Cosplay Philippines

Usually it’s only during Halloween season when you see a handful of people in costume, scattered about in the malls. Recently, regardless of the scare-fest season, people have been dressing up – and not to scare people, but for just pure fun. Collectively, they are known as “cosplayers” who love to “cosplay”. The term “cosplay” is actually a portmanteau of words, “costume” and “roleplay”, originally from a Japanese subculture centered on dressing as characters from anime, science fiction movies, and video games.

According to key propagator of Philippine cosplay and moderator for the official Philippine Cosplay website Robert Wong, cosplay is different and unique in the Philippines. Kicking off in 2000, cosplay is still a budding subculture that has been redefined as “the art of making and wearing a costume of your favorite character as a higher form of tribute,” and no longer restricted to Japanese characters.

Wong, dressed in a camouflage jumpsuit during the interview, looked no more special than the other cosplayers prancing about in the area with neon wigs and wacky outfits. In fact, he didn’t even seem like he had a real job. But he has one, and he’s a Brand Marketing Supervisor for Teriyaki Boy Group Inc. Cosplay is just a favored hobby since 2000 when he started primarily to gain friends and hang around people interested in costumes. As popularity of cosplay grew, more and more people wanted to learn more about cosplay and how to make costumes, and at that time Wong was somewhat known in the small community as the go-to for robotic characters. People were highly interested in his costume-making strategies so he started his own tutorial website called mechacosplaytips.tk where people can learn how to make basic robot costumes.

“Then I decided to become more involved in making cosplay more accessible to everyone by joining my friends and colleagues in helping companies create cosplay events, with the exclusive insight of being cosplayers ourselves, in order to make the cosplay event as both cosplayer and audience as friendly as possible,” he says.

Cosplay.ph was created in 2006 and is a one-stop place where any one can find information on cosplaying. detailed events, conventions, competitions, cosplaying tips. It is also a community of cosplayers where there are forums, news, polls and archives of various photographs free for public use. “Everything is on the website actually – how to reach us, frequently asked questions, articles written about us, everything,” claims Wong.

The community is remarkably growing so fast in such a short span of time because it is open to anyone of any age, of any physique. Whether one is fat or thin; bisexual or homosexual; young or old, there will always be a character for every one to cosplay. It is a healthy hobby many may not understand. For this, Wong has only has two wishes. First one being that people see cosplay in general as an enjoyable hobby and not label them as the freaks of society. Second, that Philippine cosplay continues to provide joy and camaraderie to Filipino and foreign enthusiasts, and become one of the few activities that bond people together even after cosplay fades away from the media mainstream.

Despite its national growth, cosplay has actually long been popular and officially recognized all over the world, except the Philippines – therefore during global cosplay events, the Philippines are not invited. But Wong isn’t bothered about this exclusion.

“Philippine cosplay caters to Filipino enthusiasts, thus centered in promoting and archiving cosplay activities in the Philippines. I believe in starting at what is important: at home. Once you have made a community in the Philippines, then the world will notice you, and becoming internationally known would come as a natural step,” Wong says.