Cosplay is a
Portmanteau of the words "costume play". It refers to the fan hobby of making costumes of their favorite characters from anime, TV, movies, comics, videogames, etc. and wearing them at fan gatherings. At anime conventions cosplay is one of the most popular events.
And to some people, it is
Serious Business. Don't even think about trying to get them to wear the
Official Cosplay Gear. They will often wear a
Sexy Whatever Outfit though.
If it's a character getting cosplayers in the same universe, the actual character might get told
Your Costume Needs Work. This can even happen to celebrities in
Real Life.
See also
Cosplay Fan Art,
Cosplay Otaku Girl (characters in works being cosplayers),
Whole Costume Reference,
LARP.
Examples:
Anime and Manga
- Cosplay Complex is all about this.
- As in the picture, Lucky Star has this at both a convention and the Haruhi Theme Cafe.
- Miyashita Masashi from Onii-chan to Issho (official English title: Me & My Brothers) occasionally cosplays as high school girls, and is in general a Wholesome Crossdresser. As a romance novelist, he does this in order to be more one with the female mind and thus use this as an incentive to write better stories.
- In Genshiken this is Ohno's hobby, while Tanaka's is costume designer for Cosplay. She often wears his creations for the club and to conventions. In Genshiken 2 they finally officially start dating, thus creating the dream Otaku couple.
- In Genesis of Aquarion there is an episode called "Cosplay for the Soul" where Fudou has all the Element Users dress and act as each other to great (and hilarious) effect.
- Honestly, this Troper was expecting Aquarion itself to cosplay as a different giant robot from another anime/manga during some point.
Comics
- Spider Jerusalem at one point raids a religious convention while cosplaying as Jesus.
Live Action TV
- In one Freaks and Geeks episode, three of the guys dress up for a science fiction convention.
- In season five of Supernatural Sam and Dean meet people cosplaying as them. They're understandably creeped out by it.
- And that's before they find out that the Sam and Dean cosplayers they interacted with throughout the episode are a couple.
Web Comics
Western Animation
- The Closing Credits Sequence of Daria features the characters in various alternate costumes. Most of the time, the costumes are generic an inspecific, like a cheerleader or a business woman, but occasionally they make specific references like Brittany dressed as Edward Scissorhands.
- When the cast of Futurama goes to Comic Con 3010, they take part in the costume contest, with some of the contestants dressed as characters from the very show they're on. Lrr tries to invade Earth during the contest, but is dismissed as just another guy in a costume. The winner, by the way, is Bender, who dresses as "every nerd's fantasy", Leela.
- In the Phineas and Ferb episode "Nerds of a Feather", the boys go to a convention where almost everyone is dressed up as characters from either "Space Adventure" or "Stumbleberry Finkbat". And Candace goes dressed as Ducky Momo.
