Manifesto XIX: BRAVE

by otaking on Jul.02, 2009, under Manifesto

Scramble Crossing

Shibuya at night. I took this photo while crossing the street, trying not to get elbowed and shoved around.

The Nintendo DS Game The World Ends With You is set in an alternate-reality version of Shibuya, the ultra-trendy fashion capital of the ultra-trendy city of Tokyo. More than anywhere else you will find people dressing according to the subcultures that they belong to — loligoth, urban hip, princess-kei, retro hip, and so on. And unlike more homogenized fashion scenes like, say, Manila, the fashion of one subculture wildly diverges from the fashion of another.

Princess Kei and Loligoth

Friendship knows no fashion bounds.

To reflect this, The World Ends With You (or TWEWY, as fans call it) allows the player to outfit their characters with many different outfits from many different brands: D+B, Lapin Angelique, Wild Boar, Jupiter of the Monkey. Some of the more outlandish outfits require a high level of BRAVE.

On one end of the spectrum is the protagonist, Neku, who starts out only just brave enough to wear simple, urban-hip clothes like hoodies, sneakers, and big shorts.

On the other is Joshua, whose BRAVE is so high that he can cross-dress with impunity.

I sat inside the Freshness Burger (bienvenido!) and stared at all the snappily-dressed people, armed with my copy of TWEWY, open to the map screen for help. I decided that many of the best shops were off the beaten path (like they were in the game) and ended up buying a sweet leather jacket from Flash Report.

Then I wondered what I would do with a leather jacket in Manila.

=====

As I attended event after event since returning on the local otaku scene, I realized that I didn’t have a very high level of BRAVE. Since my BRAVE was low, I couldn’t bring myself to wear anything more daring than a Gurren Lagann shirt and some jeans.

Which makes no sense, because I have a secret, burning desire to cosplay as this guy:

250px-Twewy-sanae-hanekoma1

The MAN.

This is Sanae Hanekoma, aka Mr. H, aka CAT, the hottest grafitti artist in all of Shibuya, whose identity is unknown. Other characters refer to him as the Producer, the man behind the scenes, behind the Composer, the Conductor, the Game Master, and the Players.

He is a being of such undeniable, effortless cool that he literally comes from a higher plane of being because of his ‘highly tuned vibe’. (This is literally true within the story of TWEWY.)

But I don’t have enough BRAVE to carry that ensemble.

Cosplayers, who widely vary in motivation, physical appearance, and personal hygiene, all have one thing in common: a high BRAVE rating.

It doesn’t matter if they’re dressing like magical girls or giant robots for the attention, for money, for prestige, for influence, or just because their parents didn’t love them enough. The reasons vary, but the effect is the same: They can dress up as whomever they want, in public.

That takes BRAVE I don’t have.

Yet.

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