Cosplay Cafe-Japan

Cosplay is an abbreviation for "costume roleplay" and basically can be described as a kind of performance art where cosplayers outfit themselves as a specific character, normally an icon from Japan’s or East Asia media – like anime, manga, tokusatsu  or video games. Of course, to cosplayers wearing theCosplay Costumes is usually not enough. The real art involves reenacting scenes or inventing likely behavior inspired by their chosen sources.

It’s in Japan that you’ll see Cosplay taken to an extreme. It’s very usual for Japanese teenagers to gather in several venues, like Tokyo’s Harajuku or Akihabara district to engage in Cosplay Shop, on a daily basis. This last district even has quite a large number of cafés, with waitresses dressing as game or anime characters, catering to devoted anime and cosplay fans.

In this country you’ll see regularly cosplay parties held in amusement parks and nightclubs, you’ll find cosplayers showing their art in video game shows and other public events, alas you’ll find that Cosplay has indeed become a part, like it or not, of the Nippon culture!