In many ways, Cosplay: The Fictional Mode of Existence is Frenchy Lunning's personal experience of cosplay and cosplayers as viewed from the vantage of sitting slumped against a convention hall wall, watching them do their thing (129). Lunning states that she did not set out to write an anthropological or sociological study (x). While sitting and observing seems like a classic mode of anthropology or sociology, it needs to be noted that it is impossible to see the full picture sitting on the ground at the periphery of a cosplay convention.
It should also be noted that my review of Lunning's book draws from my own personal experience as an award-winning cosplayer and Japanese literature scholar.
There is a problem in cosplay studies books with their covers and the images they contain. Cosplay: The Fictional Mode of Existence has one of the best covers of any cosplay studies book on...
