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Cosplay Otaku Girl

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Nearly all characters in anime who are otaku are guys, although occasionally a female fan is included. This could be seen as an attempt at fair balance, but it's noticeable that this will inevitably be a specific kind of fan: the Cosplay fan.

While this reflects a very real trend in fandom popular with ladies, it can come off like an excuse to put the resident cute girl of a cast in a variety of fetish outfits for the audience's benefit if done badly. Especially since the second most stereotypical interest of fangirls tends not to appeal to a male audience much.


Examples:

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    Anime & Manga 
  • The probable Trope Codifier for manga and anime: Yuri Satou from Otaku no Video. The OP of the OAV's, i.e., have her cosplaying as Lum Invader.
  • Ah... and Mm... Are All She Says has Oshigiri, who creates costumes for Tanaka and Toda to wear at Comiket to promote their doujinshi.
  • Implied in the case of Moe "Suzu" Suzuya in Asteroid in Love. Early on during the School Festival arc, upon learning the Earth Sciences club is planning on a Cosplay Café for the School Festival, there is a certainly level of glee in her face, and she immediately whips out a costume catalog and give out recommendations as if she's more interested in that than the club members.
  • Tomoyo Daidoji from Cardcaptor Sakura may qualify. Though she's not interested in dressing up herself, but instead making distinctive cosplay-ish battle outfits for Sakura.
  • Akechi from A Centaur's Life. She seems to be fond of looking for excuses for dressing other people up as well.
  • Naturally, Cosplay Complex is filled to the brim with cosplaying girls.
  • Plucky Comic Relief Kiko in Darker than Black. Also a Yaoi Fangirl.
  • Megu of the Detective School Q Live-Action Adaptation appears to be a Cosplay Otaku. Within the first two episodes we see her in two different school uniforms, a Meido-outfit and in a Yukata.
  • Averted in Doujin Work, whose female cast is far too busy with the title industry, with the exception of one's job at a Cosplay Café.
  • The Excel♡Saga manga gives us Umi Rengaya, Professor Shioji's assistant. When first introduced it seems she wears the outfits explicitly to be fanservice-y in hopes of attracting the Professor's attention, but only succeeds in disturbing him since he is very much not fond of her, er, assets. Later however, it's learned that she is a full-fledged Cosplay Otaku Girl; hanging out with other such girls, inviting her new friend Teriha into their circle, and having worked at a Maid Cafe. Her first appearance in a bonus story gives her a cameo as a zombie nurse shambling around in the background and moaning "...cosplay...."
  • Lucy and Erza from Fairy Tail both qualify. In Lucy's case it is usually unintentional, but Erza... well, she keeps several cosplay outfits in her Hyperspace Arsenal.
  • Ohno from Genshiken. Interestingly, she does like the second most stereotypical interest of fangirls. Also interestingly, the only other female member, at first, is Saki, very much the antithesis of this trope. Her reaction to cosplay is revulsion; if the matter is forced, she can will get violent. she eventually gives in and even admits to enjoying cosplay.
    • The Wife carries on Saki's legacy in Spotted Flower, another work by the same author, and possibly set in the same universe as Genshiken as well.
  • Secondary character Tamamin from Girl Friends (2006), when she doesn't have her nose buried in no less than four different manga titles, takes any chance she can to dress herself (and others!) as various anime characters to the nines. Her biography page lists her fondest wish as obtaining a plugsuit.
  • A very young example — Hiiragi in Hanamaru Kindergarten.
  • Hanaukyō Maid Team La Verite. In episode 8 Konoe wants to borrow some clothes from Yashima, and we all know how Yashima reacts to Konoe.
  • Nagi of Hayate the Combat Butler has a thing for making Hayate cosplay and cross-dress. A lot. Then again, she actually is otaku and hikki all-around, not just when it comes to forcing her butler to cosplay.
  • Addressed in He Is My Master, when the lead girl's little sister visits the home of a rich pervert, but is only delighted by his collection of "cute dolls and clothes".
  • Yoshinoya-sensei in Hidamari Sketch, who uses her cosplay tendencies for everything from modeling for her art class to making personalized New Years' cards. She dislikes calling it "cosplay" though, yet what she doesn't realize is that she's practically cosplaying as herself all the time.
  • Akari Kouda in High School Girls appears to be one of these, mostly in the anime version. Her costumes are usually in the range of tacky and absurd.
  • Mion of Higurashi: When They Cry probably qualifies, as the loser of whatever game is going on tends to end up dressed in some Moe outfit or another. Or maybe she's just a sadist...
  • Miria from Jewelpet Twinkle☆ is almost never seen without her totally frivolous cat ears and tail. Her various magical girl outfits also seem tailored for this trope, unlike her fellow mages.
  • Sawako-sensei from K-On! enjoys putting Mio and the rest of the band in variously absurd outfits, which Mio is less than okey-dokey with. It's moe moe kyun, though.
  • Yayoi from The Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer. She's rather embarrassed about the whole thing, and only ever dresses up in her apartment when no one's around, but Anima has a tendency of teleporting her to meetings when she's right in the middle of cosplaying. Of course, no one else even cares.
  • In Lucky Star, Konata is a more downplayed example; she happily works as a waitress at a Cosplay Café, but states that she has no interest in cosplay as a regular hobby because "it feels too much like work". Her friend/co-worker Patty is a straight example, though. Their mutual friend Hiyori is a more down-to-earth fangirl who's not really into cosplay at all.
  • Hayate from Lyrical Nanoha personally designs the outfits of all of her servants, even the one that is 3 inches tall. Heck, she even makes a bedroom out of a lunch box she carries with her, and a miniature desk with a miniature swivel chair. Naturally, fans have exaggerated this into an obsession to dress up everyone, also shared by Shamal.
  • Misaki from Maid-Sama! works part time after school at a Maid Cafe where she dresses up in a frilly maid outfit although she goes out of her way to hide her job from any of the students at her school.
  • All the female cast (and many of the guys) end up in either Gekiganger or some more obscure cosplay at some point in Martian Successor Nadesico. Otaku Surrogate Hikaru's probably the only one who does it more than once, though.
    • In a very odd male version of this trope, the Jovian's regular uniforms are also pretty much Gekiganger cosplay, because they're just that obsessed.
  • During the first "doll shop" episode of Midori Days, Midori gets to try on a wide variety of cosplay-like outfits in the guise of doll clothes.
  • Miia from Monster Musume is always quick to dress up.
  • My Dress-Up Darling: Marin Kitagawa (as featured in the trope pic above) is a young part-time model who dreams of doing cosplay of her favorite characters from anime, manga and video games. Unfortunately, she lacks the skills in costume-making, which is where her friend/love interest Gojo comes in, as he's the one who makes them for her due to his experience with sewing clothes for Hina dolls.
  • Negima! Magister Negi Magi:
    • Chisame seems to be enjoying her magical disguise a bit too much. Also, the first time she's a focus character, she was dressing up in various costumes for her website.
    • Evangeline also manages to contain her vast boredom by dressing up her few remaining classmates as goth girls.
  • Hifumi of New Game! spends money on costumes to wear, and at one point even goes to a video game trade show in a soldier getup. It's also one of the situations when her Situational Sociability sets in; she can actually act like a jerkass when she's cosplaying.
  • Komugi from Nurse Witch Komugi makes a living as a cosplay idol. In The SoulTaker (her original series) she was a mutant nurse whose schtick was shapeshifting into various cosplay outfits.
  • Renge Hoshikuji from Ouran High School Host Club, herself a deliberate parody of fangirls.
  • Several characters from Otaku no Video, including the infamous Misty May.
  • Pani Poni Dash!. Serizawa Akane. That is all.
  • Sakura "Penguin" Nankyoku in Penguin Musume Heart. She's wearing a costume the first time we see her. Her Student Council President campaign was to make the official school uniform meido and butler outfits. When she cosplays, she gets the power of whatever she's wearing. Finding out she would be able to play dress up with Kujira was enough to trigger her Heroic Resolve. She is insane.
  • In Reborn! (2004) Haru frequently dresses up in her weird costumes although they tend to get the opposite reaction then she is hopeing for.
  • Ruby from Rosario + Vampire loves trying on various outfits.
  • Megumi Chihaya from Servant × Service often takes leaves to spend time cosplaying characters from her favourite series Magical Flowers. In fact her job choice has to do with this trope; she's legally a temp so she needs not to have fixed hours.
  • Except for one chapter, Hibari of Shinozaki-san Ki wo Ota Shika ni! ("Don't Become an Otaku, Shinozaki-san!") is always seen with haire dyed green and dressed up as an Elegant Gothic Lolita.
  • Sonobe from Three Leaves, Three Colors show shades of this, keeping her Meido uniform for "personal interest" and faking the main trio's high school uniforms to pass as one. Episode 5's basically an excuse for her to dress up most of the cast as meido.
  • Celtic Midori of Vandread wears her costumes constantly, complete with head gear, even while on bridge duty. It's later revealed that she does this to keep the men from touching her.
  • Amasawa from The Weatherman Is My Lover is a male example, and actually calls himself a "nutcase who's obsessed with cosplay."
  • Hanako Koyanagi of Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku mostly displays her otaku side through cosplaying male characters. Her boyfriend is occasionally irritated she's more handsome than he is.
  • Kyouko from YuruYuri draws her own fan manga and cosplays as her favorite character, Mirakurun.

    Fan Works 
  • Redaction of the Golden Witch's Cass is totally into the various clothes and costumes associated with the Rokkenjima Incident. When she first meets the 1996!Protagonist, she's wearing a replica of Beatrice's gown that she made herself, and when she first arrives for their fateful trip to the island, she's wearing a 'more adult version' of Maria's Iconic Outfit.

    Film — Live Action 
  • Miho, the host of Slashers, is one; at least in the persona she adopts for hosting the show. The opening credits show her in a range of different costumes, implying she has a different one for every episode to match the theme of that episode. For the all-American special, she is dressed as the Statue of Liberty.

    Literature 
  • Baccano!'s Isaac and Miria are so involved in cosplaying that they manage to go about it fifty-four years before the term even existed.
  • Lucretia from Bystander does this to some extent. She doesn't cosplay specific characters, but her bedroom, instead of having sleeping space, has a few shelves of books and a multitude of stacked plastic totes holding various dresses, their accompanying accessories, instructions on appropriate hair style and region of origin for the dresses, written in the native language of that region or culture. Each dress is long sleeved, high necked and low enough to cover her feet while also being tight fitting enough to make the all-covering aspect somewhat pointless. Throughout the course of the book she wears a kimono, a Victorian styled dress, a sexy librarian outfit, a 1950s poodle skirt and sweater combination, a prison-themed outfit and makes mention of a Chinese dress and an Arabian dress. - These are the dresses she wears if she isn't at work or planning to do anything that might damage them or force her to burn them later.
  • Haruhi Suzumiya:
    • Haruhi takes considerable delight in stuffing Mikuru into various cosplay outfits, much to the latter's distress. She also cosplays herself once in a while, most memorably during the School Festival in which she performs with ENOZ while in a Playboy Bunny outfit.
    • In Haruhi-chan, Yuki gets into the act herself. Later, Mikuru and Yuki get into a cosplay contest. However, Mikuru cannot hope to beat Yuki in a cosplay-off. She is simply the best there is.
  • Closet otaku Haruka Nogizaka in Haruka Nogizaka's Secret dresses up as Shana from Shakugan no Shana at one point and gleefully recites the character's catchphrase. Though otherwise she isn't prone to cosplay because she hides her love of anime from her peers.
  • Pina from Ladies versus Butlers!. She particularly enjoys dressing up as the lead character from Magical Diva.
  • In Strawberry Panic!, Chikaru runs the costume club and enjoys putting her "favourite" girls in alluring, lolita-style costumes.
  • Whateley Universe: The Exemplar powerset - which transforms those possessing it into what they believe is their ideal form - can result in someone becoming an exact copy of their favorite fictional character, usually with appropriate powers to go with it. Most of those so affected fully embrace this with their subsequent costuming choices.
    • Tennyo (whose powers make her a dead ringer for Ryoko) is often mistaken for this, at least until it is clear to everyone that she's a genuine Person of Mass Destruction.
    • There is a whole club/training team of anime fans on the campus of the eponymous Superhero School, called the Power Rangers, and both male and female members tend to wear cosplay as their daily clothes. Most of them have powers and/or appearances which are remarkably similar to one or another anime characters. Amusingly they think that Tennyo is the real Ryoko somehow, and demand she take them to other worlds in her starship.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger features two. Kozkoz Mita dresses as a different Super Sentai heroine every episode, and Yumeria Moegi is most often seen in a catgirl outfit, but has other costumes as well.

    Music 
  • The Leetstreet Boys song "Cosplay Girlfriend" revolves around this..
    I got a new cosplay girlfriend
    She's fun and she's better than you
    Feels like my whole life’s a whirlwind
    Every time I see her
    She's always somebody new

    Professional Wrestling 

    Roleplay 
  • In Doubt Academy, both Roxy and Natsumi can be considered this, with Roxy being born from a pair of them and Natsumi constantly cosplaying as her OC “Rainbow Rose”.

    Video Games 
  • Flonne in Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories (she proved to be an otaku in the first one, but cosplaying came later). She also serves as a subversion in that, unless you have a fetish for Godzilla, Flonne's cosplay isn't exactly what you would call fanservice.
    • This was also her special attack as a Secret Character in Makai Kingdom.
    • The costume in said attack actually originated from one of Etna's Next Episodes as Flonne's One-Winged Angel form.
    • The manga gives her some good moments, though. Specifically, in the first volume of the Disgaea 2 manga, after Etna leaves, Flonne tries to return Laharl to his old self...by pretending to be Etna, complete with costume. And then three volumes later...
  • BeyondX, a minor character in Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice, is often assumed to be this by other characters. This is due to her shapeshifting ability, although she denies it.
  • Devil Survivor has Midori "Dolly" Komaki, a fifteen-year-old camgirl who likes attending various conventions in costume. In fact, she spends the duration of the game wearing a pink, ribbon-festooned outfit due to the fact she was caught in the lockdown without any other clothes. (She isn't particularly concerned about this, claiming that her attire just looks like "extra-cool everyday clothes".)
  • Litchi Faye Ling in BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger. At one point, she dresses Noel up in various costumes. One is the costume of resident Cat Girl Taokaka, the other two are from Guilty Gear (by her own admission, she dresses up other girls because she wouldn't fit into the costumes).
  • Noire from the Neptunia is one, though it's something that she doesn't want other people to know about. The anime even has a scene where Anonydeath shows off her cosplay pics to the CPUs after hacking the network, to Noire's obvious horror.
  • Ibuki's summer outfit from Street Fighter IV.
  • A rare 35 year old male example of this would His Imperial Majesty Peony IX The Emperor in Tales of the Abyss. He gives the party several costumes, some of which are based on his favorite Sentai play others or of his own original design. Jade even comments that he can tell his best friend's handiwork and it is implied that he had him model outfits for him before.
  • Reiko Haga in the Comic Party video games, manga, and anime.
    • Speaking of Reiko, she makes a Crossover Cameo appearance in The Queen of Heart '99, in Mizuki's stage, along with other Comic Party characters; there you can spot Reiko at the left side, dressed as Kyo Kusanagi; later, she returns as a playable character in Party's Breaker - The Queen Of Heart 2001: Reiko not only dresses as Kyo, her fighting style is a reference to him (His 96 version onwards), as she can mimick his moves, and even his fire powers. She even has a special '94 version, which mimicks Kyo's moves from KOF 94 and 95.
  • Pokémon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire introduces a non-human example, a special event Pikachu that can wear different outfits and gets a special attack depending on which costume she's wearing. (Yes, Cosplay Pikachu will always be female.) Two of the five outfits are the male and female trainer's contest outfits.
  • In Eternal Fighter Zero, Mio Kouduki is actually able to use several suits and outfits as weapons, and use the powers of those she cosplays as; examples include Kyo Kusanagi, Akari Ichijo, Indiana Jones, Ciel from Tsukihime, among many others.
  • In Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax, Kirino Kousaka has this as her fighting style: Like Mio above, she can change outfits in quick succession and give some style to her attacks.
  • Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony gives us Tsumugi Shirogane, the Ultimate Cosplayer. As part of her talent, she's also an excellent seamstress. However, Tsumugi doesn't exactly like having people look at her, and as such prefers having people model in her costumes rather than wearing them herself. Even so, she would rather they wear the costumes as a tribute to the characters they are dressing as than as a ploy to stand out. Apart from this, Tsumugi is also an Otaku who gets excited whenever anime is brought up, and often brings up references the others don't seem to understand. Also a rare villainous example as she’s the Big Bad. In the final trial she manages to perfectly cosplay every single character from the past two games, complete with a perfect voice impersonation.
  • One of the possible dates in Amorous is an anthropomorphic fox named Skye who likes to dye her fur to look like Renamon and Lucario. You don’t get to see what she looks like without the dye until the third date. It turns out she has grey fur and is ashamed of it because she thinks it looks boring.
  • Sophia, from the unofficial expansion mod Stardew Valley Expanded, she is a fan of anime and manga, loves to cosplay, and even dyed her hair pink to match her favourite anime character. Her Best Friend, Scarlett, is also revealed to love to cosplay as well.

    Webcomics 

    Web Animation 
  • Refreshing Stories: Momoka is a cosplayer whom Hiroshi met at several anime conventions. However when they married a year later, not only did she cheat on him with a guy named Shota, but her modeling experience helped her spot and destroy every webcam Hiroshi planted in the house to avoid getting caught.

    Web Video 
  • Tink in The Guild. In season 5, which takes place at a Fan Convention (MegaGameORama-Con), she wears a variety of cosplay outfits she created herself.

    Western Animation 

    Real Life 
  • Several Voice Actors on both sides of the Pacific are especially well-known for appearing in their characters' outfits at conventions. One example is Tiffany Grant as Asuka. Another examples is seiyu/pop singer Haruko Momoi.
    • At Anime Expo 2007 one of the highlights, and there were precious few as it was horribly mismanaged, was Momoi. She even cosplayed as a schoolgirl while on a judging panel, and after the winner for the event was announced gave an impromptu performance for the crowd.
    • For seiyuu of the Sakura Wars series, this is part of the job description.
  • Japanese composer Yuki Kajiura, who is well-known for her anime and game soundtracks and the occasional experimental opera, apparently enjoys dressing up her female performers, frequently in what we might call "tastefully revealing" ways. The Les Yay implications are not lost on others.
  • Seiyuu Kei Shindō actually was a Cosplay Otaku Girl before she became a seiyuu.
  • Chiaki Inaba, the wife of One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda, was the girl who cosplayed Nami in the Jump Fiesta One Piece skits.
  • Ken Akamatsu's (very pretty) wife cosplays.
  • Tomoko Kawase, ex-singer of The Brilliant Green now known as either Tommy February 6 or Tommy Heavenly 6.
  • In the Tokyo episodes of Lonely Planet: Six Degrees of Separation and Globe Trekkers, the (male) hosts in charge were taken by their Japanese guides to either Odaiba (Lonely Planet) or Shinjuku (Globe Trekker) to interview Coplay Otakus of both genders. In GT, Ian Wright walks into male Dir En Grey cosplayers and gets an Oh, Crap! expression.
    Ian: What... are you guys monsters?!
    • Same happened to Andrew Zimmern in Bizarre Foods. With a difference: the COG's he interviewed actually roped him into cosplaying with them (as Ichigo from Bleach, if you wonder).
  • This talk about Japanese cosplayers becomes absolutely Hilarious in Hindsight when you learn that the Japanese Imperial Family has a Cosplay Otaku Girl: Princess Mako of Akishino, who seems to have a thing for wearing sailor fukus.
  • In general, cosplay is a popular habit among female anime fans. Some of these girls are gorgeous. Some of them are simply breathtaking.
  • Rie Tanaka.
  • Alodia Gosiengfiao.
  • The voice actor Soichiro Hoshi is a (male) example of this trope. In one of the Karneval drama CDs he even tells his co-actors and the listeners that he's okay with wearing skirts because of it. So he is also a crossplayer.
  • Shoko Nakagawa
  • Cosplay Girl Victoria, cosplayer and model, chosen as "Queen of Cosplay" by Modern Tokyo Times.
  • Linda Le, AKA Vampy.
  • Another male example is Nobunaga Shimazaki who usually cosplays the characters he voiced in Fate/Grand Order such as Arjuna, Edmond Dantes, and Ritsuka Fujimaru. It helps that he's a huge fan of the Fate franchise and during game news streams, he's very enthusiastic about it.
  • Wendy Pini, co-creator of the pioneering Western Animesque fantasy comic series Elfquest, was well-known for cosplaying Red Sonja at conventions.
  • LIYUU, a Shanghai-based cosplayer that has become an Ascended Fangirl after being cast in Love Live! Superstar!!.

Alternative Title(s): Otaku Cosplay Girl

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