Young who grew up watching Japanese cartoons now take to the streets dressed as heroes The dream did almost anything was possible. Are the cosplayers ("costume play" or "costume play"), a community that expresses deep admiration for Japan's culture and has quadrupled in the last decade. Hundreds of Mexicans, but no one has studied so thoroughly as to say for sure how many exactly.
perform a couple of national conventions a year that go more than a hundred young people who compete to see who gets more accurately emulate the look of their idols. The members of this community walk, look, move, talk and smile like the characters that dominated the small screen in the second half of the 90's.
Alejandra, 27, is no longer the industrial designer to become Yuuko. Aloe, 22, forgets to study chemical engineering and becomes Rosette. Violeta, 27, leaves the suit portrays a lawyer and Sailor Mars. The characters in anime (cartoons) and manga (comics Nipponese) come alive in these girls who are defined as members of the otaku, a Japanese word that describes people who have over-attachment to any activity, but in Mexico and other countries have formed communities that adopt Japanese customs and habits. Collectibles
pictures, maps, manga, costumes. They are fans of video games, card games and karaoke. They are able to sing Japanese songs from their favorite series though, say the young women interviewed by El Universal, only about 5% of the otaku master that language.
photos are taken in different parts of Mexico City and reach their maximum degree of notoriety for its two national meetings: the TNT, held in Tlatelolco Convention Center, and The Mole, Expo Reforma.
But for some years and not only see them at conventions, now have created their own meeting spaces in the city, almost always surrounded by comics. They come to Rock Show, a site that is front of the Alameda Central, where they buy and share every Saturday anime-related items or even get together to play cards. They also look at comic book stores or in so-called Maidcafe, where the waiters have their Cosplay as the most famous is Level 10, Colonia Juárez.
usually wear many ornaments, carry details of their favorite series, whether hair colors and stylish cuts, using belts, berets, and even cat ears, made of plush. Their cell phones ring tones Japanese music and his nicknames and surnames that are also in Japanese.
Cosplayer World
are not all otaku cosplayer, but all are otaku cosplayer. Alejandra has 10 years practicing Cosplay. He says he uses costumes for comic conventions and to take photo shoots in various places in the city. It has about 11 outfits and has made more than 200 other cosplayers. The industrial designer is about to launch a clothing line for otakus. "Many do not identify with the fashion they sell in stores. We are baroque, we need a lot of color in our locker room, "says the girl, 27.
owns a shop that sells colored wigs, costumes, swords, wings, shoes, makeup and even pupilentes of different colors that create an effect that causes the eyes look bigger, like those of most Japanese cartoon characters. She buys many of these products online and then makes them available to members of their community through the network.
says his business has grown thanks to the cosplayers increasingly characterized spend more money but, he adds, most hand-sewn costumes. She found that members of this community do everything possible to find the wig, pupilentes, shoes and accessories that make them look more like their idols. That need became his business flourish. If you want red eyes, they are achieved. If you want snails around the pupil, relatives.
"The cosplayers are the main attraction of conventions and, therefore, as expected, and criticized in the world of otaku. What most are looking for a cosplayer is to win competitions to represent Mexico at the World Cosplay held every year in Japan, "says Alejandra.
She already fulfilled that dream. Along with aloe, represented Mexico at the World Cosplay 2007, which won third place. They have been the only Mexican otaku come to Japan and get a prize. Alejandra participated as aloe as Sailor Galaxia and Sailor Moon. Since then, aloe is known worldwide as Lina Moon Otaku. And it could be otherwise, but not seen dress, this girl talks and moves like Sailor Moon. Cosplay practiced for 17 years and keeps in his closet 16 costumes, all anime and manga characters with tender features. "The I choose because I like, always looking characters that look more cute or that I can see some resemblance," he says.
Violet is a lawyer and his disguise is one of the many bad girls that appear in Japanese cartoons. It has become second and third places in the competitions of the conventions, but now seeks to move the world and so takes more than a month preparing for your cosplay convention of "The Mole."
confesses that when he brings his left cosplay de ser ella por un momento. “Uno puede expresarse sin ser criticado; mientras portas el traje, dejas de ser tú y te conviertes en tu personaje favorito; para mí es una manera sana de dejar los problemas atrás sin tener que acudir a los vicios”, dice.
Paula es una de las cosplayers veteranas. Lleva seis años haciendo Cosplay y tiene unos 40 trajes con los que ha ganado 13 premios en distintos estados del país. Ella coordina los concursos de Cosplay en las convenciones de TNT. Asegura que unos 120 cosplayers de todo el país se reúnen cada año en ese evento con el objetivo de representar a México en Japón.
“Durante todo el año se buscan a los mejores cosplayers del país in the various state conventions, and then gather in the grand final made in Mexico City. The maximum award that can receive a cosplayer is to know Japan, and the satisfaction of being recognized within the otaku culture, "he says. The first otaku
Christian Hernandez, a professor and researcher at El Colegio de Mexico, graduated from the Master of Studies of Asia and Africa, specializing in Japan, made one of the few studies on the topic "The Birth of otaku culture. "
Research explains that in the second half of the 90 cartoons sparked a boom in Japanese broadcast mainly by TV Azteca and subsequently by Televisa Channel 5.
The origin of the phenomenon is located with the television appearance in 1996, from the animated series Sailor Moon.
From 96 to 2000 was broadcast on television series like The Saint Seiya, Sailor Moon, Pokemon, Ranma 1 / 2 and Dragon Ball Z, until it began a review of the anime by education authorities in some states, which banned the use of clothing or school supplies with pictures of manga and anime on the ground that were a bad influence on Mexican children. These cartoons were designated as "pornographic", "evil" and "satanic."
In 2001, a Catholic priest in the state of Hidalgo tried to burn massive Pokemon products, a situation that was halted after the subject of severe criticism by intellectuals such as the late Carlos Monsivais.
A decade after these attacks have disappeared from the public space, giving way to building a community that is characterized by playing dress-up of television that made them heroes dream that almost everything was po sible. The otaku, the girls interviewed said, grew 400% in the last 10 years.
By: Cinthya Sanchez
Attn: Karazu
