By The Editors of Broccoli Books (uncredited translators)
Broccoli Books, 200 pp.
Rating: Not Rated

This gorgeous hardcover English-language artbook from Broccoli is by far the best cosplay book available stateside. With a price point of $19.99, this book would make a great gift for your cosplay friends – whether they’re just fans of cosplay, hardcore cosplayers, or beginners ready to take the next step after buying the ubiquitous Hot Topic Naruto jacket.

I want you to know a couple things up front about this review: 1. I picked this up with my hard-earned cash. 2. I have cosplayed a couple of times myself, but I gave it up when I started writing about conventions professionally. I have learned that once you’ve cosplayed, pictures on the internet never go away, and friends and coworkers will think of you as a cosplayer forever. (Really, if someone smoked marijuana once or twice would you call them a “stoner”?)

Cosmode USA issue 1, “The Glamour Issue” is divided into several sections. It opens with stunning photos of Japanese cosplayers, then breaks into a cosplay “manual” of practical guides and costume patterns. A small section in the back profiles some formidable U.S. cosplayers, and for some reason includes photographer profiles. The preachy two-page Etiquette Guide seems to be aimed at newbies.

The opening section of photos is a little frustrating from a craft standpoint, since the captions are all character descriptions. The costume commentary on the follow-up pages ranges from the inane, “It took me two days from start to finish,” to the inspiring, “The base of the wings is a 200 yen board bought at a home repair shop.”

The brilliant wig section of the book has a step-by-step guide on how to make yourself a spiky Sora wig from Kingdom Hearts, how to rat wig hair to look like Ichigo from Bleach, and how to use a caulking gun to create princess curls. I found this section fascinating, even if my wig-buying days are over.

The book contains patterns for a Gintama style uniform (a generic Japanese boy’s school jacket), an FMA style dress (Envy’s), a Suikan (from Haruka, or like Sai’s robe from Hikaru No Go), a kimono, a Haori jacket, and tabi socks. Things take a turn for the advanced as the book tells us how to make shoe covers (turn your high heels into go-go boots for cheap), body suits for tasteful plunging necklines, and how to airbrush tattoos. The kimono section has terminology and a great guide on how to wear a kimono.

Without making the patterns myself, it’s hard for me to gauge the practicality of the sewing guide. A character named “Sewing Granny” walks you through some of it, but her hints went over my head:

My favorite part of the book is the female cosplayers who have turned themselves into male characters. On the cover a troop of girls have made themselves into convincing males from Gurren Lagann. This scan is from a demo on giving yourself masculine pecs using a bodysuit:

Unfortunately, the book lacks an introduction. Why not tell us about the history of Cosmode magazine in Japan? (It’s a bimonthly magazine that started in 2002.) Instead of supplementary material, the book is padded out with 17 pages of full-color advertisements (J-list, Robert’s Anime Corner Store, etc.). The overall effect is that of an information dump – it’s useful information, but I’d kind of like to know which issue of the Japanese Cosmode magazine that kimono pattern came from (if any).

Nevertheless, Cosmode is the ultimate English language cosplay book. It blows away all the nearest competition. The lame Stone Bridge Press release Cosplay: Catgirls and Other Critters only has poorly illustrated instructions for making cat ears, and Jan Kurotaki’s misleading title Everybody Cosplay is just sexy pictures of Kurotaki herself! Cosmode is a great combination of stunning photography and practical cosplay craft advice.

Although the book is numbered as volume 01, with Broccoli USA leaving our shores volume two will probably never be released. Fortunately, in 2008 Cosmode began a reasonably priced online edition that comes with hover-over English translations of text. You can read issue zero online for free (it requires registering an email address). A few of the issue zero photos are included in the book, but the article content is completely different.

It’s my understanding from the Broccoli panel at San Diego Comic Con 2008 that the Broccoli editors (uncredited in the book) translated the volume and brought it to market in about two weeks. Any blood, sweat and tears were totally worth it, Broccoli!

By the way, the amazon cover of the book is wrong, and you can get it cheaper from the manufacturer’s website at the time of this writing. I wonder how many copies are left in existence?

Volume 1 of Cosmode is available now.