Forum - View topicWash. Post targets Japanese cosplay extremes
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DriftRoot
 Posts: 222 Location: NH |
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The Washington Post's recent article, "Japanese Take a Page From Cinderella: 'Princess Vacations' Leave Reality Behind, for a Price" by Anthony Faiola brings in commentary on the dress-up habits of Japanese women, which I was expecting the writer to reference excusively with the popularity of anime/manga. He didn't, instead asserting that the Lolicon habits of the women are above and beyond the "norm," even in their own country.
"Fantasy chic has become an art in Japan, where theme parks bring foreign countries to life and "cosplay," dressing up like the characters in Japanese animation and manga comics, has been a hit for years. In the name of fashion, young non-Christian couples sometimes hire local Westerners to preside over their weddings as faux priests. But even so, the princess trips are raising eyebrows as escapist fads among Japanese women. In the trendy Shibuya and Harajuku neighborhoods of Tokyo, for instance, teenagers and women in their thirties and forties have embraced what they call the "Lolita fashion." Dressing up as little dolls in frilly dresses and lacy baby caps, hundreds of such girls and women parade along the sidewalks of Tokyo clutching teddy bears and wearing enormous ribbons in their hair." Interesting, no? It's as if a giant convention is going on over there that no one knows about except for the die-hard cosplayers. |
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Appaku
 Posts: 22 Location: Mid-Colorado |
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I've heard about this. It's especially popular every Sunday, and it doesn't stop at simple cosplay and gothic lolita. Alot of women will wear wedding gowns, too. I forgot the name of a style that was very popular a few years ago, but it basically revolved around wearing as many and as bright colors as you could.
To tie this thread back to anime, a good example of these themes would be in Super Gals- it shows some of the culture the cosplay going-ons revolve around in Shibuya, Tokyo's ultimate shopping district (and in this case, show-off district). |
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Hotaru
Posts: 481 Location: NY |
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not to mention bands like malice mizer and moi dix mois and their gothic lolita fashions. i saw a program about tokyo that mentioned sundays in harajuku.
i don't think it's disturbing or like...some kind of psychological problem. it's just people who like dressing up, right? it's all gooood |
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mrgazpacho
Posts: 316 Location: Australia |
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Ganguro? http://www.livemusicstudio.com/mac/pages/ganguro.html Or do you mean the more modern style popularised in "Fruits" magazine? Edit: I was in Harajuku in April last year, and caught some of the cosplay down outside Yoyogi Park on a Sunday afternoon. Some FrUits-style gear, mostly Gothic Lolita, one guy did a good Inu-Yasha complete with big-arse sword, and then there was a weedy French guy in a hand-knitted jumper who was cycling around Japan (he was kinda weird even by Tokyo's standards  ).
Oh, and a very camp JP guy in denim hotpants, rollerskates, and a feather headband 
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ANN_Bamboo
ANN Contributor
 Posts: 3904 Location: CO |
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 ; I've never really understood the Ganguro scene. It's beyond me why people would purposely go and try to look like white Californian girls, when they're the epitome of skank in some parts of the US.
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radicaledward
 Posts: 776 |
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Do you have a link to the full artical? It might be an interesting read.
I'm not really sure what to say though, from the section that you quoted it sounds like just another editoral rant that the Washington Post sometimes has. |
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Kaolin_Yatsura
 Posts: 64 Location: Texas |
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All I have to say as that sometimes they think we're just as weird we think they are. Even the word otaku in Japanese culture is derogatory and yet we idolize it. So maybe we should just take a more objective look at it. Our culture has this weird tendency to attempt to be ultra conservative and yet extremely slutty if that's not weird then I don't know what is.
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cyrax777
 Posts: 1825 Location: the desert |
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