Cosplay is a Japanese phenomenon with a growing presence in the U.S. Cosplay is the act of dressing up like your favorite anime or video game character. Cosplay costumes are distinguished by a high level of detail and are often handmade creations. In addition, the cosplayer takes on the persona of the character she is dressed as.
Cosplayers are dedicated to creating the perfect costume and obsessed with a high level of excellence. Many avid cosplayers have been known to travel to Japan for cosplay conventions such as Comiket to shop for cosplay accessories.
Putting together a perfect cosplay outfit can take a lot of persistence. The difference between a good costume and a great one usually comes down to the small details. The best way to assemble a great cosplay look is to have the perfect accessories.
These accessories might include jewelry (characters from Utena or Vampire Knight), weapons (Inu-Yasha's Tetsusaiga) or magical paraphernalia (wands for Sailor Moon or Cardcaptor Sakura).
While American cosplay shops have a fairly good selection, the Japanese stores have the best products. The Japanese stores will have merchandise that the U.S. stores do not carry, including cosplay accessories for anime that has not been distributed in the U.S., or merchandise from shows that are decades old and have waned in popularity. There is also a measure of pride an American cosplayer can have after obtaining a hard-to-find accessory that was only available overseas.
Instructions
1. Shop online retailers that specialize in merchandise sold direct from Japan. These include jlist.com, cosmates.jp and visusky.com. All of these retailers have English websites and offer direct access to officially licensed Japanese goods. U.S.-based cosplay retailers include cosplaymagic.com and cosplaylab.com.
2. Shop at the following websites if you can read Japanese: cosmate.net, cosmint.co.jp and cospa.com.
3. Travel to a cosplay store in Japan. Many of these will are located in Akihabara, Tokyo. Such stores include COSPA (with several locations through Japan and Tokyo). One of the more popular COSPA stores is located at Hagihara Building, Shibuya, Tokyo.
Another such store is Cosplay Academy Cave, located in the basement of the Usudamu Kouji building, Taito, Tokyo.
4. Subscribe to a cosplay magazine such as AniCoz or Cosmode. These publications list sources for the items found within their pages at the end of each issue. These publications also generally offer how-to guides for creating your own accessories.
5. Visit an anime convention and purchase accessories from a dealer. Conventions include Comiket in Japan, Anime Boston and Otakon in Maryland. The dealers vary from year to year, and there is never any guarantee that a certain dealer will be in attendance. Generally speaking, the convention's website will list all dealers who are scheduled to attend at least a month before the date of the convention.
6. Make friends with a Japanese pen-pal via the Internet. One established site is JFriends, an offshoot of the now-defunct "Foreign Correspondent" magazine. Another good place to find a Japanese pen pal is Japan-Talk.com. You can send your new friend candy and gifts that are found only in your country, and in exchange they can send you cosplay accessories.
