Dolled up for a Cosplay competition at the Bangkok Interactive Game Festival 2008 are, from left, Kirarin, 18-year-old Natthakan Suphahatanukul and 21-year-old Malin Hasegawa.

Global economic and environmental summits are all well and good, but a whole lot more gets done at the annual World Cosplay Summit in Nagoya Aichi, Japan, a gathering of the manga-crazed tribes from 12 countries.

Never far behind when it comes to crazy culture, Thailand has three crucial cosplay events coming up - J-Rock Return this Saturday in Samyod Plaza, and on April 27 both the Nippon Fever Festival at Siam Discovery and Comic Party 10 at the Asia Hotel.

Devotees need plenty of get-togethers - their numbers are swelling all the time, the hobby infecting thousands more every year via online communities.

Why get dressed up like a cartoon character? Well, obviously the kids love the characters, their heroes and heroines from Japan's manga and anime. Plus, a lot of imagination and creativity goes into making the costumes and the often-elaborate props.

It can take months to perfect an outfit, and you have to make your own because, strangely, no one's opened a shop yet. You have to find just the right fabric and cut it all up and stitch it back together, collect the feathers for your wings, and somehow talk your parents into buying you a blond wig. Only the truly rabid ask them for a samurai sword.

Proud mother

If 18-year-old Natthakan Suphahatanukul - who's won loads of cosplay competitions - spent as much time studying as she did making costumes, says her poor mother, she'd be the smartest kid in the world. Actually, Natthakan's mother is her biggest fan, to the point of breaking down in tears of pride when she wins a contest.

Apparently some cosplay fans do manage to graduate and get jobs, though. We found a 23-year-old airline hostess who insists on being called "Koyoki" to suit her comic-book persona. Cosplay is an "escape", she says. You'd think flying thousands of kilometres every week would be enough of an escape, but she's got nearly 30 fantasy outfits in her closet, and spent an average of Bt1,000 each making them.

Interestingly, cosplay champ Natthakan wants to be an airline hostess too, but meanwhile she's loving the attention too much. Her costumes have already snagged her a part-time job as a "pretty", posing with toys.

Malin Hasegawa, 21, who's studying art and Japanese at Assumption University, says her friends think she's gone mad.

"Why is that?" we ask as she transforms herself into "Kirarin".

"They just doesn't understand," is the reply we should have seen coming.

By Lisnaree Vichitsorasatra

Daily Xpress

XTRA

How to get into cosplay

>> Pick a character (not Popeye).

>>Study the character's attire and decide what you need to buy.

>> Go shopping for material at Sampeng or Pratunam. Get a sewing machine too.

>> Put it together. If you hit a snag, be creative (cat's ears can be tricky) or go here: www.PropsOps.com.