Shawn, like her sister Whitney dressed as a character from “Demon Slayer”, has two words to describe the weather as she waits to watch the grand parade at this year’s annual cosplay extravaganza in Japan: “Damn hot”.
“I have had about five of these (bottles of water). I have on full sleeves, socks, and whoo! When we first came outside we were just drenched in sweat,” the Houston, Texas native told AFP at the World Cosplay Summit in Nagoya.
But relief is coming for the upwards of 250,000 people from the world over who fly in to the WCS every year to embody manga, animation or video game characters.
From next year, the three-day event in the central Japanese city will be in November in pleasant autumn temperatures, as opposed to the oppressive 40C (104F) forecast for this Sunday, the final day.
“Since around the end of the COVID pandemic, Japan has been getting increasingly warmer,” said Tokumaru Oguri, chief executive of the WCS.
“The heat can genuinely put people’s lives at risk, so first of all, we ask each individual to take every possible precaution themselves, by making sure they are in good physical condition, getting enough sleep and staying hydrated,” Oguri told AFP.
Monsters to memes
A Japanese journalist coined the term cosplay — combining costume and play — in 1984 after seeing people dressed as monsters and aliens at a sci-fi convention in Los Angeles.
The concept exploded in Japan before morphing into a global phenomenon in the 1990s and 2000s.
Typically people dress up as characters — human or otherwise — from movies, series, comics, pop culture, fantasy, roleplay or computer games.
But cosplayers can also embody everything from fast food brands, internet browsers and memes to intangible ideas like gravity or hunger, while also experimenting with gender.
Scientists say human-induced climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme heat events in Japan and elsewhere.
Japan had its hottest summer on record last year and in recent weeks many places have had “kokushobi”, a new official classification meaning “cruelly hot days”. Thousands of people, many of them elderly, needed hospital care.
But although some people at the WSC still go all out -– one participant was enclosed in a huge “Castle in the Sky” robot soldier outfit in Saturday’s parade in a covered but stifling shopping arcade –- many adapt their costumes.
“Orena”, 40, from France, said she deliberately chose to make her outfit – Haku from Studios Ghibli’s animated movie “Spirited Away” – from linen and cotton to keep cool.
She will be co-representing France on Sunday at the climax of the WCS, when acts from 41 countries ranging from Peru and Saudi Arabia to Latvia will be judged on costume craftsmanship, dramatic performance, and character recreation.
“At major competitions such as the World Cosplay Summit, people tend to want to wear costumes that involve a certain level of technical complexity and often have several layers,” the electrical technician told AFP.
“When it gets hot, there comes a point when you cannot take off any more layers (of costume),” the 40-year-old said. “There is the risk of feeling unwell, but even when it comes to makeup and wearing wigs, we sweat, and it quickly becomes very difficult.”
‘Deal with it’
“Most of the cosplayers that will be joining the parade today will definitely have more comfortable (costumes) because they’re going to walk under the heat of the sun,” said Jeoffry Quiban, or “OPet”, portraying fire demon Hiei from “Yu Yu Hakusho”.
“You need to deal with what you wear and wear it comfortably,” the 35-year-old teacher told AFP, brandishing a sword and wearing blood-red contact lenses.
Having the event in November will allow people to go all-out, said his performance partner Krizel Guiral, or “Zhel”, dressed as Youko Kurama, the red-headed fox demon from the same Japanese manga and anime classic.
“I think it would be really exciting to see different kinds of costumes,” the 38-year-old nurse told AFP.