Pinoy Cosplay: examining Filipino cosplayers and the cosplay phenomenon in the Philippines

Abstract

More than a decade has passed since its emergence in the Philippines and yet, cosplay remains to be an underresearched area of study. Furthermore, majority of existing local studies on cosplay tend to focus more on the hobby and sheds little light on the cosplayer themselves. This mixed methods study aimed to provide answers to the three general questions of what, who, and how: what is cosplay in the Philippine context; who is the Filipino cosplayer; and how do they cosplay. Two hundred and two Filipino cosplayers aged between 16-40 years old currently living in the Philippines were invited to participate through personal invitations, open invitations in various online cosplay groups and social networking sites, and referrals. They answered the questionnaire developed and pre-tested by the researcher and 10 in-depth interviews were conducted to further supplement data. Four personality factors were measured and related to cosplaying: life satisfaction, extroversion/introversion, emotional maturity, and self-esteem. The study looked into 6 formulated themes and found out that the concept of cosplay in the Philippines can be categorized into three: (1) As costume and role-play-for Filipino cosplayers, the essence of cosplay lies in its role-play aspect; (2) As an art form-an avenue for selfexpression (3) As an open door to opportunities-by its ability to generate income. Filipino cosplayers are generally female, single and are 20 years old on average. They are satisfied with their lives, are ambiverts, emotionally mature, and possess high self-esteem. Two types of Filipino cosplayers were identified: the professional and the casual. Life satisfaction was identified as having a correlation with Filipinos" engagement in cosplay. Filipinos cosplay simply because they enjoy it. Broadening one's social circle, improvements of personality factors, and skills enhancement were identified to be the driving forces behind Filipinos" continued cosplaying. Practices in cosplay were also identified and was able to be categorized into a five-stage cosplay process: character selection, research, crafting, trials, and debut. What makes cosplay Filipino is the passion, resourcefulness and resilience of the Filipino cosplayers-whatever challenges they encounter, they are able to resolve and however negative the community could be, despite the negative perception on cosplay and cosplayers, they are able to hold their heads up high and continue cosplaying.