Cosplay in Japan, the 2008 version
So, cosplaying at Comiket.
[deep breath]
Let me preface with a tale from 2006, at "Tonari de Cosu", roughly "Let's Cosplay Next Door". It's the big cosplay event held next door to Comiket, in a less epic events center but no less crammed with people in silly clothing. We shyed away from actually cosplaying AT Comiket because of the super-cramped cosplay area... Ringo compared it to a cattle yard, crammed with photographers and not really many cosplayers. We figured we'd have better social-luck at Tonari.
It cost 1500yen to get in if you were a cosplayer, and 2500yen if you weren't cosplaying (photographers, helpers, or in our case, translators lol). Not terrible, but still an investment. Ringo and I wore our Chevalier costumes, reasoning that they were Big and Shiny and White People... so why not exploit our whiteness and rock out the European show. Reasonable, I think, BUT we didn't count on Chevalier not being much of a hit. Big budget, good cast, pretty animation, lovely character designs, ZOMBIES... it really was the best show of 2006 that nobody watched.
(Seven months later when we wore the Chevalier costumes at Expo, we got our photo taken by Cosmode... where they identified us as Romeo and Juliet. Ouch.)
Anyhoo, Ringo and I had a few strikes against us:
#1: WHITE PEOPLE ARE SCARY. Just accept this, you are intimidating and weird to the average Japanese Con-goer. Those brave enough to talk to you will usually assume you can't speak Japanese and use a combo of broken English and hand gestures. (And if you're not an English-speaking white person... well, that's pretty much game over.) If they don't know how to say "Can I take your photo?" in English, they probably won't try asking in Japanese.
#2: UNPOPULAR SERIES. In America, Pretty Shiny Costumes will tend to get attention even if nobody knows what they're from. Sure, Final Fantasy and Naruto fans will take photos of every FF and Narutard they see, but there's a good chance those same fans will still be interested in your Crazy-Pants mecha-elf or whatever. Not so much in Japan. You find your fandom, you love your fandom, you stick with your fandom.
#3: KELLY OSBOURNE. I can't blame our somewhat-chilly reception on her entirely, but it WAS very eye-opening later when we realized she'd been to the event the day before us (okay, a slightly different event, she was on the 5th floor of the building, we were on the 1st) and had not dealt well with photographers while in her Lacus Clyne outfit. (It was for her British reality show where she lived in Japan for a while and appeared to complain about every centimeter of the country.) What a weird coincidence.
Consequentally, we didn't make many friends at Tonari that year, and it wasn't until towards the end that people actually started coming up to us (perhaps when they realized we weren't Terrifying Caucasians). To be fair, I didn't wander around striking up conversations myself, as I was still adapting to the pop-culture shock. It's not really fair to say "I'M A FOREIGNER, COME BE MY FRIEND". But it was still a good time and an awesome chance to see what cosplay is like in the motherland. Overall, it was an entertaining and surreal experience.
Jump to 2008 and we're headed back to Winter Comiket. (For those curious why we only hit Winter: my friend Minako-chan gets a week vacation around the New Year's holiday, so it's a convenient time to go visit her. Plus, Summer is wicked hot lol.) Learning from last time, we ended up picking what I now realize were the Right Costumes at the Right Time: Hetalia. Plenty of White People characters, and it's OMG POPULAR at the moment. A perfect storm. [thumbs up]
There was really no question that Teca would be America-kun... I mean, really. REALLY. XD
My stipulation was I wanted to be a German-speaking country; my roots are almost entirely Austrian, but Austria-kun is a rather large man and I can't pull that off. Germany is even scarier, so that's right out. But Switzerland and Liechtenstein were right up my alley... I stuck a blue bow in my hair and chose the girl twin, Rihiten. But give me a gun and tell me to protect the Pope and I'll be Swiss. I don't remember the full thought process leading to Ringo being Hungary, but I'm sure it involved a) Wig choice and b) she looks cute in aprons.
(P.S. GOD I MADE THOSE PANTS TIGHT.)
So we're White People dressed as Europeans, which I think is a tradition worth preserving! The costumes are small enough to transport in small rolling suitcases, also important, and can be changed into in a tiny space. When I started going through the Comiket catalog (...at Ringo's Xmas party... I don't think she's quite forgiven me for that) I saw that a solid third of one of the halls (so, a few hundred dealers) was all Hetalia doujinshi, which boded well. Very well.
Comiket had moved the cosplay area to a much larger space in the front courtyard, and it felt a lot like the Expo cosplay space back at Anaheim. A bit shaded by buildings, a little greenery, a few major winding paths. So we all decided that we'd skip out on Tonari this year in favor of the actual Comiket Cosplay. Level up!
First up, Teca wanted Cheeseburgers to hand out as America-kun. It's in character and friendly too! So we hit up the McDonald's just north of Big Sight and she buys a friendly bag of 10 cheeseburgers to share.
Map One, the Cosplay Area
(Check out my mad Laptop/MSPaint skills!)
After a bit of searching, we queue up to get to the Cosplay Changing room. But to get there, you had to walk allllllll the way through the Cosplay area. Which is silly, but at least it gave us an idea of where we'd be later! Because sure enough, the first group of cosplayers we wander past are Hetalia. Ooooo, I'm getting pumped. ;D
Anyway, the queue is clearly designed for Cosplayers Changing Back more than Cosplayers Changing Into, which makes a certain amount of sense; if you want to specifically limit your shameful hobby to the Cosplay area, you don't want to wander around Tokyo Big Sight in your silly costume to get back to where you can change into civvies again. Teca, Ringo and I split off from Lan and Minako-chan with a hurried "I don't know where we'll find you later, but we'll find you later" wave and headed into the changing room. Entrance fee was 800yen, I think, so not a big deal. (FYI, to get into the Cosplay Area later, they wanted to see our receipts from the cosplay changing room, basically to prove you didn't change in a bathroom stall, or worse ARRIVE in costume. Which is a big no-no.)
It's pretty much a big empty room, much like the one at Tonari, except less intimidating. At Tonari they had specific areas for changing clothes versus doing make-up and wigs, and the staff felt the need to SCREAM THOSE INSTRUCTIONS at you every thirty seconds or so. At Comiket, do whatever, just don't be a jerk and take up too much floorspace. Otherwise, go nuts. Big advantage to Tonari, though, was they had rooms devoted to luggage storage. At Comiket, if we hadn't had Lan and Mina to hold our stuff, I don't know what we would have done. There were technically lockers, but the line to get to them was comically awful.
So we changed at lightning-speed and headed back upstairs (just to head back DOWN the escalators... yeah, they need to clarify that system a bit more) to the Cosplay Area. And ohhhhhh, I will remember that reception for the rest of my life.
Map Two, Locations marked
We made it around the corner (see: light blue arrow), and there is a SWELL OF SHRIEKS as the Hetalia people notice us... well, particularly notice TECA. I giggled as I heard lots of shouts of "HONMONO DA~~" ("It's the real thing~~"), and I knew that the Caucasian Character Daisakusen is a great success XD
But we're still slowly following the crowd to get back to the unofficial Hetalia area (see: Flags), past the Sailor Moon cosplayers who staked out the high ground and didn't move all afternoon, and the Geass cosplayers and their giant white capes. Some of the fangirls decided that America-kun is Not Coming Fast Enough. So they break off from the Hetalia section (I notice at least a trio of them, but there might have been more) to head us off at the pass (see: pink heart).
Unfortunately, they attack Teca while we're still in the walkway, not the "It's okay to stand here and take photos" section (aaaah, just like US conventions) so we try to shepherd Teca and her fangirls back towards the Hetalia area.
Where there are more fangirls waiting. lol
It's pretty much a steady stream of squealing girls hoping for photographs of America-kun. Mina and Lan kindly hold our suitcases (and occasionally the ever-grosser bag of cheeseburgers) while The Actually American America-kun makes the fans swoon. I answered the question "[hearts in eyes] Where are you guys from?" many, many times. XD
At one point, I remember losing track of Teca and asking where she went. Ringo-chan instantly responded "America-kun is shining in the sun". And it was true, so very true. Teca handed out more than half of the cheeseburgers to excited fans, but it got more difficult the colder they got ;^_^ Her Obama pin was very popular as well. Ahhh, Barack Obama, making America 92% less hated just by being elected. T_T
I met quite a few cute Rihitens, and one Hungary who was very skilled at English. Once the Hetalia fans realized it was okay to speak in Japanese to us, things got a lot more relaxed. One girl who worked hard to try her English at first wandered off muttering "Oh, I should have just spoken Japanese the whole time..." It was cute. One of the girls was getting ready to study abroad in California; I'm not sure if her English wasn't very good yet or if she was just nervous talking to foreigners, but she was adorably unintelligible. XD Good luck, honey! We also chatted with another girl who had studied in New Zealand and she had great English skills. Later, she told Teca they were going home together. Ooo la la. #^_^#
I loved watching the other America-kuns... I swear, they were all copying Teca's poses by the end of the afternoon XD She had them entranced.
But cutest by far were the Japans. Oh my gosh. There was a LINE of 5 of them, with linked arms, all giggling as they tried to get close to Teca, whispering "suteki!!" "kakkoii~~~" but then chickening out and running away again in unison. But they were so determined in their love! One of them asked me if America-kun spoke Japanese, and when I told them yes, they were even MORE enraptured (if that was possible). Eventually, one of the Line-o-Japans gathered her courage and asked Teca for a hug, and then IT WAS OVER, THEIR WORLD WAS OVER and they were all lining up for hugs and nearly fainting from overexcitement.
One of the great moments came when a staffer (also in a Hetalia costume) came over to our area to do a little crowd control and make more room, and his line was classic: "All the countries, squish together for World Peace!" His joke was particularly poetic for the foreigners. ;)
A Japan (a more assertive, less adorably-embarrassed-fangirl one) gathered everybody together at the end for a big group photo, which was crazy and awesome. Giant Foreigners headed to the back ("Hungary-san, you stand there, with... umm... ehhh, who is she again... Switzerland's little sister!")
and we all made nice-nice and everything was right with the world.
P.S. This photo makes me laugh:
I mean, what the hell am I staring at so intently? o_O
tl;dr It was AWESOME, Teca had a cadre of fangirls, and changing clothes in a room full of Japanese girls gets less weird every time I do it. XD
Click HERE for all the shots Minako-chan took! :D
Winter Comiket 2010, anybody? ;)
[deep breath]
Let me preface with a tale from 2006, at "Tonari de Cosu", roughly "Let's Cosplay Next Door". It's the big cosplay event held next door to Comiket, in a less epic events center but no less crammed with people in silly clothing. We shyed away from actually cosplaying AT Comiket because of the super-cramped cosplay area... Ringo compared it to a cattle yard, crammed with photographers and not really many cosplayers. We figured we'd have better social-luck at Tonari.
It cost 1500yen to get in if you were a cosplayer, and 2500yen if you weren't cosplaying (photographers, helpers, or in our case, translators lol). Not terrible, but still an investment. Ringo and I wore our Chevalier costumes, reasoning that they were Big and Shiny and White People... so why not exploit our whiteness and rock out the European show. Reasonable, I think, BUT we didn't count on Chevalier not being much of a hit. Big budget, good cast, pretty animation, lovely character designs, ZOMBIES... it really was the best show of 2006 that nobody watched.
(Seven months later when we wore the Chevalier costumes at Expo, we got our photo taken by Cosmode... where they identified us as Romeo and Juliet. Ouch.)
Anyhoo, Ringo and I had a few strikes against us:
#1: WHITE PEOPLE ARE SCARY. Just accept this, you are intimidating and weird to the average Japanese Con-goer. Those brave enough to talk to you will usually assume you can't speak Japanese and use a combo of broken English and hand gestures. (And if you're not an English-speaking white person... well, that's pretty much game over.) If they don't know how to say "Can I take your photo?" in English, they probably won't try asking in Japanese.
#2: UNPOPULAR SERIES. In America, Pretty Shiny Costumes will tend to get attention even if nobody knows what they're from. Sure, Final Fantasy and Naruto fans will take photos of every FF and Narutard they see, but there's a good chance those same fans will still be interested in your Crazy-Pants mecha-elf or whatever. Not so much in Japan. You find your fandom, you love your fandom, you stick with your fandom.
#3: KELLY OSBOURNE. I can't blame our somewhat-chilly reception on her entirely, but it WAS very eye-opening later when we realized she'd been to the event the day before us (okay, a slightly different event, she was on the 5th floor of the building, we were on the 1st) and had not dealt well with photographers while in her Lacus Clyne outfit. (It was for her British reality show where she lived in Japan for a while and appeared to complain about every centimeter of the country.) What a weird coincidence.
Consequentally, we didn't make many friends at Tonari that year, and it wasn't until towards the end that people actually started coming up to us (perhaps when they realized we weren't Terrifying Caucasians). To be fair, I didn't wander around striking up conversations myself, as I was still adapting to the pop-culture shock. It's not really fair to say "I'M A FOREIGNER, COME BE MY FRIEND". But it was still a good time and an awesome chance to see what cosplay is like in the motherland. Overall, it was an entertaining and surreal experience.
Jump to 2008 and we're headed back to Winter Comiket. (For those curious why we only hit Winter: my friend Minako-chan gets a week vacation around the New Year's holiday, so it's a convenient time to go visit her. Plus, Summer is wicked hot lol.) Learning from last time, we ended up picking what I now realize were the Right Costumes at the Right Time: Hetalia. Plenty of White People characters, and it's OMG POPULAR at the moment. A perfect storm. [thumbs up]
There was really no question that Teca would be America-kun... I mean, really. REALLY. XD
My stipulation was I wanted to be a German-speaking country; my roots are almost entirely Austrian, but Austria-kun is a rather large man and I can't pull that off. Germany is even scarier, so that's right out. But Switzerland and Liechtenstein were right up my alley... I stuck a blue bow in my hair and chose the girl twin, Rihiten. But give me a gun and tell me to protect the Pope and I'll be Swiss. I don't remember the full thought process leading to Ringo being Hungary, but I'm sure it involved a) Wig choice and b) she looks cute in aprons.
(P.S. GOD I MADE THOSE PANTS TIGHT.)
So we're White People dressed as Europeans, which I think is a tradition worth preserving! The costumes are small enough to transport in small rolling suitcases, also important, and can be changed into in a tiny space. When I started going through the Comiket catalog (...at Ringo's Xmas party... I don't think she's quite forgiven me for that) I saw that a solid third of one of the halls (so, a few hundred dealers) was all Hetalia doujinshi, which boded well. Very well.
Comiket had moved the cosplay area to a much larger space in the front courtyard, and it felt a lot like the Expo cosplay space back at Anaheim. A bit shaded by buildings, a little greenery, a few major winding paths. So we all decided that we'd skip out on Tonari this year in favor of the actual Comiket Cosplay. Level up!
First up, Teca wanted Cheeseburgers to hand out as America-kun. It's in character and friendly too! So we hit up the McDonald's just north of Big Sight and she buys a friendly bag of 10 cheeseburgers to share.
Map One, the Cosplay Area
(Check out my mad Laptop/MSPaint skills!)
After a bit of searching, we queue up to get to the Cosplay Changing room. But to get there, you had to walk allllllll the way through the Cosplay area. Which is silly, but at least it gave us an idea of where we'd be later! Because sure enough, the first group of cosplayers we wander past are Hetalia. Ooooo, I'm getting pumped. ;D
Anyway, the queue is clearly designed for Cosplayers Changing Back more than Cosplayers Changing Into, which makes a certain amount of sense; if you want to specifically limit your shameful hobby to the Cosplay area, you don't want to wander around Tokyo Big Sight in your silly costume to get back to where you can change into civvies again. Teca, Ringo and I split off from Lan and Minako-chan with a hurried "I don't know where we'll find you later, but we'll find you later" wave and headed into the changing room. Entrance fee was 800yen, I think, so not a big deal. (FYI, to get into the Cosplay Area later, they wanted to see our receipts from the cosplay changing room, basically to prove you didn't change in a bathroom stall, or worse ARRIVE in costume. Which is a big no-no.)
It's pretty much a big empty room, much like the one at Tonari, except less intimidating. At Tonari they had specific areas for changing clothes versus doing make-up and wigs, and the staff felt the need to SCREAM THOSE INSTRUCTIONS at you every thirty seconds or so. At Comiket, do whatever, just don't be a jerk and take up too much floorspace. Otherwise, go nuts. Big advantage to Tonari, though, was they had rooms devoted to luggage storage. At Comiket, if we hadn't had Lan and Mina to hold our stuff, I don't know what we would have done. There were technically lockers, but the line to get to them was comically awful.
So we changed at lightning-speed and headed back upstairs (just to head back DOWN the escalators... yeah, they need to clarify that system a bit more) to the Cosplay Area. And ohhhhhh, I will remember that reception for the rest of my life.
Map Two, Locations marked
We made it around the corner (see: light blue arrow), and there is a SWELL OF SHRIEKS as the Hetalia people notice us... well, particularly notice TECA. I giggled as I heard lots of shouts of "HONMONO DA~~" ("It's the real thing~~"), and I knew that the Caucasian Character Daisakusen is a great success XD
But we're still slowly following the crowd to get back to the unofficial Hetalia area (see: Flags), past the Sailor Moon cosplayers who staked out the high ground and didn't move all afternoon, and the Geass cosplayers and their giant white capes. Some of the fangirls decided that America-kun is Not Coming Fast Enough. So they break off from the Hetalia section (I notice at least a trio of them, but there might have been more) to head us off at the pass (see: pink heart).
Unfortunately, they attack Teca while we're still in the walkway, not the "It's okay to stand here and take photos" section (aaaah, just like US conventions) so we try to shepherd Teca and her fangirls back towards the Hetalia area.
Where there are more fangirls waiting. lol
It's pretty much a steady stream of squealing girls hoping for photographs of America-kun. Mina and Lan kindly hold our suitcases (and occasionally the ever-grosser bag of cheeseburgers) while The Actually American America-kun makes the fans swoon. I answered the question "[hearts in eyes] Where are you guys from?" many, many times. XD
At one point, I remember losing track of Teca and asking where she went. Ringo-chan instantly responded "America-kun is shining in the sun". And it was true, so very true. Teca handed out more than half of the cheeseburgers to excited fans, but it got more difficult the colder they got ;^_^ Her Obama pin was very popular as well. Ahhh, Barack Obama, making America 92% less hated just by being elected. T_T
I met quite a few cute Rihitens, and one Hungary who was very skilled at English. Once the Hetalia fans realized it was okay to speak in Japanese to us, things got a lot more relaxed. One girl who worked hard to try her English at first wandered off muttering "Oh, I should have just spoken Japanese the whole time..." It was cute. One of the girls was getting ready to study abroad in California; I'm not sure if her English wasn't very good yet or if she was just nervous talking to foreigners, but she was adorably unintelligible. XD Good luck, honey! We also chatted with another girl who had studied in New Zealand and she had great English skills. Later, she told Teca they were going home together. Ooo la la. #^_^#
I loved watching the other America-kuns... I swear, they were all copying Teca's poses by the end of the afternoon XD She had them entranced.
But cutest by far were the Japans. Oh my gosh. There was a LINE of 5 of them, with linked arms, all giggling as they tried to get close to Teca, whispering "suteki!!" "kakkoii~~~" but then chickening out and running away again in unison. But they were so determined in their love! One of them asked me if America-kun spoke Japanese, and when I told them yes, they were even MORE enraptured (if that was possible). Eventually, one of the Line-o-Japans gathered her courage and asked Teca for a hug, and then IT WAS OVER, THEIR WORLD WAS OVER and they were all lining up for hugs and nearly fainting from overexcitement.
One of the great moments came when a staffer (also in a Hetalia costume) came over to our area to do a little crowd control and make more room, and his line was classic: "All the countries, squish together for World Peace!" His joke was particularly poetic for the foreigners. ;)
A Japan (a more assertive, less adorably-embarrassed-fangirl one) gathered everybody together at the end for a big group photo, which was crazy and awesome. Giant Foreigners headed to the back ("Hungary-san, you stand there, with... umm... ehhh, who is she again... Switzerland's little sister!")
and we all made nice-nice and everything was right with the world.
P.S. This photo makes me laugh:
I mean, what the hell am I staring at so intently? o_O
tl;dr It was AWESOME, Teca had a cadre of fangirls, and changing clothes in a room full of Japanese girls gets less weird every time I do it. XD
Click HERE for all the shots Minako-chan took! :D
Winter Comiket 2010, anybody? ;)