"COSPLAY WIG THEFT: THE DARK SIDE OF CONVENTION CULTURE"

Byline: Protecting Passion in a Community Built on Creativity Opening Hook: At Anime Expo 2023, cosplayer Mariko Takahashi spent months crafting a luminous, floor-length wig to embody Genshin Impact’s Yae Miko—only to have it vanish during a photoshoot. “One minute it was on my head, the next it was gone,” she recalls. Her story is