愛方[aikata]
Well, I have joined some cosplay event lately, and learned some terminology at some cosplayers’ joint website such as Costype. I introduced some terms in my previous post, but I have noticed there are more terms since I started to attend some events…
Frequently, you can find these words at the bulletin board where you can seek some cosplayer mates or tempolary cosplayers who can accompany with you for such events(合わせ). However, sometimes I get confused because of some specific conditions they offer. I shall hereby introduce some of them.
1. 激ポ[gekipo]; this is kinda easy to guess. It merely means anyone who is fat. It also says 激ポチャ[gekipocha]. At any rate, 激[geki] means very, excessive, or super-, and ポチャ[pocha] means chubby. Yes, this term is used to reject such fat cosplayers when they post a message on the bulletin board to seek mates. They often say like 激ポチャさんごめんなさい[gekipocha-san gomennasai] or 激ポお断り[gekipo okotowari]. Both mean ”No fat cosplayers, sorry.” Although almost all the posts say something like this, mostly the person who says this is 激ポ.
2. 着ただけさん[kitadake-san]; Literally, it means anyone who just wear costume, and doesn’t know about the character he/she cosplays at all. Yes, if you cosplay, you have to know about the character you cosplay well, otherwise you can’t strike a pause with other cosplayers…Umm, I think if the costume really suits him/her, it wouldn’t be a big deal, though…
3. 絡みOK[karami okay]: Yes, if they seek anyone who is okay with BL, this term is often used. 絡み[karami] is a noun form of 絡む[karamu, snuggle]. I often see some female cosplayers snuggling each other though they are meant to be male characters.
4. 愛方[aikata]; It should be written as 相方[aikata] which means a partner. Basically, it is supposed to be used among comic dialogists[漫才師] in order to mean his/her partner. But recently, young people use this to mean a boyfriend. As far as I am aware, this could be used by women, so I don’t know any men who use this to mean a girlfriend. Having said that, when this term comes to the cosplayers’ circle, it slightly changes the meaning somehow…the kanji 相[ai] should be replaced by 愛[ai]. Yes, if they seek a boyfriend or a girlfriend who is also a cosplayer, 愛方 would be used.
Umm…when I heard of this term, I actually frowned upon it. I know everybody prefers a person who has the same interests as yours, but such bulletin boards are not supposed to be for dating. Come to think of it, it reminds me of my previous post, 害人[gaijin]…
[Intermission] My first cosplay
I am sorry this post is not about anime terminology, but I have been so busy for the certain otaku event…that is a cosplay event. Yes, I have decided to give it a try for cosplay. In a way, in some ways, in many ways, this year is going to be the greatest one in all of my life. So I shall write about this tough process with some words I learned during the production.
What I had to decide first is which character I shall cosplay, so I mulled it over well among all the characters I like. And it’s him,
He is Oono Suefumi(多季史) who shows up in the anime film, Harukanaru toki no naka de Maihitoyo(遙かなる時空の中で 舞一夜) that series stems from the otome game I played for the first time. Unlike any other regular characters, he shows in this movie only though the additional game where you can pursue him came out after this film (How shrewed KOEI is!). Trying not to give away any spoilers, I shall tell you about him…Akane(our protagonist, she is worshipped as Miko[神子]) encounters him on the bridge in a rainy day. She is so tired of being Miko that she can relax in front of him because he never asks who she is. However, he doesn’t remember who he is. So Akane tries to help him get back his memory. But actually he is…
I can’t make costume though I am an otomen(they must be good at any chores), so first I tried some costume shops where those who can’t make clothes like me can order. But the price was incredible so my eyes almost popped out. It was beyond my one month salary. When I almost gave up, I learned my aunt is good at sewing. When I showed his costume, she said she could possibly make it. So we started to buy cloth we needed.
My aunt took me to this place, 布の道[nuno no michi, Fabric Street] which is well-known among cosplayers. Now that there is Otome Road for fujoshi, I must say this is what’s called Cosplayers’ Road, otherwise レイヤーロード[reiya road, reiya is an abbreviation of cosplayer(コスプレイヤー). Most customers are either elder women or young girls...when I listened to those young girls, they were talking about the characters they might cosplay...
After we finished, I left the cloth to my aunt, and started to get some other items I needed. I dashed to the costume shop again to buy a wig. Fotunately, it wasn't so expensive. But it was a bit long, so I had to cut somehow...
But actually, I am not a barbar, so I had to ask someone else...ugh, who else can do this? So I ended up going to the hairdresser though I was so embarrassed. Yes, here I learned a useful line which is well-known among cosplayers;
1. 文化祭で使うんです。[bunkasai de tsukaundesu, "I shall use it for the school festival"]
If you buy a really weird stuff and get embarrassed, you can say this to the casher who might frown upon you. Unfortunately, this excuse works only while you are a student. I am not, so I can’t use this anymore. orz
I have seen those nice cosplayers even copying the eyes’ color…well, I didn’t even necessarily have to do this, but I couldn’t go back. So I got this,
Yes, Suefumi is a talented dancer, so he carries a fan most of the time. Above fan costed 100 yen, but I guess much professional cosplayers would buy a much gorgeous fan…I made these earrings briefly.
My aunt did a good job, she completed my costume just in two days.
But the hardest work was left to me…yes, that is some patterns on the 水干[suikan], the blue kimono. Of all the cosplayers who do Suefumi, what kind of pattern shall be chosed is up to the person. Having said that, it seems like most of them dislike those patterns which are shown in the movie…I changed the original somehow in order to make it easier. But even that, it was a very tiring job.
Placing a stencil on the 水干, I painted with a white ink, and dried it one by one…This took more than a week.
Done. I was quite pleased to feel a sense of achievement although most of the work was done by my aunt. Oh no, I used to see a lot of cosplayers making a pause automatically when I tried to take a photo of them. Does that mean I should do that? Here I learned another common line among cosplayers;
2. 振り向きでお願いします。[furimuki de onegaishimasu] 振り向く[furimuku] means to look back, though, it is supposed to mean to make a pause. So if you are told like this, you would have to make a pause somehow…and one more, if an event you attend didn’t go well as you expected because well, your camera got broken or none of the pictures were good or whatever, let’s say like;
3. リベンジしようね。[revenge shiyou ne, "let's do revenge"] Yes, if you want to do better next time, revenge against your failure, yourself! But forgive me, when I learned this, I couldn’t stop laughing…
So I shall hereby post some photos I took at the cosplay event I attended for the first time. At the same time, this is my first time posting a photo of me. It’s worthless, but if you don’t mind, I hope you could see the photos.
コスプレＡＶ[cosplay AV]
This post contains some pornographic contexts. Viewers’ understanding is required. Read the rest of this entry »
ダンパ[dampa]
If you happen to be a cosplayer, you would be definitely sure of this term. When I heard of this for the first time, I could guess this should be an abbreaviation of ダンスパーティー[dance party]. I was…maybe right, roughly. In fact, this term is common among cosplayers, and it means a dance party for cosplayers. They join this party in order to have fun with dancing…with anime songs. Having said that, lately non-otaku people or those who are not such deep otaku are also coming to ダンパ. And songs are not only from anime but such pop-music. So some cosplayers who love ダンパ or ヲタ芸師[otageishi] could even dance パラパラ[parapara routine]. Yes, I have actually witnessed a group of ヲタ芸師 starting to dance パラパラ after finishing otagei on the main street in Akihabara.
Speaking of cosplayers, I have no experience in cosplay(I wish I could) but I have been to some events for cosplayers such as Comic Market or whatsover. So, I shall introduce some terms those are so common among cosplayers.
1. オールジャンル[all genre]; Like a Comic Market, an event which has no specific theme. So anyone can dress up whatever they want. That means so many attendants would join, so the arena should be such a bigger place like 国際展示場[kokusaitenjijou].
2. オンリーイベント[only event]; The exact opposite of オールジャンル, this event should specify the theme. If an event is for One Piece, only One Piece fans are allowed to join. Also, in BL circles, they can specify even the pair. For example, if the event is for Zoro×Sanji, only those who love this pair could join. I am sure those who love Sanji×Zoro pair never join. XD The good thing of this kind of event, it is much easier to find mates who have the same taste as yours.
3.ナベシャツ[nabe-shirt]; What is it? It’s a T-shirt which is used by female cosplayers when they get dressed as a man. Yes, it is capable of pressing the breasts…to try not to make remarkable. ナベ[nabe] means a pot, but actually it also means a woman who pretends to be a man, or who functions as a male in a Lesbian couple. Incidentally, カマ[kama] means a man who pretends to be a woman. I am not sure there’s also a カマシャツ[kama-shirt] for male cosplayers when they get dressed as a woman(女装”josou”).
4. レイヤー[reiya-]; Yes, it means a cosplayer. If you happen to see a very…umm…hid–us cosplayer, don’t say kimoi(キモイ), but be kind of saying 痛いレイヤー(itai reiya-). 痛い is more modest than any other direct negative adjectives.
5. 肌出し系[hadadashi-kei]; Any characters those are almost naked or wear such dangeroussexy costumes. Otherwise, such cosplayers. I think Rum in Uruseiyatsura is this kind of thing. We can also say 露出系[roshutsu-kei] to mean it. 露出 means exposure.
6. 合わせ[awase]; If you try to be a cosplayer, whatever it is, would you like to accompany some more cosplayers from the same series as yours? If you are in Haruhi costume, would you like to accompany Mikuru or Yuki? Yes, it would be much better, wouldn’t it? So 合わせ means to accompany some cosplayers who get dressed as other characters from the same series.
7. 盗撮の盗撮[tousatsu no tousatsu]; 盗撮 means to take a photo of someone with no permission. Such people are what’s called 出歯亀[debagame] which means Peeping Tom. Well, of course there are a lot of paparazzi called カメラ小僧[camera kozou](sometimes it can be abbreviated as カメコ[kameko]). However, some of them sometimes take a photo with no permission…this is 盗撮. The funny thing is that some paparazzi would take a photo of such Peeping Tom with no permission. This is 盗撮の盗撮. Mostly, such photos would be posted on the net, and saying like “Be aware of those paparazzi.” This is dangeously hilarious…ugh.
By the way, the above image was taken when I went to the event, Chara Hobby 2007. She is wearing a leotard of Char Aznable…umm, gorgeous. (*´Д｀*)ﾊｱﾊｱ However, after I saw this, I encountered a woman who must have been in 50’s and wore the same costume as this…
痛い痛い痛いぃぃぃぃぃぃ！！(((;°д°)))
