Cosplay Encyclopedia Review

Review of “Cosplay Encyclopedia”:

We recommend “Cosplay Encyclopedia” for cosplay beginners and/or those unfamiliar with the wonderful world of Cosplay in Japan. It is the first cosplay video subtitled in English and distributed in the United States. Since the tape is subtitled, we believe this form of presentation will be accepted by a wider audience. The original Japanese footage is from 1996, so the cosplay characters represented (e.g. Magic Knight Rayearth, Evangelion, The Sorcerer Hunters, Fushigi Yugi etc.) do not necessarily reflect the current trends of Japanese Cosplay today; despite the wording on the video’s package: “Featuring characters from some of today’s most popular anime series...” First, some important things to note about Japanese Cosplay. There are monthly cosplay parties in just about every major city. Cosplay bars, discos and arcades allow fellow cosplayers to meet each other. Comic conventions (Comiket) draws thousands of cosplayers to celebrate and show off their costumes. Almost everyone, EVERYONE is in costume. Handmade or purchased - it doesn’t matter. In Japan, Cosplay is done for fun, to be seen and less for competition.

Now, our critique. For us, “Cosplay Encyclopedia” fell short for a few reasons. Allow us to elaborate.

After careful review of the video, we noticed the tendency is to focus more on the cosplayer’s face than costume. Extreme close-ups of the cosplayers, in some cases, making them visibly uncomfortable. Suggesting there was no microphone present, so the interviewer had to stand very close to the cosplayer in order to pick up their voice on the camera. More often than not, the camera quickly pans over the cosplayer, with little regard to recording their entire costume and/or special details. Some of the costumes were completely washed out, so one could not see anything. Other times, they would interview a cosplayer than quickly cut to another cosplayer, without showing the previous costume at all. Female cosplayers were interviewed the majority of the time, with special attention to popular game characters. Unfortunately, seeing the same interpretations of Ellis, Chocolate Misu and Honey becomes tiresome, considering the event drew many different kinds of costumes (visually stunning costumes we might add), clearly visible in the background as cosplayers wandered around. Also, it would have been nice to see more male cosplayers interviewed or at least acknowledged. Being professional costumers as well as cosplay fans, we want to see the costumes. The tightly cropped faces and cheesecake shots become trite and boring after a while. If the camera had simply pulled back and allowed the viewer to see the variety of costumes out there, it would of been a better video. Additionally, there were still photographs used to bridge the segments. These images were centered on the screen and enlarged with a slow digital zoom. Nine times out of ten, this focused in on the cosplayers’ breasts or midriff. Annoying at best. Perhaps zooming out would have been more effective, if not simply showing the image without zooming in or out all together.

The video’s description on the box states: “Find out everything that you’ve always wanted to know about costume play! ... Lavishly dressed players gather one after another to let you in on their costume design secrets!” First, if this were a true “encyclopedia” there should have been a greater variety of characters shown, not the same few characters, from the same few series. There were many costumes in the background that were ignored and we would liked to have seen up-close. Second, no design secrets were revealed since most cosplayers were wearing “purchased” costumes, and would not be able the reveal any construction secrets. The most we learned in this video was: how much they spent on materials, how long it took to make or how much did it cost to purchase... In our opinion, the questions repeatedly asked had very little to do with revealing any design secrets. So why mention this on the box?

Most of the Japanese cosplayers interviewed stated they purchased the costume and/or had it made by someone else. There were cosplayers who stated their costumes took less than a week to construct, and the interviewer sounded very impressed if their costumes took less than a day to make. This suggests that the costumes were made in haste, just for the event. Some cosplayers kept their fandom a secret (especially the under 18 age range), while others had the support of family and friends. Of course, many Japanese cosplayers purchase pre-fabricated costumes and props. One cannot assume that all Japanese cosplayers make their costumes, let alone, make better costumes. There are Japanese cosplayers who have a large wardrobe of 30+ costumes, many of which were purchased for specific events. It would be very difficult to design and fabricate over 30+ costumes in less than a year, unless you’re an incredible seamstress/tailor and you simply have nothing else to do with your free time. A large percentage of Japanese youth purchase costumes to save time, as well as have a new costume for every event. In Japan, there is no negative stigma attached to buying your costume. People can buy as many costumes as they want, and wear them wherever they want. It’s that simple.

In the video, there’s visit to a popular costume shop called, Chacott. The camera pans over racks of opecot in a wide spectrum of colors. The “costume advisor” discusses the importance of using such fabrics when designing form-fitting costumes, especially costumes based on game characters. Next, a top 10 countdown / fashion show of the most popular cosplay characters for that year (1996). It is unclear whether all the costumes were constructed by Chacott or made by the model (reporter Akemi Matsuzawa) herself. The model conveyed little interest between costume changes; she demonstrated a lackluster poise and awkwardness for someone who is trying to look like they enjoy wearing costumes. Furthermore, some costumes appeared wrinkly, unpressed or did not fit her well.

Overall, “Cosplay Encyclopedia” is an entertaining video, and we hope it will generate more interest in Cosplay. With a few minor improvements, the “Cosplay Encyclopedia” can become something fans look forward to every year. We have been collecting Japanese Cosplay materials (books, magazines, VHS tapes and CD-Roms) for some time. These materials are difficult to purchase in the US, not to mention very expensive and time-consuming to track down. Kudos to MediaBlasters and AnimeWorks for bringing a glimpse of Japanese Cosplay to America. We eagerly anticipate more of these subtitled and affordably priced videos in the future.