WGC Cosplay comes to Dubai

A new culture is emerging in the region, it’s a form of performance art where people dress up like their favorite characters. It is called Cosplay short for “costume play”. Characters are often drawn from popular fiction in Japan. Favorite sources include manga, anime, tokusatsu, comic books, graphic novels, and video games.

Origins of this art trace its roots from Japan in 1978. Cosployers typically come from the ranks of otaku – that is, fans of Japanese comic books, known as manga. They gather at public events such as comic-book and video game trade shows, as well as dedicated Cosplay parties or amusement parks. Cosplay differs from Halloween and Mardi Gras costume because the objective of Cosplayers is to attempt to become the character they don in like an actor in a role. Once in their costume, cosplayers adopt to the characters they portray. Most cosplayers create their costumes through sheer labor learning crafts such as sculpture, dress making or tailoring, face painting, fiberglass work, fashion design in the effort to look and texture the costume accurately.

Most famous characters that inspire cosplayers are characters from Final Fantasy, Toy Soldier, Marvel Super Heroes, Hinoto, Kurosaki Ichigo, Bleach, World of Warcraft, Castlevania, Kingdom Hearts, Cloud, The Gipsy Queen from Trinity Blood, Darth Vader, Guitar Hero and Super Mario Brothers.

The first recorded Cosplay gathering in this part of the world was in 2008 on the floor of the Dubai World Game Expo. “The idea of organizing a Cosplay way back in 2008 came as soon as we have decided to have the World Game Championship on the Dubai World Game Expo floor. We visited gaming events in South Asia and Europe and Cosplay was almost synonymous to Gaming. However were skeptic about launching Cosplay in consideration to the Arab traditions and culture. But the art itself is so moving that we have the gut feel it will be a phenomenon in the near future. And we were surprised with the creativity of the Cosplay contenders that year, they have surpassed our expectations. I was even amazed to see how the young participants made their costumes in consideration with the conservative culture.” according Eng. Anas Al Madani, VP of Index Holding.

“We are so glad that Cosplay has arrived in UAE, we have been following the art of cosplaying in different countries for years, and unfortunately there was no venue to express our work of art. When we learned the first Cosplay in 2009, we were ecstatic. From 2008 until the present, we have seen the continuous growth of the Cosplay community. Now, we have forums and we have the annual WGC Cosplay Contest to anticipate every year.” said Maha Ismail, 2008 Copsplay Winner.

This year Cosplay will be held at the Dubai World Trade Centre on November 29, 2010 (4pm). It is expected to draw crowds of university students and yuppies to be on their best dress. For more details visit www.worldgamechampionship.com.