If you’re looking for inspiration for your next fancy dress, Halloween or general party outfit where you get to dress up, inspiration is not usually difficult to come by. If you do find yourself stuck or want to find popular cosplay character ideas that are a little different, more daring or will let you get your teeth into a project, this page is for you. It should hopefully appeal to those wanting to venture into pure cosplay and those looking for movie, comic book or game inspiration for a costume.
I have searched high and low to find some of the best cosplay character ideas on the internet. I have filtered out the trash and have hopefully retained some of the best ideas out there that can provide the inspiration you need to put your costume together. I hope it helps!
Why to people cosplay?
Cosplay, or costume play was at a real high in the 90s when anime first hit the US market. It has dipped a little since those days but is still a lively and varied scene. Anyone can cosplay for any reason, at any time. You will always get those who say it is only for LARPing (Live Action Role Play) or Comic Con or for specific events but you also get those who are happy to use any excuse to dress up!
Cosplay is a bit of fun and a way for us to escape from reality for a little while. Like playing video games or reading a book, cosplay helps us mentally separate ourselves from the world and live in our imagination for a while. Whether that’s at an event surrounded by hundreds of other cosplayers or in our own room. Either way, it’s an expression of our imagination coupled with the imagination of the original character creators.
Popular cosplay character ideas
So let’s get on with the list of popular cosplay character ideas. All of the following websites have collections that are suitable for newbie cosplayers up to experienced ones. There is bound to be something here to spark inspiration!
Vogue
Cosplay is so popular that even fashionistas from Vogue want in on the action. This page has 33 movie-inspired cosplay ideas ranging from Star Wars to Wonder Woman. The feature includes both male and female characters. Some of them would be relatively simple to do justice to while others would require much more work.
Fansided
Fansided has a page dedicated to cosplay character ideas for those needing inspiration for Comic Con or comic conventions. Again, the list contains male and female characters. Some will be very straightforward to achieve while others will require more thought and more work.
eBaum’s World
eBaum’s World has this page on cosplay character ideas and some of them are awesome. They are mainly female and some are NSFW. They include people who already have the costume but provide inspiration for ideas. Some of these have been done exceptionally well and if you can pull of something as good, you’re going to get the right kind of attention when you take it out.
Today
I’m not a regular reader of Today but someone pointed me in the direction of this post with 61 costume ideas for Halloween. Many of them could be used as inspiration for cosplay and for other times of year which is why I have included them in this list. Most have been put together by regular people with varying degrees of success. I think it would be simple to take inspiration from one of these and do it ten times better!
MyAnimeList
MyAnimeList has a page dedicated to anime cosplay character ideas. It is titled ‘Easy Anime Cosplay Ideas for the Broke (and Lazy)’ but is about more than that. There are some very accessible ideas on this page that won’t take too much time or money to pull off. If you’re into anime and are beginning your journey into cosplay, you could do worse that check this page out.
GamesRadar+
This page on GamesRadar+ has some movie cosplay ideas that would work in many situations. There are 35 ideas here and each of them could be put together at home with varying levels of effort. Some of them are a little lame but some of them are very good indeed. It’s up to you to decide which is which.
Brit+Co
Brit+Co is another website unfamiliar to me and was suggested as a place to find inspiration for cosplay. This page has a bunch of movie inspired character ideas that vary in their effectiveness and difficulty. Again, some work better than others but they all provide lots of ideas for your next outfit!
