On the occasion of the "Year of Japan in Ukraine" dedicated to the 25th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations between Ukraine and Japan, a variety of events is being held all over Ukraine. They help to get acquainted with the culture and philosophy of Land of the Rising Sun. Therefore, an exhibition "J-COS-expo: modern Japanese cosplay" was held in the exhibition hall of the Ukrainian-Japanese Center in the Scientific and Technical library of Igor Sikorsky KPI.
Cosplay is a type of performance that lies in representing the characters using costumes and accessories. The word was formed by reduction of two English words - "costume" and "play", that means "costume play". Cosplay arose among fans of anime (Japanese animation) and manga Japanese comics, which is why the source of transformation is usually characters of manga, anime, video games or historical films about samurai. Cosplay came to Ukraine in the late 90s of last century. The first massive cosplay event was held in Ukraine in 2003 during the celebration of the 6th anniversary of the Anime Club Crystal Power.
Every year dozens of large and small festivals and parties dedicated to anime and cosplay are held in Ukraine. However, it was for the first time when the exhibition event format was held in Ukraine. Cosplay costumes exhibition "J-COS-expo: modern Japanese cosplay" presented in the Ukrainian-Japanese centre, was gathered by a creative team Nice Guys. Its visitors could see both team's costumes and costumes of other members of the Ukrainian cosplayers community.
Exhibition opening gathered a large number of guests on March 13. There were comic book illustrators of manga from Japan who held lecture and workshop on drawing manga the same day. Japanese guests were also in cosplay costumes. The opening programme included the costume parade with the participation of the younger generation of cosplayers, dance and vocal performances.
The exhibition showed about 40 costumes, half of them were clothes for children from 4 months to 8 years. There were even clothes for pregnant women. Also, there were presented more than 200 works of so-called PhotoCosplay - photos of professional photographers and cosplay models from Ukraine and beyond. All the costumes were handmade by Ukrainian craftsmen.