BY USMAN CHOHAN
Some 200,000 visitors attended the Comic Con convention at the Javits Center in Manhattan, a pop culture extravaganza held yearly in early October. Many of those attendees were expressing their love of all things animation and pop culture by being Cosplayers.
Cosplayers is short for “costume play,” a hobby that has become increasingly popular. Cosplayers, through their creative passions, create costumes of their favorite characters from various pop culture icons. Animation was the game of the day for many Cosplayers, who spent months working on elaborate costumes to show off at the convention.
Ari Timico of Manhattan, who dressed up as Princess Peach from the Super Mario video game series, came to Comic Con both to express herself and to showcase her work in the Cosplay Display.
“I styled the wig and did the makeup,” Timico said, describing the effort it took to get her costume created. “I also had to buy a lot of the parts separately. Some of the parts I did not like that much,” she said. Styling the wig took hours. “It was insane, I would say it {took} several weeks,” she said.
Cosplaying has its roots in the 1970s when the first conventions dedicated to science fiction shows like “Star Trek” and movies like “Star Wars” started gaining traction. Later on, as the 1980s and 1990s rolled by, Japanese animation shows, or “anime” became popular on American TV. More fans started to cosplay as those characters. Some historians claim Cosplaying is a much older art dating to 17th Century Japanese Kabuki Theater.
They were couples dressed up as well with one such couple who dressed up as Team Rocket from the Pokemon series. For them it’s a way of bridging generations with a love of nostalgia.
“It’s something everyone knows a lot of generations do, up until the most recent Pokemon. Pretty much anyone that grew up in the last 20 years recognizes the characters. We get kids running up, parents that want to get pictures together.” they said.
The showcase was the result of many people putting in months or years’ worth or work to get their costumes like the characters they see on screen. New York Comic Con was a way Cosplayers were able to present their work.