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| One of my favorite sets! It's in character and has cute little nods to the source material. |
After writing about
Cosplay Deviants: Undressing the Art of Playing Dress Up in a round up of
photo books about cosplay, Cosplay Deviants offered to send me a copy to review for you guys! While I received a free copy, my opinions are honest. Everything in this review is safe for work. There is no full nudity, but the photos are suggestive. The book itself contains full frontal nudity.
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| Of course Princess Peach would wear the frilliest of underthings. |
As someone who is into the intersection of geeky and sexy (I
loved seeing a nerdy burlesque show at Dragon Con!) I was immediately excited to receive my copy. In case you aren't familiar,
Cosplay Deviants (link NSFW!) is a cosplayer submission-run image site featuring sexy stripped-down versions of your favorite characters -- think Suicide Girls, but with cosplayers. The website prides itself on featuring cosplayers and geeks rather than hired models. The book is an extension of the site, with tasteful nudity of characters from video games, anime, comic books, and other media.
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| The book cover -- gorgeous! |
The book itself is extremely high quality; it's a large hardcover book with a dust cover, with full color pages throughout. Each character is given a page or two, first featuring the full costume, then various stages of undress. The result is a beautiful collection of artistic photos of a wide range of characters.
I really enjoy the concept of this book and the execution -- to me, this book is a work of art. I do, however, have a few minor complaints. First, the quality varies from cosplayer to cosplayer. While some photoshoots make you feel like you've entered the fictional world, some seem more random than realistic. The photo sets where the model is wearing in-character underthings and where the location is spot on are fantastic! The sets that are a little lower quality brought me out of the experience. Overall, I felt the sets were more often high quality than not, so it's a minor complaint.
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| Mad Moxxi is a sexy character, so seeing her brought to life is a treat. |
Next, the book doesn't have a ton of different body types. Now, I don't really blame Cosplay Deviants for this since it relies on submissions, but it would be nice to have a few plus size ladies, women of color, or even men featured. After searching through the Cosplay Deviants site, it seems like there is more diversity on the site itself. Perhaps we can look forward to a second Cosplay Deviants book featuring lots of different cosplayers!
A few more of my favorite sets with carefully thought out character references.
Overall, I am highly pleased with this book! I'm proud to have it on my bookshelf and it provides plenty of fictional character inspiration. If you're into artistic nudity, mixing geekery with sexiness, or hobbies like burlesque or cosplay,
Cosplay Deviants: Undressing the Art of Playing Dress Up will be a wonderful addition to your collection.
