Anti Western Cosplayers?! Preposterous! [Rant]

Today, I came across a depressing blog. It calls itself the 'Anti Western Cosplayers' blog.
I'm an Asian and I can't identify myself with this blog! I must be broken. The blog explains, in a very heated manner, why westerners should not cosplay anime or asian characters.

'No! Dokuro-chan, I swear it is a misunderstandi-'

Yep, apparently, Anime fans hate western cosplayers. I'm pretty sure I was left out of the loop when they started the hate club, because I didn't receive any invitation.

What surprised me was the long posts of why westerners shouldn't cosplay anime or asian characters:

1. Because you are a westerner and thus have no 'asian features'
2. Because you, as a westerner, is (suddenly) racist
3. Because western cosplayers hurt fans when they cosplay (Not sure where it hurts though. The toe nail?)
4. Because if a westerner cosplays anime or asian characters, it is a sign of racism, insult.

The blog is probably one line away from saying 'For every western cosplayer, one Asian otaku drops dead.'

I might as well do it.

I've tried my hand on cosplay and I find it a very arduous journey. It requires time, effort, money and a lot of courage to walk out in a weird costume that probably most of your friends and family don't understand. Essentially, people cosplay to express their adoration for a character. They want to be like the character's personality, to feel close to the character. You walk like the character, you talk like the character and you pick up your weapon/staff/accessory like the character.

Some love the creative process; they enjoy the sense of achievement when they complete their handmade costume or accessories.

There are people who loves the attention. They love being known for a cosplayer. They love walking with their friends and fans of anime who are cosplaying the other anime characters in the anime. Boy, getting a good picture of the full cast from your favorite anime is one of the best moments that you can get!

This picture is simply full of Joy. 

Cosplay is a hobby; an activity done regularly in one's leisure time for pleasure. It's like reading, writing, gaming, eating, shopping, drinking, smoking, you get the point. You don't see people saying 'Hey! You can't read that asian book because you're a westerner!' or 'Hey! Only Asians play Final Fantasy XIV!' or 'You can't eat sushi because you're racist and you can't think of any other way of eating it other than on a woman's body!' I'm not trying to deny that there aren't any terrible western cosplayers. Some pictures make you cringe when you see the gap between reality and anime. But that does not limit to Westerners! In Singapore (mind ya, Asian country), we have cases like this:

Sexy T zone when you spread your wig apart.

However, westerners can be as good as Asian cosplays as how Asians can be as good at western cosplays. Tech-Tsuko here supports human equality. If you're a human, you deserve as many rights as any other human. With this, I shall end this rant with a wonderful photoshoot and a video of westerners cosplaying the Legend of Zelda (reminder: an Asian game made by Nintendo Japan):

(I refuse to share the link to the Anti Western Cosplayers blog because it is monetizing with Google Ads, but for your convenience, you can check them out through this Google search. Just don't tell me or I'll go crazy.)

Why Don't You Go ___ Yourself? [Rant]

"Why don't you go design a phone yourself?"
"Why don't you go make a movie yourself?"
"Why don't you go sing on stage yourself?"
"Why don't you go ___ yourself?"

First things first, do not insert vulgarities into the blank, because it is definitely not intended to be so... maybe.

When writing reviews/criticisms/comments on any topic, it is inevitable to invite such comments from defensive fans who learned this "argument technique" from somewhere thinking they will win any argument with sentences like these.

By using such sentences, you are assuming that we:

• Have amazing capabilities surpassing humankind
• Have powers to revolutionise the whole world
• Are just being humble and not wanting to spoil the market with our superhuman powers

I thank you for such flattery, but sorry to disappoint you, but such sentences totally miss the point of the existence of reviewers, critics or any general commenter.


We are writing from a consumer's point of view, for consumers.

We are not writing from the viewpoints of a professional, because if we are, we would not have time to do so.

We are writing what one particular consumer wants to see from the big hats, just one little opinion.

We do not assume we know everything, which is the reason we continue checking out what we are interested in.


We criticise, because we want to see changes and improvements.

Why else would we bring up flaws and points worth improving on?

Did you really think we are just like a school bully who wants to crush everybody's ego? Seriously?


We do not demean the efforts put into any work.

In fact, by using such sentences, you will be the ones who put down other people's efforts without any sense of consideration nor respect.


It is terribly condescending and non-constructive.

What else do you think you can achieve from a sentence that is practically asking someone to shut the ___ up?

By shutting differing opinions up without a proper review presented by yourself, you will be the one hindering progress and improvements.


I do not represent all journalists obviously, but I believe this is a point worth bringing up because such sentences seem to trend and appear whenever a fan gets too defensive and tries to win an argument without discussing it with a level head, and decides to go on the offensive at a personal level.

Disagree? Seriously, GO WRITE ARTICLES YOURSELF.

[did that feel good? =)]