Comely cosplayer steals the show in quirky showcase of Japan’s capital.

Despite its broadly generic-sounding name, the Tokyo Cosplay Produced by Enako project has a pretty specialized format. The art initiative lists its official English mission as “With the townscape of Tokyo and gif art we will spin out new stories of Tokyo.”

Each entry in the Twitter series has Enako, one of Japan most popular (and high-earning) cosplayers, visiting a location in Japan’s capital dressed in an anime-like outfit. But rather than still images, Tokyo Cosplay is a series of animated GIFs. So, for example, when you click on this image of Enako standing in a public bath, it’ll start to move.

▼ Wearing shoes in the bathing area is usually a big no-no, but these are special circumstances.

https://twitter.com/TOKYO__COSPLAY/status/909639835605901313

What’s that? You say you don’t notice anything moving? Hmm…well how about this?

https://twitter.com/TOKYO__COSPLAY/status/910316576418623489

See it now? Yes, the big twist to the Tokyo Cosplay project is that even when the GIF is playing, Enako herself remains perfectly still. So in the above examples, you can see animated water spraying out of the showerheads, but the cosplayer’s image doesn’t move even a fraction of an inch.

Making the motion particularly hard to spot is the fact that the 23-year-old Enako is, as classically trained poets would say, easy on the eyes (because even classically trained poets lose some of their eloquence when staring at a pretty cosplayer). She thus has no problem commanding the viewer’s attention despite movement in the background or surrounding environment.

▼ For example, don’t bother looking for motion here, since this one is indeed just a still photo.

▼ As is this.

This makes the Tokyo Cosplay series a unique way to test your perceptiveness and ability to avoid distractions, or at least to gauge how good your peripheral vision is if you can notice the movement elsewhere in the GIF while keeping your pupils firmly focused on Enako.

https://twitter.com/TOKYO__COSPLAY/status/907574529618092032

But perhaps realizing the format can have a considerable degree of difficulty, sometimes its creators toss an easy one into the mix.

https://twitter.com/TOKYO__COSPLAY/status/908613466742603781

▼ Enako visits Kanda Shrine, near Akihabara.

https://twitter.com/TOKYO__COSPLAY/status/912241124764348417

We’re curious to see where the Tokyo Cosplay project heads to next, so we’ll be keeping a close eye on its Twitter account, and also taking a very close look in order to actually see what’s moving.

Source: Kai-You
Featured image: Twitter/@ TOKYO__COSPLAY