With the largest Japanese community outside of Japan, Brazil maintains strong ties with the island nation. Manga and anime are popular with youth and as far as cosplay is concerned every year there is a number of events that hold WCS regionals throughout the country finishing at the national preliminary in Sao Paolo. The regionals are well on their way now and I have a report for you from Belo Horizonte which is inland north of Rio de Jeneiro.

Cosplayers Gabriela de Lima Birchal and Nathalia Lelis de Moura came out on top of eight teams to earn their way to the finals of WCS 2010 - JBC Brazil Stage. The selection took place in Belo Horizonte City, on April 11th.

Gabriela and Nathalia performed as the characters Velvet and Odette, from the game Odin Sphere. The presentation mixed dance and performance.

Grasiele Fink da Silva and Augusto Gustavo Melo, with their performance came in second place presenting their interpretation of the game Valkyrie Profile.

Besides Gabriela and Nathalia, other two pairs have already chosen to participate of Brazilian finals: Geraldo Cecílio and Renan Aguiar (Brazilian champions in 2009) and Maurício e Mônica Somenzari (winners of Anime Yuu selective).

Besides the cosplay tournament, Anime Festival had quizzes, discussions with anime voice actors and shows by anime song bands.

Thanks a lot to the JBC Brazil team for providing the information and check out their web page here for the latest information on the Brazil selection!