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Who was considered as the first cosplayer ever? Or, who popularized cosplaying
anime? Was cosplaying started in Japan as well or it started elsewhere?


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question
culture anime-history
Who was the first cosplayer?


The [Costume Fandom: All Dressed Up with Some Place to
Go!](http://web.archive.org/web/20071223014709/http://pages.towson.edu/flynn/costume1.htm)
written by By Dr. John L. Flynn says that it goes as far back as:

> At the First World Science Fiction Con­vention in **New York in 1939** , a
> 22-year-old Forrest J Ackerman and his friend Myrtle R. Jones appeared in
> the first SF costumes among the 185 attendees. The future editor of Famous
> Monsters of Filmland was dressed as a rugged looking star pilot, and his
> female companion was adorned in a gown recreated from the classic 1933 film
> Things to Come. Both of them created quite a stir among the somber gathering
> of writers, artists and fen plural of fan), and injected a fanciful,
> im­aginary quality into the convention's overly serious nature.

According to [the Cosplay wikipedia
page](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosplay),

> The term was coined by **Nobuyuki Takahashi** of the Japanese studio _Studio
> Hard_ while attending the 1984 Los Angeles Science Fiction Worldcon. He was
> impressed by the hall and the costumed fans and reported on both in Japanese
> science fiction magazines.

However, the act of "cosplaying" was around [before the term was
coined](http://matt-thorn.com/shoujo_manga/outofhand/index.php) by Nov
Takahashi:

> It is said that the first cos-play ever performed at a fan event in Japan
> was that of a young woman portraying Tezuka Osamu's character Umi no Toriton
> (Triton of the Sea) back in 1978. But contrary to popular belief this
> performance seems to have taken place not at the Comic Market but at the
> "Ashicon" science fiction convention, and was performed by none other than
> the then 20-year-old **Kotani Mari** , now renowned as a critic and author
> of science fiction.

With [this as an additional source](http://www.sfwj.or.jp/member/KOTANI-
MARI.html)(Japanese).


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answer