BANGKOK—Fourteen-year-old Shanya Chokhlangtanakul recently woke up at 7 a.m. to perfect her makeup and dress up as her favorite cartoon character ahead of a recent animé convention here in Thailand. Her friend Nuttuwalai Prommayon wore an elf-like outfit she bought in Tokyo. Their creations for cosplay—a portmanteau of “costume” and “role-play”—were meticulous in their detail.  Then there are people like Anucha Saengchart. He is more likely to duct-tape some forks to his fists to mimic X-Men hero Wolverine and call it a day.  Welcome to the world of low-cost cosplay, where lavish costumes from famous cartoons or films are lampooned by devotees who prefer to use any old junk lying around their homes.  Mr. Anucha, 25, is the doyen of the lowbrow scene. Nothing is too mundane for his re-creations of well-known characters. He used a hot dog to role-play Pinocchio. His depiction of Elsa the Snow Queen from the hit film “Frozen” involves a bag of ice, an old curtain and a generous helping of talcum powder. On Facebook, he has nearly 300,000 fans—many of whom submit pictures of their own cheapskate attempts at role play. One of them placed a black cat on his head to strike a surprisingly effective Batman pose.  “If we look around, we can use anything to make us happy,” Mr. Anucha said. “Be creative, use your imagination.”  In some ways, Mr. Anucha’s parodies go back to the origins of the art.  Academics such as Michigan State University professor Theresa Winge and author Patrick Galbraith note that cosplayers in Japan often strike specific diorama-like poses instead of enacting elaborate role-playing scenes with other performers, as is more common in the U.S. and Canada. Literary critic Hiroki Azuma has argued that these static images reflect Japan’s fragmented history over the past century or so, punctuated by war and economic booms and busts.  Budget cosplay is also something of a backlash against the more serious players—who today prop up an industry that academics estimate to be worth roughly $330 million a year in Japan alone. The Akihabara neighborhood of Tokyo where Ms. Nuttuwalai purchased her elf outfit, for instance, has been transformed by the industry. Once a retail center for cheap electronics, Akihabara is now a thriving hub for the animé, manga and videogaming enthusiasts.  Some cosplayers such as Reika Arikawa and Americans Yaya Han and Meg Turney have become celebrities in their own rights, attending cosplay conventions around the world or attracting thousands of subscribers to their YouTube channels.  At the recent convention in Bangkok,hundreds of people dressed as their favorite characters, taking photos of each other and browsing through comics and other exhibitions. Many have spent hours perfecting their look. A squadron of Stormtroopers from the “Star Wars” movies marched through the hall at one point as conference-goers dressed as Power Rangers or characters from “Game of Thrones” nimbly stepped aside.  “I really identify with the character I play,” said Warisa Rochanapakdee, impeccably dressed in a black plastic cape to resemble Black Rock Shooter, a mysterious black-haired woman who roams a purgatorial world helping trapped souls find their way to heaven.  It is fair to say that Mr. Anucha’s vision is a little less dark.  The idea for his first low-cost cosplay creation came when he was filling in the night shift at the home for the elderly in Bangkok where he works as a caretaker. “There’s not much to do,” he said. So when he saw an old red towel and thought it might look like one of the red robes worn by the Spartan warriors in the film “300,” he tied it around his neck, flexed his biceps and set up his phone to take a photograph.  Since then, he has portrayed the Teletubbies (using towels), Davy Jones from the “Pirates of the Caribbean” films (using carrots) and Raven from the “X-Men” movies (using duct tape— lots of duct tape).  One of Mr. Anucha’s better-known poses came after downing a few bottles of Thailand’s Leo beer, which has a picture of a snarling leopard on the label. Placing it near his camera, he stepped back a few paces with a favorite prop—a towel—wrapped around his waist and stared off into the middle distance. The result: An image that mimicked the boy and the tiger stranded in a lifeboat in the movie adaptation of “Life of Pi.”  His favorite subjects are Japanese characters from the futuristic Japanese “manga” genre of cartoons. He learned to draw the stylized cartoons himself growing up in Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand. Much of his time he still spends re-creating characters and scenes from “Dragon Ball Z,” in which the hero Goku defends Earth from various intergalactic villains.  “I still like all the bad guys in that one,” Mr. Anucha said.  He enjoys a broad following among many of the people attending the recent animé convention in Bangkok. Attendees from Japan and the Philippines had all heard of Mr. Anucha and enjoyed his work.  “That guy is awesome,” said one comic book publisher from Indonesia.  Mr. Anucha stayed away, though. He said he was too busy with his job at the nursing home. It might be just as well.  “He’s really funny and imaginative,” said the early-rising Ms. Shanya, giggling. “But maybe he shouldn’t come to the convention. Some of the people here, they take their cosplay pretty seriously.”  —Wilawan Watcharasakwet contributed to this article.  Write to James Hookway at james.hookway@wsj.com
On the ‘cosplay’ stage, cheapskates get last laughs by lampooning animé and superheroes in outfits made of duct tape, cutlery and other household goods