Purple and Black

I drew this sketch of a costumer at Costumecon and colored it in Photoshop later on. I think she is wearing a costume re-created from a Japanese anime cartoon. There were a lot of anime devotees at the convention wearing get-ups from their favorite anime's. This is called cosplay, rather than just plain costuming, because there's some element of role-playing in it, more than just showing off your craft skills. Seeing all these anime fans in their character roles made me aware of just how little I know about this extremely influential field of pop culture. In fact I know very little about pop culture in any form, whether movies, TV, music, or games. I suppose it's a result of my own ivory tower lifestyle. If I felt I needed to know this, I suppose I could learn, in my own pedantic way, whatever I needed to know. There are guides to anime both in book and video form. I am very good at remembering details, and I could turn myself into a total pedantic otaku (anime devotee) if I had the determination to do it. I could recite from memory storylines, characters, controversies, and descriptions...I could dress up as my favorite anime character...I could even learn Japanese, as the real hardcore devotees do. But life is too goddamn short for that.