Abstract
The figure of the magical girl is a recurring favorite with cosplayers around the world with cosplays (costumes) of Sakura from Cardcaptor Sakura (1996–2000) as well as other magical girl characters such as Sailor Moon from Naoko Takeuchi’s Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon (1991–1997) recognized as well-loved standards. This chapter examines the different strategies employed by manga artists such as CLAMP in dressing magical girls and magical women. How is shōjo/shōjoness conveyed by manga artists and later portrayed by cosplayers? How is shōjoness performed by cosplayers who are no longer in a state of shōjo (and crossplayers who have never been shōjo)? This piece also looks at 2.5D theater and other ‘real world’ portrayals of shōjoness.
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King, E.L. (2019). Sakura ga meijiru—Unlocking the Shōjo Wardrobe: Cosplay, Manga, 2.5D Space. In: Berndt, J., Nagaike, K., Ogi, F. (eds) Shōjo Across Media. East Asian Popular Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01485-8_10
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