Nobutsugu Sugiyama brings a fashion photographer's eye to his iOS Cosplay Showcase app

I can't claim any particular knowledge or even prior interest in the Japanese obsession with cosplay, or costume play - aka dressing up as computer game characters.

Still, I was obviously intrigued enough to check out fashion photographer Nobutsugu Sugiyama's Cosplay Showcase app.

Released at the start of August and oscillating in price between $3.99 and 99c (currently back to $3.99 alas), it is an awesome project in which he's captured 222 cosplayers in very high resolution.

Taking eight photos of each person, you can rotate them 360 degrees to see the full scale of their obsession; the game characters are also fully described, and you can save favourites, even grouping different characters together within a single image.

Annoyingly, it doesn't have a slideshow mode so there's plenty of tapping if you want to work your way through the entire portfolio, but certainly for anyone interested in the field of cosplay, this is highly recommended - although its 1 GB download size means you'll want to be on a wi-fi connection before you download.

Cosplay Showcase is available now for iPhone and iPad as a universal app, priced $3.99, €2.99 or £2.49.

You can check it out in more detail via his website or the video trailer below.

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