Championships, new releases… Paris Games Week has been in full swing since last Wednesday. If a competition which will reward the best cosplays will take place next Sunday on the main stage of the show, there has been no shortage of cosplayers at the show in recent days. France 3 Paris Île-de-France introduces you to five of them, visitors and professionals.
“What interested me this year was being able to present my work.” entrusts Draw Me A Cosplaya young 26-year-old Belgian cosplayer who has been working on this costume since “several years now“. “This is an opportunity for me to show it to visitors. […] Promoting my cosplay on the video game stand with which it is associated is a great opportunity for me.“
“Promoting my cosplay on the video game stand with which it is associated is a great opportunity for me”
Draw Me A Cosplay
Belgian cosplayer
Or, Draw Me A Cosplay thus accompanies the South Korean studio Pearl Abyss all day for the game Black Desert. “I alternate the different armors of the same character depending on the days at the show. […] When they need cosplayers for events, they call me“, confides the one who has around ten cosplays.
If this is its first Paris Games Week, Draw Me A Cosplay has been cosplaying for over ten years. “I was a bit rushed here, because I’m the only French-speaking cosplayer on the team for the game Black Desert“. Los Angeles, Birmingham, Cologne… Draw Me A Cosplay travels the world for his art.
Axel and his cosplay, Friday November 3 at Paris Games Week. • © Kévin Belbéoc’h-Dumarcet / France 3 Paris Île-de-France
A portmanteau word from “costume” et “play“, the art of cosplay is to design from scratch or buy costumes and accessories of a character from the fictional universes of series, film, comics or manga. The objective is to then “wear and then embody said character during photo shoots, gatherings of enthusiasts or even on stage in the style of the theater” according to’association of cosplayers of France.
If the origins of cosplay go back to the first edition of the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) from 1939 with the name “masquerade“, we had to wait until the 42nd Worldcon in Los Angeles in 1984 to see the term appear”cosplay“, invented by Japanese director Nobuyuki Takahashi.”Costumade” can be one of the translations into French, proposed by the Office québécois de la langue française.
“I just do this for fun“, confides Axel, 23 years old. He is one of those who went to Paris Games Week in cosplay out of passion, “by desire” and for fun. Axel designed his costume with different pieces he bought. “It’s more of an assembly, I’m not very sewing“, he explains.
Sasha and her cosplay, Friday November 3 at Paris Games Week. • © Kévin Belbéoc’h-Dumarcet / France 3 Paris Île-de-France
“Can we take a photo of you?“In the dense aisles of the show, Axel is accompanied by his friend Sacha, 19 years old.”It makes people happy. They love seeing their little characters come to life“, enthuses Sacha, delighted”to amaze” the children who don’t hesitate to take a photo with her. On the other hand, she regrets seeing fewer cosplayers this year, compared to the previous edition. “I must have only seen a dozen today. It’s a bit sad“.
“It makes people happy. They love seeing their little characters come to life.”
“The armor, I bought it from a friend“, argues Cédric Le Ker, 43, accompanied by his daughter. He designed his cosplay from an old Star Wars armor.”which had turned yellow“, which he reconverted into a costume referring to the “Night Troopers” from the Serie Ashoka recently released on Disney+. “It’s been almost eight years since I went to Paris Games Week“, concludes Cédric.
Cédric and his “Night Trooper” armor, Friday November 3 at Paris Games Week. • © Kévin Belbéoc’h-Dumarcet / France 3 Paris Île-de-France
A few meters further, Yannis Ammar, a 19-year-old French cosplayer from Rouen, tends more to frighten young children than to amaze them. “This cosplay took me three weeks of working every day during the holidays. I worked on it all day.” he explains, having designed this cosplay for the previous year’s Halloween party.
Yannis, the 19-year-old cosplay influencer with 60,000 subscribers on Instagram. • © Kévin Belbéoc’h-Dumarcet / France 3 Paris Île-de-France
Proud of the success of his costumes, Yannis has over 62,600 subscribers on Instagram and nearly two and a half million enthusiasts who follow him on TikTok. His curiosity for cosplay made him discover a passion that he has now been practicing for over a year. “My costumes were very successful, which made me want to go on and make several more.“
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