BOOK: We Love Cosplay Girls – More Live Anime Heroines From Japan
COMPANY: Cocoro Books (DH Publishing, Inc.)
PAGE COUNT: 82 pages
Back when I was working on the J!-ENT cosplay project “COSPLAY UNDERGROUND“, I would peruse a lot of Japanese and Korean cosplay sites to see the awesome cosplay and the quality of the outfits for various anime, video games and manga.
As we and various other sites were at the forefront of showcasing photography of cosplayers in America at that time, still I would wish there would be publications that would feature the cosplay in Japan.
Sure, there has been a single video release and we would see glimpses on US anime magazines but I felt it would be rad to have a book where cosplayers can look to see the kind of cosplay coming from Japan, look at the quality of the outfits and also possibly use as a resource.
Well, Cocoro Books has been doing it for some time now and have released “We Love Cosplay Girls”, the third volume of their cosplay photobook series (following “Cosplay Girls” and “Cosplay Girls 2”) featuring hundreds of full-color photos of female cosplayers from Japan.
The book starts out with an interesting three page writeup by a cosplayer which seems like a page from her diary as she dishes out the dirt on her cosplay rivals, stressing about getting a costume ready for this event and so much more.
But the remaining 77-pages are then dedicated to photos of cosplayers in Japan broken down in chapters such as: Heroes, She’s So Cool, Asian Style, Animal Land, Spacey, Dark Side, Cute Style and School Life.
Photos are shown, with the names of the cosplayer, the character and the anime, video game or manga that they are cosplaying from.
Looking through the “Heroes” section and seeing this beautiful outfit created by Ayamori Yika of Iteza Seiya from the series “Saint Seiya” is just awesome. If there is one thing that I would love to see in a future adaption of a cosplay book is how the costume was created, how long and how much.
But to see the craftmanship put into her overall outfit is just amazing.
Then seeing a page of a cosplay group and individuals showcasing their outfits based on the CAPCOM Playstation 2 game “Sengoku Basara” (“Devil Kings” in the USA) which was awesome to see. And was surprised how many cosplayers adored the characters as there are many cosplaying “Sengoku Basara” characters.
As I turn the page and viewed each cosplayer, I can imagine that many fans outside of Asia would appreciate this book because there is cosplay from the noticeable “BLEACH”, “ONE PIECE”, “DRAGON BALL Z” and “NARUTO” cosplay, to video games such as “Tales of Symphonia”, “Dragon Quest”, “Suikoden” and “Sengoku Musou” (aka Dynasty Warriors), “Final Fantasy” and more.
I just found it also interesting to see pages dedicated to certain characters like the cosplayers dressed up as the sultry Rangiku of “BLEACH” because as a bloke, I have been interested to see how much umm…cleavage that a cosplayer would show for Rangiku and sure enough, some cosplayers did.
Of course, I had to check out the “Dark Side” section and see the cosplayers of darkness dressing up as “Suikoden”, “D.Gray-man”, “Black Lagoon” and “Sengoku Basara” (Devil Kings) characters. Especially to see the group cosplaying as the evil “Akatsuki Warriors!” from “Naruto” was pretty cool.
I have to applaud Cocoro Books (DHP) for bringing these Japanese cosplay books to the US. The third volume “We Love Cosplay Girls” is definitely a book that many cosplayers will enjoy.
Many cosplayers always look for resources and to come up with cosplay that everyone else is not doing and what best but to have a book like this and get ideas and inspiration from.
What the book does well is showcase people from Japan dressing up as a certain character, may the girl be tall or short, thin or overweight, no matter.
Granted, if there was a negative to be found, some guys may be asking “where are the male cosplayers – we want to see that to” but this is all about the cosplay girls. Also, from seeing some costumes that are just awesome and inspiring, one would wonder how it was created? How much? What material was used? and more questions that could be asked but perhaps maybe that is something that could be considered for another cosplay book.
So, whether you have a “moe” fascination for a character, Japanese cosplay girl fetish or a cosplayer that needs an excellent pictorial resource for their costume research, “We Love Cosplay Girls” is a book that is not just cool but also worth owning.
Highly recommended!