chennai popular manga character goku has caught the fancy of all age groups notably martial artist jackie chan and tennis star rafael nadal in chennai although the fictional character of the dragon ball manga series entered the world of rubina raphael when she was six years old it wasnt until a couple of years ago that she found the opportunity to cosplay her favourite herocosplaying an amateur hobby in which participants or cosplayers wear selfmade outfits and fashion accessories to represent a specific character has been popular and found several venues in cities such as mumbai and bengaluru but since a series of workshops were held in chennai in 2017 cosplay has begun catching on in the city tootoday many like rubina take up cosplay as a hobby as they find it an outlet to immortalise their favourite comic and anime characters such as kenshin himura rurouni kenshin series alphonse elric fullmetal alchemist sakura kinomoto cardcaptor sakura and inuyasha a fairy tale in a japanese manga seriesfor chennaibased joseph wilson it was his love for animation and cartoon that attracted him to cosplay a year ago the art form according to wilson a theatre actor and cosplayer is gaining popularity among youngsters in the city a year ago when i came to chennai i was clueless about it a friend introduced me to a group that helped me participate in a cosplay event held here being an anime fan it was an eyeopener for me he sayshowever wilson feels that one does the perfect cosplay only when one is passionate about that particular character the success of a cosplay depends on how much the artist can bring out the original mannerisms of the real character its not childs play at all one has to be driven enough to bring forth even the minute details of the character and that is challenging says wilson today cosplayers are mainly invited to promotional events gettogethers and other private functionsdo they act it depends on the character you represent says 24yearold rubina who works in marketingthe word cosplay was coined from the terms costume and play by nobuyuki takahashi at the world science fiction convention in los angeles in 1984 instead of using the existing term masquerade a social gathering of people wearing masks and often fantastic costumes takahashi wanted to coin a new word expressing the exact spirit of the costumed fans thats how the word cosplay came into existence says j victor joseph a dancer and cosplayer based in chennaiin cosplay the artists must design their own costumes which is the most challenging part i make my costumes myself if needed i take the help of a seamstress i only focus on the most striking aspects of the character that i am going to cosplay while designing the costumes says rubinawhen surya banu first cosplayed lelouch vi britannia the protagonist of the sunrise anime series code geass lelouch of the rebellion she was a bit nervous apparently she chose the