I’m so confused—or maybe they are.
In case you don’t know, (and I sure didn’t), there are hundreds of thousands of people around the world who spend millions upon millions of dollars on intricately constructed costumes for their personal use.
No — not just gowns or nutty Civil War costumes that people wear for reenactments. Nor is it the job description of the costume designer at a local theater group.
That’s all mere child’s play, or should I say, “cosplay” compared to real thing — cosplay. What the hell is that?
It’s competitive costume-making and costume-wearing at comic conventions — events at which competitors spend thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours on outfits to look like characters in animated movies, comic books, graphic novels and video games.
It’s not enough to go to a costume store and rent a Demon Hunter outfit? I mean, seriously. Renting is so last decade!
Syfy, which loves all things comic, cosmic and costume has a new series, “Heroes of Cosplay,” devoted to these very folks who are devoted to competing around the country at comic conventions.
Competitive cosplayers make giant molds, sew elaborate outer space outfits, spray-paint their bodies and create armor from plastic molds they build themselves.
We learn that if the cosplay industry has a legend, it’s the one-and-only Yaya Han — a woman who is such a remarkable designer/wearer of the wild, hugely expensive costumes she and her boyfriend create that she’s now the go-to authority.
She is, in fact, a cosplay mogul with lines of accessories and God knows what else. Then there are the competitors themselves, some fairly new to cosplay and some who’ve been doing it years.
We aren’t given any in-depth knowledge about what these folks do to earn a living in the real world that enables them to spend every waking hour and dime on making costumes. Several of them seem to be involved in the industry.
No one seems rich, but there are big cash prizes for winners, which helps defer the cost of the elaborate costumes.
The weird thing, (well, all of it is weird), is that these folks really want to be the fictional characters they portray.
If you like cosplay yourself, you’ll love “Cosplay.”