The Growth of Cosplay Events in Yogyakarta and Central Java

Comic Paradise, or ComiPara, is one of the events in Yogyakarta with documented booth growth data. ComiPara is an event that brings together creators and visitors, with the Creator Market as one of its central components. In an interview with KAORI Nusantara (2025), one of ComiPara's initiators, Fanny Aleutia, said the event is held twice a year at the Jogja Expo Center. Citing a statement from Yogyakarta's Head of the Tourism Office, Imam Pratanadi, to Kompas.com (Pangaribowo, 2025), ComiPara had been held four times between 2023 and 2025.

The number of creator booths at ComiPara increased from one edition to the next. As reported by KAORI Nusantara (2024), ComiPara 2 in May 2024 featured more than 120 creator booths. A year later, according to Tirto.id (2025), ComiPara 4, held on May 17 to 18, 2025, brought in more than 200 creator and merchant booths. For ComiPara 5, held on October 18 to 19, 2025, the official website of the Yogyakarta Tourism Office, Visiting Jogja (2025), recorded more than 350 creator booths in the Creator Market area, with a ticket price of Rp50,000 per day.

From more than 120 booths at ComiPara 2 to more than 350 booths at ComiPara 5, the number of creator booths nearly tripled in around 18 months.

The change in scale is also visible in venue usage. In the interview with KAORI Nusantara (2025), Fanny explained that the event grew from using half a hall at JEC, to one full hall, then two, and eventually three full halls by its fifth edition. In the same interview, she estimated attendance at around 10,000 visitors per edition.

That attendance figure is an organizer's estimate given in an interview, not the result of a ticket audit. Using the Rp50,000 daily ticket price listed on the Yogyakarta Tourism Office's website (Visiting Jogja, 2025), 10,000 visitors would mathematically correspond to around Rp500 million in ticket value per edition. This figure does not account for booth revenue, sponsorship, or creator transactions, and cannot be described as the organizer's official revenue.

The origin and type of goods sold by creators also reflect the scale of ComiPara's market. Still in the interview with KAORI Nusantara (2025), Fanny said around 50 percent of creators come from outside Yogyakarta, with Jakarta, Bandung, and Surabaya and Malang as the three largest points of origin. She also noted that nearly all creator circles now sell books, and around 70 to 80 percent of them specifically sell comics. For the fifth edition, according to her account, around 20 new comic titles applied for a launch slot, so the organizing committee narrowed it down to ten slots.

ComiPara has since continued into subsequent editions. According to the official Comic Paradise website (2026), ComiPara 6 was held on April 18 to 19, 2026, and ComiPara 7 is scheduled for October 17 to 18, 2026, at the same venue. Kompas.id (2026), which covered the April 2026 edition, described thousands of fans attending over the two days, including participants who spent six months preparing their costumes and took two weeks of leave to fly in from Maluku.

Local government has also begun supporting ComiPara since 2025. Yogyakarta's Head of the Tourism Office, Imam Pratanadi, as reported by Kompas.com (Pangaribowo, 2025), said his office supports ComiPara through promotion and is open to further support in the future, with hopes that the event can develop into a niche-interest tourism attraction. On the other hand, in the interview with KAORI Nusantara (2025), Fanny emphasized that the organizers currently operate independently without government partnership, with commercial partners limited to banking and printing services that support creators' operational needs.

Central Java shows a different pattern from Yogyakarta. While ComiPara demonstrates growth in the scale of a single creator market, Semarang shows cosplay events emerging across a variety of venues.

Lawang Sewu Cosplay Carnival is one of the clearest examples. The official schedule from Semarang City's Public Information and Documentation Management Officer (PPID) (2024, 2025) recorded the event being held in October 2024, February 2025, July 2025, and December 2025. According to Akurat.co (2024), one edition also took place on July 13, 2024, while RRI (2025) reported a further edition on October 26, 2025. According to the Ruang Cosplay event database (2025), this event series is organized by Hocer Creative Entertainment, a Semarang-based event organizer, in partnership with the management of the Lawang Sewu heritage site.

The organizer has not described this series as an annual fixture, so it is more accurately described as a recurring event series rather than a yearly one. Based on the documented data and press coverage available, Lawang Sewu has been used several times for cosplay and pop culture events since 2024.

For the Monster Academy Level Up edition on October 26, 2025, RRI (2025) reported hundreds of cosplayers from various cities and hundreds of visitors filling Lawang Sewu's central courtyard. As quoted in a press release cited by RRI (2025), KAI Wisata's Director of Operations, Eko Januardi, said the enthusiasm of the cosplay community in Semarang and its surrounding areas shows that Lawang Sewu holds strong appeal across different groups. In the same press release, as quoted by Portal Jateng (Lukadinata, 2025), KAI Wisata's Corporate Branding and Communication representative, Riesta Junianti, said the preservation of historical heritage can go hand in hand with the creativity of the younger generation.

Pricing and event format also varied between editions. According to Akurat.co (2024), the July 2024 edition sold presale tickets for Rp20,000, inclusive of a drink. Meanwhile, according to the Ruang Cosplay database (2025), visitors to the Battle Kingdom edition on December 28, 2025 could enter for free. Both the July 2024 edition announcement on Akurat.co (2024) and the December 2025 schedule from Semarang City PPID (2025) list a Coswalk Competition, a J-Song Contest, band performances, and a tenant area.

Similar events have also appeared in shopping malls. Semarang City PPID's schedule (2026) recorded IMAGICON Vol. III being held on April 11 to 12, 2026, at Uptown Mall BSB City, organized by the Kyodai Community, featuring a Cosplay Competition, Coswalk Competition, a Mobile Legends tournament, an Itasha car showcase, and a Japanese Food Eating contest. According to the same schedule (PPID Kota Semarang, 2025), CL Sukaku VIII took place on December 21, 2025, at Mall Ciputra Semarang, featuring a Coswalk Competition, a Cosplay Idol Competition, and a J-Song Contest.

Creative hubs have also become venues for pop culture themed events. According to the official Collabox website (2026), Collabox Creative Hub held Pindrikan Markt XVII, themed "Warga Dunia Lain" (Citizens of Another World), on June 6 to 7, 2026, explicitly aimed at fans of fiction, animation, cosplay, and pop culture. According to the same source (Collabox, 2026), the Coswalk Competition within the event charged a registration fee of Rp15,000, with total prizes exceeding Rp500,000. The amount is small, but it shows that such competitions also involve registration fees and prize money.

In Yogyakarta, similar events have also taken place outside the convention format. According to the official Jogja City Mall website (2026), JCM Cosplay Matsuri was held on July 18, 2026, with free entry for visitors and a Rp20,000 registration fee for participants, featuring a Coswalk Competition, an Idol Performance, a Henshin Competition, and Random Play Dance. Meanwhile, according to the Otabase event database (2026), YORUCON 2026 ran for two days on August 15 to 16, 2026, at Taman Budaya Embung Giwangan, combining a cosplay competition, idol performances, a Tekken 8 tournament, Pokemon TCG, and a DJ party.

The event in Rembang differs from the cosplay events discussed above. RRI (2026) reported that Aston Inn Rembang brought in a dozen or so cosplayers at Rembang's town square on July 19, 2026, as part of the hotel's Japanese menu launch. According to the same report (RRI, 2026), the characters portrayed included Furina from Genshin Impact, Anya Forger from Spy x Family, and Monkey D. Luffy from One Piece.

In Rembang, cosplay became part of a hotel's Japanese menu launch. This example shows that the use of cosplay is not limited to community events or conventions, but can also be incorporated into business promotional activities.

These examples reveal several types of spaces now being used for anime and cosplay activities. ComiPara functions as a space for creators and merchants to sell their products. Malls serve as venues for competitions and performances accessible to the general public. Lawang Sewu has become a recurring location for cosplay events, while businesses such as the hotel in Rembang use cosplay as part of promotional activities.

The movement of participants also points to cross-city connections. Kompas.id (2026) recorded the presence of Semarang residents at ComiPara 6, while in the press release cited by RRI (2025), the organizers of the Lawang Sewu Cosplay Carnival said participants came from various cities. The presence of participants from multiple cities suggests that events in Yogyakarta and Central Java are not entirely isolated from one another.

Even so, the available data still has its limits. It is not yet sufficient to calculate the market value of anime and cosplay in Yogyakarta and Central Java, its growth rate as a percentage, or the number of active cosplayers in either region.

The growth in ComiPara's booth count only describes the development of a single event, not the entire Yogyakarta market. The estimate of 10,000 visitors comes from the organizer's own statement to KAORI Nusantara (2025), not from a ticket audit. Meanwhile, the list of events in Semarang was compiled from Semarang City PPID's schedules (2024, 2025, 2026) and available media coverage, so it does not necessarily cover every event ever held. Data on JCM Cosplay Matsuri, Pindrikan Markt XVII, and YORUCON 2026 similarly comes from organizer announcements and event databases, rather than post-event reports.

This analysis would be stronger with three additional types of data: an annual tally of anime and cosplay events in both provinces, audited visitor figures from organizers, and registration data for active communities or cosplayers. Until these three become available, the most defensible indicators remain booth counts, venue types, event frequency, and the range of activities on offer.

The creator market offers an entry point beyond event sponsorship. More than 350 booths at ComiPara 5, as recorded by the Yogyakarta Tourism Office (Visiting Jogja, 2025), reflects the considerable space available for creators and merchants to offer their products, including merchandise and creative work. According to the organizers' statement to KAORI Nusantara (2025), ComiPara's current commercial partners operate in payment services and printing, two categories that address creators' operational needs.

Malls and conventions offer different types of interaction. Based on official announcements from each organizer (Jogja City Mall, 2026; PPID Kota Semarang, 2025, 2026), the events at Jogja City Mall and the two Semarang malls use formats accessible to the general public, including free entry at some events. ComiPara, by contrast, features a creator market with hundreds of booths, and according to the organizer in the interview with KAORI Nusantara (2025), some visitors attend specifically intending to shop. Brands can weigh these different formats according to their activation goals, whether that means awareness building or collaboration with creators.

Small-scale cosplay activations have also emerged. As reported by RRI (2026), a dozen or so cosplayers were engaged for the Japanese menu launch at Aston Inn Rembang. Activations of this scale are still uncommon in regency-level towns.

Attention should also be paid to the use of characters and fan-made work. In the interview with KAORI Nusantara (2025), ComiPara's organizers stated that they prohibit the sale of bootleg products and AI-generated works without a demonstrable creative process. This rule shows that intellectual property (IP) usage has already become part of how the creator market is managed. Beyond community events, IP has also entered retail channels, one example being the presence of Pop Mart in Semarang. This development shows that anime and pop culture reach audiences through more than one channel, from creator markets and events to retail. For brands, using characters in an activation requires considering licensing status and IP usage rights from the outset.

Promotional support has already emerged, but event data remains scattered rather than centralized. According to Kompas.com (Pangaribowo, 2025), the Yogyakarta Tourism Office regards ComiPara as part of the region's potential for niche-interest tourism. A logical next step would be systematic recordkeeping covering the number of events, number of participants, visitor origin, and estimated spending per visit.

Heritage assets can also serve as venues for pop culture activities. Based on Semarang City PPID's schedules (2024, 2025) and RRI's coverage (2025), Lawang Sewu has repeatedly served as a location for cosplay events. A similar model could be considered for other regionally owned assets in both provinces.

Creator events also draw participants from outside the region. According to the organizer's statement to KAORI Nusantara (2025), around 50 percent of ComiPara's creators come from outside Yogyakarta, with Jakarta, Bandung, and Surabaya and Malang as the three largest points of origin. Given this, information on accommodation, transportation, and event permits could become part of the government's support for activities of this kind.

References

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