Hatsune Miku and Cosplay

Cosplay (コスプレ kosupure) refers to the act of dressing up as a character, usually from a manga, comic book, anime, cartoon, game, television series, or film. It is a portmanteau of the words costume play. Participants, called cosplayers, often dress up at fan-organized events and have seen rapid growth in popularity worldwide since the 1990s.

Origins of Modern Cosplay

Dressing up at festivals has been a part of Japanese culture since the Edo period. In Kyoto, popular geisha would dress up as historical or fictional figures and parade through the city. Cosplaying popular pop culture characters as we know it today is thought to have originated in the mid-1960s, likely in American science fiction culture, which was likely influenced by the American custom of dressing up for Halloween. In fact, the term was first coined in 1984 when Studio Hard founder Nobuyuki Takahashi attended the 42nd Worldcon in Los Angeles. He was impressed by the crowd dressed as their favorite characters and wrote about it in a magazine, thus coining the term cosplay.

Cosplay and Hatsune Miku

As pop culture icons, Vocaloid , in particular, Hatsune Miku , costumes are sold commercially in Japan. This, combined with the fact that Vocaloid has a large and international fanbase, means that they are popular characters for cosplay, and are frequently seen at anime fan conventions and cosplay events. Officially licensed costumes cost up to $200 USD depending on the venue, while the wig can cost up to $30 USD. Because of this, many cosplayers tend to hand-make the outfits themselves.
Crypton Future Media has repeatedly announced that it is prohibited to arrive at the event venue in full cosplay attire, and that attendees may be denied entry to the event despite a valid ticket. Instead, attendees are asked to change in the changing rooms provided by the venue.

Cosplayers go to events where other fans can photograph them, though in recent years cosplayers have been known to take all the photos themselves, outside of events, and post the photos on their own social media accounts. One such cosplayer is Taiwanese Amarante , who gained popularity when she dressed up as Miku in 2006. On websites like Reddit , amateur cosplayers will post photos of themselves in hopes of gaining more exposure from other fans. While most major cosplayers have at least once played as Miku, it wasn't until 2017, when Scarlet Saya appeared on the Japanese show "What did you come to do in Japan?" (You wa nani shi ni nippon e?), that the Miku cosplay fanbase reached its peak.

Scarlet Saya

In a segment recorded at the same time as Magical Mirai 2017, a film crew from the show "What Did You Come to Japan for?" approached Saya Scarlet at the airport. In the segment, Saya, a cosplayer of Russian descent, shows difficulty understanding questions in both Japanese and English and answers only in very simple English. She mentions that she is there for the Hatsune Miku Magical Mirai 2017 concert and is a big fan, being the administrator of Russia's largest Hatsune Miku fan club. She says she hopes to take photos and videos to help spread the word about Hatsune Miku in her native Russia, where she hopes to one day hold a Miku concert. Although she does not speak or understand Japanese, she managed to sing "Miku Miku ni Shite Ageru" live for the crew and also showed them her YouTube channel, where she performs as Miku and sings covers of famous songs.
The segment aired in October and was a huge hit with Japanese netizens. Many fans commented, "She's the perfect Hatsune Miku!" while others found her nervousness and laughter very cute. Clips of this segment appeared all over the internet, and many reached over a million views within days of the initial broadcast.
This broadcast brought her to mainstream attention, and she gained over 100,000 Twitter followers and over 150,000 YouTube subscribers almost overnight. In the months and years that followed, she was sponsored to appear at Hatsune Miku events around the world and appeared on Japanese television several times to promote cosplay and her love for Hatsune Miku.
She has proven to be such a positive role model for the cosplay community that she has been dubbed by some as the unofficial ambassador of Hatsune Miku cosplay.

Cosplay - Wikipedia
List of cosplayers - Wikipedia
Scarlet Saya - Twitter
Mirai's Magical Terms for Cosplay
Japanese Twitter Goes Wild Over Pretty Russian Cosplayer Hatsune Miku - Soranews24