Cosplay Evangelism

No-one is actually doing this yet. But cosplay could be a great method of getting to know Taiwanese young people who are unlikely to ever venture into a church.

Taiwanese youth love dressing up as their favourite anime and manga characters in eleborate costumes. Every year there are large conventions with 1000s of people getted dressed up, entering competitions and parading for the cameras.

Classic anime warriors

Cosumes range from cute to classic to bizarre.

Taiwanese do "cute" well.

Photographers' paradise

Weird eye colors and shapes are a standard part of the the costumes.

Pretty nurses

Lord of the Rings meets anime?

I am not sure what drives the great fascination that so many people have for this slightly bizarre hobby. Maybe it is the escapism, a chance to be someone else for a few hours, maybe it is just the fun of dressing up and parading around.

East Asia has its unique youth culture including J-pop, Mando-pop, Korean soapies, Japanese fashions and cosplay. It would be great to have some young Christians willing to get involved in youth cultural activities with a view to sharing the gospel of God's love.

Phil Nicholson

Comments

• Will Lee

  Thursday 12 March 2009

  Hey Phil, not that this will help with evangelism in the cosplay world, but of interest is Manga Messiah (http://www.amazon.com/Manga-Messiah-Tyndale/dp/1414316801).
  
  It was written by Japanese people and translated into English. That's never happened before this comic came out. It also tries to stay faithful to the biblical text.
  
  You could legitimately dress up like Jesus at cosplay because of this comic... :)

  John Watts

  Sunday 01 March 2009

  Yeah cosplay is awesome! I think most people do it just for fun, I know i do! Most people make their own costumes, so perhaps a way you could meet people, would be to run a group that meets regularly to work on their costumes. You could have people that are good with sewing machines, makeup, hair styling etc... that can give advice and lessons. A lot of cosplayer's also prepare skits or music performances for their characters, you could assist with this also. The meetings could end with a party, where you could go out as a group in costume or have a variety night and take lots of photos. Hope this throws some more ideas in the pot!

  Tony Waghorn

  Friday 27 February 2009

  Thanks for posting your dream, hope it connects with someone who could make this happen.

  Will Lee (from Canada)

  Wednesday 25 February 2009

  I personally would love to see Phil dressed up...

  Mikey

  Thursday 12 February 2009

  Phil - I'm so there! Once I get my butt to Taipei - dress me up in something cool and i'll work on my superpowers until then :P No seriously, the evangelism through cosplay sounds like a really good idea but how could we relate Jesus to ... anime and cosplay? Perhaps cosplay (dressing up) as Jesus or some other bible figure just like the anime bibles that you can buy??....