I dont see what the big problem is in cosplay. I mean, it's just fans geeking it up and having a good time. Dont take it so seriously.

Only if the cosplayer is 800 lbs while the character is like, 20 lbs.

I mean a female dressing as a male and vice versa, not really insulting. I'm a girl, and I don't plan to stop cosplaying Kakashi anytime soon.

Females are usually great cosplayers when it comes to most anime. Since in anime, the males usually have feminine features. You usually never see a guy cosplay unless they're cosplaying someone like Scar or Armstrong. Something like that. xD There ARE male cosplayers. But 99% of the time, females do it better.

I have a love hate relationship with cosplay...good cosplay is awesome, bad cosplay makes me cringe, but epically bad cosplay is awesome in it's own way. I personally don't do it, but if other people want to that's none of my business.

Okay, here's a good argument for both sides: http://infinitycosplay.deviantart.com/art/...emist-111841548

Female. Cosplayed as Edward Elric. By far, from this picture, THE BEST Edward ever. However, she said herself, her face didn't really resemble Ed's and Blonde was not a good hair color for her.

BUT, NOBODY in this thread can say that that picture up there is horrid. It's amazing.


Now, I cosplay a lot. In fact, I'm working on a cosplay right now. I usually cosplay males, because I don't feel comfortable with a lot of female outfits. (Lets face it- it's hard to find curvy female characters that aren't skimpy.) Yes, I'm curvy. But guess what? I bind. I can pull off cosplays well, and if there's a cosplay I did that was not good at all, I don't cosplay that person again. But I cosplay mainly because it's fun. Do I want to look good? Of course!

I hate terrible cosplays, but I don't hate the people. I saw a Itoshiki-sensei cosplayer who didn't even look like Itoshiki, but I hung out with him and talked to him and now we're really good friends. I don't understand why people hate cosplayers so much. ._.

I don't hate cosplayers, I just find that quite a bit of cosplay is average at best in quality. Most of the ones that you see in conventions are done by average people with a wide range of physiques, but in anime, there is really only a hand-full of kinds of physiques. The twiggy, the curvy, and the muscular. There are a few exceptions, but most follow this, and lets face it, not all girls can meet the expectations of the glorified versions of the female form expressed in many of the shows we know and love. (Nor can the men compete with the chizzled physique of many of the most admired shonen protagonists.) That said, the few that make my jaw drop is what I go to the conventions for. On a separate note, this may sound discriminatory, but I think that Japanese people make the best cosplayers. If you do an image search for "great cosplay" you will find that most of the people with the truly great costumes are the Japanese.

Ah, alrighty then. Thanks for the info. So yeah, this is very common in all countries, it seems.


Anyways, just to tell you that Finland's Animecon is done and over with, I went there with my Tetra cosplay. People took pictures of me, and I heard many compliments from the Zelda fans. So yeah, overall I had a really positive experience. So did my friends. They had tons of fun with their cosplays too, and this was the very first time for them, as well.

I did see some badly-made costumes from some characters, but heck.. it's all about having fun, after all. I have no regrets anymore, I might just as well cosplay again in next year's convention. Now after experiencing the fun of it I realize why exactly people do it. And even if everyone didn't have good-looking costumes, I'm sure they still had hard time making them for the convention, and I had no reason to complain. I might suggest everyone try it out at least once in their life.. who knows, it might be a fun experience for you too.

You're free to have that opinion.

Personally though I actually have some level of respect for people who cosplay characters that they look nothing like. Most of the time they probably know that they don't really look like the character and they probably know that someone is going to voice to them that they don't like it.

So those people are actually kind of brave in a sense because I don't think I could bring myself to cosplay a character I look nothing like. I don't have the guts. Plus I just know that my effort into making/affording the costume will pay off more the more I look like the character. That's just a fact. I feel like I get more value out of my effort. The amount of compliments I've had on my Envy costume is really touching to me and I feel like it was worth everything I put into it, especially since I also totally adore Envy. 99.9% of the comments I've gotten about it have been positive. The negative comments I have received about it tend to be "Envy's not a girl." and "Envy's hair isn't black." and the people who say Envy's hair isn't black just honestly make themselves look like they don't know as much about FMA when they say that...since it is black in the manga, even on coloured pages. Either black or green is still correct in my opinion since he is given both those colours in different things. I do also have a green wig too anyway.

Anyway, although I am a girl...I really don't have womanly curves or large breasts or anything. So I can look fairly androgynous like Envy. Not to mention Envy isn't TRULY either specific gender....even though the form he normally takes is more male. Envy is also voiced by women in both Japanese series and also the dub of both series.



Well I used thick felt for both of my Envy wigs. I think it works really well for his hair actually....but I can't imagine wearing it as clothing either because I think that would feel quite uncomfortable actually. If people do it though I don't have a problem with it. I simply think it would be uncomfortable and it wouldn't be my choice.

EDIT:

Anyway I hope the mods don't see this as me making a 'rebuttle' post so to speak because I'm not bashing anyone for having a different opinion. It's just friendly discussion and I saw Chiyo make a similar post on the page before this and she's a mod.

I'm fairly indifferent to cosplay, I get that it's people's personal brand of fun and, well, different strokes for different folks. I just dislike the culture associated with cosplay. Certain people can be rude, as far as I know, and feel that them being "in character" is a justification for harassing or being obnoxious towards other people who aren't involved. Then there's entitlement and plain old popularity getting to people's heads. Then again, not everyone is like this, and you find these kinds of people everywhere.

Yeah that's true....I mean I cosplay Envy but that doesn't mean I should start to actually be really mean to people.

Also, yeah I don't think it's so good when people claim to be the "best" cosplayer of a certain character. In my case I just know my cosplay is good which I base on the fact that I've had a lot of positive compliments(not from me just thinking it's good, there is justification behind it due to the reaction I've had from many people) and I do think that people should be able to have a bit of pride in their cosplay....but there is a fine line between that and acting arrogant.

Whenever someone claims to be the best cosplayer of a certain character.....

If people want to come up to me and tell me I'm the best Envy they have ever seen that is their choice and I'll take the compliment but I will never truly think that I actually am the best. It's just arrogant to go down that path. Besides who's to say that everyone who told me that has even seen every other Envy cosplay that exists? They probably haven't.