week 8

2. What does the terms détournement mean and how is it applicable to cosplay?

Détournement is a french word meaning; rerouting or hijacking, and in the context of cosplay it can mean reappropriating other culture and even text, into a costume. Cosplay, as we know it today, originated in Japan, and is a short form for the words “Costume play”. Cosplay in its early days was mostly restricted to when cosplayers would dress up and act as Anime and Manga characters, but today there can be cosplay of literally anything, even inanimate objects like phones or shoes. The art of taking a character and reappropriating its costume is a the core of cosplay, as most times costumes of the game and comic-book characters aren’t licenced with their companies, and instead, the costumes are made by the cosplayer, who will play the character, with no official support from their parent companies.

Cosplay is referred to as a citational act (Mountfort, 2018), where normal people who are fans of the anime, wish to show their appreciation for it through their time and effort by making and wearing a costume of characters in the series. Anime and manga are heavily dependant on fan support and outreach, and if a series doesn’t meet certain criteria, it could mean the show or manga won’t continue with sequels, so in Japan, it is very common for Otaku’s to buy figurines collectables, and merchandise,  in order to show their dedication and appreciation for the authors work, and to have a physical, tangible representation of their fandom. Cosplay is very similar to this practise, as cosplayers spend both their time and money into sourcing materials, designing and creating props for their costume, to show their support for the content they are fans of. 

In my opinion, Cosplay has dramatically evolved from its origins, with the advent of sites like; Patreon and OnlyFans, where cosplayers now have their own dedicated fanbase willing to pay various sums of money in order to see their favourite cosplayer donning their favourite anime character. The process of cosplay has gone from a casual pst time for many to a fulltime job, where greater amounts of time and money are spent to create a higher quality cosplay than they were capable of doing before, as now, their fanbase is paying for it, which gives them a monetary incentive. Even now that cosplayers are getting paid for their craft, I believe the concept of “Détournement” is still in effect, as they still have to have an appreciation of the anime for them to spend hours on a costume build. 

To conclude, Cosplay has evolved over the years, from dressing up as your favourite character to go to a convention, to a legitimate business practice with a dedicated fanbase in and of itself. However, the practice of cosplay still requires knowledge of how to make costumes and make props, and also know how the character behaves and their speech patterns, because cosplay, requires the cosplayer to become a character. This justifies the use of characters without the need for permission, as they aren’t making a fake bootleg version of the character, they are expressing their appreciation of them.

References 

Mountfort, P. (2018). Cosplay as Citation. In P. Mountfort, A. Peirson-Smith, & A. Geczy, Planet Cosplay. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press