I got in contact with Katherine and Gabriella who were just selected for the first group from Australia in 2009. They were kind enough to answer the questions and in detail so I will divide the interview into 3 parts. Here is part 1:

Question: WCS 2009 is still a long ways off, what is the current overall state of your preparations?

Tsubaki (Katherine):
So far we’ve been deciding on what different costumes & series we’d like to do in Japan & coming up with skit ideas for them. I’ve been talking to some of the other Australian WCS finalists from this year for construction tips for different materials they used on their costumes, which I’m not familiar with & getting opinions from close friends as to how our ideas sound. It’s very much in the early stages still though. We do have an idea though of what we would like to do.

Cattypatra (Gabriella)
We’re still very much in the planning process. We have lots of ideas of what we’d like to do in Japan, and each come with their own pros and cons. It’s a really tough decision because we want to pick costumes that are great, would be easy to do a good skit with, characters we like and a series that we’d really enjoy cosplaying. We have one idea which is sticking out more than others, so we’re trying to figure out if it would be viable.

Question: What manga and anime you like, why do you like those titles? What are your favorite characters and why?

Tsubaki:
There are A LOT of Anime & manga that I like xD My favourite manga is probably ‘Kazan’ by Gaku Miyao & my favourite character from that would be Kazan. It’s not a well-known series, but was one of my first & all time favourites. The reason I like it so much is the story was great, quite different & worked so well with interesting characters. I always try to get more people into ‘Kazan’ as it certainly doesn’t get the attention it deserves. Kazan is one of my dream cosplays, but only recently do I feel a bit more confident that I could do his character justice. I don’t really have a favourite anime, there are too many good ones that I enjoy. Some of my favourites include: Fullmetal Alchemist, Neon Genesis Evangelion, X, Code Geass, Soul Eater, Junjou Romantica, Naruto, & so many more. I just generally enjoy anime with great plots & interesting characters.

Cattypatra:
That is such a hard question! XD I love so many series! My favourites are all very varied. For example I love the manga “Revolutionary Girl Utena” because the main character is a very strong female heroine, who fights and takes a main role. I love that in anime and manga, because generally females are portrayed as very weak or wimpy. I love a lot of shonen, and of course the old school classics I grew up watching like Pokemon and Digimon! From the more recent releases I adore Code Geass, Soul Eater, Full metal Alchemist and Gray Man. I also love the good old stuff, such as lots of Clamps like X. Neon Genesis Evangelion is the series that has always been in my heart. I also love yaoi, so Ai No Kusabi and Junjo Romantica are a must! Anything with homoeroticism in it is good in my books.

Part 2 of the interview will be related to the groups performance at the Australia preliminaries at Animania.