February 23, 2010

My dream destination would be Japan. I have studied the Japanese culture and I seem to enjoy it. There are many things that I like about Japan and the Japanese style is one of them.One type of style that they seem to use is called "cosplay". Cosplay, short for "costume play", is a type of performance art in which participants don costumes and accesories to represent a specific character or idea. I really like the idea of it because they get a chance to express themselfs. Cosplayers typically come from the ranks of otaku-- that is, fans of Japanese comic books known as magna.They gather at public events such as comic-book and video game trade shows, as well as at dedicated cosplay parties at nightclubs or amusement parks.. In Japan teenagers gather with like-minded friends in places like Tokyo Harajuku district to engage in cosplay. Since 1998 Tokyo's Akihabara district has contained a large number of cosplay cafes, catering to devoted anime and cosplay fans. The waitresses at such cafes dress as game or anime characters;maid costumes are particularly popular. In areas outside of Japan, cosplay is primarily done at magna and anime conventions.





Here is one example of cosplay from the anime series "Death Note" :





(Left: Light Yagami (boy), Right: Misa Amane, Top Right:Ryuk (shinigami), Bottom Right: L (boy).)

[For those of you who dont know what a "shinigami" is, it is the personification of death that involves in Japan having been imported to Japan from Europe during the Meiji period. This image of death was quickly adopted and featured in such works as the "rakugo" play Shinigami and in the Shunsen Takehara's Ehon Hyaku Monogatari (One-hundred Story Picture-Book).]

[ And for those of you who dont know what "Death Note" is, it is a Japanese magna series created by writer 'Tsugumi Ohba' and magna artist 'Takeshi Obata. The series centers on "Light Yagami", a high school student who discovers a supernateral notebook, the "Death Note", dropped on Earth by a shinigami (death god) named Ryuk. The Death Note grants its user the ability to kill anyone whose face they have seen, by writing the victim's name in the notebook. The story follows Light's attempt to create and rule a world cleansed of evil using the notebook, and the complex conflict between him, his opponents and a mysterious detective known to the world only as L.]