Cosplays and cosplayers: A global phenomenon in a local context

"Young people who appear in the cityscape dressed in strange clothes should rather concentrate on reality and do something better with their time."
This could be the obvious utterance from a sceptical outsider experiencing cosplayers. What is cosplay? Who engages in cosplay and what do cosplayers express? What are the drivers of cosplay? Quoting cosplayer and essayist Shelby Fawn Morgan (2015, p. 1), “Upon reflection, the act of cosplaying is a practice in finding truths, not manufacturing lies”, this article presents and discusses the phenomenon of cosplay – a contraction of ‘costume’ and ‘play’ – that is practiced in different situations and with different purposes all over the world. The aim is to reveal a small part of a global culture that plays out locally. The exploring of cosplay is based on a qualitative study of an ever-changing phenomenon that is difficult to capture and sometimes plays out unexpectedly. Thus, this article takes it starting point in my unexpected first experience of the phenomenon followed by more encounters and a re-visit ten years later. Here, interview comments from the Danish cosplayer Signe are the accompanying voice throughout the text.