CATDOLL: The bridge between dimensions. The development and inheritance of COSPLAY culture

What is COSPLAY?

Just as there are a thousand Hamlets in the hearts of a thousand people, there is certainly no so-called standard answer to this question.

She is both a carnival for a group of otakus and a way for people to express their love for the second dimension; she can be seen as a rebellious youth's individual behavior, and can also be seen as a unique performance behavior...

From a certain perspective, we can define COSPLAY as a bridge between the two-dimensional world and the three-dimensional world. So the question is, why do we need to connect these two different dimensions?

The word "COSPLAY" comes from the abbreviation of the Japanese English "Costume Play", which can be directly translated as "role-playing". Whether this phenomenon originated in Japan is still controversial, but it is undeniable that it has risen along with Japanese two-dimensional culture and swept the world. For COSERs, restoring two-dimensional characters in the three-dimensional world is undoubtedly the best way to express their love for anime works; for viewers, what could be more surprising than seeing their favorite characters appear in the real world?

It is difficult to explain in a few words why we need to build a bridge between the second and third dimensions. But it is obvious that such a bond is not only a bridge between individuals and anime works, but also provides a platform for communication for like-minded people. Nowadays, almost any event related to comic exhibitions will have a large number of physical two-dimensional characters. When otaku see such scenes, they feel as if they are in the second-dimensional scene, which can produce a very special and warm sense of belonging.

So the question is, how to build a perfect "bridge"?

"Sense of disharmony" is the "dangerous river" that separates the two-dimensional and three-dimensional worlds. After all, the two-dimensional characters have evolved to this day and have formed a unique aesthetic style, but if they are directly copied to three-dimensional characters, it will look very awkward. Many people often mention the "degree of restoration" when seeing COSPLAY. In fact, the so-called restoration here is actually the reconstruction of the character after the COSER's in-depth interpretation. It is the pursuit of every COSER to make people exclaim such as "It's so beautiful" and "The degree of restoration is so high". The extensive preparation work that COSERs do around a character is to build a perfect "bridge".

The COSPLAY you see is not just as simple as its beautiful appearance. There are a lot of complicated processes behind it, and this is the secret behind COSPLAY.

We often see posts on the Internet where COSERs exchange their experiences, but there are few complete and systematic explanations of how to research roles, how to arrange scenes and camera positions when taking photos, and other practical information, which is very important for many newcomers. When a culture develops to a certain period of time, it will inevitably spread in a more mature and professional form.

The development of COSPLAY culture can be described as "very rapid". Now, you can see COSPLAY-related picture albums and photo albums in any bookstore. However, for many COSERs who are new to this field or some ordinary enthusiasts, there have been few books that can fully introduce the "secrets behind COSPLAY".

In 2012, the publication of the first book in the "Secrets of COSPLAY" series ended this situation. The book introduced all the efforts a COSER made for a COSPLAY work from multiple angles, including pre-production preparation, stage performance, and image processing.

Three years later, "Secrets of Cosplay 2" is back. Different from common Cosplay albums, the "Secrets of Cosplay" series focuses on the background of Cosplay, and explains all the processes required to create a Cosplay work from the perspective of a COSER.

At this moment, the responsibility of books is no longer as simple as a few picture albums. Collecting a large amount of useful information and displaying it in a centralized manner can be helpful to many people. It can be said that the emergence of books such as "The Secret of COSPLAY", which are different from picture albums, has witnessed the growth of COSPLAY culture.

Title: "The Secret of COSPLAY 2" (Paperback Edition)

Author: Shiye/Editor-in-Chief Wang Ying/Editor

Number of pages: 208

Price: 89.00 yuan

Book number: 9787515329277

Available on JD.com, Dangdang, and Amazon

JD.com http://item.jd.com/11658951.html

Dangdang http://product.dangdang.com/23658906.html

Amazon http://www.amazon.cn/dp/B00U71SX3S/ref=cm_sw_r_si_2_dp_5omgvb1QH8R45

Title: "The Secret of COSPLAY 2" (Limited Edition: Comes with 5 postcards)

Author: Shiye/Editor-in-Chief Wang Ying/Editor

Number of pages: 208

Price: 118 yuan

Book number: 9787515330679

Available at the China Youth Lion Tmall official flagship store http://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?spm=a1z10.1-b.w8781938-10190870792.3.n5yVBj&id=43761048035&scene=taobao_shop