Cosplaying has long been a hobby for many anime and gaming fans alike. Although in the past, it was easy to know if one is a cosplayer or not, these days, somehow, it is hard to know if one is cosplayer or not. So, before I continue to tell you tell you the difference between cosplaying and costripping, let me define cosplay first. Cosplay is actually an abbreviation of costume play. It is a popular hobby where otakus can dress up into any anime, manga or gaming character that they wish to be. Some cosplays can be very good and well-crafted. The costumes and props fit well on the cosplayers only because they look like their original reference. Such cosplays often require a lot of hard work, patience, and a considerable talent. However, lately, money is essential for those who lack what I have mentioned earlier. This is why even those who cannot make their own costumes and props can become cosplayers as well.
Cosplayers are mainly people who enjoy representing different characters as they embody their personalities and try to become the living replica of the said characters. Unfortunately, some cosplayers don’t look exactly like the characters that they want to portray. This is not exactly new in the cosplaying scene. Costrippers are a different story. Although they look like they are cosplaying with their bizarre outfits at conventions, they are actually just there to have fun and not participate as one of the cosplayers. The word costripper has been coined from two words: cosplay and tripping. Most costrippers just wears clothes that are not normally worn by regular people. This involves those who wear punk outfits, gothic lolita wear, sweet lolita attires as well as just wearing anything that you can get from your closet and then mixing it up with something quirky. As long as you do not sign up for any competitions then you cannot be considered as a cosplayer.
Sadly, not everybody knows the difference between cosplayers and costrippers. This is why whenever one attends to conventions, attendees can do two things. They can either just take pictures of both cosplayers and costrippers alike or they just take pictures of those characters that they know and ignore the ones that they do not know. It is unknown as to why costripping has become popular in the local cosplaying scene. However, it is only fair to say that the popularity of costripping and cosplaying are now starting to become the same. Costripping is somehow redefining the world of cosplaying as we know it. It is hard to say when costripping started in the local cosplaying scene. Whether a person is a cosplayer or costripper, you decide.
