Cosplay and Its Negotiated Space between Reality and Fantasy

Would you like to cosplay?

Of course, but “Is it okay to cosplay in public for no reason?” Appeared on my Quora community, this question accidentally sparks my curiosity. Why do we need any reason to validate our cosplaying capability? What doubts do people have about cosplaying in public? These wondering thoughts, especially the hesitation of where to appropriately cosplay, draw the imagery of the three divided spaces in my head with a specific functionality for each. It is like the diagram of the mathematical intersection according to the set theory where I present Space A as a place of reality, Space B as an area of fantasy, and Space A ∩ B (A intersects B) as a negotiated space between reality and fantasy. While a lot of people assume that cosplaying makes cosplayer alienated from the very mundane world to the realm of extreme fantasy, I find it intriguing to point out that there exists the space shared between that binary opposition called “a negotiated space.” Besides contemplating cosplay as something too earthly or too fanciful, it becomes more challenging to observe the qualities they have shared together between the overlap.

Do you really think that cosplaying brings alienation?

The answer depends on where you are answering it from. Standing in the middle of the imaginary occurrence with the eyes made blind to perceive another sight of existing reality, I would answer NO. A lot of people recognize a sense of fantasy through their “escapism” journey. A mental diversion which shifts from the boring life to something enjoyable in such a new/fictional universe. If cosplay means to “costume” and to “play,” the idea of escapism will have crucial influences on how cosplayers “play identities” of their chosen character without any reluctance of thinking about social conformation based on reality. We can define the term “play” [of identities] here in a theatrical sense. Now, cosplayers are not only considered as consumers in cosplay industry, but they are also performers at the same time. The more you perform/play means the more you are attached to the realm of fantasy, which I named it earlier as Space B. In this space, the character you cosplay seems outstanding as if it is completely imitated without the intrusion of other spaces’ character. There are two possibilities: 1) The Space of Fantasy is so powerful that it can perfectly function its “imitation” of the essence of each character right away 2) All so-called escapists (based on Escapism) to this world of fantasy have already ignored about the mundane aspects of reality, so they have a higher chance of not letting any earthly intrusion in their mind in the first place. As we can see from the anime My Hero Academia, for example, the cosplayer might come up with distinct impression towards Himigo Toga, one of the characters in the League of Villains who can transform into a physical lookalike of another person. The Fantasy Space [Space B] allows this unrealistic character to be more real in its surreal world. However, it eventually reveals the fact that Toga has limitation of transforming duration as if a normal human being who has physical restriction. The situation now is like you are trying to run to the Space of Fantasy by having Toga character as your reasonable evidence, still, the Space of Reality is pulling you back with the fact about Toga’s limitation of her ability.

Is it playing identities or playing a tug of war?

Cosplaying pulls and pushes you back and forth between Reality and Fantasy [Space A and Space B]. No matter how surreal it seems to be, the cosplay can still find its place in the Space of Reality. From Toga’s avant-garde costume, for example, there is only a normal Japanese school uniform that she wears inside. When we see Toga character in the space of Reality, her threatening villain ability seems to be something that we compassionately want to understand since she is so human like us. For me, the idea of “cosplaying makes alienation” is true only when we look at cosplay from the opposite space. The most needed space for cosplaying is actually a negotiated space between those two, which is called Space A ∩ B. The intersection of Reality and Fantasy proves that there is no absolute escapism and alienation. I feel uncomfortable at first to either put Himigo Toga character completely in the Space of Reality or in the Space of Fantasy. To be frank, Toga character becomes more meaningful when it is put in the negotiated space. We can see the character’s fictional ability which is beyond human altogether with some physical limitations that human can easily relate. Having these mixed feelings from the two spaces, you might have experienced your cosplaying differently.  Maybe cosplaying employs two binary aspects in itself which most people overlook. From A ∩ B perspective, cos‘play’ does not play with the anime character identities alone, it also plays with our real identity [Space A] according to Goffman’s Face Theory. In real life, we play other people’s characters without realizing it. It is human instinct to apply a “face” appropriate for each situation, in other word, human beings are capable of playing identities before the coming of cosplay culture. We play the roles of others, and these others also play with our roles, which means that we all help each other build real identities through the instinctive unavoidable roleplay. Cosplay can be a symbol of creating identities in a real sense, and still functioning its concept of playing identities at the same time.

In its own world of fashion, cosplay culture is not only about how its own separate universe of fashion engage in fantasy or how it seeks pleasant distraction, but cosplaying is also associated with worldly conditions which people fail to notice. To present my three spaces under the cosplay functionality, I feel like having cosplayed myself [my brain] imaginatively as a quick-thinking character like Naruto along with my analysis of Toga’s character in each space. See? Cosplaying is fun in every aspect.

Again, would you like to cosplay?

Do you still want to escape?

Welcome to the unsuccessful escapism.