In addition to the English and Japanese blogs the WCS has a Chinese blog as well. Keep an eye on the Japanese and Chinese blogs during the next 3 days as there will be lots of things going on and with staff solely blogging there are lots of pictures of your favorite team. Leave a comment no matter what the language and cheer them on!

Here are links to the blogs:
Japanese:
http://www.tv-aichi.co.jp/wcs/blog/jpn/
Chinese:
http://www.tv-aichi.co.jp/wcs/blog/chn/

The first activity for August 1st was the Red Carpet Parade. The rainy season in Japan usually ends in mid July in central Japan but this year it still has not finished. In the morning it was raining but let up around 11 so things went ahead as planned. Unfortunately the rain started up again right when the teams started their promenade. By the time all of the teams got to the end of the carpet it was coming down pretty hard.

The picture below is a shot of Renan and Junior of Brazil dressed as Leon Belmont (Castlevania Lament of Innocence) and Alucard (Hellsing) posing with 2 members of Tokugawa Ieyasus entourage.

The schedule for Saturday has become busier this year with 2 parades. Here is a picture of everyone in the bus heading to the Osu Parade.

The Osu Parade started at 3:30 on Saturday. The rain had let up and cooled things off but it had kept people away thankfully so the oppressive crowds of previous years were not there this year.
Here is the front of the parade.

Below is a shot of a large number of the international cosplayers during the break behind Osu Kannon Temple.

Here is the stage performance on the Osu Kannon grounds. You can see the tent above the stage to protect everyone from the rain.

Sunday morning was an early one and started with a staging rehearsal. Everyone had a break for a few hours and headed off to Oasis 21 around 6 pm for the Championship.

Here are a few of the teams before taking to the stage before the opening.

Thailand
Pennapa, Detroit Metal City, Johannes Krauser II
Rujipas, Detroit Metal City, Jack ill Dark

Mexico
Sabina, Vampire Hunter D, Doris
Abigail, Vampire Hunter D, D

Italy
Elena, Blame!, Cibo
Marco, Blame!, Killy

USA
Elizabeth, Cardcaptor Sakura, The Flower
India, Cardcaptor Sakura, Sakura

Korea
Seon Hye, Fate/stay night, Saber
Sang Ho, Fate/stay night, Gilgamesh

Here is a shot of the crowds watching the show. The performances were all moved back an hour to start at 7 pm so that all groups would be performing with a dark sky. This shot was taken a little before then.

Ichiro Mizuki who made a surprise appearance at the karaoke party a couple nights previous was a judge for the Championship and performed for the audience after all of the cosplayers had finished. Here you can see him mid song.

Here is everyone lined up before the announcement for the award winners.

The Brother Award Winner for 2009 is the USA!!! Elizabeth and India did an amazing rendition of Cardcaptor Sakura as the Flower and Sakura. They had great use of colour and music selection was excellent. The Brother Award this year is for the best costume and with Elizabeths' skillful work with 40 meters of fabric they demonstrated superior costuming skills.

Sorry the picture is lame, the pair were blocked by the MCs from my angle. You can get an idea of the scale of Elizabeths dress though.

The 2nd place pair was Spain with a lively performance from Candy Candy. Bernic and Laura played the roles of Candice White Ardlay and Anthony Brown. They were shocked to have been awarded the prize and could not hold back their tears when accepting the award.

The Champion for this year is Japan! With the Japan preliminaries finished and the representative selected only an hour before it was obvious that the adrenalin was still running as Yuri and Rie went through their Sengoku Basara performance with precision. You don't see many fight scenes from Japanese performers but they did an excellent job and their back screen was very classy yet did not upstage the cosplayers.

I know everyone wants high definition pictures, better quality shots will be updated soon. Keep your eye on the Chinese blog update, among the 3 blogs that has the best quality images. Here is that link again:
http://www.tv-aichi.co.jp/wcs/blog/chn/

Keep in mind also that the great videos being uploaded for the event to the Einy viewer can only be seen through Internet Explorer.