Cosplay Panties Bring Photographers To Their Knees....

Cosplay panties bring photographers to their knees, but maybe not why you’d expect

by Casey Baseel

Recently, we came two stories of trains decorated with pictures of anime girls, and also hardcore fans who fantasize about peeking at their panties. Really, this is pretty disturbing. I mean, these are 2-D pieces of promotional art we’re talking about here. Are there no anime fans out there who would rather peer into the pleated folds of a real girl’s skirt?
Actually, yes, there are many.

Last week was the 10th annual Nippombashi Street Festa pop culture celebration. Held in downtown Tokyo, festivities included parades, martial arts demonstrations, craft activities, and a maid café waitress beauty pageant.

There was even a cosplay contest, attracting a number of talented costumers and models. With so much talent on display, it’s natural that some models would draw a crowd of amateur photographers, like the ones we see in this photo gathered and waiting for one cosplayer’s arrival.

Ah, here she comes, decked out in a classic sailor suit. What kind of color combination did she go with? How’s the stitching on her costume holding up as the days goes on?
Or, to more accurately transcribe the thoughts of these cameramen, what’s the best angle to photograph her underwear at?

Yes, it seems some of the event’s attendees weren’t so interested in the intricate craftsmanship of the contestants’ costumes as what was underneath them. However, we can’t immediately jump to the conclusion that all of these shutterbugs are lonely men who took their camera and its display screen under the covers later that night. As pointed out by Mayurudon, the person who took the photos seen above, for some of these panty hunters this was strictly business.

As the cosplay trend continues to grow, rumors say a cottage industry has sprung up in which enterprising photographers will shoot away at a low angle, since if they come away with a photo showing some lingerie, they can sell it at a premium to others to do with as they will. According to Mayurudon, it’s greed, not lust, that these guys got down on their knees for.

▼ “Just another day at the old nine-to-five.”

But seeing such a large crowd kneeling around the girl, it’s impossible to believe that she didn’t realize what was going on. Similarly, since she happily stood there as the men shot their loads of film or memory, it’s hard to think she wasn’t complicit, something Mayurudon says is becoming par for the course.

With cosplay attracting more and more media and commercial attention, some see modeling anime and video game-inspired fashions to be their ticket to fame. To that end, Mayurudon says many of them show up for events like Nippombashi Street Festa with purposefully skimpy costumes that show off the contours of their bodies, and in the most extreme cases, with no underwear on.
“This has nothing to do with cosplay, you know,” he asserts. “It’s just stripping.”

▼ Linguistically neither putting on a revealing costume or not bothering to wear panties in the first place qualifies as stripping (i.e. removing clothing), but we see what he’s getting at.

“I can understand the thinking and ambitions of these cosplayers, but there are some line you just don’t cross,” Mayurudon continues. The troubled fan even sees a potential crisis if the tide of sexiness isn’t stemmed, and that it could spell the end of cosplay events, and even the hobby itself.
“If this keeps escalating, it’ll be like when discos disappeared 20 years ago,” he warns.

We’re a little confused as to whether he’s referring to the type of music or the dance clubs that specialized in it. Either way, though, for the time being, if you’re strutting around in a cosplay miniskirt, keep an eye out for photographers lining up a shot that puts your panties in the foreground and the blue sky behind them.

Sources: Hamster Sokuho, Yaplog