By Kakumi Kobayashi
     A Japanese pair were crowned costume role-play world champions in a recent competition and their success could help the subculture develop into a more socially recognized art form of self-expression in the country where it originated.
     ''Cosplay'' performers Yuri Hayashi and Rie Otsuka were in the spotlight with their victory in the government-backed World Cosplay Championship in Nagoya on Sunday after defeating rivals from 14 other countries.
     ''We worked hard to make our performance more entertaining so we can appeal to as many people as possible including those who are not familiar with cosplay,'' Hayashi, who performs under the stage name Yuri, said after winning the title.
     Her comment reflects the current situation in Japan where cosplay culture has yet to win broad appeal and where practitioners have treated it as a low-key hobby.
     The competition venue was packed with several thousand spectators including many dressed as their favorite characters in anime, manga and video games.
     The cosplayers thronged together, showing off their striking costumes to each other and posing for photos, but showed little inclination to talk to those outside cosplay circles.
     But Hayashi and Otsuka are challenging the traditional style of Japanese cosplay, which some say is too self-congratulatory.
     The duo had a sense of crisis similar to that felt by judokas in Japan for many years now -- that Japanese performers were being eclipsed in international competitions in a field that originated in their homeland.
     ''We performed hard trying to improve the quality of Japan's cosplay and encourage more people to start doing it,'' Otsuka, known simply as Rie on stage, told reporters.
     The pair, dressed as renowned samurai warriors who are the main characters in a PlayStation game titled ''Sengoku Basara'' (Devil Kings), won over the audience with an energetic performance involving a duel with toy swords and much running up and down the wide stage.
     Iconic anime star Toru Furuya, who was among the judges, said it was the kind of performance that could herald a shift in views in Japan toward cosplay culture.
     ''Their movements (on stage) were more impressive than their outfits. Their facial expressions were also good,'' said Furuya, a veteran artist known for his voice-overs for one of the main characters in the legendary anime ''Mobile Suit Gundam.''
     It was the first time for a Japanese team to win the competition since its launch in 2005.
     Japan is well known overseas as the birthplace of many cosplay characters.
     Yet in sharp contrast with its ability to produce such icons, the quality of Japanese cosplay performers has lagged far behind that of foreign contenders.
     ''Japanese cosplayers are much shyer than those in foreign countries in general. Many of them even don't want make their real name public,'' a spokesperson of the annual event said.
     Cosplay used to be an indoor hobby and only several years ago it would have been hard to imagine that cosplayers could take to the streets, Hayashi and Otsuka said.
     The tendency among Japanese cosplay performers to try to be low-key has something to do with the nature of masquerade, said Tsuboi Hideto, who heads Nagoya University's Research Center for Modern & Contemporary Japanese Culture.
     ''Disguise is generally regarded as something underground or a challenge to normality,'' Tsuboi, professor of the university's Graduate School of Letters, said.
     On top of that, many cosplayers in Japan have to fight prejudice and a ''negative image,'' Hayashi and Otsuka said.
     ''Some think cosplay is done by people who shut themselves off from society,'' Otsuka said, referring to the behavior of reclusive people called ''hikikomori'' in Japanese.
     The sometimes scantily dressed look of female costumes leads some to wrongly believe that cosplay has a link to the adult entertainment industry.
     But Tsuboi said the long-awaited win by a Japanese pair at the international contest will lead more people to recognize cosplay culture as ''something that can be a part of society.''
==Kyodo