Cosplay: imagem, corpo, jogo

Abstract

It is necessary to understand how images relate to us and the effects they cause in our bodies. This research analyzes cosplay (costume play, the activity of dressing as characters, generally from games, cartoons or movies) in conventions about Japanese animations, where there is a blend between Japanese pop culture and Brazilian culture. This creates a marginal culture still not well studied in communication, despite being so rich. The images, which are the characters created by that culture, utilizes people s bodies via cosplay to make themselves part of the material world. Why people consume and let themselves be consumed by them is what we want to find out in this research, after all, they are still so mysterious and need more scientific glances at all of their manifestations, so they can be better understood. For this, we will use Vilém Flusser s concept of image and Norval Baitello Jr. s iconophagy, which proposes we are more and more consuming and being consumed. The objectives of this research are to understand how an image can subdue a body, considering its iconophagic features that devours the body and take its place, and analyze how they are closer to us than we often imagine. Cosplays will be analyzed inside Brazilian anime conventions, more specifically in São Paulo, where the biggest conventions in the country happens. The most plausible hypothesis is that people do cosplay in order to be part of a group of Japanese pop culture fans, to be recognized by this group, to find themselves in this group and, as said Boris Cyrulnik, to let themselves be enchanted by it