0172 Cosplay

Typical Tokyo office worker by day. Warcraft Princess by night or on weekends. This is the type of double life the dedicated cosplayer lives. Cosplay – or kosupure in Japanese – is the latest recreational activity for manga maniacs. Cosplayers spend hours devising, creating and donning elaborate costumes designed to transform them from salarymen or women to anime and video game characters such as Astroboy or Parasite Eve. At an average cost of $300 per ensemble, this is no-low budget amusement. The payoff? Well-dressed cosplayers could just be chosen to become Cosplay Idols, paid spokesmodels for the big game makers themselves thus effecting the complete transformation from Cosplay to Cospay. #hacker #japan #varner #ceas