is an exuberant, unique hobby brought with lots of passion, full conviction, respect and love. But what does it stands for?

You will find many different definitions but here is mine:

Cosplay is short for “Costume Play“. You choose an existing character from drawings, anime/manga, Japanese culture (Visual Kei, J-Pop, …), dolls, video games, movies, comic books.

A cosplayer is an individual that wants to show its realized transformation.
Under transformation I mean: behave, act and look like your chosen character.

The props, costumes and accessorizes have to be made by yourself (and/or a family member, friend). Therefore you must have a lot of patience and passion to complete this aspect of your cosplay.
Your props, costumes and accessorizes have to be as accurate as possible.

Sometimes your lack of experience oblige you to buy certain items like shoes, weapons. In a certain way this is allowed, as long as you do not buy complete costumes from eBay and participate contests.

What I really love about Cosplay is the fact that you:

- learn something new each time!
Type of personality, originality of the costume/prop , difficulty level of a costume/prop.

- see it grow!
The different stages: research, making/creating it, studying your character, learning your act, being the character

- have fun when you “are” the character.
It is something else than your daily life.

If you choose a cosplay with a strong/tough personality, you have to be like that. The same when you would choose/be a funny, cute character. There is a huge variety. Having fun is one of the main aspects WHY I cosplay.

- amaze people:
You are mostly not the only fan of that character. When people give you compliments, children want your autograph, people want pictures, children are looking at you with those big eyes, … these things gives me more credit than winning prices. Especially because this means that your “transformation” was successful.

- meet a new world!
When you are at a convention you will meet: Cosplayers, visitors, jury, photographers, ...
On internet there are people (cosplay.com, forums) who have the same interest as you. You make new friends and you help out each other where you can.