Cosplay Street Festival in Osaka!

[ The 2020 cosplay street festival was cancelled due to coronavirus.]

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Kansai’s largest cosplay event, Osaka Cosplay Street Festival

The Osaka Cosplay Street Festival is Kansai’s largest cosplay event. Held annually at Nipponbashi in the middle of March, the 2016 event took place on March 20th.

During the Osaka Cosplay Street Festival, hundreds of cosplayers assemble from all over Japan to show their costumes and soak in the attention. This means that most costumes are painstakingly handmade, and that photos are very welcome.

The Participation

If you want to participate, you must register and pay a participation fee. There are various rules involved as well, such as:-

Do not wear your cosplay to the event. You must change into it in changing rooms at the location.
Do not wear obscene costumes. The cosplay must be child friendly.
Do not impersonate emergency forces (army, police etc.). Although I saw many cosplayers seemingly violate this, I guess the point is to not have on an exact replica of the Japanese forces.

Osaka Cosplay Street Festival, How is it like?

The entire main street is closed off for the festival.

“Girls and Panzer.”

“Monster Hunter.”

Rangers assemble! Did you know “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” was originally a series of the rangers, but its success in the west made them continue that specific series with western actors? If you compare season 1 and 2 with your adult eyes, it is pretty obvious.

“Transformers.”

Holo from “Spice and Wolf.” Have you read it? There is an English fan translation out there, and the Japanese version is simple enough too. Many cosplayers sit themselves down on the street to pose for photos.

I do not even know what this is, please comment if you know! I just admired the work that must have gone into making this costume.

There was an impossible crowd here and I could not see the cosplayer. What could attract such attention? Ahh… schoolgirls…

No more piracy! This guy appears before screenings at Japanese movie theaters. He also appears in the “Gintama” movie, in a typical Gintama fashion.

Too cuuuuute.

Cell in his less-than-perfect form.

Everybody’s favorite “Final Fantasy” character Cloud. His hair and hands have too many pixels. Inaccurate cosplay, but still cool.

Alice in Osaka.

You did not think we would not find Miku chan somewhere here right? Cosplaying as her appearance in the video for “Senbonzakura.”

Mami from “Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica,” looking cool as ever.

Studio Ghibli gathering.

“Black Rock Shooter” giving me the evil eye; it was pretty intimidating!

No cosplay would feel complete without a bit of ✧~Haruism~ ✧

It is not all anime and manga, here we have a cosplay of Tengu Brand Beef Jerky. He even gave me some jerky, but I could not bring myself to eat it.

I do not know if “Star Wars” is popular in Japan, because I got opening night tickets 1 hour before screening. They did push it really hard in the advertising; it was literally everywhere. It was nice to see it being cosplayed though.

Jigen was super cool! He had all the poses down flat, and an authentic beard too.

The “Evangelion” girls were looking very fine, I had a crush on Asuka when I was a kid, but now, I can not stand her whining, Rei is cooler.

“Nausicaa Valley of the Wind” is an old Ghibli film, but did you know Miyazaki actually wrote it as a full manga first? The story continues for 6 more volumes and it is a darn good read.

Pikmin.

Funasshi! What the hell is a ‘funasshi’? You know I really have no idea but he is super popular in Japan, in fact it was really cute. There was a little girl, must have been 8 or so years old, and she was so happy to see Funasshi; she ran up and gave it a big hug.

“Tokyo Ghouls” have come to Osaka.