Manga’s 2.5 D Women: Professional Cosplayers in Men’s Manga Magazines

Approximately half of the most popular manga magazines for boys and men include “gravures”—cover and interior photographs of young women models. Along with swimsuits, lingerie, and school uniforms, cosplay outfits are popular attire for these models. Through close examination of cosplay gravures and the context in which they are produced and consumed, this chapter argues that cosplay gravures in men’s manga magazines encourage readers to link their erotic fantasies about fictional characters and living people. In doing so, this chapter challenges the dominant discourse in Japanese manga studies that there is a categorical distinction between manga and reality in the minds of readers—a logic that has been mobilized to dismiss criticism of erotic depictions of fictional girls and women in manga and related media. This chapter simultaneously complicates dominant narratives regarding the empowering potential of cosplay by examining the imbalanced gender dynamics of professional cosplay for manga magazines.