Technically speaking, cosplay, short for “costume play”, is a type of performance art in which participants wear costumes and accessories to represent a specific character or idea from a work of fiction. Continue reading to see twenty-four of the internet’s most popular cosplayers.
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 and/or revealing costumes.
