{"id":29254,"date":"2018-05-20T01:48:16","date_gmt":"2018-05-19T20:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/?p=29254"},"modified":"2018-05-20T01:48:16","modified_gmt":"2018-05-19T20:18:16","slug":"anime-and-cosplay-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/2018\/05\/20\/anime-and-cosplay-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Anime and cosplay culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

[ Nang Sanie ]<\/strong>
\nAnime refers to a style of Japanese animation, typically aimed at adults and children.
\nMore often than not, animated entertainment is deemed \u201cfor children\u201d and brushed off as \u201ccartoons for kids\u201d and at times, looked down upon.
\nAnime and manga (Japanese style comics) are no strangers to these judgements, but many do not realize that there exists anime and manga like Elfen Lied, Blood C and Berserk which are rated 18+ for their gory content and nudity.
\nThe above are just examples of different genres; there are many others to choose from, including those appropriate for children.
\nAnime is regarded as entertainment, but it has huge impact on educational, moral, cultural and emotional learning of individuals who take it seriously.
\nGurren Lagann, a mecha (robots and machines) based anime series seems to be pretty simple and straight forward on the surface but on a deeper analysis, one realizes that it is brimming with layers of meaning and symbolism.
\nThe evolution of anime brought about a concept called \u2018cosplay\u2019.
\nCosplay is contraction of \u2018costume play\u2019. It refers to the representation of a specific character with costumes and acting.
\nThe term was coined by Nobuyuki Takahashi in 1984.
\nJuno Pinggam, who goes by her alias @hotaru_juno on Instagram is a cosplayer from Itanagar who has been cosplaying since 2012. In 2017, Juno and her partner, Chichi Gichik were selected as India\u2019s representative for the World Cosplay Summit, which is held every year at Nagoya, Japan.
\n\u201cI was a fan of Japanese culture ever since I can remember\u201d, she said, talking about what sparked her interest in anime. She started with mainstream anime in India like Pok\u00e9mon, Beyblade and Dragon Ball Z.
\nHer love also extends to Marvel and DC comics, and the Indian comic Nagraj.
\nShe wanted to be like the characters she watched and read about, and with a little luck, she stumbled upon cosplay on the internet. She says cosplay helped bloom her personality; make friends through mutual interest; and gave opportunities to learn.
\nJuno says that because cosplay is new to India, people still don\u2019t accept it and think that \u201cbringing foreign culture to India is not good\u201d. On the contrary, her family accept and support her.
\nCosplay is often misunderstood and not considered a serious profession. While in Japan, cosplay is an integral part of the culture as well as economy.
\nTalking about the struggles of being a cosplayer in India, Juno professed that the resources are the hardest part.
\n\u201cI make props out of anything I can find\u201d, said Juno.
\nSometimes the budget is short or time is not enough.
\nPeople tend to compare her to others and say that her cosplays aren\u2019t good enough, but the good outweighs the bad.
\nCosplaying with store-bought costumes is easy, but cosplayers make their own props, including complex props, which can take months to create.
\nIt is not easy and often, the invested time, money and hard work done by cosplayers is overlooked.
\nThe criticisms she receives inspire her to do better. All cosplayers are an inspiration to her because it takes courage to cosplay. When others cosplay characters she likes, she gets motivated to cosplay, too.
\nShe hopes for growth of Japanese pop culture in India and more opportunities for exploration of fun and creativity.
\nAlthough the concept is new, it is fast growing and gaining more popularity. Multiple events are conducted yearly, all around India, to celebrate anime and cosplay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[ Nang Sanie ] Anime refers to a style of Japanese animation, typically aimed at adults and children. More often than not, animated entertainment is deemed \u201cfor children\u201d and brushed off as \u201ccartoons for kids\u201d and at times, looked down upon. Anime and manga (Japanese style comics) are no strangers to these judgements, but many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29265,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-29254","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spark"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}