The cosplay event took place from the 1st to the 4th of May. There were a great number of entries, to find out the exact number we will have to wait for the full event report but in the Japanese blog there were 23 groups on the first day, May 1st.

The presentation of the winners took place on a live TV broadcast.

The representatives from China this year can be seen below, their names are Nen Nen and Choi Shi. Congratulations guys!

Here is what they look like out of costume.

You can see another shot of the guys here!

As usual the full report can be found in next coming weeks on the English WCS page in the Qualification Report section under Preliminary Competition tab.

Looking forward to meeting you in August!

Perhaps the most developed cosplay preliminary round series this year is that of Brazil. With 14 events taking place in all parts of Brazil except the Amazon (according to Editora JBC next year next year is a possibility) cosplayers from throughout the country have a chance to compete for some great prizes and the chance to represent their country at the championship in Japan. It shows how popular cosplay is in all parts of Brazil and it would be a shame to have only one event in a country where cosplay is so popular. The final in Brazil is coming up on the 9th of June and will have 15 teams; 1 from each regional event and the representative team from last year Mauricio and Monica Somenzari. There is also word that Francesca, one of the group members of the WCS 2005 team Italy will also be in attendance and be one of the judges for the final event to be held in Sao Paolo. Looking forward to seeing who comes out on top!

Part 1: Brother and WCS

Those who have been to a number of cosplay events will know that they there are many different ways that an event can be organized. Many cosplay events are held at Anime/Manga convetions that vary in size. Often you will need to pay for a ticket to enter the general event location. There are some strictly cosplay only events which may have fewer attendants overall but people who come are only there for cosplay. You may or may not have to pay for entry to these events depending on its size and formality. Events which have cosplay can span from a small informal gathering of friends who do cosplay all the way up to multi-day Anime/Cosplay events where up to hundreds of thousands of guests may attend.

The World Cosplay Summit is a unique event that is completely free for guests and participants. In fact most portions of the event are done in public locations and those in attendance are not only cosplay fans but also general inhabitats and curious passersby. The only way that this sort of event can take place is through strong backing from sponsors and Brother company has been a solid supporter from the early beginnings of the WCS.

Even though I have been involved with the WCS from the start, I was not familiar with Brother until we did a tour with the 2006 WCS participants of the "Brother Communication Space" a kind of mini Brother museum/presentation center near Brother Head Office. In a 4 part series I will introduce some things at Brother that the other cosplayers and myself found pretty interesting in our tour.

Part 2 will be about how Brother company began.

South Korea will be sending representatives to the World Cosplay Summit this year! The Partner Organization is going to be Samsung Everland Co. Ltd, which is in fact the largest theme park in the country. It invites over 9 million guests every year and according to Wikipedia is the 6th largest in attendance among theme parks around the world. The cosplay event will take place 2 times with a preliminary round and then a final round; this year they will be held next month on the 10th and 17th of June. It will be interesting to see the outcome of the event and all are looking forward to meeting the representatives when the final decision is made. More information about the event to come!