Animegao
Encyclopedia
Cosplay
, short for "costume play", is a type of performance art in which participants don costumes and accessories to represent a specific character or idea. Characters are often drawn from popular fiction in Japan, but recent trends have included American cartoons and science fiction...
er who performs a variant of kigurumi
Kigurumi
is the Japanese name for costumed performers who represent cartoon characters, often animals. The name comes from the Japanese verb and noun . These performers appear at shopping malls, theme parks, and anime conventions...
cosplay. The face is fully covered with a mask
Mask
A mask is an article normally worn on the face, typically for protection, disguise, performance or entertainment. Masks have been used since antiquity for both ceremonial and practical purposes...
, usually meant to look like a human cartoon character, and the costume of the character is worn. In Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
most cosplayers refer to this style as ( - Animegao, or "Anime Face"). It is still a very minor part of the cosplay scene in Japan, though it was around 2005 when it began attracting attention in other countries, including the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, and European countries.
At the hobbyist level the characters in question are almost all female
Female
Female is the sex of an organism, or a part of an organism, which produces non-mobile ova .- Defining characteristics :The ova are defined as the larger gametes in a heterogamous reproduction system, while the smaller, usually motile gamete, the spermatozoon, is produced by the male...
, and commonly human
Human
Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
, although kigurumi characters of other races and gender
Gender
Gender is a range of characteristics used to distinguish between males and females, particularly in the cases of men and women and the masculine and feminine attributes assigned to them. Depending on the context, the discriminating characteristics vary from sex to social role to gender identity...
s do exist, including male
Male
Male refers to the biological sex of an organism, or part of an organism, which produces small mobile gametes, called spermatozoa. Each spermatozoon can fuse with a larger female gamete or ovum, in the process of fertilization...
(such as Kenshin Himura from Rurouni Kenshin/Samurai X
Rurouni Kenshin
, also known as Rurouni Kenshin and Samurai X, is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Nobuhiro Watsuki. The fictional setting takes place during the early Meiji period in Japan. The story is about a fictional assassin named Himura Kenshin, from the Bakumatsu who becomes a wanderer to...
), mechanical
Machine
A machine manages power to accomplish a task, examples include, a mechanical system, a computing system, an electronic system, and a molecular machine. In common usage, the meaning is that of a device having parts that perform or assist in performing any type of work...
(such as Gundam Wing), elven
Elf
An elf is a being of Germanic mythology. The elves were originally thought of as a race of divine beings endowed with magical powers, which they use both for the benefit and the injury of mankind...
(such as Deedlit
Deedlit
Deedlit is a fictional character in the Record of Lodoss War fantasy role-playing game setting, light novels and its derivative anime franchise. A female high elf and shaman , she is the romantic interest and inseparable companion of Parn...
or Pirotess from Lodoss) and demonic (such as Inuyasha from the anime
InuYasha
, also known as , is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi. It premiered in Weekly Shōnen Sunday on November 13, 1996 and concluded on June 18, 2008...
of the same name). Another cosplay motive may also be the desire to emulate a given anime character in exact appearance, and personality. Other cosplayers have developed their own characters.
By wearing a body suit and mask
Mask
A mask is an article normally worn on the face, typically for protection, disguise, performance or entertainment. Masks have been used since antiquity for both ceremonial and practical purposes...
, kigurumi cosplayers are able to get closer to the appearance of the original character, especially in the case of animal characters or highly stylised characters. Non-professional animal kigurumi cosplayers (also known as "Fursuiters" mostly by Furries) painstakingly make detailed heads and bodies from foam, plastic, wire, artificial fur and other materials. In animegao kigurumi, the performer playing a humanoid anime character will wear a flesh-coloured body suit (known as a Zentai
Zentai
Zentai is a term for skin-tight garments that cover the entire body. The word is a contraction of zenshin taitsu...
) and matching mask usually moulded from clay
Clay
Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...
or fiberglass composites (FRP). The body suit allows them less-detailed skin
Skin
-Dermis:The dermis is the layer of skin beneath the epidermis that consists of connective tissue and cushions the body from stress and strain. The dermis is tightly connected to the epidermis by a basement membrane. It also harbors many Mechanoreceptors that provide the sense of touch and heat...
features, on the level of animated characters, and the mask allows a similar level of facial features. Some hobbyists obtain masks from established hobbyist mask studios such as Build Up Studio SIGMA or Dolphin Factory.
As with other kinds of cosplay, many hobbyists have costumes of established characters from games or animations.
Even though this term originated as a translation of , the original Japanese term is not used to describe masking based on anime characters. Instead the term 着ぐるみ (きぐるみ, kigurumi) is used by most performers.
External links
External ResourcesMask Creators