I have something very special for you now, an interview with the Spain Team for WCS 2007. This could not have been put together without the help of Pol, an important member of the WCS organizers. The interview is really interesting and it was hard to choose what to include but I have divided things up into 4 parts and I will start with part 1 today.

Part 1: Winning the Preliminary Round in Spain and Family Reaction

Pol: Did you think that you could win the local selection with your performance?

Ester: Actually we were originally a group of four people but we split into two groups for the
the WCS event. Then we had to change our performance almost completely, there was no time to prepare the performance as thoroughly as we’d liked to, and... well, you see... (laughs)

Pol: And what was the reaction of your family? Did they know you were taking part in the contest?

Monica: Yes they knew we were taking part. But they didn’t believe the outcome at all! When I got home after, I called my sister to tell the rest of the family but she replied that she wouldn’t believe me as long as there was no evidence to prove it. (laughs)

Pol: So what did they say when you provided the evidence?

Ester: My mom said that we shouldn’t hold too many expectations in winning in Japan, there would be a bunch of other quality entries as well... When I called my father, the whole family was attending the christening ceremony for my newborn cousin, and they didn’t believe it at all. But later I got a lot of congratulation calls from everyone. They tried to make us relax, but it was useless. We were way too excited. (laughs) They promised that they would help us in whatever necessary.... But they also remarked that the main priority is that we don’t get too much distracted from our studies. We’re at our last yeat in high school after all, and we have university entrance exams soon. Even before the WCS...

Monica: Well, everyone in my family got very very happy when they heard the news. They all knew that it was a dream for me to be able to visit Japan, and my poor grandma even cried of joy. Really, we’re backed by our families, a lot of friends, and even unknown people!!

Thank you Ester, Monica and Pol!

Look forward to Part 2 of the interview, I hope that we have the chance to hear from all representatives before the big event.

Here is part 2 of 4 from the interview with the Spain Team for WCS 2007. Everyone who knows anything about Japanese culture or food has certain concepts about the country. I first learned about Japan in school and tried Japanese food before coming to Japan. One oppertunity in coming to Japan is to see how these ideas change or are reinforced.

Part 2: General Thoughts on What Is in Store in Japan

Pol: What do you expect to find once you have arrived in Japan?

Monica: The image of Japan I have right now is the one I have made out from manga comic books, you know. Cities full of neon lights with structures like Tokyo Tower on the background. But I'm not sure if the places we're going to visit will be like that or not. However, I hope I will have lots of fun during the trip, and that I will make a lot of very good friends as well!!

Pol: What do you find the most fascinating in Japan?

Monica: Japanese people!!

Ester: Its temples! I really like the ancient architecture of Japan. I also like their culture and their ways...

Monica: Wouldn’t you usually say something different Ester?

Ester: Eeeh... maybe that we’d love to attend a Gackt concert? (laughs)

Pol: what do you know of Japanese culture besides manga and anime?

Ester: Well, Japanese culture is somewhat conservative, a patriarchal society and stuff like that... Japanese people visit temples more often than we do... (laughs) And they are more fond of uniforms than us... and always try to reach an agreement in order to avoid conflict... I’ve read that in a travel guide I bought a while ago, actually. (laughs)

Monica: I haven’t tried sushi yet. I’d really love to taste it, but on the other hand... don’t know how to say it... I find it's really strange food...

Pol: And what about Japanese cuisine?

Ester: I like ramen, noodle dishes in general... sushi is fine, too... But I prefer nikuman buns...

Monica: Yeah! I also like ramen!

Thanks again Ester, Monica and Pol! (I love ramen too!)

Look forward to Part 3 of the interview which will be more concerning the teams state of preparation and thoughts on the event itself.

This is part 3 of 4 from the interview with the Spain Team for WCS 2007. Making ones own costume is a matter of pride for cosplayers whichever country they come from and it is one of the conditions for participating in the WCS. Todays portion of the interview with the representatives of Spain covers costume making and preparedness for the summer.

Part 3: Costume Making Techniques and the State of Preparations

Pol: What is the current overall state of your preparations?

Ester: Hahaha, well... For what has to do with me, I'm about half done with Kotoko's costume.

Monica: Well, I'm almost over with one of the costumes, and have also found the most complicated accessories I needed to make the other two. We're fully aware that the WCS will take place very soon, but we're very busy with our studies and can't spend as much time preparing the cosplay as we'd like to do. We usually work on our costumes during weekends and so...our aunts provide a lot of helpful tips... and we get help from our mothers and grandmas.

Pol: What was your criteria in choosing costumes?

Ester: The ones for the championship... We chose them just because we liked them, we think they're the style we like the most. For the parade, we've chosen characters from a completely new series, which has been released in Japan this year 2007.

Monica: We also chose Saint October because we wanted to demonstrate we keep up with what's new in Japan.

Pol: What do you think that will be the most difficult part in order to bring your ideas from paper to reality?

Monica: Phew... I think that learning the Japanese dialogues will be quite difficult... besides this, it won’t be easy to deal with weapons and other props, either...

Ester: I believe the objective that is harder to reach is to make things look ‘solid’. I mean, you can see an illustration and think to yourself that character is cool, and you'd look great if you wore that outfit. But there comes a moment during the process when you realize that maybe it doesn't fit you as well as you had thought at first.

Thanks everyone!

Look forward to Part 4 of the interview which looks forward the the World Cosplay Summit event in Japan this August.

This is the final part of the interview with the Spain Team for WCS 2007.

Part 4: Final Thoughts on the WCS and a Message to All

Pol: Have you already seen what representatives in other countries have done at their local events?

Monica: Well, we have seen the pictures that are already published on the official site. Unfortunately we haven’t been able to watch the performances, which we think is as important as the costumes themselves. But personally the ones I liked the most were the ones from Thailand. Their costumes are really impressive!

Ester: From the pictures I have seen the Italian and German team have done a great job as well.

Pol: Do you have a final message to the readers of the WCS website?

Monica: We are very grateful that we managed to be reached here. We’ll do our best to represent Spain, and even though we can’t make any predictions about the results, we’ll do our best!!

Ester: We’ll be completely satisfied in enjoying the experience, and we hope to be able to extend the enjoyment to our audience.

Monica: I hope that we’ll be able not only to enjoy it ourselves, but to make the audience in Nagoya vibrate with an unforgettable experience.

Ester: Yes, let’s meet you all in Nagoya!!

Thank you again for doing this Team Spain and again a special thanks to Pol for taking time out of his busy schedule to make this happen. I hope to have the oppertunity to hear from all teams before the summer event arrives. Looking forward to seeing everyone very soon!

The date has been set for the Tokyo round to select one of the 3 representative teams from Japan. It will be at the Cosplay Festa, Tokyo Dome City on June 3rd. The time has not been determined yet but applications will be accepted from March 21st to May 24th. Last year there were 3 very strong teams including the veteran team "Barbara", idol like Kara and Ray Ya and members of the Gandam Mobile Suit builders club: Goldie and Sakuya. Recently in Japan there have been a great number of underground style cosplay events, there are many active cosplayers in Japan and I am looking forward to see who will represent Tokyo this year.

There has been extensive coverage in the Japanese blog of the progress of the preliminary rounds in China in the past few days. I will try to share the information and photos with you here as well.

The 3rd China International Anime Fair being held near Shanghai this year is taking place over the span of an entire week. You can get an idea of how large the event is from the pictures taken from the inside and outside of the convention center.

Here are a number of pictures of booths related to the WCS event at the convention and one of them has the elaborate costumes that the Web Representative team "Barbara" wore at WCS 2006.

You can also see a Brother sewing machine which is being demonstrated at one of the booths as well as a flyer which has an image of Georgia, the winner of the Individual Competition at WCS 2005.

Stay tuned for more from the China Preliminary round including pictures of the cosplay event and the cosplayers themselves!