Cosplay
Cosplay is short for "costume" and "play". It is a Japanese subculture that revolves around dressing up as characters from manga, anime and video games, and, less commonly, Japanese live action television shows, fantasy movies, or Japanese pop music bands. In some circles, "cosplay" now means simply wearing a costume.
The act of cosplaying as characters of the opposite sex is sometimes called crossplay (cross-dressing cosplay).
The term can also mean (and may originate from) the use of costumes for sexual purposes, in which case the "play" refers not to dressing up, but sexual play while dressed up. The term thus overlaps what would usually be known in English as sexual roleplaying or sexual fetishism. For example, wearing a schoolgirl uniform before or during sex would be known as seifuku cosplay, and many Japanese love hotels offer costume rental services. In the Japanese sex industry, sex clubs that specialise in sexual cosplay are known as image clubs; they offer schoolgirls, nurses, policewomen, etc.
