SUNDAY 20 | Cosplay: n. The habitual act of dressing up like comic book or cartoon characters favoured by enthusiasts, nerds and batshit weirdos with a loose grip on reality. “There was an alarming rise in tentacle-rape incidents at this year’s anime cosplay convention.” – urbandictionary.com. Declared Urban Word of the Day on October 31 2006 by resident logophiles at urbandictionary.com, the term ‘cosplay’ – an abbreviation of ‘costume play’, kosupure in Japanese – has something of the geek about it. This Japan-centric movie and comic book world, one of giant-eyed heroes and junk worship, was sired by the sci-fi/fantasy universe once synonymous with Star Trek conventions, but seems to be overtaking it at warp speed. More than half a million fanatics dressed as their favourite anime and manga characters swarm Tokyo’s biannual Comiket fairs, the largest cosplay gathering in the world. In Tokyo’s Akihabara district, cosplay restaurants cater to the imaginatively attired with maids dressed as everything from Pokemon to the Mario brothers, and Yuichiro ‘Jienotsu’ Nagashima, one of Japan’s top-ranked kickboxers, makes all his appearances for K-1 dressed as female anime characters. But this renewed dalliance in dressing-up is by no means limited to Japan. On October 20, sporting face paint, liquid latex, neon wigs, contact lenses, body modification and outrageous cyber fashion, the truly committed will make their way to the Cambodia-Japan Cooperation Centre to worship at the altar of the weirdly dressed. Why? Yumi Anna Ono, CEO/Creative Director at Chiara Angkor Music Production, is a devotee of Studio Ghibli, her favourite character being Sophie Hatter from Howl’s Moving Castle, British author Diana Wynne Jones’ 1986 fantasy novel. “We can exaggerate an existing trait in ourselves and it is indeed empowering to assume the role of a character of our choosing, such as Sophie who is independent, brave, agile, responsible, confident yet vulnerable and most importantly kawaii (‘cute’) all at the same time!” she says. “I believe that one of the elements of cosplay that appeals to so many people – and it has turned into a global phenomenon – is that you can really become the character you’re dressed as. And who doesn’t like to dress up and transform into fantasy land?”
WHO: Cosplayers
WHAT: Comic Party
WHERE: Kizuna Hall, Cambodia-Japan Cooperation Centre, Royal University of Phnom Penh, Russian Federation Blvd.
WHEN: 12pm – 6pm October 20
WHY: Who doesn’t like to dress up and transform into fantasy land?