So with the show-and-tell post and introductions to the cosplayers I've become a fan of out of the way, let us get to what specifically occupies the toploaders, boxes and binder pages. One thing I quickly found is that there's like a whole ecosystem of people who cosplay in Japan. Either people cosplaying for a living or just as a fun little hobby they do on the side, and this is big enough to include people who moved to Japan just to cosplay. I'm not too surprised as there is something super fun in seeing beloved characters from animes, mangas and video games brought to life. And for the cosplayers themselves actually becoming those characters, even if it's just for one photoshoot.
Another thing about Japan that doesn't get talked about too often is that it's a consumer's paradise of sorts. If you really like someone or something and want to show support for it, chances are very good there's merch you can buy. Usually anything you can slap someone's face or brand on.
Most of what I'm going to go into today is going to be courtesy of my favorite cosplayer ねね (Nene), with a few other cosplayers mixed in when necessary.
Photobooks
In the realm of cosplay the biggest staple is the cosplay photobook, the 写真集 (shashinshuu).
This should be straight forward. Usually a cosplayer rents a studio, hires a photographer who they like and trust, take photographs across an entire day, then puts together a photobook whatever way they want to, then puts in an order with a printing company to prepare a certain number of copies or burns them on a DVD. The cosplayer then brings those to various conventions to sell them and whatever's still left after those conventions are sold online. There are other people and steps involved if the cosplayer is signed to a talent agency and the photobook is being put out through a big name publishing company but for most independent cosplayers this is the cliffnotes version of the process.
Not too long ago these were more commonly sold as DVD's but photobooks printed on paper remains the popular option, usually since cosplayers actually sign these. Recently some cosplayers have also started putting out photobooks as PDFs although those are still less common and more just for overseas fans. This makes sense when you consider the fans of specific cosplayers who would buy merch want physical items.
Polaroids
As far as my favorite stuff to collect goes, it's got to be the polaroids or チェキ (cheki).
These are small, compact and the most adjacent to cards. They're also great because each polaroid is special and a 1/1. Even if the photo is re-used, there's a different way it's decorated each time. They're also pretty easy for the cosplayers to prepare as well since all one needs is the equipment to take and print out polaroids. In fact at most events cosplayers partake in there's usually a polaroid camera somewhere so you can take a picture with your favorite cosplayer and have them sign it/decorate it on the spot too. Like I said, consumer's paradise.
The one caveat is that these are also incredibly easy to fake. The more popular names frequently have fakes all over the internet. This is why going to a cosplayer's official store/event is the safest.
Unfortunately I haven't been able to travel to Japan for a long time but I still got personalized, tailored and special ones like these from Nene-san. She was even willing to kindly tailor the polaroids to my favorite character, 2B from NieR: Automata. In my favorite outfit 2B wore too! She's my favorite cosplayer for a reason folks.
Bromides/Postcards
As always thanks for stopping by and take care.