Cosplay (Costume Play)

This post is partially copied from an email I sent.
Until just a few seconds ago, I had a relatively negative and stereotypical view of anime fan-specific cosplay. to be blunt, I thought that such a thing gave anime fans a bad name.

but then I realized that once again, I had behaved like the rest of world, and refused to look at it from their perspective before passing judgment. Because, naturally I was raised that way, it's a bad habit that will take more than a change of beliefs to revise. when I have kids, I will make sure they have this straight from the beginning (not passing judgement on a behavior before considering the corresponding perspective and determining its validity)

in this case, when I thought of cosplay, I thought of... well costumes. Since costumes are generally outrageous, I assumed ideas that led to a visual that made anime cosplayers to look very childish. But I did not take into consideration- that most animes involve humans that dress in relatively ordinary close and many times have normal-looking hair and overall body appearance. for example, it would actually be a very fun and creative experience to dress of like Kyon since I look a lot like him already, and his clothes are relatively normal. Many of the cosplays people do involve characters just as normal (well, maybe not- he's unusually normal) as kyon, and I failed to realize that. I have much to learn.

I suppose the area where a lot of the misunderstanding occurred though was my mistakenly tying cosplay to the so-called role-playing. While I fail to understand the method by which it operates, I understand less how anyone can consider it fun. (For those not familiar with it, basically the "host" invents a storyline- and the participant take on the role of characters, either those from animes or made up by themselves. They then make their way through the storyline, in a game-like fashion. Since there are no preset rules or limits to the outrageousness, it's presumable that the winner is determined by the creativity of the individuals, most likely on a silent-vote system. This may also be the way in which anime fans gain respect- a streak of creativity that is agreeably high quality- would give the person to which the screen name is attached- a good reputation, and possibly popularity.)

But on that note- I have realized just now that I have had the same misconceptions about role-playing as I have had about cosplay. Although they may appear childish from the surface, both cosplay and role-playing foster creativity, and could possibly form the basis for the animes and mangas of tomorrow. But even that aside, they are active and socially stimulating activities, and help build skills in the creative domain, in a very unique way.

*Note it may seem that I am contradicting myself- but the truth is halfway through the post, I made a realization and had a sudden change of opinion as result. Once you get to know me well, you will find this is often the case, especially considering that most of what I learn comes through communication.