Animegao
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A doller is a cosplayer who performs a variant of kigurumi cosplay. The face is fully covered with a mask, usually meant to look human cartoon character, and a the costume of the character is worn. In Japan most cosplayers refer to this style as (アニメ顔 - Animegao, or "Anime Face"). It is still a very minor part of the cosplay scene in Japan, though it has recently been attracting attention in other countries, including the United States, Canada, and in European countries, including the UK.
At the hobbyist level the characters in question are almost all female, and commonly human, although kigurumi characters of other races and genders do exist, including male (such as Kenshin Himura from Rurouni Kenshin/Samurai X[1]), mechanical (such as Gundam Wing), elven (such as Deedlit or Pirotess from Lodoss) and demonic (such as Inuyasha[1] from the anime of the same name.) Another cosplay motive may also be the desire to emulate a given anime character in exact appearance, and personality. Other cosplayers have developed their own characters.[2]
By wearing a body suit or mask, kigurumi cosplayers are able to get closer to the appearance of the original character, especially in the case of animal characters[2] or highly stylised characters. Non-professional animal kigurumi cosplayers painstakingly make detailed heads and bodies from plastic, wire and artificial fur. In animegao kigurumi, the actor or actress playing a humanoid anime character will wear a flesh-coloured body suit (known as a Zentai) and matching mask usually moulded from clay or fiberglass composites (FRP). The body suit allows them less-detailed skin features, on the level of animated characters, and the mask allows a similar level of facial features. Some hobbyists obtain masks from established hobbyist mask studios such as Build Up Studio SIGMA[3] or Dolphin Factory.[4]
As with other kinds of cosplay, many hobbyists have costumes of established characters from games or animations.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Mask Creators
- Build Up Studio SIGMA
- Dolphin Factory -- NOTE: Dolphin no longer sell masks, but their gallery of pictures are still up
- Kanakig -- Semi-retired due to other circumstances, restricted orders acceptance.
