 1990s
For local Chinese citizens, Cosplay first showed up with the form similar to present in Hong Kong in 1993, which was a group of people that rented a kiosk, and one of them wears a costume on some animations to attract people passed by.
Since 1997, more and more local events are held, such as Comic World HK.
* 2000–present
After the 1990s, the multimedia started to keep an eye on cosplays. Most of the universities in Hong Kong also launched their own cosplay events, and the most popular one is the Cosplay Party by Hong Kong University. Nowadays there are almost 20 events held with cosplay sessions every year in Hong Kong.
With an aid of easy accessibility of multimedia and the Internet, cosplay has been being far more popular and familiar. The number of people taking part in cosplay has also increased sharply.
However, some of the conservative cosplayers think that, the standard and behavior of the new-coming cosplayers with less experiences or morals are unacceptable, and consider those are interfering the conservatives' public image. Some of those immoral conservatives began to do attack in speech, even creating violent rebellions or triad-society-like behaviors to approach their external political purposes. Moreover, someone created several biased words to describe for those who cosplay with the discrepancy between the appearance of the cosplayer and the character, and for those who cosplay without able to understand the character that he/she is impersonating, even unilaterally fabricating themselves-centred inflexible so-called definitions of cosplay to force all the people to obey it without condition.
This makes the conflict among some cosplayers, and threatens the harmonious and rational environment of Chinese-citizen-mainly side cosplay sphere in Hong Kong. Such the conditions have been criticized by other cosplayers, netizens and some citizens. Some of the Hong-Kong-resided cosplayers even change to participate the cosplay events in other cities, such as in Macau and Guangzhou.
SUPERMAN IS DEAD
SID, punk rock pioneers of Bali, were born and bred in Kuta Rock City. The band is three chord attitude-heavy young men, by name : Bobby Kool (lead vocal, guitar, a dog lover and a graphic designer) , Eka Rock (low ridin' family man, beer drinker, laid back bass and backing vocal and a warm smilin' Rock 'N Roll bandman, IT warior) , Jrx (low ridin' beer drinking Rock 'N Roll prince charming, drummer and a hairwax junkie, Bar owner)
The name 'Superman is Dead' started its' evolution from Stone Temple Pilot's "Superman Silvergun". The name moved on to "Superman is Dead" cause they like the idea that there's no such thing as a perfect person out there.
SID actually stumbled together in '95, drawn by their common love of Green Day and NOFX. Their influences soon extended to the punk 'n roll genre a la Supersuckers, Living End and Social Distortion, and here they stay. They say what they wanna say, how they wanna say it. In your face, to say it precisely.
SID public image, self described, is "Punk Rock a Bali" (think raw energy of NOFX vs Social Distortion supersonically fueled with beer-soaked Balinese Rockabilly attitude).
History ? SID produced their first three albums independently (the boys worked years of crappy night jobs), with fabulous, small scale indie labels 1997 "Case 15", 1999 "Superman is Dead", 2002 "Bad Bad Bad"(mini album, 6 tracks).
In March 2003, SID finally signed with Sony-BMG Indonesia after extended negotiations regarding their right to sing the majority of their tracks in English and have full artistic rights over their 'image'!! With that decision they single handedly became the first band from Bali to be invited to sign with a major recording label in Indonesia, the first band in their nation (to my knowledge) to be recording majority of songs in English and the first punk band in Indonesia to get the national exposure and promotion that working with a major label in a third world country provides. And so the history of Indonesian Punk Rock begins!
And as for the question that everyone wants to know, the infamous bomb in Bali happened about 75 M from their home, hangout center, punk rock boutique, bar and rehearsal studio that is also Jrx' house, in the heart of Kuta.
After panel beating back the rolling doors of the studio and shifting a little debris, rehearsals continued as usual. Yeah, they saw a lot, it sucked big time, but its' not gonna stop 'em!
And where are they now? At the end of 2002, one of the more respectable music mags here cited SID as "The Next Big Thing" for 2003. With the release of their fourth album "Kuta Rock City" followed by major air play nationally and in some countries overseas, coupled with the instant popularity of their newest film clip.
SID suddenly find themselves touring continuously throughout Indonesia. Last week they were in four major Indonesian cities, on three islands, in 7 days! Sometimes playing for free at underground scene clubs, sometimes at street skate parties or alternative band festivals, at lots of universities and even occasionally at "classy" venues who would have probably denied them entrance years ago!
Which means more beers for all.
In 2003 SID even got a mention in Time Asia.
They also won a few music awards “MTV Awards for The Best New Artist 2003”, “AMI Awards for The Best New Artist 2003” and nominated again in “AMI Awards 2006 for The Best Rock Album”.
October 2007, they did an amazing Australian tour, 8 cities, 16 gigs, 33 days with their strong D.I.Y work ethic.
SID had share stages with international bands such as International Noise Conspiracy, NOFX, MXPX and Hoobastank.
They remain proud, boys from the streets of Kuta with a love of punk rock, beers and a good time. Ready for whatever comes next, excited about the next gig.
LANGKAH FENOMENAL SID
• August 2002, Openning Act Hoobastank, Hard Rock Hotel, Kuta, Bali
• Superman Is Dead “Hot & Freaky People 2003” MTV Trax Magazine January 2003
• June 2003 Superman Is Dead “MTV Exclusive Artist of the Month”
• Double Platinum Sony Music for Kuta Rock City Album
• 2003, MTV Award “Most Favorite New Artist”
• 2003, AMI Award “The Best New Artist”
• 2004, SCTV Music Awards “The Most Famous Album Nominee, Pop Rock Category” for Kuta Rock City Album
• 2006, AMI Awards “The Best Rock Album Nominee” for Black Market Love Album
• 2006, “Superman Is Dead The Best Local Band” The Beat Awards.
• 20 the best Indonesian Album 2006 for The Black Market Love Album. Rolling Stones Magazine Januari 2007
• April 2007, SID Opening Act for American Punk Rock Band NOFX at Hard Rock Café, Kuta, Bali.
• Soundrenaline Sound of Change 2007 Jimbaran Bali, “Message of Change” Artist Nominee.
• 17 June 2007, Guest Star Artist “Final Gudang Garam Rock Competition” Jakarta
• October 2007, Superman Is Dead did an amazing Australian tour, 8 cities, 16 gigs, 33 days.
• 150 the Best Indonesian Album for Kuta Rock City Album. Rolling Stones Magazine, Special Collectors’ Edition Desember 2007.
• 50 Hype Things in Indonesian Music Industrial 2008 for Superman Is Dead.
• Trax Music & Attitude Magazine Edition Januari 2008.
• 2008, Openning Act MXPX Jakarta.
• “SID as a New Icons of Bali”. Yak Magazine Maret, April, May 2008.
VIDEOGRAPHY
2002 “White Town” Album “Bad Bad Bad” Director by Outsider Film
2003 “Kuta Rock City” Album ”Kuta Rock City” Director by Rizal Mantovani
2003 “Punk Hari Ini” Album “Kuta Rock City” Director by Ridwan
2004 “Muka Tebal” Album ”The Hangover Decade” Director by Outsider Film
2004 “Rock ‘N Roll Band” Album “The Hangover Decade” Director by Outsider Film
2004 “Disposable Lies” Album “The Hangover Decade” Director by Umum Production
2006 “Bukan Pahlawan” Album “Black Market Love ”Director by Eric Est Movie
2006 “Black Market Love” Album “Black Market Love” Director by Bob Calabrito
2007 “Menginjak Neraka” Album “Black Market Love” Director by Eric Est. Movie
2007 “Lady Rose” Album “Black Market Love ”Director by Eric Est. Movie
2007 “Goodbye Whiskey” Album “Black Market Love” Director by Outsider Film
2008, Superman Is Dead Rock-A-Bali Australian Tour 2007, Produksi outSIDer Inc, Format DVD, For Promotional Stuff Not for Sale
2009, " Kuat Kita Bersinar " Album " Angels and The Outsiders" Director by Patrick Effendy
2009, " Jika Kami Bersama- Featuring Shaggy Dog " Album " Angels and The Outsiders" Director by Patrick Effendy
Some Videos have been uploaded at Youtube.com Please click the URL to check'em out :
http://www.supermanisdead.net/nl.php?id=88
DISCOGRAPHY
INDIE ALBUM
Case 15, 1995 , Produksi Independent Intertainment, Format Cassette
Superman Is Dead,1998, Produksi Rizt Clothing, Format CD & Cassette
Bad Bad Bad, 2002, Produksi Rizt Cloth.& Suicide Glam, Format CD (mini album)
Bad Bad Bad, 2002, Produksi Spills Record, Format Cassette
INDIE COMPILATION
100% Attitude, 1999, Produksi Lunatic Records, Format Cassette
No Place To Get Fun, 2002, Format Cassette
New Generation Calling, 2003, Produksi Spills Record, Format Cassette
Video Kami “A Rock Society” 2006, Video Clip “Menginjak Neraka”, Produksi A Mild Live Production, Trend Setter Magz & The Blado Ent. Format VCD (Not For Sale)
MAJOR COMPILATION
Fantastic Bands, April 2005, Produksi Sony Music, Format CD & Cassette
Class Rock “Today’s Sensation”, Produksi Sony Music October 2004, Format CD & Cassette
A Mild Live Soundrenaline 2004, Produksi Sony Music & A Mild Live, November 2004, Format CD & Cassette
Planet Rock, Produksi Sony Music, August 2005, Format CD & Cassette
MAJOR ALBUM
Kuta Rock City, 2003, Produksi Sony Music Indonesia, Format CD & Cassette
The Hangover Decade, 2004, Produksi Sony Music Indonesia, Format CD & Cassette
Black Market Love, 2006, Produksi Sony BMG Indonesia, Format CD & Cassette
Angels and The Outsiders, 2009. Produksi Sony Music Indonesia, format CD & Cassete
ORIGINAL SOUND TRACK
D’ BIJIS, Produksi Sonny Music & Class Movie, January 2007, Format CD & Cassette
Please visit our detail discography page : http://supermanisdead.net/discography.php
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