The Creativity of Cosplay Culture

Japanese content such as manga, anime, and games has captivated people around the world, especially the youth. These works offer more than just the enjoyment of reading, watching, or playing; they have created a way to enjoy "becoming" the characters that appear in them. This is "cosplay." Characters like people or animals in a work are created by the author and expressed as attractive entities. People who interact with these works enjoy the personalities of the characters in the original source. Eventually, they imagine the character's personality and daily life from the small fragments of visual information provided in the work, leading to deeper affection and a sense of kinship. This world derived from the original work is called a "derivative work" (secondary creation). One example of this is "cosplay," where people change their attire to become a character and share that personality, and those who enjoy this are called "cosplayers."

At the World Cosplay Summit (WCS) 2017 held in Nagoya last summer, cosplayers from over 30 countries participated, performing and staging acts on stage in a contest to determine the cosplay champions. This major event was also broadcast over the internet. In this way, cosplay has established itself as a culture loved by young people worldwide.

For young people, the appeal of cosplay lies not only in the charm of the characters or the expression of affection for a work, but also in the process of concealing the self, discovering a new self, and gaining recognition and approval from others by sharing that experience. By cosplaying and masquerading as a character, one conceals their original personality and expresses a different existence by portraying a new personality—the character's personality created as a derivative work. Cosplayers conceal themselves further to show others a "cute" version of themselves or a version different from their usual selves. To identify with the character, they cover their hair with wigs, match eye colors with colored contact lenses, apply makeup, and wear increasingly lavish costumes. Furthermore, some people completely conceal themselves by wearing full-body mascot masks (kigurumi), active as "kigurumi cosplayers." Through this series of experiences of becoming a character, they discover or create a new personality and incorporate it into themselves. Although the original personality disappears and one becomes a new character, there is actually a process of creative ingenuity involved in searching for and creating a new version of one's own personality within that space.

To express this new character self on social media and gain recognition from more people, it is necessary to post them in the form of photos or videos. To that end, they seek more beautiful and dynamic photos, sometimes traveling to suburban areas like parks, or visiting locations associated with the character and the work (sacred sites) to conduct photo shoots on-site with other cosplayers of characters from the same work. They may conduct photo shoots that are faithful to scenes from the work or develop story-based photos based on derivative creations. Sometimes, they introduce photography equipment that rivals that of professional photographers to create a special "work of art" in a photo studio.

Cosplayers enjoy cosplay at these contests, events, and photo shoots, creating "works" and sharing them through internet culture. By posting photos and videos of these moments to social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, they provide a new form of self-expression. Likes and comments flow back and forth from the "community"—the place of interaction formed by internet culture. Through the activity of cosplay, they receive approval from others in the community for the self that has changed through effort and experience, indirectly gaining recognition for their new personality. Here too, in order to become a more ideal character, they satisfy a higher desire for approval through various information circulating in internet culture.

Furthermore, people who see these "works" posted by cosplayers online are captivated by them and begin to immerse themselves in the world of cosplay.

In that sense, the global penetration of cosplay culture can be said to have internet culture as its source of influence. Through cosplay as a work of art posted on social media, young people encounter these new expressions and charms, follow them, stimulate each other, and develop them further by adding their own ingenuity. The characters born there as derivative works branch out as new content, and in some cases, grow into works with high commercial value. This spiral of consumption and creation of content holds infinite possibilities for generating new content, making it an attractive presence for young people and for future product value.