Cosplay: The good, the bad, and the ugly
- Posted March 29th, 2008 at 13:58 EDT by PSU Staff
- 85,454 views
- 53 Comments
Editors note: This is just a fun little feature we thought we'd share with you guys for laughs. Hopefully you'll enjoy it like we do.
Cosplay, otherwise known as “Costume Play,” was a phrase coined for individuals who enjoyed creating elaborate costumes in order to portray their favorite anime, videogame, or manga character. The phenomena that started in Japan has done nothing but grow exponentially with each passing year. With the success that it has been, it has slowly overflowed across the ocean and took residency in the United States as a slowly growing fad.
With the increasing fanfare of the Anime culture in America, it seems that the cosplay scene has grown with it. There has slowly but surely been a growth in interest so much so that it has called for huge conventions to spur up from both the east coast and the west coast. Outside of conventions aimed directly at cosplay, you’ll find the hobby being displayed at anime conventions, comic conventions, and even gaming conventions. As great as all of it sounds, sometimes people just don’t understand the intricacies of what makes cosplay so magical and worth witnessing.
The only issue revolving around this pop culture happening is the blatant disregard of actually mimicking a character you can pull off. Due to this, America has been home to some of the worst, funniest, and even saddest forms of cosplay worldwide. Of course this epidemic isn’t only limited to the United States, it does happen elsewhere, just not as often as it does here.
What we’ve done is gone around the net and compiled a small collection of prime examples of this growing problem. The concept is simple, the dedication is tough, but the execution is everything and sometimes it just doesn’t work out. All we’re trying to achieve and all we’re asking for is for these individuals and future individuals to think first and maybe next time ask themselves, “Who am I kidding with this?” If the answer happens to be yourself, then you should stop right there.
Comments
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The Master
- 12:03pm GMT - March 29th, 2008
- 3
Totally awesome, I'll have to send in a pic of my cosplay so you can add it to the winner list, hehe.
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Shalashaaska |
Shalashaaska- 12:10pm GMT - March 29th, 2008
- 4
Very nice article, pretty funny too. It's amazing how good some of these are (mostly always the japanese of course) and you only really realize how good some of them are when compare them to the silly Americans. I love being an American... I exist to make people in other countries feel better about themselves, lol.
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vvmasterdrfan |
VvMastrDrFan- 12:12pm GMT - March 29th, 2008
- 5
i love cosplaying!!! i cosplay as roxas.. of course
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Staticneuron |
Staticneuron- 12:44pm GMT - March 29th, 2008
- 7
I want to mary that tifa cosplayer. The cosplay is awesome but she is just beautiful.
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Stickemup
- 1:18pm GMT - March 29th, 2008
- 11
HAHAHAHA! Like it was said before, some of those are very good. The hair on the Cloud winner is perfect. Yuna is pretty spot on, the guns are dope. The Gundam guy isn't even trying. Riku... Riku... Riku... that outfit from FFX-2 is awesome, always loved the g string coming out from the mini skirt. The KH kid is really disturbing. Tifa looks amazing... and Vincent looks awesome. Probably the best one.
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FantasyStar |
Tirin- 1:55pm GMT - March 29th, 2008
- 13
Gundam one is definitely my favorite. This just goes to show how superior the japanese are when it comes to Cosplay.
Though efforts and courage to do cosplay is only a nickel dozen.
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Dave-The-Rave |
Dave-The-Rave- 2:14pm GMT - March 29th, 2008
- 15
LMAO at fat Yuna and Fat Tifa !! Though the Tifa and Yuna winners are HOT !!
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zombieking36
- 5:14pm GMT - March 29th, 2008
- 19
Is it me, or did only the obese peoples get fail? But still, nice article! It was... amusing..
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MatrixSixaxis
- 7:01pm GMT - March 29th, 2008
- 23
I'd like to see "old" Snake....
But Tifa....d@@@@.m.n.........she is hot @.s.s.s.s.s.s!!! Is she the real lifelike model???
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EFFORTLESS7
- 7:06pm GMT - March 29th, 2008
- 24
The Tifa was good. the rest failed cuz they were japanese dressed as characters who looked white.
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IONIXX |
IONIXX- 8:15pm GMT - March 29th, 2008
- 25
great article :), it takes the right person to do a really GOOD job at cosplay, take lili rochefort example, now im not using her as an example cuz im one of her biggest fans, im using her as an examp cuz lili has very rare features, and her outfits can be just as hard to do, especially her 2nd outfit ( the jeans and corset) and with charecters u love, u should honour them, by doing a good job at cosplaying them :)
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Targetboard |
Targetboard- 9:01pm GMT - March 29th, 2008
- 26
While all the winners are VERY good, like so many others, I just have to say that.... the Tifa winner is gawd dayumn beautiful!! Even though she looks EXACTLY like her CGI counterpart, the most epic win still goes to the poor SOB in the Gundam armour! That's just unbelievable...
Kudos to PSU for putting up this article! I had a good time looking at the failures as well. Keep it up! :)
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Knight-Zero
- 9:54pm GMT - March 29th, 2008
- 28
Notice how Americans suck at Cosplaying, no American should cosplay. Thank you for making eyes bleed US.
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edward_moffet |
edd- 11:08pm GMT - March 29th, 2008
- 30
2 things 1 the yuna fail is disturbing and 2 i seriously thought for a second that the tifa winner was cg absolutely stunning if i was her id change my name to tifa lockheart lol
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idenowhereiam |
WylieTimes- 12:05am GMT - March 30th, 2008
- 33
So basically Asians cosplay.. everyone else....FAIL
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InfernoReaper |
GrimDarkling- 12:46am GMT - March 30th, 2008
- 34
We Americans always seem to butcher things popular in other countries.
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LA_COMANDO_NEGRA |
la-comando-negra- 12:55am GMT - March 30th, 2008
- 35
dont these people gave anything better
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incredibilistic
- 8:39pm BST - March 30th, 2008
- 36
What this is shows is that the Asian scene actually spend valuable time producing their costumes and pay respect to the creators by getting as close as possible to the character. Seemingly the Asians are creating custom pieces to get as close to the original concept as possible.
Meanwhile us Yanks go up the attic and look for whatever didn't sell in the last yard sale and try to make it work. The other thing I noticed is that photography. Just look at the Vincent shot. The winning shot looks like a still from a live action film.
Plus, all the Asian chicks look insanely hot. I find it hard to believe you couldn't find better looking Cosplayer chicks than just a bunch of fatties but maybe the point was to find bad ones so I'll give you that. Having said that, nothing these fatties could wear will make them desirable let alone disgracing the FF franchise.
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FantasyStar |
Tirin- 1:03am BST - April 1st, 2008
- 39
I'm sure, "pretty sure" that the Winner of the Tifa cosplay.
The chest is a lie. -
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godofspeed |
EspadaKiller - XBL also- 3:11am BST - April 4th, 2008
- 44
LOL they really fail man....they should know their limits at the first place. And all of the Japanese cosplay are really hot! I got a bunch of the japanese cosplayers photos, and they all look fantastic. This shows that Japanese really know their stuffs, unlike the rest of the world, i live in Singapore, and the cosplayers suck here too.
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woodcock_ps3 |
WALL-MARTshinobi- 2:41pm BST - April 4th, 2008
- 45
if they make a movie they should cast tifa she is born to b her OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! she is HOOOOOOOOOTTTT mabe to hot she has to win if not the judges are g@y.
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dyancej
- 11:34pm BST - April 4th, 2008
- 47
They need to at least make it a little fair and do some characters that Americans can put up some competition with their Asian counterparts. Maybe some characters like Homer Simpson, Fat Albert, or even the State Puff Marshmellow Man. Then you'll see some real American gravy!
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