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Japan’s Top 10 Cosplay Costumes of 2012

Japan’s Top 10 Cosplay Costumes of 2012

With the myriad of cosplay costumes available in Japan, first-time cosplayers must be overwhelmed with all the choices. Luckily, Cospa, a major cosplay costume company in Japan, has narrowed down the choices, releasing the 2012 costume sales rankings. Coming in at number one is everyone’s favorite vocaloid, Hatsune Miku.

Check out the rest of the top ten cosplay costumes of the year:      

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【Fixed】 Collection of Ingenious Short Skits From the Japanese Program That Brought Us “Matrix Ping Pong” Now on YouTube

【Fixed】 Collection of Ingenious Short Skits From the Japanese Program That Brought Us “Matrix Ping Pong” Now on YouTube

Kasou Taisho, or All Japan Kasoh (Costume) Grand Prix, is a semi-annual televised contest in which amateur groups or individuals perform short skits which are rated by a panel of judges.

Many of the skits make extensive use of kurogo: stagehands dressed in all black to imply they are ”invisible” to the audience while they move around props or actors on stage. This allows performers to create clever illusions and “fake” special effects, such as in the classic “Matrix Ping Pong” skit, which you can see above.

Having been on the air for more than 30 years, the show no doubt has an extensive library of short, funny video clips—or as we call it these days, internet crack. And finally figuring out that crack sells, Kasou Taisho has posted nearly 100 of their finest skits from over the years for your viewing pleasure on YouTube.

We hope you weren’t planning on doing anything productive over the next half hour…

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Confessions of Snow White in Tokyo on a Weekday

Confessions of Snow White in Tokyo on a Weekday

Earlier this week, we heard the confessions of a crossdressing man in Tokyo (the beauty in the middle of the above photo).  As it turns out, this one-night crossdresser works with our next costume-wearing confessor (and they all work at our Japanese sister site, Pouch).

Snow White, pictured above, was hesitant to walk the streets of Japan in costume on a weekday.  However, she swallowed her fear and spent the entire day as a Disney princess.  The following is her account of a day as Snow White in Tokyo on a weekday.

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Why Halloween Isn’t Popular in Japan: “I don’t celebrate Halloween because I don’t have a boyfriend”

Why Halloween Isn’t Popular in Japan: “I don’t celebrate Halloween because I don’t have a boyfriend”

Although the religious aspects of Christmas aren’t widely celebrated in Japan, the country has fully embraced jolly old St. Nick.  This has led to a very different version of Christmas than most are used to, but it’s still “Christmas.”  Japanese households are sure to eat Christmas cake (a cake with candles eaten on Christmas day that looks similar to birthday cake) and enjoy the traditional Christmas bucket of KFC chicken (clever marketing, KFC!).  Despite its differences, Christmas is still accepted as Christmas and it seems like all of Japan celebrates the holiday in some form on December 25th.

Judging from the status of Christmas in Japan, you would think that the Japanese are also crazy for Halloween.  On the contrary, Halloween is not very popular in Japan.

But why hasn’t Halloween taken off the way Christmas has?  Japanese website, Yukan News, asked this very same question.

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