It contains spoilers

Introduction Most people have a hobby -or two- they really enjoy devoting time, money and energy to. Our hobbies express our heart's desires, they help cultivating our identity, they are part of what we honestly crave to achieve deep inside. Thus, I strongly believe that devoting moments of our precious free time to our hobbies is a form of sincere self-respect, it is self-acceptance -a form of loving who we really are. Of course, there are a lot of lovely activities that people take up depending on their calling and all of them are valid ways to tend to our interests- except if you have illegal interests hehe👮‍♂️ Although hobbies are such a significant part of our well-being, some activities become the excuse people get shamed and shunned; people turn other people into laughing stocks for just doing what they like to do. Various boundaries and limits are instated to our hobbies, reasons why stopping a hobby is more "wise" than continuing it are given to some point of a person's life. Now, who gave some people the right to judge others and teach what's right or wrong, I don't really know. "Who died and made you King of anything?" anyways... What I know is that losing touch with our hobbies sounds exactly the same to me as losing touch with our inner world. The moment we stop doing things we genuinely love, for any reason, is the moment we stop loving who we are.Complex age:
a manga dedicated to cosplay ["Cosplay" : literally "costume play". Dressing up and pretending to be a fictional character.] As I mentioned previously, there are cases that some hobbies become an easy excuse which people use to cause distress to others who enjoy that activity. Unfortunately, cosplay is one of those hobbies. Complex age is a manga that delves deeply into this complicated and fascinating world; the world of cosplay. I could easily characterize it as the most thorough cosplay story I have ever come across as it consists of a tremendous amount of technical/practical information about cosplay (to the point that it reminds me of an encyclopedia and how-to guidebook) and it also does a decent job approaching the societal aspect of this activity. Written and drawn by Yui Sakuma, this piece of art features, in a very realistic and raw manner, how cosplay and cosplayers are perceived by the public and by the animanga/gaming community. It is a mature story concentrated on the various problems cosplayers face while developing their hobby. Despite all the difficulties, people still continue this "shameful" activity, so what gives motivation and strength to cosplayers in order to keep on doing cosplays? It also focuses on how human interactions -either positive or negative ones- affect what a person chooses to do in life. Complex age maintains a main principle throughout the story; cosplay is treated as an indecent and problematic activity causing the characters to have the need to hide it from their environment. This "rule" is engraved to some characters' minds- especially in the heroine's mind -from the very beginning of the story thus we have the result of hiding/lying. As the story proceeds, the characters start to question that principle. The driving force that leads them to oppose the "rule" is of course the interactions they have with characters who have already denied the fact that their hobby is indecent. The cast observes that the hardships can be overcome and that they can openly integrate cosplay in their reality while being "proper" adults at the same time. Part of the lesson becomes also the interactions with characters who gave in the problems and stopped cosplay once and for all. In that case, a strong lingering feeling of sadness and regret can be sensed. Of course, nobody wants to end up being sad for all their life... "Is the activity itself problematic or do I self-sabotage myself by keeping a problematic outlook on my own hobby?" Although the story tends to emphasize on the negative points of "costume play", the mangaka doesn't have the intention to stigmatize the activity. On the contrary, Yui Sakuma tries to raise awareness and even give hope to all cosplayers and to all people who share similar concerns. With these being said, what are the struggles cosplayers have?The struggle of being a cosplayer Following, these are the main problems cosplayers face according to Complex Age and the mangaka's research about this activity. Via these problems, the mangaka demonstrates this hobby's harsh reality check. "Until what age are cosplayers "permitted" to do cosplay, an activity who "steals" a huge amount of time from a proper, productive adult's life?" _"You are too fat/ too short/ not physically capable to do cosplays" "Is it worth to spend so much money on cosplays and having no profit at all? "What happens when cosplayers turn to be too competitive with each other to the point they sabotage and bad-mouth each other's creations?" "Cosplaying is dangerous. There are a lot of cases that cosplayers end up as victims of sexual harassment by fans who push indecent photos without the cosplayer's consent" "How can you have a healthy relationship when you have such a lewd hobby?" "Cosplayers are just weirdos. Even a lot of people who watch anime don't agree with this activity and they both are part of the same community"_Complex Age: the Origin"They burn so easily" Actually, the story of Complex age starts with a 38 pages one shot. It would be an omission to skip the one shot as the events and the characters introduced there play a huge role later in the main story. The protagonist of the one shot is Sawako, a 34 years old woman who enjoys wearing gothic lolita clothes in her everyday life. She is married to Sho (God, I love this character) and they both share a very healthy, supporting and understanding relationship. Sawako, doesn't keep her hobby a secret per se as she wears them openly in different occasions; she goes on dates with Sho wearing lolita clothes, she more or less rocks the lolita style in public a lot of times. However, she keeps a low profile in her workplace. Sawako loves her hobby but she's starting to feel insecure about her age and her physical image. One day, these concerns get magnified by her colleagues' comments about a 30 years old cosplayer idol appearing on the TV while they have their breaktime."She's way too old to be an idol. Dressing up like that gives the wrong impression of her to the world. Her body doesn't lie about her age." Of course, Sawako doesn't comment on the idol but she feels her insecurities getting bigger. As the one shot progresses, Sawako attends the usual tea party she has with her best friend, Nori, and other women. An opportunity to come together, chat and wear their favourite lolita clothes. However, the heroine is humbled by her colleagues' previous comments and she attends the gathering with a visible lack of enthusiasm. There, a new and young girl attending the party becomes once again the reason for her self-consciousness to appear. Sawako is jealous of the young girl but she doesn't show it visibly. She envies and admires how well lolita clothes fit with the girl's youthful appearance and she falls into the trap of comparing herself with her. Of course, she doesn't insult the girl because Sawako isn't an ill-natured character but she is now drown in misery because of the reality check she experienced. Nori understands her best friend's bad mood and after the party they talk about their feelings. The two friends reminisce about their past, they agree on having made beautiful memories together. Sawako then suddednly insists that its time they wake up from their dream. Nori seems very shocked but she agrees with her and they coldly part ways. Sawako returns home and looks herself in the mirror. We then experience what I believe to be Complex Age's main cause for its characters problems.The heroine sees her reflection as a grotesque and monstrous woman. That's it. Overnight, Sawako puts all her lolita clothes in garbage bags. The next day, Sho discovers what Sawako is up to and, worried about her wife, he tries to change her mind. Unfortunately, he can't accomplish his goal as Sawako is determined to burn all her lolita clothes. Sho reassures her that she is a beautiful and good person no matter what she wears and she accompanies her to a place where they'll burn the clothes. Not gonna lie, I became emotional when Sawako said "they burn so easily". She then bursts into tears as she mourns her "previous" life. Lastly, after that incident, we see Sawako walking down a road gazing lolita clothes inside a window front but she seems like she accepted that she no longer has ties with her lolita hobby.

The one shot in my opinion was a little bit lacking, but it was just a one shot. It has the dynamic to introduce us to the story's topic but it does Sawako little justice. I felt like her reaction regarding her decision to burn the clothes was exaggerated. The author wanted to create a high amount of tension in a short time but it came out too extreme. The other thing that left me lukewarm was the fact that we didn't have a single hint on how Sawako coped after the incident. Did she get depressed? Did she try to restart her hobby? How much time did she need to deal with the shock? What and who helped her to overcome her sadness? Thankfully, Sawako's past is revealed with a more detailed manner in the main story later on.

Complex age: the main story Complex Age's main story consists of 53 chapters. It fits in the drama and slice of life genre. Yui Sakuma narrates the journey of Nagisa Kataura -Sawako's and Sho's daughter. Nagisa is a 26 years old woman, she lives together with her parents and she leads a seemingly normal, quiet and overall socially accepted life. However, there's more to her life than meets the eye. Like mother like daughter, Nagisa has a "weird" hobby; she has a passion for cosplay. Unlike her mother, the heroine hides that significant part of herself from most people around her (colleaques, family!!! etc.) The only people who know about Nagisa's hobby are Kimiko Baba, her best friend -with whom she started cosplaying during highschool- and other random cosplayers she meets at conventions. As you could guess, as the story proceeds, Nagisa's hobby gets revealed more and more to her close environment resulting in a broad number of interactions and reactions regarding Nagisa and her "taboo" hobby. Will history repeat itself again? Is Nagisa going to end her hobby like Sawako did? Can the new heroine tough out the things that deprive her of self-acceptance?The cast and the arcs This manga is bulit on the interactions of its characters. The general conclusion that I have about most of the characters of Complex age is that they have a difficulty expressing their feelings/ thoughts and that they use an introspected type of thinking. They are not shallow and rough written; almost all of them have a rich inner world and reasons that we get to understand by their dialogues and monologues. Another visible trait of Complex Age's cast is that ,even though they are highly individualistic, they need the support of each other in order to improve themselves. For example, Nagisa even says : "I don't need anyone to understand me" but she realizes later on that she has to make others understand her in order to receive the help she needs from them. I appreciated this particular trait because it is important to highlight that depending on others is not weakness of one. Lastly, the characters appear to be very "raw" and flawed. Even though they are extremely passionate about their hobbies, they are not too hyped or enthusiastic. They are everyday people trying to live their life the best they can. That makes them very realistic to the point that it's easy for us readers to sympathize with them. Their concerns might be our concerns, their ending might be our ending. So, without them being emotional or providing profound quotes, Complex age becomes a truly touching story because we could be in the same position its characters are.

With these being said, the manga seems to be separated in arcs, with each arc starting with Nagisa interacting with other characters of the cast. Of course, via each arc, the author chooses to focus on one at a time struggle cosplayers have.
Hence, I divided Complex Age in the following manner:
Arc 1: Nagisa and Aya Kurihara; "the mentor and student arc"
concerns mentioned: age, physical appearance
Arc 2: Nagisa and Hayama; "the colleague cosplayer arc"
concerns mentioned: expectations of a productive adult, prejudice of lewdness
Arc 3: Nagisa and Sawako; "the mother and daughter bonding arc"
concerns mentioned: age, expectations of a productive adult
Arc 4: Nagisa and Kouta Senta; "the boyfriend arc"
concerns mentioned: prejudice of lewdness, refusal within the animanga community
Arc 5: Nagisa, Aya and Riu; "the toxic admirer arc"
concerns mentioned: toxicity between cosplayers, harassment
Arc 6: Nagisa and Kimiko; "the bestfriends' ultimate bonding arc"
Final arc: Nagisa and Nori; "a new path to the future arc"

The most poorly approached arcs Note: All referred-to arcs are ok regarding their story-telling structure. The reason I gave them negative points is the fact that they conveyed a controversial message for matters that should not approached lightly.

The most controversially approached arc for me is for sure the "cosplayer colleague arc". Even though this arc was one that I found very interesting, I hated how it ended.
Nagisa sees her stoic colleague, Hayama, doing cosplay at a convention. The two are shocked to find out that they are both cosplayers but they befriend each other.
Hayama hides her hobby like Nagisa does but somehow Hayama's cosplaying activities get revelead to her workplace as the arc proceeds. Hayama's company then becomes a place where everyone gossip about her, start rumors and give her weird looks. Nagisa chooses to stay silent and she doesn't stand up for her scared friend.
Unable to withstand the stress, Hayama quits her job and returns back to her hometown without telling Nagisa and her friends a single word.
Reaching the end of the arc, after months passed, Nagisa feels bad about not protecting Hayama so she visits her in order to check up on her. We then see a very visually neglected Hayama; she gained a lot of weight, she stopped looking after herself all in all. She even admits that she felt depressed. However, she proclaims that leaving her company and detaching herself was the right decision because at last she found her inner peace.
Nagisa then appears angry and she snaps, doing the worst; she starts blaming Hayama for her current "pathetic" appearance compared to her initial goal which was to listen to her and support her. Lastly, Nagisa offers her colleague to help her working out in order to do cosplays again and Hayama agrees with that.

What I didn't like was of course how the protagonist reacted to her friend who clearly suffered from depressive feelings. Hayama could be considered a mental health "patient" so I wanted the author to approach this part more sensibly. I would appreciate it more if Nagisa offered to help her like she did, in a more appropriate way; connecting her to a mental health specialist as a first step and after doing that, helping her out with exercising etc. Adding to this, I couldn't help but think that Nagisa showed a strong fatphobic attitude even though it was not her intention.
Hopefully though, later in the story we see Hayama trying to improve her physical and mental health in a proper way- we never learn if she reached for professional help though. She doesn't manage to lose all her weight magically at once; she doesn't get back to her previous figure but she chooses to do cosplay with her current body. I loved that everyone in the cast supported her despite the fact that she didn't have a perfect "model" body. It's important to show that everyone can do cosplay regardless the person's body circumstances.

The second arc that left me unsatisfied is the "toxic admirer arc".
Here we have Riu, a cute and innocent looking girl, harassing Aya Kurihara, the "student" of Nagisa. She cyber-bullies her to an extreme level because she is jealous of Aya's close relationship with Nagisa. Riu insists that the root of her actions was her admiration for Nagisa's cosplaying skills. However, I could see pathological jealousy to her behaviour.
What I didn't like about this arc is that Riu's punishment was not equal to the degree of her malicious acts. Riu was clearly a predator and she did something so bad for petty reasons. That needed to be addressed more seriously.

The bond of family The "mother and daughter bonding" arc is without a doubt one of the best arcs- if not the best.

Sawako has always known about her daughter's hobby- well, they say that mothers know everything about their children. She never confronted her about it and she let Nagisa do her thing.
However, in this arc she decides it's time she comes clean with her daughter- we even learn that Sawako didn't like Nagisa doing cosplays and she wanted her to stop.
Sawako does confront Nagisa and the two share an emotionally intense fight. The heroine is determined to protect her right to choose what to do in her life- at this point, she came to accept herself. Nagisa complains that her mother can't understand her as she never had to give up on anything she loved... Sawako then stays silent and leaves.
The situation is saved by Sho! He reveales to Nagisa that her mother did give up on something; her passion about lolita clothes- Nagisa didn't know a single thing about her mother's past. He insists that mother and daughter had more in common than they could even imagine. After helping Nagisa come to her senses, he talks with Sawako and he once again manages to calm his wife.
Sawako then does what every parent should do in my opinion; she "throws away" her over protectiveness and ego and she is willing to support her daughter with whatever she chooses to do in her life. Nagisa apologizes to her mother for her harsh words too and the two women fully accept each other in a very mature and healthy way.
When Sawako says support, she really means it. Nagisa told her mother that she wants to pursue costume making as her profession but the mother doesn't know how to consult her daughter about turning her hobby into business so she introduces Nagisa to Nori -remember, Nori is Sawako's best friend. We then learn that Nori not only continued having her lolita style but she also started her own lolita themed antique/clothing business.
Opening doors and leading is considered a great way to start supporting your child as a parent for me and Sawako did that wonderfully; she showed us that she turned her words into actions for the good of Nagisa.

In conclusion, Nagisa's family is flawed, however, every member did it's best to respect each other. The mangaka showed that the acceptance the children get from their parents is a crucial step for them to begin accepting themselves- it makes the whole process easier when you know that your family supports you.
Lastly, this arc has the best writing in my opinion. It is intense and direct. The way Sho explained Sawako's past to Nagisa was just too touching. He made her -and us- learn about all the hardships of his wife and he focused on how Nagisa's birth saved her mother. I loved it.

Final arc: Decisions for the future In general, I really liked the ending of the manga. It's hopeful and redeeming. Nagisa didn't give up on cosplay unlike her mother and she showed us a different ending of the story. However, I have my concerns about turning your hobbies into your profession because I believe it's a risky game; the genuine interest we have for something could be easily lost when our work is not directed to ourselve's satisfaction but to our clients'. Did Nagisa maintain her passion? Is costume making a profitable profession? Can she make ends meet, stay indepented and have a functional life? So many questions unanswered. What I'd like to keep from this story is that Nagisa didn't give up on her hobby and we can see her looking happy with her decision despite of the new hardships she might face.Nagisa Kataura: a flawed heroine Nagisa is sure a character that gives readers many reasons to dislike her. She is egoistic, stubborn and straighforward to the degree that she can insult other people. She loves cosplay to the point that she develops a perfectionistic approach to the activity; she is harsh on herself and ,sadly, she is harsh on other cosplayers who don't deserve this behaviour. That personality trait of hers makes it difficult for Nagisa to have friends besides her beloved Kimiko. Example given, I can't justify her awful reaction to Hayama when she gained weight and she didn't fit Nagisa's "perfect" body type for cosplaying. Of course, Nagisa proclaims that she doesn't need people to understand her and she prefers to stay alone doing her thing. The heroine ,however, knows that she is flawed. As the story proceeds and other people approach her and interact with her, she has the need to change her way of thinking. She reaches a point where she realizes that her mentality causes problems to her closest people and to herself. By the end of the manga, she is more open to the opinions of others- e.g Kimiko's decision to quit cosplay-, she is not that offensive and she even stands up for other characters, e.g she protected Aya when Riu harassed her. Overall, her journey to self-growth and character development is praiseworthy.Complex Age's art The art is not Complex Age's strong point compared to it's story-telling. The panels are too dense for me. I think that there was too much ink, I can't really explain it. Some other times, the panels seemed too plain to me. No backgrounds, no motion in the characters etc. Of course, I'm not an expert on art but I got the impression that the art was unbalanced. The characters' design didn't satisfy my preferences too- I love some certain bizarre adventures and that style is my preference. All I can say is that the characters could be set apart from each other but they were a little boring. However, they fit this manga's sense as everything is down-to-earth and realistic so I appreciate that. Lastly, Yui Sakuma paid extra attention when she drew the cosplays. The costumes are very detailed and they have a lively feeling. Even though there are not a lot of different costumes presented, the ones that exist in the manga are diligently drawn.Encyclopedia of cosplay Yui Sakuma cooperated with the magazine "Cosplay Mode" resulting to a huge amount of information about cosplay. From how to dye wigs, how to make props to where cosplayers can upload their cosplay photos and cosplay etiquette, there is a variety of knoweldge the reader can learn by reading this manga. All these are mainly mentioned after each volume's ending chapter but information can be found throughout the development of the story too.Closing If you managed to read the whole review, thank you very much!! I really appreciate it. I hope you enjoy Complex Age if you read it. May it always be a reminder to not give up on things you truly love guys!