Beyond Cosplay.. copying Japanese street culture

[Hiroyuki]

Cosplay has been popular in the west at cons though not on the streets like you would find in Japan, where people gather and promenade themselves in costume. But an article on the bbc news site, Japan's fashion rebellion goes West, shows that the dying (dyeing?) art of Ganguro ("black face", aka Manba) has come to the UK, with mad otaku girls going around in public looking like characters out of Chou Gals! with black faces, white mascara and brightly coloured wigs.

Would you take your love of Japanese culture to the extent of copying a 90's fashion in which Japanese people imitated the black westerners they saw on MTV? Or would you rather walk around dressed in a sailor suit like the famous cosplayer Man Faye?

So, is western ganguro/manba win or fail?

 

[khael]

In all honesty, non-orient [didn't use Asian since there are westernized countries in the continent with pretty bad cosplayers.] cosplay is generally bad. Rather, more bad than good. Although there are a few gems here and there, and the fail-so-hard-you-win types, it's like slashing your wrists with a cutter compared to all out amputation with power drills and saws and what not. There's not much passion as compared to the orient cosplayers.

 

[Noshi]

Lol what's wrong with adapting the ganguro/gyaru style?
(this is pretty old btw, has been going on for a while. I think UK had their own gyaru-sa(s) (gyaru circles) for a while and pretty recently in the UK, Netherlands etc there have been various para para events ^^
i myself don't like the manba style, though ganguro and gyaru seem more toned down so better to accept.

lolita / visual kei / gyaru fashion has blown over to the west and I know quite an amount of people wearing these styles (or inspired) on a daily, if not weekly base.

 

[dchaosblade]

QUOTE (Hiroyuki @ Jul 07 2009, 04:39 PM) [...]
Would you take your love of Japanese culture to the extent of copying a 90's fashion in which Japanese people imitated the black westerners they saw on MTV? Or would you rather walk around dressed in a sailor suit like the famous cosplayer Man Faye?

So, is western ganguro/manba win or fail?
I thought Ganguro was to imitate deeply tanned skin, not 'black westerners' as you put it... Which would also explain the blond hair (If you're out in the sun enough to have a really deep dark tan, often times your hair bleaches out into a blondish color).

Regardless, I've always thought that the style was odd when done like such. A natural tan and naturally bleached hair can look really good, but when people start painting their skin a really dark color and wearing wigs it just looks...ugly...

 

[sayonara solitia]

To me, personally, I believe the whole ganguro style is extremely disgusting... I cannot interpret any beauty that those girls are displaying/presenting to the public... and man, i thought the african american gangsters dressed weird but those girls have certainly surpassed them for sure...

 

[Hiroyuki]

QUOTE (dchaosblade @ Jul 08 2009, 02:28 PM) I thought Ganguro was to imitate deeply tanned skin, not 'black westerners' as you put it...  Which would also explain the blond hair
Well it could be that I've got it wrong, but I was going by what I'd gathered when watching Chou Gals, which implied that it was black rap artists etc that were the inspiration. I don't think I've seen white people with skin as dark as ganguro girls have, though I suppose some Latin people might be quite close. IIRC in Chou Gals the ganguros don't have blonde hair but red, blue or yellow hair like anime characters. They do have the white eye makeup though.

@Noshi, I can just imagine you as a ganguro... you should post some pictures of yourself made up like that ^_^

 

[Noshi]

QUOTE (Hiroyuki @ Jul 10 2009, 12:57 AM)
@Noshi, I can just imagine you as a ganguro... you should post some pictures of yourself made up like that

Hahaha yeah for you to make fun of me huh? XD
I do have the "natural tan" though, because I have Filipino blood from my father's side.
But no, the fashion goes a bit too far for me XD
I mean, this one doesn't look that bad, if you tone down the black/white make up contrast.

I can bear with this one as well though.

They style is pretty much dead now though I think. It's all about gyaru (gal)/himegyaru etc etc now.

b-gyaru

himegyaru

 

[khael]

Aren't those ones called "Galge" or something like that? You know, the ones shown in anime's sporting a tan and acting like sweet 16, Beverly Hills princesses?

-EDITED-

NVM yeah it's gyaru, thanks for reminding me.