Posts Tagged ‘cosplay’

Japanese Transformer Costumes

Unfortunately, their act wasn’t complete enough for the Kasou Taishou competition, so they failed to get a passing score. They started out strong, but the whole thing seemed to end way to quickly and didn’t have the kind of clever twists that judges tend to enjoy.

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Political masks in Japan

A Reuters news video about companies producing Aso and Hatoyama masks:

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World Cosplay Summit 2009

The World Cosplay Summit is going on in Aichi right now, and apparently several hundred cosplayers from around the world have shown up to take place in the festivities.

Here’s a video of some international cosplayers being welcomed by Japan’s Foreign Ministry:

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World Cosplay Summit 2008

The 2008 World Cosplay summit will be taking place this weekend in Nagoya, and senior vice foreign minister Itsunori Onodera (pictured above) has been meeting with cosplayers to promote the event:

The sixth-annual World Cos-Play Summit in Nagoya, central Japan, is expected to draw 28 contestants from 13 countries, including China, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand. The two-day contest will name a winner on Sunday, but it was unclear if there would be any prizes.

Onodera acknowledged he didn’t recognize the cartoon characters, but said that Japan is serious about aggressively promoting animation and the culture that it represents overseas.

The country has been trying to use the power of pop culture to raise its clout on the international stage, recently appointing cartoon cat robot Doraemon as an ambassador.

“Japanese culture has spread abroad through animation. As a nation, we support animation and hope to make the best use of it as an important diplomatic tool,” Onodera said.

Read more at Yahoo! News and the event’s official homepage.

Cosplayers Welcome Foreigners to Japan

Nothing says “yokoso” like a cat-eared maids waiting for you at the airport:

[Photo of cosplayers greeting foreign tourists at Kansai International Airport yesterday, via Danny Choo/Mainichi.]

Military Costume Mania in Japan

I just came across the following clip on YouTube. It’s a segment from the old Japanese TV show Koko ga hen da yo, nihonjin in which foreign panel members react to Japanese people who dress up in military uniforms as a hobby.

A translation of some of the main points:

• The South Korean panelists thinks their hobby is pretty dumb. One guy says they must have some sort of complex because their country lacks a true military. The other guy compares them to little children dressing up at Ultraman, and the hobbyists agree and feel no shame about such a comparison.
• The French panelist angrily tells the hobbyist in a Nazi uniform that it is very rude to wear such a thing. [Program plays a clip reminding viewers of what Germany did in WW2.] He says that you are not allowed to dress up like that in France.
• The German panelist informs them that their hobby would be illegal in Germany, and dressing up in Nazi attire would get them arrested.
• The Chinese panelist adds that those hobbyists dressed as Imperial Japanese uniforms would also be offensive to Chinese and Koreans. He states that it is important to know the meaning and history behind the uniforms, and that one should not wear them as something fashionable. A hobbyist responds claiming to be aware of the history behind the uniforms, which the Chinese panelist views as an even worse thing than just dressing up in the uniforms.
• There is an argument between one of the South Koreans and the hobbyists over whether their hobby is glorifying war. The hobbyists say that they are actually against war, and that dressing up in uniforms does not promote war.
• A Japanese guest thinks that people today who wear leather bomber jackets, which were worn by the Americans who dropped the atomic bombs on Japan, are kind of similar to the guys who dress up in Nazi uniforms because they look cool.
• As the hobbyists leave the studio, one of them gives a Nazi salute towards the audience. The French guy has a tantrum and tries to attack the hobbyist. He is restrained by the TV crew, and doesn’t take very kindly to a German panelist telling him not to react in such a way.