Every once and a while, you see a cosplay that completely blows your mind. As you might imagine, Japan has quite a few A-list cosplayers, especially male cosplayers, who portray effeminate, vampiric, or androgynous characters with relative ease.
While men who wear makeup and dress in an androgynous fashion are often looked down upon in Western society, Japan has a long history of praising its various beautiful men. These days, a large part of cosplay seems to be the respect and appreciation of ordinary men being able to alter their appearance to closely resemble the unattainable, elegant “beauty” of popular anime characters.
If your twitter feed is lacking in creativity, make sure to follow these five Japanese male cosplayers!
1. Reika
Reika, also known as Reika2011, is one of the most popular Japanese male cosplayers. He’s also very active on twitter, posting not only his cosplay photos, but also plenty of shots from wherever he happens to be that week.
三成様ーつ♪♪ 戦国BASARA! @Mayu_bsr pic.twitter.com/2S0CLLWJUZ
— 麗華-REIKA- (@reika2011) November 2, 2014
Reika illustrates the importance of “looking the part” when you cosplay. Very often, the face makes the cosplay, and Reika has that down to an art. He’s also a good cosplayer to follow if you’re just getting into cosplay, since he has an impressive portfolio and a band of faithful fans.
おはようございます！さーて今からメイク！写真は台湾からのゲストの紅月司さんのHさんと♪ pic.twitter.com/LRGNt2mSzL — 麗華-REIKA- (@reika2011) November 2, 2014
2. Touga
Touga is another Japanese male cosplayer who specializes in making tough characters look more feminine. His twitter feed is a nice mix of cosplay, food, and entertaining extras.
18.御幸一也/ダイヤのA #1RTで過去写真1枚あっぷする pic.twitter.com/8eGbcWNNOQ
— TOUGA.@ゼッA!4[ま59]御幸 (@touga_mzzzx) November 2, 2014
Rather than just focusing on happy, beautiful, or simple characters, Touga does a wonderful job cosplaying the darker characters. Also, in a lot of shots, his face looks like it is painted on. He does a very good job bridging the gap between reality and fiction. If you don’t look closely, it’s easy to think his cosplay modelling shots are particularly life-like photoshop paintings.
7.ディエゴ/STEEL BALL RUN #1RTで過去写真1枚あっぷする pic.twitter.com/c8E66gxgLP — TOUGA.@ゼッA!4[ま59]御幸 (@touga_mzzzx) November 2, 2014
3. Est
Est is a popular Japanese male cosplayer, famous for his androgynous style. He doesn’t post as many photos as most of the other men on this list – his twitter feed is mostly full of day-by-day updates and musings.
When he does post a photo, though, it’s pretty incredible.
人工天使培養 pic.twitter.com/76hdTb7Azi
— est (@est_ll) November 3, 2014
Compared to some of the other male cosplayers in Japan, Est uses much more “natural” makeup.
4.Kuromitu
Kuromitu is an all-around fun cosplayer to follow on twitter. He doesn’t post cosplay shots as often as some of the others on this list, but a lot of the other stuff he posts is still fun to read.
1日遅れたけど‼︎ハロウィンセバシエ‼︎執事から素敵な1枚貰ったので(=´∀｀)人(´∀｀=)今年も主従でハロウィン満喫しました（笑） pic.twitter.com/mMJF6GYSLo — 黒蜜{そろそろペットも欲しかったしな (@kuromitu963232) November 1, 2014
5. Koh
Last but not least, Koh is a popular favorite among Kurishitsugi (Black Butler) fans. Like all the others, his twitter feed is mainly in Japanese, but even if you can’t read the language, you can still appreciate the photos.
@kuromitu963232 ( ･´ｰ･｀) pic.twitter.com/TE8721t4An
— 黒鴉紅{坊ちゃんをよろしくお願いします (@koh_kurokarasu) November 1, 2014
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