The Japan Preliminary will be the last of the 15 to be held leading up to WCS 2010. As in 2009, the event will be held simultaneously with the Championship which is August 1st this year. 7 groups will be performing, up from the 5 groups from last year, and some familiar faces made it through the selection process. Many of the teams have already set up twitter accounts so if you are on twitter you can follow them and cheer them on:

Twin Park

Umi and Riku are twins who participated in last years WCS Japan preliminaries. Over the last year they have been living on the East Coast of the USA. They were actively cosplaying there winnning the Best Novice award at NYAF 2009 and Judge's Award at Anime Boston 2010. You can find them on twitter here.

097

The only male team this year is "097" (read as Onakyu) and their names are Hidehiko Misaki and Don Obiichi. This is the first appearance at the WCS for both of them. Find their twitter account here.

Dekoboko

The term Dekoboko or （凸凹） means "uneven or bumpy" referring to the fact that one member is much taller than the other. Yori Yori and Naokichi are excited to be participating and as this is Yori Yori's first time she says she is a little nervous but looking forward to meeting cosplayers from around the world. You can follow them on twitter here.

Syuri

This pair of Mariko and Syutona are newly formed this year. Mariko is a veteran cosplayer with over 10 years experience and has appeared as a member of Barbara in WCS 2006 and 2009. You can find their twitter account here!

Akira to Shiguma

Akira and Shiguma participated as Osaka representatives in WCS 2007 and since then have become increasingly active internationally, traveling to events abroad several times over the last year. Check out their twitter account here!

Wankorabo

Kikiwan has participated in the Japan Team B group that won the Runner Up prize at WCS 2007. This is the first time to participate for Ooji, she says that she can communicate in English alright and is looking forward to meeting everyone. Leave a message on their twitter account here.

Paradise Kinga

This team of Eria.91 and Yuma.92 is a new pairing for WCS 2010. Last year Eria participated with another partner for the WCS 2009 Japan Preliminary and this will be the first time to see Yuma on the WCS stage. They do not have a twitter account yet but if/when they do I will post it on the blog here.

Coming up is the Brazil preliminary next weekend, stay tuned for the results there!