What's "cosplay"? I've been shopping for emo/Japanese clothing, and that word keeps coming up.

Question

I'll find a dress or something, and the description will say, "Great for cosplay."

Answer 1

Cosplay (コスプレ, kosupure?), a contraction (or portmanteau) of the English words "costume" and "play", is a Japanese subculture centered on dressing as characters from manga, anime, tokusatsu, and video games, and, less commonly, Japanese live action television shows, fantasy movies, or Japanese pop music bands. However, in some circles, "cosplay" has been expanded to mean simply wearing a costume.

In Japan, "cosplay" as a hobby is usually an end unto itself. Likeminded people gather to see others' costumes, show off their own elaborate handmade creations, take lots of pictures, and possibly participate in best costume contests.

The most specific anecdote about the origin of the word "cosplay" was that Nov Takahashi (from a Japanese studio called Studio Hard) coined the term "cosplay" as a contraction of the English-language words "costume play" while he was attending the 1984 Los Angeles Science Fiction Worldcon. He was so impressed by the hall and masquerade costuming there that he reported about it frequently in Japanese science fiction magazines. This point is debatable, however, as the word fits in with a common Japanese method of abbreviation: combining the first two syllables of one word with the first two syllables of a second word (or, more precisely, the first two moras of each). Other examples of this include Pokémon (ポケモン, Pokémon? short for ポケットモンスター, or "Pocket Monsters") and puroresu (プロレス, puroresu? short for プロレスリング, or "professional wrestling

Answer 2

It means costume play. For example, anybody at a Trekkies convention that dressed up like a Klingon is doing cosplay.

Answer 3

People who go into the woods, sometimes a hotel room or fellow cosplayer's home and dress-up like elves, wizards, soldiers, superheroes, etc. and act as though they really are that charector. In fantasy that involves magic they use colored bird seed in little sachets (like potpourri comes in) red for fire spells, blue for ice spells, yellow for electricity and so on. Nerf guns, toys and nerf-like swords are sometimes used. That is my understanding anyway.

Answer 4

Costume Play

That is when you will dress up like a particular Anime character (for example) and act out their life