Главная страница «Первого сентября»Главная страница журнала «Английский язык»Содержание №39/2004

YOUTH ENGLISH SECTION

COSPLAYERS
Who Are They?

Many of you surely remember, how several years ago, armored Tolkienists, directed their steps towards Neskuchny Sad every Thursday, shocking the passengers of the capital’s metro. Nowadays these processions don’t astonish, because the phenomenon of Tolkienists is covered by the mass media and we, inhabitants, know about them quite enough to take them for granted. Variegated companies of orcs, dwarves and other creatures routinely flood forest tracts in the Moscow suburbs and Neskuchny Sad (Tolkienists themselves called it by the proud name of Eglador). But recently among these companies we can meet very extravagant people: a girl in an intricate dress with a fan and yin-yang symbol on her sleeve appears momentarily, then your glance involuntarily stops on a young man, vested in a black leather cloak with metal shoulder-straps. Who are they, these strange young people?

They’re called “cosplayers”. The term cosplay first appeared in Japan. This word means costume playing (masquerade). The cosplayers array themselves in the suits of their favourite characters of videogames, or animation, meet with their confederates, and on the whole make merry. Of course, there is no such grand scale, such as in the Land of Rising Sun, where fans fill up their flats with different merchandise (the goods, connected with videogames and animated figures of the characters, different plates and dishes with the symbols of video games and movies, etc.) and collect the modells of their favourite battle robots, neither in Europe, nor especially in our snow-covered fatherland. In Japan people not only dress like their favourite characters, but they try to be similar to their idols in their thoughts and behavior. Japan teens (frequently cosplayers are teenagers) occasionally forget about the real world and live only as their favorite characters. They wear the suit of their idols everywhere. They lead the way of life, which is similar to the character of a videogame or animation; in short their life is similar to Tolkienists. It is necessary to mention that the real “otaku” (fans-(Jap)) create not simple suits, but real works of art, so that the parades of the cosplayers present a really enchanting sight, incredible in its beauty.

As for me, I treat them positively, because they don’t fiddle about, they don’t drink as fishes. They don’t hammer with fists their ideas into people’s heads. They’re simply engaged with their very interesting and original affair.

By Ilya Yuzefovich