An Anime-zing Digital Photo Album of Early 2000s Cosplays by Our Otaku Ancestors

Do you enjoy coming home, cooking up some instant ramen, slipping on your PJs, and kicking back to enjoy a handful of episodes of one of the hundreds of anime available in Netflix's catalogue? Do you like that you can go to just about any hip fashion retailer to get anime merch? Do you even realize how special it is that you can wear that Gojo t-shirt in public without anyone batting an eye?

For the Otakus of old, life wasn't that easy. Sure Dragon Ball and Sailor Moon were relatively popular, but if you expressed interest in Japan beyond that, people thought you were weird. Even in the face of social alienization for their interests, early Western anime fans did the absolute most to be able to enjoy their shows. They downloaded episodes from sketchy websites, endured fan dubs, and handmade their cosplay costumes before you could do same-day shipping on Amazon. They paved the way for us anime fans now in 2025. They walked so we could Naruto run in peace.

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It's super easy these days to find YouTube or TikTok videos detailing exactly how to apply make-up that will leave you looking like a real-life anime character. These kids didn't have that. There is something really charming and genuine about these plain-faced cosplays.
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This Kurapika is in deperate need of a wig!
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