I did not know, until now, about

Cosplay

until yesterday, when we decided to go to the event at

Campushallen

area of Linkoping University. I thought, on seeing the made-up people, that it was a kind of college event; only on googling about it did I realize that since 1990 or so, it’s become an international event. What we saw yesterday (and the parade today, in the totally unusual 31 deg C heat and humidity) was the

Nordic Cosplay Championships

Here’s the

Facebook page

Here are people celebrating the Japanese influence in Cosplay:

The wiki says: "Cosplay (コスプレ kosupure?), short for costume play, is a performance art in which participants, called cosplayers, wear costumes and fashion accessories to represent a specific character or idea that is usually identified with a unique name." "Cosplayers often interact to create a subculture centered on role play. A broader use of the term cosplay applies to any costumed role play in venues apart from the stage, regardless of the cultural context." "Favorite sources include manga, anime, comic books, video games, and films." "Any entity from the real or virtual world that lends itself to dramatic interpretation may be taken up as a subject." "Inanimate objects are given anthropomorphic forms" "... and it is not unusual to see genders switched, with women playing male roles and vice versa. There is also a subset of cosplay culture centered on sex appeal, with cosplayers specifically choosing characters that are known for their attractiveness or revealing costumes." "There are social networks and websites centered on cosplay activities, while Internet forums allow cosplayers to share stories, photographs, news, and general information." "The rapid growth in the number of people cosplaying as a hobby since 1990 has made the phenomenon a significant aspect of popular culture. This is particularly the case in Asia, where cosplay influences Japanese street fashion." I was thinking of on both the visits, I somehow felt she would have enjoyed this far more than I did, knowing more about anime and manga than I do! But there was a lot of colour and vibrant positive energy in the air. It was unfortunate that the heat and humidity...very unusual for Sweden; 31 deg C!....completely sapped my energy and enervated me...and brought the paint sweating out of this player! Yesterday we cycled up to it, and I was half-dead by the time I returned...today I took a bus, but still had to walk quite a bit to get to the venue. No..heat and humidity are NOT for me! </lj-cut> However, I did pics: Here is my album on Facebook and here are PC's excellent photographs! I was inhibited about asking people to pose, but he was not! I did not realize that in contrast with everyday situations, here, people were quite proud to pose in their costumes.