A Rhetorical Analysis Of Backpacks Vs. Briefcases By Laura Collins

This image was taken at the 2009 LBZ convention in London, and is of a group of people who are cosplaying as characters from the anime Hellsing. Cosplay is a term that means to dress up or role play, usually as characters from an anime, manga, or a book. In Laura Collins essay backpacks vs briefcases, she goes into how an important part of rhetorical analysis is its context (Collins). She says this because to be able to analyze something you must be able to understand it. The context is what lets you understand what is happening because the context is the circumstances that form the setting for an event. Hellsing is an anime about the Royal Order of Protestant Knights that was founded by the original Abraham van Hellsing. The Order’s mission …show more content…
Dornaz, and the main character Alucard. Alucard is the original and most powerful vampire; he swore loyalty to the Hellsing family after being defeated by Van Hellsing. Alucard has a subordinate; Seras Victoria, who he turned into a vampire. She helps him on missions and does other tasks for him with the police. In the image they are dressed in costumes that they either bought or made with the majority being made by hand. Those that are wearing long red trench coats with a black shirt underneath are the ones who are cosplaying as the main character Alucard. The others are either dressed up as Seras Victoria in the light blue outfit and the yellow outfit, or as Sir Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing the leader of the Hellsing organization in the blue outfit. The two others are dressed as a soldier and as Sir Integra’s Combat butler, Walter. The people in the image are cosplayers (people who dress up or role-play as characters) who are at an anime convention, and are having pictures taken of them by other anime fans. This image is about the relationship between anime and …show more content…
To me the picture represents a family of friends that love anime, and other stuff to do with anime; that wanted to bring those characters and what they feel about those characters to life in a way that they can relate to: “When I put on my costume, I feel like I look very different from everyone else around me and it makes me feel stronger—I also like the way that people look at me and notice me—it’s good to have admirers. And when I wear the costume with my Cosplay friends at a convention or party, I feel really happy just relaxing, having fun and sharing everything with my Cosplay family. (Rinka, female Cosplayer, Hong Kong)” (Fashion theory, volume 17). The image also means that they are dedicated to the anime that they are cosplaying, and that this is the best way that they could express what they feel about the anime. Others in the anime culture feel along the same lines as I do about what the image of people cosplaying as characters from the anime Hellsing represents. The point of the image is to make you think about how cosplaying and anime culture are connected. The image connects to anime culture in many different