For those who fancy themselves as superheroes or comic book characters, cosplay is the answer. Short for costume play, Cosplay was originally a Japanese subculture that began in the 1970s which featured people dressing as characters from anime, manga, tokasatsu and video games. As it’s grown and spread to other countries, it’s added some local flavor, with characters from Taiwanese puppet theater, Star Wars, American Civil War just a few of the accepted additions to the subculture.

The term cosplay was coined by Nov Takahashi in 1984 while attending Worldcon, the World Science Fiction Convention. Unlike simply dressing up in a Superman costume as a kid might do, cosplayers seek to become the character. As a result, elaborate costumes are made, with careful attention to detail to ensure that everything is perfect, right down to the color of the stitching.

In Taiwan, former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) once cosplayed as Heihachi Edajima, a character from the manga series Sakigake!! Otokojuku. While it may appeal to presidents, most people think it’s kind of silly and in Japan today it has negative sexual connotations associated with it.

Last weekend, Petit Fancy 8 was held at National Taiwan University’s Sports Center. Along with David, Darren and Todd, I spent a couple of hours there, shooting the cosplayers in some beautiful, sunny weather. When we arrived there weren’t so many people, but it quickly got crowded with characters, photographers and curious onlookers.

I’m not even going to try and identify who the characters are supposed to be. With the exception of Batman, Flintstones and the Simpsons, I’m pretty much clueless about cartoon characters. The next big cosplay event will be at the same place on July 26-27.

For a full photo gallery from Petit Fancy 8, take a look here.

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