(SPOT.ph) Seeing cosplayers parading around, dressed as manga, anime, video game, or movie characters can be both bewildering and exciting to outsiders. But this sense of excitement is true for cosplayers, too. "I think that when I'm in cosplay, I get more confident. It's fun to be in costumes," so declared the Philippines' most famous cosplayer, Alodia Gosiengfiao, to the Singapore Straits Times.
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For those in the scene it's a way for them to flex their creativity and meet up with like-minded hobbyists-a sort of community street theater, if you will. While the inherent nature of cosplay plays up the fantastic (and fantasizing) aspects, SPOT.ph visited the Best of Anime 2012 event at the Manila International Book Fair to capture the rawer side of cosplayers...with their masks off, so to speak.
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Cosplayers with their (arm)guard down. Click for more.
