Cross-play....I’m slowly slipping into a bias against guy cosplayers…I just can’t stand it! But! It’s not really their fault… They are GUYS after all. And with the ever increasing bishonen population in the anime world its getting harder for guys. Frankly there ARE limits. Not the ones that I described before, (the more self patronizing limits people put on them selves such as body image and all that).
There is the social standard. Its not socially accepted in most cases for men to dress like girls, though our society has no problem with the other way around (too a degree…well most of the time anyway). Also most guy cross plays are jokes! The Sailor Moon men and “Man-Faye” are….well…laughable…people don’t take them seriously because they don’t take themselves seriously!
This brings up another issue! I take back the “females-can-dress-up-as-guys-without-a-problem” statement because they can’t! I don’t think that most people (unspoken rule) think that its “good cosplay” for a girl to dress up as say Insert very manly guy/anti-Bishonen. Unless! Of course the girl isn’t taking herself seriously. Here is (what I believe to be) a wonderful example. Shunsui Kyoraku from Bleach...hes a pimp, he has a beard, and hes most definitely not bishonen! But I want to cosplay as him anyway....I don't know if I SHOULD but I probably will anyway. Do you think there is a limit to what women can cosplay? Maybe women should only cosplay guy characters when they would look better then if a man would.
For example; Men KILL Inuyasha cosplay! I set out to make a GOOD inuyasha cosplay just to spite all the “five -o’-clock-shadow” inuyashas I’ve seen! Besides a heck of a lot of them don’t just not work, but arn’t even well crafted! All the REALLY good Inuyashas I’ve seen were girls! Same with the shessomarus. And they are only the tiniest bit Bishi! (at least I think so...maybe I need to figure out what bishonen actually dictates, is it just no hair and no muscle?) If you can call Sephiroth Bishonen and we can see some darn good cosplays then why can’t that apply to Shessomaru or Inuyasha? I think it may come down to the group that watches the show or plays the game. It may be that the demographic that plays FFVII is better suited for cosplay than guys that watch Inuyasha. The world may never know.
3 comments:
hmm... male demographic.
i'd have to say theres just not a lot of people who think their worthy of being sephiroth. inuyasha is an easy character and i personaly see more sephiroths running around than seshomarus. even then its usualy crossplay.
its actualy really hard to find a guy to cosplay as that one acualy looks like. face, physique, not to mention actualy likeing the character...
@Verdant hero
It's so true! People focus too much on how unrealistic women look in anime but at the same time (unless its a "student") the men portrayed are, frankly, at much too high a standard for guys to cosplay well.
mmm... yes, thus comes the sci-fi con (of which mew con is half, btw) im starting to get the impression that at sci-fi conventions theres a lot more creativity to be expressed without the constraints of looking like a specific charicter. ppl seem to usualy 'cosplay' (i doubt they call it that) a general mass produced charicter e.g. a storm trooper from star wars, rather than a lead character who they know good and well they look and act nothing like.
well, i dont wanna say sci-fi cons are better than anime conventions, but in general, there are usualy less kids, more skin, and better parties... anime conventions however has... the extreme fandom that i love to see come out of people.
anyways, your blog seems kinda cool! so i put it on my favorites.
you have another fan!
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