Attendees engage in cosplay and wearing costumes during WonderCon 2016 Day 2 at Los Angeles Convention Center on March 25, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

Sweden's Henrik Pilerud, inside the Totoro costume, and his team member Victoria Christensen (R) pose during an interview with AFP ahead of a rehearsal before the world cosplay championship 2024 during the World Cosplay Summit in Nagoya on August 3, 2024. (Photo by Philip Fong/AFP Photo)

Cosplay enthusiasts Alex Lawson, 20, attends the North East Manga and Anime Convention (NemaCon) dressed as Hunni Sempai at Middlesborough Town Hall on June 18, 2011 in Middlesbrough, England. Hundreds of Manga, Anime and Cosplay enthusiasts gathered for NemaCon 2011. Cosplay is short for Costume Play where players dress and perform roles from Japanese culture, Anime and Manga art characters. Many subcultures have also evolved inspired by video games, American cartoons and comics. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Two girls in cosplay dresses walk in the street in Beijing on March 27, 2017. (Photo by Fred Dufour/AFP Photo)

The eighth annual Nipponbashi Street Festa stamped Osaka March 20, 2012 (Nipponbashi is Osaka’s geek district – much like Akihabara is for Tokyo). Cosplayers turned up in colourful outfits, dressing as characters from their favourite manga, anime, and video games. The street was closed to cars, and otaku flooded the streets, snapping pics, cosplaying, and hanging out.

A woman wearing a sweet girl cosplay mask strikes a pose during a flower watching or Hanami event, in the Japanese Garden of Bucharest, Romania, April 13, 2024. (Photo by Andreea Alexandru/AP Photo)

Cosplay fans attend the Animation Comic Games (ACG) Culture Festival in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, May 28, 2017. The festival kicked off on Saturday, attracting lots of cosplay fans. (Photo by Liu Xiao/Xinhua)

A participant wearing his cosplay featuring a character from an animation gets his government contact tracing QR code in the “LeaveHomeSafe” COVID-19 mobile app scanned at Ani-Com and Games exhibition in Hong Kong, Friday, July 29, 2022. (Photo by Kin Cheung/AP Photo)