What's this? Book review of Akihiro Matsumoto's photo book.

PhotoGuide Japan receives a commission when you buy at Amazon using our Amazon links/search box.

Search Now: �

サーチ: �

Impressions: This must be the most exhaustive photo catalog of Japan's costume players thus far. There have been other photo books with a similar (and usually lewd) theme, but this book is a serious illustrative study of this cosplay (costume play) phenomenon that has been around since the early 1990s. There are about 290 photos, and there must be almost as many different characters or people that have been photographed for this book.

The portraits are very recent, taken between Dec. 1998 and Sept. 1999. These costume players sew and wear the costumes of various comic-book characters or arcade game characters. Then they gather at major events such as the Tokyo Game Show and pose for photographers for free. I've photographed them twice before and I recognize a few of them in the book.

For each photograph, the photographer meticulously provides the name, age, occupation, and dreams of each person posing. It also reveals how long the person has been a costume player (often a few years or longer), what he/she likes about being a cosplayer ("I can make a lot of friends" is the most common reply), how long it took to make the costume, and how much it cost (sometimes hundreds of dollars). The name of the character the person is impersonating is also stated. If you're doing research on Japanese pop culture, this is the book to get if you want to research cosplayers. Unfortunately, nothing is in English. (Reviewed by Philbert Ono)

600-1