To quote another person replying to the top comment (or at least the top comment from my perspective)
"It feels a little bit like it's based on a real interaction, and them calling her weird is just something they inferred because they felt embarassed.
When someone's a socially awkward type, especially when confronted with an unexpected situation, it's easy to read people's reactions as judgemental when in reality they probably weren't."
To summarize this in my own words: The cosplayers might not think the characters are weird, but are calling them weird out of fear for being judged. (Even though anyone who would judge them for liking the songs would definitely judge them for cosplaying as the characters.)
I don't know if this is a different perspective but I read that as calling the music weird. You can absolutely love a character design without being a fan of the game/show/music video/etc they are from.
It feels a little bit like it's based on a real interaction, and them calling her weird is just something they inferred because they felt embarassed.
When someone's a socially awkward type, especially when confronted with an unexpected situation, it's easy to read people's reactions as judgemental when in reality they probably weren't.
Personally, I would have taken it as a judgement against me. Like they don't explicitly say "It's weird, and anyone who likes it is weird too", but I would have definitely inferred that when I was a teen
I agree that you can find the characters appealing while not being a fan of the music, or even disliking the characters and liking the music, but like it or not the characters are tied to the music. If you're gonna be repping the characters at a con with a cosplay, people will be coming up to you to gush about the music. Letting them know that the music isn't really your thing and you're just a fan of the characters themselves is fine, but going as far as to call it "weird" while actively wearing the skin of the character associated with that music is crazy.
the music is made by thousands of completely unrelated independent ppl. there’s vocaloid music in every genre. thats like saying “guitar music is bizarre”
Dressing up as characters you aren't familiar with isn't immoral, but looking at the person like they're weird one for asking you fandom related questions is kinda scummy.
If I were to steelman the idea, it’d be something like pretending you’re a big fan so that you get fans/followers who believe the lie that you’re a fan.
So basically the same idea of like a streamer pretending to be some cute innocent anime girl so that neckbeards give her money, while in reality she’s just a normal girl with a boyfriend etc.
So yeah that’d be immoral IMO, but it’s vastly different from the mere idea of “cosplaying a character from something you don’t know”. That’s basically just being a poser, and barely even that since cosplaying someone doesn’t imply you’re a fan.
Have yet to see someone be exploited by a cosplayer.
These examples imply a streamer or something and if you tuned in to see the hot girl you don't get to say you're being exploited when you learn she's actually not that into Naruto: Ninja Strikers 😂
Was it also immoral for the dude who played Trevor (not a gamer, doesnt like games) to have voiced a video game character? I mean a jobs a job. Theyre paying to see you dress up not be a fan of the show right?
This is the equivalent of saying actors should only play parts in series they're fans of. Cosplay is about dressing up as a character, reason doesn't matter even if it is monetised.
"exploitation" is a loaded term here and you gotta prove that first.
Personally I think it's frustrating to consider people "exploited" by cosplayers like what do you mean 😂 they bought a photo or an autograph or something but the person isn't a "true fan"?
How is it exploiting the actual fans? What's the exploitative aspect of it? If anything they're exploiting the franchise to get money, which is an amoral action
Eh, is it immoral for an actor to play a character in an adaptation when they don't know the original?
Maybe if they claim to be a fan and people engage with them under that premise it would be immoral.
Hypothetically though, if they're somewhat well-known and people message them saying things like "You'd make a perfect Geralt/Yoruichi/Malevola/Astarion" because of their body type or cosplay skill, are they required to play the game/catch up on manga backlog before they can cosplay as that character?
The one I'm talking about had a ball of lead on each lash, that her grandparent use to put on them because otherwise "the horses don't feel it" (which I call bullshit because I don't think that just because horse skin is thicker it feels less, but whatever, he was the horse tamer not me).
The ones for bdsm are a little bit "softer" and meant for human skin I assume
Not to mention the actual lead core inside that shit, it's hard as hell, even getting hit with the handle hurts some
I think you'd be dead as well after a couple of actual lashes, from the big stuff that isnt used in the bedroom😭 I think I remember learning about what Belgium did in Congo, and people would regularly die before even being lashed the 10th time
I'm an 11 year long fan of Vocaloid and would actually be disgusted if I found people cosplaying as something that they didn't actually like especially because cosplay is expensive (as someone who paid around £200 for their KAITO cosplay)
Cosplay is not a cheap hobby so I don't understand why people would cosplay as a character they don't know or care much about other than the fact that they're popular online and might get them a bit of clout on a Tik tok or Instagram post
What if they just really like the design/aesthetic of the characters, but not the music? I'm not terribly familiar, but Miku is just Miku right, she's not the music herself?
But they’re the one paying for it. If someone likes the character design but doesn’t actually watch the show they can still do cosplay. Some people do cosplay as a hobbies and do a lot of different characters. Doesn’t mean they have to watch everything that involves those characters
Crash Outs aren't supposed to have any logic to them, in fairness.
That's why it's called a Crash Out and not a Justifiable Anger.
Having a Crash Out for dropping your keys when you get home from a stressful day at work -> definitely not good for your health, and also a huge overreaction to the 2 seconds it takes to pick up the keys.
But the stressful day at work ITSELF might have some Justified Anger in there that needs to be accepted then moved on from.
A better word here would be poser i think, they aren't new to the charcter but they know nothing about it, whereas a tourist i assume would be both new and not know much about a said topic.
It's neither moral or immoral. But it does show a devastating lack of curiosity for the world if you won't even do cursory research on something you're taking the effort to dress up as.
I cosplayed Raiden Shogun from Genshin, and some nerd @ the con.. interrogated me as to how many constellations I had on her and was flabbergasted when I said I have only 1 copy. Just cosplaying for the love of the game.
Super obscure. It’s like oh you don’t love the character as much as you thought you did, because you didn’t spend thousands to get her to the highest constellation.
So I don't think theirs anything inheritly wrong with dressing up as a character you're not the biggest fan of. Some people just like the way it looks. Im not the biggest fan of hazbin hotel but I like the designs of some of the characters like vox and want to dress up as them. However I know this is just a drawing but the reaction of "its weird" is just kinda mean spirited for no real reason
Years ago, while I was in highschool (in Argentina) I met a chilean girl with an AC/DC shirt, I asked for her favorite song “Oh, is it a band ? I thought it was a clothing brand, like nirvana”
Cosplaying a character you vibed with from a media you never engaged with <- morally neutral
Calling it weird, saying "we don't listen to that stuff" or implying somehow that the og media is beneath you and for people you look down on <- makes you an ass
This is a matter of taste not morality and if people don't start realizing the fundamental difference soon our society is borked 😂
Sorry that happened to you but that doesn't make them bad people.
It's actually worse to insinuate someone is a bad person for cosplaying a character they're unfamiliar with than to cosplay a character you aren't familiar with.
More like "name 1 song" and the person is wearing a shirt and hat that says "Ask me to name 1 song." and then you get called out for asking them to "name 1 song". And this happens at a music venue.
The cartoonist and OP assume the cosplayer's aren't fans befcause they don't engage with the music. Miku and Teto might have started as mascot characters for a music software, but they are now a bigger property as simply characters than the music software.
People can enjoy things in different ways or different aspects of the same thing. Especially for larger fandoms, f.ex:
I enjoy Lord of the Rings for its themes, lore/worldbuilding, archaic tone, and linguistic bullshit(affectionate).
My friend enjoys reading & writing stories about making the Dwarfs kiss.
Are they enjoying it wrong? Not really. Am I a more true fan than them? Also no. Does my form of engagement garner greater prestige? Not at all.
And at the end of the day, only one of us has made a screen acurate dwarf-cosplay and won a trip to SEAsia in an international cosplay competition... twice.
If your not a fan of a series but like a character enough to cosplay over any other that you are a fan of - perhaps that says something about you, perhaps you shouldn't spend a bunch of money to dress like that but its not immoral more than a deep introspection.
If you get paid for it - its immoral from the perspective of If you lie to your audience.
And I find something worse with the miku and teto when not a fan of the music than i do with someone dressing up as a popular character - also I find neiche characters to be more imoral as it seems more like like a lie.
I believe there term is now larping but I remember when it was Poser, not immoral on it's own but it can spiral.
Of course not long ago the reverse was looked down upon, people walking up to cosplay girls and demanding they name a comic artist or answer weird trivia.
I may sound corny but I believe that cosplay is something that should only be done out of love, like how fan artist and writers do, they love a franchise or fandom and want to show it off. Otherwise it's just a cheap costume and that's only half of what cosplay is.
It's not immoral to dress up as a character you simply like the looks of, but it's definitely immoral to call the source weird when you're cosplaying as the character in question
The cosplaying itself is neutral. I have actually cosplayed as a character from a game I had no intention of playing, but it was because I was familiar with the series because of a friend, I liked the music, and thought her costume would be fun to make. When people approached me about it, I spoke positively about what I did know.
The weird part here is acting like a fan of the character you're cosplaying is weird for approaching you.
Id argue Miku is more of a mascot character than anything, but the Teto cosplayer needs to get some help for calling the Luka (I assume) cosplayer "weird"
Morality aside it’s bullshit imo. I’ve interacted with some people at cons and said how much I love the character only to have them laugh at me and say “this is a joke cosplay” or “no one actually likes this show” then why in the hell did you spend money on it???? Cosplay is not a cheap hobby. Why spend the time on something you don’t even enjoy??
I wanna say Neutral, but actively creating awkward situations.... so like... the barest drop of immorality to the pointid ignore it. Now, calling people weird is just immoral. Its one thing to think people are weird, its another to put a ton of effort into doing something that attracts their attention and then doing it.
I’m not going to call it immoral but it’s definitely kinda dumb. It’s one thing to do it on accident (there was story years ago about danerys cosplayer mistaken for Elsa by a bunch of small girls and she just… went with it) but cosplaying a popular character you don’t actually follow seems very attention seeking and tone deaf
I hate larpers, I think the only way this can be good is if there's a duo cosplayers and only of then is actually a fan but the other one doesn't pretend to be a fan ig.
If you gave me any sort of sick cosplay setup like Halo, Doom or Warhammer type of armor set I would love to wear that despite having barely any knowledge of the series.
Fail to understand what makes it immoral to just dress up as someone who you think looks good.
There are a lot of characters from shows that I like without actually having watched the rest of the show or have any interest in doing so but I could see myself dressing up as those characters just because I took a specific liking to them even with surface level knowledge.
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u/Noe_b0dy 1d ago
Morally neutral
Bitch fuck you, you're the one in full vocaloid cosplay here.