Issue 9 - Yipe!

of this is that one ofthe biggest activities atAnime cons seems tobe taking and posingfor pictures. Evencompared to eventswith a similar ratio ofcostumed attendees likeSteampunk cons, theanime crowd spends alot of its time on photos.Any patch of grass islikely to be occupiedfrom sunup to sundownwith a stream of models.Which on the one handI totally get wanting tohave a good record ofthe hard work put intoan outfit, and a lot of thephoto galleries you canfind online are amazing;the costuming, modelingand photography-- alltop notch. On the otherhand, I sometimeswonder if it’s a symptomof some degree ofshallowness; are thekids who spend all daystanding in front ofcameras interested in therest of their fandom at all?Are they the equivalentof the hipsters who goto clubs to be seen, havephotos taken for theirFacebook wall but don’treally care about theband, dancing, or talkingto their friends?I suppose the answer is“Who cares?” There areplenty of Con-dom vs.Fan-dom discussionsare general interestconventions as well, so,as long as everyone ishaving fun, the more themerrier I guess.But back to the amazingcostumes; A look at awebsite like cosplay.com will show you theincredible work thatgoes into some of these.A great deal of thesource material for thesecostumes is extremelystylized, to the pointwhere, if I had not seenPink dress and bunny ears,gloomy goth doll. Thismakes more sense whenyou read her blog.It took three attempts toget a shot of these twoeating their sandwichesout of character.the costumes personally,I would have said itwas unrealistic to do arecreation; long, flowingtresses that defy gravityand the structural limitsof human hair, props andweapons that stand twoor three times the heightof the person wieldingthem, and clothingthat was designed ina animated or drawnworld of selective physicsin which wardrobemalfunctions only existfor comedic effect.But, somehow, theseCosplayers make ithappen; wigs in highlyunlikely colors are cut,spiked, styled, andsprayed into drag queenesquelevels of artificiality.Styrofoam and papermache are assembledinto lightweight propsthat would otherwise beimpossible to lift, muchless carry, and the outerlayers are worked on withsuch attention and carethat even knowing thematerials are faked up,it’s hard to believe you’renot looking at metal orstone.The results are wonderful,and, although theMasquerade is a big partof the convention, the joyof running around in thehalls in full regalia seemsto be half the point.Cosplay appears to me tobe a social activity.I remember walking thehalls at the first ALA Iattended and thinkinghow this fandom differs,at least from the outside,from the cliche ofmisunderstood outsidersthat mainstream fansusually claim as theirorigin story. These kidsall appeared to be healthy,highly social, and prettierthan anyone in Nerdomhas any right to be.Am I exaggerating?Yeah, okay. Maybe a little