“You’re morally bankrupt.” “Die already.” These are just a few of the choice words that some social media users in Japan had for a Japanese woman recently. Her crime against humanity? Attending Osaka Expo in cosplay. While some say her attendance at Expo was a disgrace, Expo officials themselves say cosplaying isn’t against the event’s rules.
Content warning: This article briefly discusses suicide.
Egregious in Expo?
The “controversy” involves cosplayer Shikano Tsuno, who has 27,000 followers on X. Shikano attracted buzz at Comiket 104 in 2024 with her cosplay of Marcille Donato, a half-elven mage from the manga and anime Delicious in Dungeon (ダンジョン飯; danjon meshi).
The story follows a group of explorers who re-enter an infamous dungeon to rescue their companion. Per the title, the story also focuses on the meals the team manages to cobble together from the ingredients they find – and the monsters they slay – along the way. The first season was popular both in Japan and abroad; a second season is currently in production.
“Another person might have killed themselves”
After researching the event’s rules, Shikano decided to attend Osaka Expo as the famous elf. She posted the photos to her X account last month and chronicled her visit on her Note blog.
Her visit, however, quickly turned ugly. Some social media users lit into her for “sullying” the image of Marcille by attending a non-otaku event in cosplay. People called her “trash.” Some even leaked personal information about her, such as the name of the train station close to where she lives, resulting in her seeking advice from the police.
“Someone posted ‘I’m gonna shoot Shikano Tsuno on May 22nd’ to a forum. It got to where I couldn’t go about my day, either mentally or physically. I’ve met with the cops, and they’ve increased patrols around my place.”
She said the slander even extended to people at the event who took photos with her and posted them online.
“Some of them had to delete the photos they’d taken with me and private their accounts,” she said.
The cosplayer seems to have taken the slander against her in stride, however. In a post to her X account, she wrote, “I can see how someone who isn’t me might have decided to kill themselves over this, it was that bad. I’m glad it was me! Truly!”
Expo confirms cosplay is okay
Typically, cosplayers in Japan will only dress up at events where cosplaying is explicitly allowed and encouraged – e.g., conventions such as Comiket. Even in those cases, most won’t go out in public in cosplay but instead will change at the event itself.
This restriction on cosplay in public is generally seen as good manners. There are also some who fear that appearing in cosplay in public could run afoul of new copyright laws passed in Japan in 2021. Indeed, some of the accusations against Shikano involved her risking copyright violation. (The original proposed law, seen as overly strict, was amended to allow for most forms of cosplay after public backlash.)
For her part, Shikano says she checked the rules and confirmed that cosplay isn’t forbidden at Osaka Expo. And she’s right. An FAQ on the official Osaka Expo site explicitly says that attendees can wear anything that “doesn’t fall in the category of forbidden items.” Indeed, other people have shown up at the Expo in costume, including one who dressed as terrifying event mascot Myaku-Myaku.
The Expo’s rules do forbid anything that “violates public decency.” The Expo also doesn’t provide changing rooms and forbids changing in the bathrooms. To honor this, Shikano says she stayed at a hotel near the Expo, got changed there, and took a taxi to the event gate.
Her detractors have doubled down, saying they’re not really mad at her for showing up at Expo in cosplay. Rather, they’re mad at her over old comments they dug up from her X account, saying that creators should be grateful to “derivative creators” (二次創作者; niji sosakusha) for the publicity that they bring to the original work.
In response, Shikano has shot back that those were “comments from long ago” and that she holds creators in the utmost respect. She merely wants to see a society where original creators can also freely promote the work of derivative creators, resulting in a “win-win” for all involved.
Having been the subject of Internet slander myself, I know this game when I see it. A rabid group of haters wants to hate on someone, so they’ve plumbed the depths of her past social media posts. They’re now throwing whatever they find against the wall to see what sticks.
Honestly, it all sounds like just another excuse for men on the Internet to hate on a woman for existing.
If you or someone you love is in crisis, please reach out for help. Those in Japan you can call the following numbers:
0570-064-556 for kokoro-no-kenkou-soudan (こころの健康相談) operated by prefectorial and city organizations
0570-783-556 for inochi-no-denwa (いのちの電話) operated by Federation of Inochi No Denwa.
For English language help in Japan, reach out to TELL.
If you are in the US call 911 for emergencies and 988 for the suicide hotline.
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Sources
“万博コスプレ”で炎上→「はよ死ね」「ゴミ」と誹謗中傷の嵐→殺害予告まで…「心身の限界です」女性コスプレイヤーが語る、“ネットリンチ”の恐怖. Bunshun Online *comments taken from Yahoo! News JP syndication)
万博会場のコスプレ賛否 入場は個別判断「やり過ぎはよくないが…」. Mainichi Shimbun
「ダンジョン飯」コスプレイヤーがコミケで遭遇した「膝から崩れ落ちた」出来事とは まさかの事態にX民爆笑. ITmedia Netlab
“万博でコスプレ”が炎上、「著作権侵害」の声も 当事者コスプレイヤー「タブーにするのではなく…」. Yahoo! Japan
コスプレにおけるマナー！初心者が知っておくべき基本ルール. AllAbout
万博をコスプレで楽しんだので所感や注意点をまとめる. Shikano Tsuno on Note
