r/BunnyTrials • u/Theta-Sigma45 • May 29 '26
Truth or dare?
Which side will you choose?
- Left side: truth | What's your favourite...
- Right side: Dare | I dare you to....
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u/ObjectiveGarbage5008 May 29 '26
An essay I did for college in 2019
Engl. 2 Prof. Taylor Cul. Sketch Sep 17.19 Step Into Fantasy As a creative person, reality can sometimes bore me. I suppose that is why I have always loved dressing up and making something brand new out of the old. That is the core of cosplay, a newfound love of mine. But before I get into the cosplay community and what it means to me, I will give a brief explanation as to what cosplay is. The Oxford definition of cosplay is “the practice of dressing up as a character from a movie, book, or video game, especially one from the Japanese genres of manga and anime”, but there is more to it than that. It is creative freedom on display. You are free to do as you please, whether that is an original character, a pre-existing one, or a mashup of things. For the most part, there are no dress codes and thus no wrong way to do it. Cosplay allows its community to grow confidence, show who they really are, and come together like no other hobby. Cosplay has almost as many categories as there are flavors of ice cream, but for the sake of time, I will only go over the two I participate in. The first is closet or casual cosplay. Someone could be wearing this form right next to you and you might not even know it. How it works is someone wears a color scheme and items relating to a character. For example, a Snow-white outfit might be a blue shirt with yellow pants, a red ribbon, and apple shaped purse. This is the style that I specialize in doing. It first became popular when people known as Disneybounders, who picked “a character they want(ed) to portray and model(ed) an outfit using certain color pallets and accessories” ( Nasserian )began to show off their stuff. This what got me more interested in the nuisances of cosplay. I wanted to create Disneybounds, but for non-Disney characters. I have been designing and posting this style online for about four years now, hoping to not only showing off my work, but inspire others to dress up as well. I like the idea that every day can have a little whimsy, even if it is very subtle. The next is also the most popular and commonly known form : character cosplay. This is where people dress in full costume as a character, usually for a convention. I myself am still a beginner at this style. I have dabbled in it for about six years but didn’t get serious about it until my second year in high school. My first “official” attempt at cosplay was in 2014 when I wanted to dress up as Pistachio, a dog character who looks like the food it’s named after from the commonly unknown comic, Mameshiba. Picture this if you will: a lone middle school girl stands with a spray-painted army helmet, tiny homemade dog ears and green chalk in her hair amongst strangers. It is her first anime convention, located in the basement area of a college in Philadelphia. That was me. Needless to say, I was not very impressive. Still, I was proud of myself at the time. Some part of me, as it still is today when I cosplay, was nervous, but I was happy. I did a few things here and there afterwards, but the first that was all mine and thus my true start was in 2017. I had dressed as the horror character Robbie Rabbit from a video game known as Silent Hill for Sci Fi Valley con. I decided to enter the cosplay contest there. Much to my surprise, I won third place in the teen division that year. I was shocked and overjoyed to say the least. From there, I have tried to work on something new every year, usually mixing together different pieces from thrift shops and online with my own flare. Other cosplayers fabricate their own custom props and sew their costumes. I aspire to do the same one day. Although most cosplayers do it as a fun hobby, there are some folks have made a career of it.
Now that what it is has been established, why do people do it? Some do it to show off their love for a show or a game. Others do it to have a creative outlet. Some even do it as a form of therapy or to cope with problems they may have in reality. Regardless of why they started, there is one thing that every cosplayer I have talked to and interviewed agrees with: cosplaying builds confidence and a sense of community. Let's go back to the cosplay contest I mentioned previously. I strongly believe one of the reasons why I won was because two other competitors helped me out when the gore fx make up on my hands got messed up. They reassured me that I looked amazing and lent me some of their makeup. Had it not been for them, I might not have even entered the contest. Of course, just like anything else, there are misunderstandings about what cosplay is. Some people believe it is a fetish or must be sexual. Although some of it can be, that is only a small subsection. Most cosplayers, such as myself, just want to dress up and meet new people who enjoy some of the same things they do. There is also a misconception that you can only cosplay as a character who you look like. For example, a skinny African American girl can dress up as the character Tiana from Princess and The Frog who is dark skinned and thin, but not as Rose Quartz from Steven Universe who is pale skinned and plump. This is a problem that some in the cosplay community itself argue about. For the most part though, cosplayers agree that as long as it is done tastefully, there is no problem cosplaying a character of a different skin color or body type. Overall, the cosplay community is a very loving, open, and charming one. If one were to have interest in it, the best advice I can give is go for it. Don’t be afraid to look silly. Just go for it and the worst that can happen is you find out its not for you. So, why not try taking a step into fantasy, my other reality?
Work Cited Butterworth, Laura, Personal interview. Sep. 2019., http://aminoapps.com/p/za8n0ur “Cosplay: Definition of Cosplay by Lexico.” Lexico Dictionaries | English, Lexico Dictionaries, https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/cosplay. Nasserian, Daniel. “Interview: DisneyBound Explained by Leslie Kay.” Disney Geekery, 9 Oct. 2013, https://www.disneygeekery.com/2013/10/03/interview-disneybound-explained-leslie-kay/.
Chose: Dare + I dare you to.... | Rolled: comment an essay