メキシコ予選情報　－　到着

I just arrived in Mexico in the evening and although the big event was checking into the hotel, I'll share a couple pictures with you.

Here is the front view of the hotel. I visited the Mexico preliminaries 3 years ago, you can see those blog posts here! We stayed at a different hotel this time which has a very nostalgic look to it. It is over 100 years old and the rich interior makes it excellent as a cosplay backdrop. I'm sure in upcoming days we will be taking some cosplay photos in the hotel too so I will have more photos for you to see.

We checked in dropped off our bags and went for dinner right away. The restaurant we went to was actually a part of a bookstore with a live piano performer. It too was very luxurious. Here is a shot of all of us, from left to right Mogu from Italy, Nadia (WCS Italy representative 2008) super Mexico organizers Paula (Marmota) and Mario and on the far right is Matteo who works at CosmoPlay.

Tomorrow will be a light day as people will still be working. Nadia and Mogu will be doing some signings. There are a total of 91 WCS preliminary teams to take part in the preliminaries including all teams that took part in the regionals. 50 of those teams will take part in a first round of costume checks and interviews on Saturday and Sunday. 10 teams will be selected to join the 10 teams that won the regionals for a total of 20 performing teams in the WCS Mexico finals to be held at 5pm on Monday Japan time. You can watch the Mexico finals being streamed live on CosmoPlay so check the time wherever you may be and take in the great performances!

メキシコの地域予選情報

TNT GT6 is coming up in less than 2 weeks and this year again Mexico has gone through an impressive series of regional rounds around the country that stated in September and went through until December. Here is a wrap up of all of the representatives:

Event: Loli Fest
Location: Tampico, Tamaulipas
Date: September 3rd
Representatives: Rafael Gómez Flores and Óscar Eduardo Perez Ramírez
Series: The Pet Shop of Horrors

Event: Comagon
Location: Tlaquepaque, Jalisco
Date: September 10th - 11th
Representatives: Miguel Vilareal Franco and Nancy Genoveva Nogueron López
Series: Castlevania Judgment

Event: Senka
Location: Mérida, Yucatán
Date: October 7th - 9th
Representatives: Diana María Alcocer Mézquita and Mady García Várguez
Series: Castelvania Judgment

Event: ExpOtaku
Location: Villa Hermosa, Tabasco
Date: October 22nd - 23rd
Representatives: Jaqueline Alejandra Quevedo Morales and Carmina Quevedo Morales
Series: Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto

Event: Winter Fest
Location: Chihuahua, Chihuahua
Date: November 12th - 13th
Representatives: Lucia Garcia Rodriguez y Tania Quintana Rico
Series: Yu-Gi-Oh!

Event: Soracon
Location: Mexicali
Date: November 19th
Representatives: Francisco Pelayo y Quetzali Pelayo
Series: Scissors Crown

Event: Imagina
Location: Oaxaca, Oaxaca
Date: November 19th - 20th
Representatives: Xareni Valle and Nephti Villaseñor
Series: Howl's Moving Castle

Event: Anime Holic
Location: Culiacán, Sinaloa
Date: November 26th - 27th
Representatives: Karla Delia Piña Miranda and Wenzel Raimundo Neudert Alatorre
Series: Hiiro no Kakera

Event: Veracon
Location: Veracruz
Date: December 3rd - 4th
Representatives: José Adán Alejo Martínez and Nancy Ivete Cabrera Landa
Series: Pet Shop of Horrors

Event: ECOM
Location: San Luis Potosi
Date: December 17th -18th
Representatives: María Bañuelos and Julio Rojas
Series: Kaleido Star

There are 10 teams in total and I believe there will be a few representatives selected for the final at TNT GT6 in Mexico City. I will be attending the event myself so will let you know how things go!

WCSオーストラリア予選会場Animaniaのまとめ - 3日目

Sunday was the last day for the Animania event and as with events in many countries Sunday was a slower day as many people were heading home. I had a good chance to see different parts of the event in a more relaxed atmosphere.

Here is the Animania event MC sporting the new pink tank top version of the WCS t-shirt, brand new from WCS2011.

Here is a shot of Jill and Skye, the representative team for WCS2009 from Singapore. They are both living in Australia at the moment and it was good to catch up with them. This picture was actually taken on Day 2 but they are looking awesome in it together so I added it here. I believe Jill had already left on Sunday as she is going to university in Perth on the other side of the country.

This is a shot of Cattypatra WCS representative from Australia 2009 looking great as Yoko Littner from Gurren Lagann.

Here are the WCS2011 Australia representatives Tess and Jess who were actively involved in judging this year. We finished things off on Sunday with a 1 hour presentation on how things went at WCS2011 in Japan from their perspective. It was a great way for the audience to get an idea of how many activities take place during the week long WCS event. This picture again is from Saturday again.

I snuck out in the afternoon and got a chance to do a little more sightseeing.

Finally the great weekend was finished off with a flourish when everyone involved with the WCS preliminary and friends got together at a Japanese restaurant for dinner. It was a very memorable weekend, very good to see so many familiar faces and very good to see how vibrant cosplay is in Australia.

WCSオーストラリア予選会場Animaniaのまとめ - 2日目

After what has been perhaps the longest winter holiday ever, let me get back to where I was with day 2 from Animania.

Things started early and there was a long line up outside of the Australian Technology Park venue location before the doors opened.

First thing in the morning was general cosplayer judging. Individual entrants were judged on a variety of qualities from costume quality to weapon construction. A couple of the judges can be seen above - the sagacious Widya and WCS 2010 Australia representative Asham, both looking very judge-like. There were some amazing costumes many of which could have been very competitive in the stage performances although not all did take to the stage.

In the afternoon we moved to the WCS Australia preliminary to determine the representative team for 2012. (Sorry the team photo picture quality is not great)

The first team was Pu.rin.ka.zan performing as Lelouch VI of Brittania and Kururugi Suzaku/Lancelot of Code Geass.

The second team was Social Link Level 9 performing as Minato and Thanatos from Persona 3.

Third up was Faille 'n' Lame doing Lian Shi and Zhen Ji of Dynasty Warriors 7.

Fourth on stage was F@P performing as Shinji Ikari and Mari Makinami from Evangelion 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance.

Finally the fifth team was Hanami who did a performance from Elise Lutus and Jude Mathis of Tales of Xillia.

Here are the special Animania medals for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place teams.

And the WCS2012 representatives Wirru and Tsubaki were awarded the trip to the finals in Japan for their performance from Evangelion!

The evening ended up with a little night view sight seeing with Sydney Harbor Bridge...

...and the always beautiful Opera House. After that we went and ate kangaroo burgers as everyone does in Australia. Stay tuned for Day 3!

WCSオーストラリア予選会場Animaniaのまとめ

I took a whole lot of pictures of my trip to Australia and of the Animania event so I thought I'd share it with you and give everyone a better idea of how things went at the WCS Australia preliminaries. Animania takes place in several cities around Australia and the Sydney event is essentially 2 days but I'll begin with the Friday where I stopped by for a visit to see everyone getting the venue ready. Before I get to that I will include a completely gratuitous image of the Sydney Opera House:

I got down to the event site in the evening around 5 pm to see how set up was going and get my first view of the venue. Animania in Sydney is currently held at the Australian Technology Park which was originally the site of the former Eveleigh railway yards. The structure was built in the late 19th century and has a old fashioned feel to it with plenty of brick and warehouse like backgrounds that are great for cosplay photography. Here is a look inside the building before the guests arrived:

There were a lot of train related and industrial machinery set up here and there giving the location a nostalgic ambiance and a reminder of the sites history.

Booths selling all sorts of fandom goods were set up on Thursday and Friday.

Friday evening was also the opportunity for the WCS preliminary teams to do the staging for their performances. We got a sneak peek of the show and got a chance to see how everyone was working hard to make sure there were no miscues for both the cosplayers and the stage team.

It was good to see the effort the finalists had been putting into things and I was looking forward to seeing how the final performances were going to turn out. They are always surprisingly different from what you imagine from a rehearsal.

My day would not have been complete without finding my first Aussie 'Itasha', the Animania truck. Isn't it cute?

That was about it for Friday, in the next couple days I will post on the main event - Saturday and Sunday.

WCS2012オーストラリア予選で決定、ツバキとウイルが代表

After an amazing trip to Australia with fine Spring weather and delicious meat pies it was a great pleasure to participate in the WCS Australia preliminaries in Sydney.

It was good to see so many familiar faces with many WCS Australia and Singapore representatives in attendance.

After a number of regional rounds in different cities the Australia finals consisted of 5 high power performances that all could have very well competed on the final stage in Japan. Tsubaki and Will took the prize with a clever interpretation of Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance. Here is a great compilation photo of their performance thanks to AmenoKitaro (aka Will) on Deviant Art:

They put together an action packed 2:30 minutes which included imaginary battle scenes, authentic character development, interaction and a little humor. You can watch their performance here!

Here is a photo of the winning pair, lifted straight from their Twitter account.

With regional rounds being held the final ensured very strong competition and the strongest performance of the day came out on top. Congratulations Will and Tsubaki, see you in Japan!

Stay tuned, in the upcoming days I will upload a recap of the Animania convention with all of the juicy details!

The World Cosplay Summit representatives for Germany were selected at Connichi in Kassel Germany, they are Claudia Heinrich & Anna Maxeiner with a impressive and humerous performance from the manga/anime classic Ranma 1/2!

They performed as the characters Ranma Saotome und Akane Tendo, you can watch their performance here! You can find other stuff including information about the judges on the WCS Team Germany blog and more on the WCS Deviant Art account.

Well done Claudia and Anna, looking forward to seeing you in Japan!

WCS2012フィンランド代表が選ばれました！
With WCS 2011 finished not even a month ago representatives are already being confirmed for 2012. This year the Finland selections shifted to Tracon in Tampere, the third largest city in Finland, 2 hours by car northwest of Helsinki.

The Finland representatives who will be coming to Japan in 2012 are Majo (Maiju Härkönen) and Rimppu (Elina Rimpiläinen)!

Photo courtesy of Cosplay Finland Tour

The pair won with a performance from the game Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner.

Majo has been cosplaying for about 8 years, her favorite anime is Last Exile, Ergo Proxy and Utena. Rimppu's been cosplaying for about the same amount of time and hasn't been to Japan yet, she is looking forward to the food.

We are looking forward to welcoming you to Japan!

Monday, the last day of this year's World Cosplay Summit.
After the highs and excitement of Sunday's Championship (and a late night out afterwards!), everyone was getting ready to wind down, but before that came the WCS Symposium and a photoshoot at Sweets Castle in Inuyama.

The prize winning teams and Japanese cosplayers travelled to Mode Gakuen Spiral Towers near Nagoya station.

The symposium hall was filled with photographers, students and other people interested in issues around cosplay. Once again the winning teams walked down the podium, and took their seats to wait for the speakers.

The theme of the symposium was 'the Role of Cosplay for Comic, Cartoon and Game Industries'. There were four panelists:
Yamamoto Sayaka, from Konami
Daimon Taro, an editor from Cosmode magazine
Patrick Galbraith, from Tokyo University and author of The Otaku Encyclopedia
Tadaaki 'Jacky' Dosai

The symposium was held in Japanese, but there were questions for the cosplayers afterwards, so everyone could participate, and the audience learnt a lot.

Once the symposium was over, it was back on the bus and off to Sweets Castle, which is built next to a candy factory and was the perfect place for photo taking.

Meeting up with everyone else, the teams who attended the Symposium had a quick lunch, and then there was a photo session on the stage before free time for photo taking around the Castle.

Here's a couple of team shots:

Spain

Thailand
And a group shot:

There were so many fabulous cosplays, both those associated with WCS and other participants. Here are just a few of them:

Team Italy taking a break.

Malaysia proudly showing off their sign.

Two members of Team Japan, who did a special performance at the Championship on Sunday.

Luka from last year's winning team Italy.

An atmospheric shot from team France.

Finally the afternoon ended, and all that remained was the farewell party at Sunshine Sakae. A great night as usual, with plenty of drinks and the Aichi TV staff band! Tomorrow some teams will be taking a special sightseeing tour, while others are off home or to other parts of Japan.
A lot of people will be meeting up at this weekend's Comiket, but until then, a great big thanks to the staff and organisers, but most of all to the wonderful cosplayers whose talent and energy made this year's World Cosplay Summit a brilliant event!
We hope to see you in Nagoya again!

Today was the day! The day everyone's worked so hard and waited for, the World Cosplay Championship.
Here's an overview of the activities leading up to tonight's Championship competition.

The teams were up bright and early (to try and avoid the heat!) at Oasis 21, for one last run-through of their performances and the award-giving and ending ceremonies.

Practicing the last bow all together.

First in line to perform, Spain run through their gorgeously romantic Romeo and Juliet.

The dramatic end of Thailand's practice performance.

The French team, doing their best to practice and not get too hot.

Even without costumes, Finland give a hilarious performance, starting with a little Roxanne tango from the Moulin Rouge soundtrack.

By the time all the rehearsals were finished it was lunchtime, and even hotter than before. The teams went back to the hotel to rest and make final preparations for the championship show, but the Oasis 21 area was still filled with great cosplayers posing for photos.
Here's a few:

This Canadian/Australian combo came all the way from Fukushima for the Summit!

As the afternoon went on, more and more cosplayers and cosplay fans gathered and enjoyed a live show by the anime voice acting (seiyuu) group Milky Holmes, and finally it was time to head out for the competition. The teams gathered in the hotel foyer in full costume:

As usual, the walk through Sakae station to Oasis 21 drew impressed stares from commuters as they saw the fabulous costumes of the WCS teams.

Once backstage, the cosplayers, their organisers and the WCS staff sprang into action, and the Championship started promptly at 18:30.

The whole Championship went smoothly and was absolutely fabulous, with a live show from anime songsters JAM Project that had the massive crowd screaming and singing along.
But the main and best event, of course, was the contest itself and the final team performances. People seemed to be amazed with the sheer quality of what the international representatives had managed to produce. Both the costumes and the skits of every team were breathtaking.

For pictures of the Championship itself, keep checking out the WCS photo page over the next day as updates come in:
http://wcs.libura.com/lang_en/2011/

For those who are dying to know the results of the contest:

The Siperas prize (for best wig): the Netherlands, with Arika and Nina from Mai Otome.

The Brother prize (for best costume): Australia, with Carmilla and D from Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust.

3rd place (the Tokai-Walker prize): China, with Diao Chan and Cai Wenji from Dynasty Warriors 7.

2nd place (the Bushiroad prize): Italy, with Chocolat and Vanilla from Sugar Sugar Rune.

Grand Champion: Brazil, with Balthier and Ultima from Final Fantasy XII.

A quick pic of the new World Cosplay Champions, Brazil!

So, congratulations to the winning team Brazil and to everyone else, for making this a completely fantastic, thrilling World Cosplay Summit.

Check back tomorrow for a rundown of the cosplay Symposium and Sweets Castle photo event!

Saturday is always one of the longest, fullest days of the Cosplay Summit, and this was no exception!
In the morning the teams got into their cosplays for the red carpet Nishiki-dori parade outside the hotel in Sakae. Starting off the show was the Tokugawa samurai parade:

Followed by a cute and crazy calligraphy display by a local university club:

The weather was hotting up, and before long it was time for the teams to make their way down the red carpet, each preceded by a member of the Nagoya girl group SKE48. Here's a few:

Team Finland, looking cool as usual.

Korea Team.

Once at the end of the red carpet, the teams bravely endured a long photoshoot in the blazing sun, as did the many photographers and large crowd who gathered to cheer them on.

Having finally finished the first parade of the day, everyone was whisked off in a bus to Osu Kannon, to prepare for the main parade of the day, in which not only the WCS teams but also many other cosplayers wowed the crowds in the busy shopping streets.

Waiting behind the scenes at Osu Kannon, everyone hopes it doesn't rain.

Here are some of the fantastic cosplays by both familiar faces and new ones:

Even after the parade was over and the teams had headed back to the hotel, the many other cosplayers who attended relaxed and posed for photos around Osu:

No rest for the wicked - after getting back to the hotel, the WCS teams had to get straight into their Championship costumes for a dress rehearsal. They went in three groups down to Oasis 21, where the Championship will be held, and certainly turned heads in the subway station!

The general melee backstage:

Each team ran through their performances with their costumes, music and all their props, to make sure there would be no technical problems on the big night. Even though it was only a rehearsal, the performances were fantastic!

The Chinese team performs a fab fan dance!

Australia with a dramatic interpretation of D and Carmilla from Vampire Hunter D.

The Japanese representatives, who were chosen only today, got super applause and laughter from the other cosplayers and staff with their hilarious Mario skit.

So, another long day of hard work for the teams; but everything is ready for the Championship, and it's going to be great, thanks to the talent, energy and sheer enthusiasm they manage to keep up every day!
Make sure to come watch if you're in Nagoya tomorrow!

Stay tuned :)
Lucy

Today the events of this year's WCS really kicked off! It was a busy day, with the teams out and about all over Nagoya; make sure to stick around for Saturday and Sunday.

First thing this morning was a meeting for all teams and the Aichi TV WCS staff, to explain the schedule for the day and, most importantly, to choose the order of the performances for Sunday's Championship.

Ed and Kishi-san explain the four stages, and a representative from each team picks an envelope at random to choose which stage they'll perform in:

The final stage contestants look pretty pleased with themselves (especially Malaysia)!

Next, the order of the team performances within each stage was decided, and it was time to end the meeting so everyone could get into their cosplays for the day's outings.

After a quick bagel-and-onigiri lunch, the teams began to gather in the lobby:

Of course there was a photo-session while waiting for the bus!
Sara and Yui from Singapore get the flag out:

Everyone got promptly onto their respective buses: Group A (Brazil, China, Spain, Finland, Italy, Korea, Mexico and Thailand) to meet the governor and appear on a TV show, and Group B (Australia, Germany, Denmark, France, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Singapore and the USA) to meet the mayor of Nagoya and then to press covererage at Chunichi Shinbun newspaper.

I went with Group A, and our first stop was Aichi Prefectural Office to meet the governer; the teams certainly drew heads, with staff coming out of their offices to admire the costumes. Each team gave a short introduction and speech, and the governor welcomed them to Nagoya.

The governor hinted that he might be appearing in the Osu parade tomorrow, although he wouldn't reveal what his costume would be!

Time for one more photo session on the steps of the Prefectural Office:

Then straight of to the Aichi TV studio, where everyone had a quick rehearsal for the live TV show they'd be appearing on, "3 Ji no Tsubo". The broadcast went very smoothly, and the gorgeous cosplays certainly drew attention!

The TV filming all wrapped up in an impressively organised manner, and it was back on the bus for the hour long drive to Centrair, Nagoya's airport. Some of us took the opportunity to grab a nap, but most people played games, listened to anime songs or shared photos and videos on the way.

We'd soon meet up with Group A at the airport, but while waiting, Luka from last year's winning team ran a game of Hangman, with anime titles (starting out easy but getting harder when they decided to use Finnish titles!):

Finally everyone gathered together again, and we went up to the Sky Deck at the airport, the cosplayers drawing yet more admiration from passing travellers on the way.
Out on the Sky Deck was a mass of photographers, all come to see the chosen international teams, as well as many lovely Japanese cosplayers (hopefully we'll see them again at Osu tomorrow!). Here's a few:

And, of course, everyone wanted pics of the teams!

Yuan and Sky from Malaysia, looking lovely.
And plenty more!

An elegant windswept cloak!
Or not... XD

And a very charming bunch to end on!

The evening finished up with a karaoke party! Hopefully everyone will manage to get some sleep tonight, because tomorrow is a big day! A parade in Nishiki, Sakae, in the morning, followed by an even bigger parade in Osu, with hundreds of Japanese cosplayers joining in.

Stay tuned!

WCS2011ブラジル代表が選ばれました。２００６年WCS優勝者のモニカとマウリシオーです！

After an intense round of regional preliminaries the pair to represent Brazil were selected at Festival do Japão in São Paulo.

The winners pair are are Monica and Mauricio Somenzari with a performance of Balthier and Ultima from Final Fantasy XII. The pair will make a return to the WCS championship stage, 5 years after they came out on top in 2006.

Watch their performance here!

See you very soon in Japan!

Japan is the only team that has not yet been selected, the Japan preliminary will take place on August 6th the day before the Championship final.

After an incredible stage presentation at Japan Expo the team selected to represent France are Laure Creusot (Ayalaure) and Christèle Guiol (Nérine) with their performance from Doors of Chaos!

Nérine performed as Mizeria Rezelput and Ayalaure as Clarissa Rezelput. You can see their amazing performance here!

アメリカ代表選ばれました！

The World Cosplay Summit 2011 representatives have been selected at AM2 this year, they are Alexandra Weber (Ali) and Ashley Rice (Ashe)

Photo thanks to LJinto

Their group name is Fox Gloves and their performance at the preliminary were of Ichihara Yuuko and Kimihiro Watanuki from the Clamp series xxxHolic.

Thanks to ACParadise.com you can watch the video here!

Congratulations on the win and see you soon in Japan!

Last weekend was big for preliminary selections as there were 3 countries with their national preliminaries taking place.

Team Singapore:
Sara and Yui cosplaying from Dragon Nest

Team Malaysia:
Yuan Cross and Sky Fara cosplaying from .hack//G.U.

Team China:
Names haven't been released yet, but they were cosplaying from Sangoku Musso 6/Dynasty Warriors 7

Thanks go to Wakaleo and everyone on the WCS Deviant Art page who helped out in gathering the information. I'm on my way to Japan Expo now so I'll let you know how things go!

Edo

Over the weekend at Oishi Cosplay 5 in Bangkok, Thailand the WCS 2011 representatives for Thailand were selected.

The winners were YukiGodbless and JiakiDarkness who performed Freya and Frey from the game Zangeki no Reginleiv for the Wii console.

With a performance that includes a battle scene, drama and a costume change the pair drew great cheers from the crowd. You can watch it here!

Congratulations and we will be seeing you in Japan soon!

WCS2011オランダ代表は、「鋼の錬金術師 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST」を演じたイローナ・アーレンツとリック・ゲ・ムーニックに決定！名古屋で会うのが楽しみです！
春から夏にかけて、中国、シンガポール、マレーシアの代表選考会のラッシュですネ！

Thanks to Nabe san and Patrick we have a little more information for you, the Holland pair are Ilona Arends and Rick De Mönnink and as you can see they cosplayed as Edward and Alphonse from Fullmetal Alchemist.

Congratulations again and looking forward to seeing both of you in Japan over the summer!

Coming up we have the Spring/Summer rush of events with the China, Singapore and Malaysia preliminaries just on the horizon.

Well, its been a tough couple months for Northern Japan. Nagoya was never really directly affected by the earthquake and after visiting Tokyo on the weekend things have virtually returned to normal. Remember you can donate through the WCS website here and for cosplayers if you have not done so already, send a photo message to Prayers from Cosplayers here.

On Sunday May 8th the first WCS preliminaries ever held in Holland took place and a pair were selected, I expect to have more information in the coming days but here is a preliminary photo of them and their winning costumes from their Full Metal Alchemist performance:

More information to come, congratulations!

By now you have already seen the terrible images of the earthquake that struck Northern Japan. As far as I know everyone in the WCS organization - cosplayers, organizers and media - are all safe. Osaka and Nagoya received only a good shake but friends in Tokyo suffered a serious shock and the disruptions to transportation and electricity have made life hard. Some friends had to walk home 5 or 6 hours the night of the quake.

The north of Japan was hit severely by the quake and tsunami. We pray for survivors and evacuees who go without essential medicines or knowing about the safety of loved ones.

Please keep them in your thoughts and even if our lives were not directly touched by the catastrophe think of anything that you can do to help.

Edo