If you go down in the woods today ... you'd better go in disguise

There are many things you might reasonably expect to see while walking a small dog around a modest park in the middle of a huge city. Definitely other small dogs and large dogs even - with civic-minded owners bagging up generous handfuls of poop.  Noisy toddlers, hi-tech prams, the occasional roller-blader or powered skateboarder. However a forest populated by small groups of elfin anime characters would almost certainly make you look twice ... and then some. Indeed, to the uninitiated, a visit to Yangjae Citizen's Forest might leave you thinking you have just entered The Twilight Zone...

Beware of the forest, don't stray from the path

Yangjae Citizen's Forest is a small parcel of land in the south of Seoul hemmed in by a major trunk road, a large flower market and two looming high-rise offices of Hyundai and Kia. Frankly it is very easy to overlook, the forest being altogether too small to attract significant numbers of people. 

A girl in elaborate anime costume poses for photographs on a bridge into Yangjae Citizen's Forest

However with a few grassy areas, some curious looking monuments, lots of leafy tree cover and a stream with bridges, it serves perfectly as an unlikely outdoor photographic studio where cosplayers can pay homage to their favourite comic hero, or perhaps their partner's favourite comic crush. For uninformed dog-walkers a cosplayer is a person who dresses up as a character from an comic series, movie, cartoon or video game. 

http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-cosplay-2013-10

As always, Korean cosplayers take their obsessions very seriously.
For anime characters there is an ill-defined grey zone between
fandom, fetish and role-play

The background to all of this is Korea's insatiable fascination with anime comics and movies. A quick glimpse around the subway carriage in the morning shows an approx equal split between commuters playing video games, watching TV and those reading a (sometimes too) graphic novel of one genre or another. 

A model waits patiently while photographers assemble cameras, lights, reflectors

While some suggest that anime is helping to support Japan through a time of declining economic influence ...

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2010/09/07/reference/anime-makes-japan-superpower/#.WaJmkigjGUk

... others claim that the home-grown Korean animation is finally ready to step into the limelight and define its own place in the market after many years of producing work outsourced from the Japanese animation studios;

https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2013/jan/22/south-korean-animation-king-pigs

http://www.korea.net/NewsFocus/Culture/view?articleId=112698

Either way, the market for anime is reportedly worth US$ 14bn in Japan and more than twice that in China, so competition is fierce.

http://www.animationcareerreview.com/articles/buzz-about-multibillion-dollar-anime-biz

Consumer interest in Korea is such that Seoul and the southern port city of Busan take it in turns to alternately hold anime comic conventions at least every two months - usually every month during the summer.  

Busan Comic World

These conventions give fans a chance to show show off new costumes and pose as their alter ego in a highly charged, media intense, bustling setting.  By comparison the Citizen's Forest at Yangjae allows them to quietly mellow out and enjoy the fun in a quiet, relaxing, semi-secluded environment.

Say "Kimchi"

Note the axes - as much work goes into the props as the costumes

It's not unusual to see a group of 3 or more brightly wigged and costumed cosplayers surrounded by a crew of 5 or more taking photos or video, holding lights, reflectors or flash umbrellas, fixing props such as swords and axes and making fine adjustments to make-up, headgear and capes. All in all you could be forgiven for thinking you and your mutt had blindly wandered onto a film rehearsal studio.

Just a final note of interest; while the western fan base of animated material and comic conventions is (stereo-typically at least) nerdy young men - exemplified by Big Bang Theory

The Big Bang Theory: Flash, Flash, Flash and Flash

By comparison the Asian fan base is, if anything, overwhelmingly female.



 PS: Inspirational leaders through the ages

47BC: I came, I saw, I conquered

2017 AD: I came, I scored, I squandered, bigly

   

Angry Birds - a disclaimer

With an uncharacteristic flurry of feathers the Federation Of Winged Laying-birds (FOWL) yesterday issued a full volley of protests over continued attempts to smear the fine reputation of chickens and other hardworking egg-laying birds around the globe.

Chicken Little Feet 

At Sunny Side Up, a state-of-the-art, solar powered, battery chicken egg farm outside of Washington DC, a US spokespers-hen addressed a packed press conference as follows;

"There is a fine line between political satire and callously belittling the hard-working avian population on whose wholesome eggs an estimated 3/4 of our nation go to work each morning.

These continuous and damaging sleights to the reputation of our fine workforce is something which we should never have to endure.

Of course we are not perfect.
We would even be the first to admit that as chickens we have certain unique behaviors which tend to define us.

These may include;

• small or bony feet 
• Bouffant golden quiffs 
• rounding suddenly on fellow fowl who crowd our space or challenge our supremacy 
• running around urgently in all directions to project the image of being busy without any substantial plan in in place 
• crowing out messages before dawn while the rest of the brood is asleep 
• Unnecessary clucking, wing flapping and aggressive posturing at trivial provocations 

But to caricature us this way is a mean and paltry insult; which deeply offends our rank and file. Going forward we must insist on more sensitive treatment of FOWL by the media.

For the sake of clarification we do not endorse the following in any way;

• hard boiled rhetoric
• soft boiled strategies
• completely scrambled tweets
• poached initiatives and of course  
• over-easy relationships with anyone from Russia.

We hope to have made ourselves eggstreamly clear on the matter.".