Cosplay Complex

Cosplay Complex is an OVA, focusing on the hijinks of the East Oizumi Academy's cosplay club. The main character is Chako Hasegawa, a somewhat ditzy girl with pink hair who absolutely adores cosplaying, despite the fact that she basically is not so very good at it (a recurring joke is her tearing up her clothes when trying them on).

The rest of the club is a weird bunch, even as total cosplay otakus go. We have our silver haired control freak, a Meganekko Miko, the Miko's little sister who is actually way too young to even attend college and a blonde girl lusting after the aforementioned one. The only guy in the club is prone to extreme bouts of method acting that would give Jack Nicholson a run for his money, but he actually is pretty darn good at what he does.

The weirdest "members" though are Delmo, a miniature bunnygirl, and her friend Ikebukuro, an owl who can't speak but still somehow gets his message across. Delmo has the magical ability to change into all kinds of clothing, which saves Chako on more than one occasion, even though Delmo always has to be bribed with food (of which she consumes an awful lot).

Despite all the weirdness, the makers of the show display quite a bit of affection for the characters, coming very close to a declaration of love for cosplay and its performers. The number of shout-outs to other shows is truly staggering and it's a lot of fun to try to discover where all the costumes come from.


 * Balloon Belly: Delmo in opening.
 * Big Eater: Delmo
 * Cliff Hanger / Sequel Hook: In the third episode, a mysterious blue-haired woman leaves flowers at Sachiko's husband's grave. Sachiko is later shocked to see her in the audience of a cosplay contest but it is never explained who she is. If the producers never intended for there to be a sequel, this could be a Cliffhanger Copout.
 * Clothing Damage
 * Cosplay: Duh.
 * Cosplay Otaku Girl: Duh again.
 * Cute Little Fangs: Delmo & Jenny.
 * Fan Service
 * Fireball Eyeballs: Chako after getting a Rousing Speech.
 * Fist of Enthusiasm
 * Hot Springs Episode
 * Lolicon: Jenny's obsession with Athena.
 * Meaningful Name: Ikebukuro is named after a commercial district in Tokyo, known for "Otome Road", an Otaku shopping area aimed at women--which also has an owl statue behind the station.
 * Meganekko: Maria, Tsukasa
 * Meido: What would cosplay be without them.
 * Nerd Glasses: Gourou.
 * Non-Human Sidekick: Ikebukuro.
 * Nosebleed: Jenny's response to Athena.
 * Otaku
 * Phenotype Stereotype: Jenny is "Italian", but looks and acts stereotypically American.
 * Red Herring: The woman at the end of episode 1 implied to be the club's sponsor. The characters break the fourth wall when it turns out their sponsor is someone entirely different.
 * Shout-Out: Like, LOTS.
 * ADV's (dual-audio) release includes a feature where they show stills from across all three episodes of the various cosplay outfits worn, and list the origin of each. This lasts for just over five minutes (it's named "Cosplay Identification 101", if you want to look it up yourself on Youtube or pick up the DVD.)
 * Yamato Nadeshiko: Sachiko.