I’ve had the idea to write about cosplay for a long time. Initially, I wanted to write about him as part of the history of the gaming industry, but in the end I limited myself to a couple of paragraphs and the same number of pictures. Then it was not possible to fit this organically and comprehensively into the main text, so I decided to deal with the issue in a separate article.
It is believed that the word “cosplay” was coined by the Japanese journalist Takahashi in 1983, and the subculture of dressing up as movie and comic book characters allegedly also arose in Japan in the late 1970s. However, American researcher Ron Miller proves that cosplay took shape in the United States already in the 1960s – in the Sci-Fi genre. And the very first “cosplay”, in the modern sense of the word, dates back to 1939. At the first World Science Fiction Convention, a certain Forrest J. Ackerman dressed up in a futuristic suit. This is what gave rise to a wave of imitations in the future. Already by 1956, the tradition of the as yet unnamed “cosplay” was relatively established and still the same Forrest J. Ackerman noted in the Fantastic Universe report: “Monsters, Mutants, scientists, astronauts, aliens, and other creatures rule the roost today.”. He also noted that Olga Lay, the wife of writer Willie Lay, won in the “Best Costume” nomination and was the first highly professional costume designer.
First suit in 1939
Now it’s 1956
And this is already the https://casinobetblast.co.uk/bonus/ 1960s
For the USA, the 1960s were a very significant period. It was then that universal education reached its highest quality. The extensive knowledge that was put into the heads of young people at school stimulated them to express themselves and demonstrate their view of the world. Many subcultures and social movements emerged (the Hippies alone are worth it). It is not surprising that a simple passion for comics and fan fiction films has grown into a dense fan community. This coincided with a rapid increase in living standards and, accordingly, consumption levels.
The first Comic-Con was held in 1970 at the US Grant Hotel in San Diego. Everything was modest – there were just over 300 visitors, and there were almost no costumed visitors at all. By 1974 there were already about 1000 visitors. And the number of cosplayers has grown slightly to approximately 10% of all visitors. Moved to the El Cortez Hotel, Comic-Con 1979 already welcomed 6,000 people.
By 1983, all major comic book publishers united within its framework and “Art Centers” were organized. In 1991, he moved again, but to the San Diego Convention Center and already hosted 15.000 people. The name was changed to match the essence of Comic-Con International. At the same time, their signature logo with an “eye” appeared. During the 1990s, Hollywood took an active part in promoting Comic-Con. This greatly affected the direction of cosplay. If in the 1980s it was comics, then in the 1990s it was cinema. It was the focus on cinema that did the trick. Francis Ford Coppola himself and many others took part in the conference. By 2007, attendance had grown to 125.000.
As I already said, the person who invented and introduced this word into use is the journalist Nobuyuki Takahashi. The word kosupure first appeared in an article that Takahashi wrote in 1983 for the June issue of My Anime. However, other celebrity-gathering resources indicate that Takahashi began using it in 1984, after returning from the Los Angeles World Science Fiction Convention, and was subsequently picked up by several Japanese magazines.
At the same time, gaming became a national phenomenon. The Japanese were able to bring a piece of themselves into new projects of both individual companies and small teams, not to mention such giants as Nintendo. By the second half of the 1980s, such a phenomenon as the “Japanese gaming industry” had taken shape. The games of that time formed a cultural mix of specialists coming from all branches of the media. Programmers alone were no longer enough, and manga authors, anime creators and others began to join the industry. There was an unprecedented rapprochement and interaction of media, which meant that fans united under one roof.
If Americans invented cosplay, the Japanese played a decisive role in popularizing it.
Thus, cosplay researcher and photographer Ron Miller believes that this subculture arose in the USA in the 1960s. And the Japanese (including the above-mentioned Nobuyuki Takahashi, who often visited high-tech forums in America) simply copied it.
In the 1990s, this subcultural phenomenon began to gain popularity outside Japan, primarily in the United States among all segments of the population. Not least because of the fact that throughout the post-war period they were economically and politically inseparable from each other; cultural interpenetration was also inevitable. Over time, the meaning of the word “cosplay” expanded and began to mean dressing up in other costumes. For example, in China, the cosplay subculture has incorporated both the costumes of traditional characters from Chinese drama and Peking opera, as well as the costumes of movie characters that have nothing to do with Japanese science fiction (from films such as “The Matrix”, “The Lord of the Rings”, “Harry Potter”).
In both the USA and Japan, cosplayers were united by themed events. At first they were clearly divided into amateurs and professionals hired by companies. After all, they were decoration, not the main characters. San Diego Comic Con, Dragon Con, Anime Revolution, E3 are just the most famous of them and only in the USA. There are dozens of them in total and they differ in both the number of visitors and the theme.