Here is the our first interview with half of the Mexico pair for WCS 2009 Abigail Garcia (aka Maskerpa)

Q: What manga and anime do you like, why do you like those titles? What are your favorite characters and why?
A: My favorite manga is Sengoku Basara! (all about SB) because I'm in love with samurai and japanese history.
My favorite anime is a tough one, there are many I like, I can't choose just one.
My favorite characters are Azai, Kojuuro and Date from Sengoku Basara. Mugen from Samurai Champloo and Sakata Gintoki from Gintama, I like them all because they're like my best friends!

Q: Are you watching any anime right now? If so, what are you watching?
A: Yes I'm watching Gintama, Bleach, Sengoku Basara, Naruto, Darker than Black, and Kateikyoshi Hitman Reborn.

Q: How did you first get into cosplay?
A: I can't really remember but i think because I always liked disguises and I like anime and manga so it made a good mix.

Q: What was your criteria in choosing your costumes in general?
A: First the height because I'm really short, besides that I usually make crossplay so i choose a character i like and fits me.

Q: What does the recognition of being selected for this competition mean to you?
A: Well, I guess it means that I did a good job, especially when I've got a great teammate like Sabi!

Q: How was the reaction of your family when you won the TNT competition?
A: My mom said "Yeah i want you to buy a lot of stuff for me!"
My dad said "How you'll pay the trip?"
My sister said "I knew it!"
My friends said "We'll miss you Momoiro! Let's go get some drinks!"

Q: What do you find fascinating about Japan?
A: History, culture, anime, manga, food, music, o-sake, geisha, everything!

Q: What do you hope or expect to find once you have arrived in Japan?
A: Sake and Geisha in a tea house hahaha!

Q: Do you like Japanese food? If so, what do you like?
A: I love it! Sukiyaki, Ramen, Katsudon and obviously o-sake!

Could you please provide a comment to your present and future fans and readers of this blog?
No fans, international friends haha, well... doing cosplay allows you to be who you aren't, dress as you don't dress, do what you don't do, do your hair as you wouldn't do it, act in a way that you wouldn't normally act, speak in a way that you don't speak. For that reason, every day you do cosplay is a new life to be who you want to be. All cosplayers rules!

Thanks for that Abi!! Next up is the interview with Abi's partner Sabina Arvide.

Here is a flyer that I brought back with me from Mexico that was at the event. In fact it was made in Japan and advertises tours to the WCS event in the summer. On the front you can see the championship performance by team Brazil and across the top the title "World Champions"

On the back it had an interesting explanation of the event itself in the middle and to the bottom right a break down of the 4 day tour including trips to Akihabara or Kyoto. It was the first time I had seen the tour information and seeing it in Spanish was kind of neat.

OK, that was a long pause. The China preliminary round is still next month but I don't want you to think that I passed away here so lets make something happen. Just to let you know where we stand, Australia, Germany US, Italy, Finland, Spain, Denmark, Thailand and Mexico have selected their representatives for the summer. Coming up we have China, Brazil, Singapore, Korea, France and Japan. More interviews are coming up, expect Mexico's Abi and Sabina to let us know whats happening with them soon.

Friends in China, Singapore, and around the world have been passing on Chinese New Years greetings and our hotel was right beside Chinatown in Mexico City so we got a chance to experience the Mexican version of the celebration.

On a couple nights we got a good view of the fireworks and displays and there were many festive items including golden oxes on sale in the market during the day.

I was surprised again on the side stage on the afternoon of the 3rd day they had a presentation by cosplayers in medieval European costumes. This challenges the boundaries of cosplay and it was interesting to see the interest in military uniforms existed in Mexico too.

We had to keep quiet for a while when we arrived on the 3rd day of TNT GT3 as they were conducting a Japanese speech contest outside of our changing room on the side stage. They had a number of speakers and some dance performances after.

It was great to see that there was not just contemporary pop culture but many different facets of Japanese culture at the event.

The TNT GT3 event has wrapped up but I still have a bunch of pictures that I would like to share with you and I will do so over the next couple days.

Taking a look around the booths I ran across a video that was being played on a TV, it blew me away. The last thing I expected to see was the rappers from Nagoya - Home Made Kazoku - in Mexico. Itsumo arigato!

The representatives for Mexico in WCS 2009 are Sabina and Abigail who performed Vivisuke and Jennifer from Cloth Road.

Here is a run through of all of the contestants in order of performance:
1st: Legend of Zelda
2nd: Tokio Revelations - Sakura and Syaoran
3rd: One Piece: Unlimited Cruiser - Bugsy the Clown and Monkey Duffy
4th: Saint Seiya - Thanatos and Hypros
5th: Legend of Zelda - Link and Zelda
6th: Tsubasa Resevoir Chronicals - Sakura Hime clon and Syaoran clon
7th: Clover - Suu and Oruha
8th: Cloth Road - Vivisuke and Jennifer
9th: Rozen Maiden - Suigintou and Shinka
10th: Card Captor Sakura - Li Shaotan and Kinomoto Sakura
11th: Rose de Versaille - Fersen/Andre and Maria Antoinette/Oscar
12th: Soul Calibur - Cassandra and Xianghua
13th: Tsubasa Resevoir Chronicles - Sakura Kinomoto and Clow Reed
14th: Kalaedo Star - Sora Naegino and Lyla Hamilton
I have images and more information on each performance which I will update for you later!

We are about to go on stage here and you can feel the tension in the air.

At the same time there was a light hearted feeling as the tension is broken by a Mexican style dance and a laugh.

We are just before the Mexico preliminary competition right now and everyone is taking turns signing a poster which the winners will take with them to Japan.

Over the 2nd and 3rd day of the event a group of judges including Ninomiya-san from TVA and Paula from TNT were interviewing 38 groups who wanted to participate in the WCS competition to be held on the 4th day. With so many groups, an interview was the best method to give each group close attention.
(picture to be added later)
It sounds like the selection was tough but the finalists have been selected and I am looking forward to seeing them up on stage tomorrow!

This evening the day finished off with the individual competition. There were 109 contestants (?!?) so for the sake of keeping the competition within a reasonable time frame they were asked to do walk ons. Basically that means one by one they got on the stage came to the front, posed, maybe did an in character action like a spin or a kick or blow a kiss and then the went off the stage and the next contestant came on.

I am doing this blog entry from my cell phone so I cant update the photos I have right now but when I get to a computer I will update this entry so please check back!

Megumi Okada was a special guest on the main stage of the event and was singing and performing recitals on both the 2nd and 3rd day of the TNT GT3 event. She is well known for her voice acting in Neon Genisis Evangelion, Yu, Yu Hakusho and Samurai Deeper Kyo among many others.

Above is a shot of her conducting a recital on stage with a page from a manga in the background. Hearing her voice in real life electrified the crowd and they responded with loud cheers.

Here she is singing one of the many anime songs that she sang on both days, she went through all of the most popular ones and the crowd grew very large and screamed when they heard a song they recognized. At one point when we were preparing for the individual cosplay event I was moving around to take pictures in front of the stage and a guy in the audience called me over and asked me to help him get an autograph from her. Unfortunately I was pretty busy at the time but I really understood how big of a hit Okada-san was.

Ingrid Alin Nava was the second half of the Mexico duo that came to WCS in 2008. With Tersa around I was sure I would bump into Ingrid, I found her with her mother. The three of them had made the long trip down to the event from Monterrey, about 18 hours by car but I imagine they flew. Mexico is not a small country!

She is actually wearing the World Cosplay Summit t-shirt that she received from WCS 2008. It was really good to see the 2 of them, they were having a lot of fun.

Tersa Garcia Hernandez was one of the 2 representatives from Mexico in WCS 2008 here she is dressed in purple, she was hanging out with friends and having a great time.

Good to see you again!

Those bags that I was carrying held the costume that I am wearing below, a red Zaku Warrior.

The costume itself was actually made by Goldy, WCS 2006 Tokyo representative. He has made many similar Gundam mobile suits and was kind enough to let me take it on the treacherous international journey. What do you think?

On the evening of the second day they had group performances, I took some pictures of some of the 11 performances.

This was one of the earlier performances it was a hybrid Bleach act where 2 of the characters were trying to seduce one of the other characters and one of them got hurt so an ambulance came out to save them. The music varied and they had dancing and singing, good fun!

This group did a team dance performance that really got the crowd into it.

This was a great fight scene with about 5 participants. There was one cosplayer in particular who obviously had some training in martial arts because he was kicking and jumping with great percision. They also had one girl character dressed as a pro wrestler with a "Lucha Libre" mask, you can see her in the white in the picture above. They completed some complex wrestling style swings and flips, very impressive.

Here is a shot of a pair doing a Naruto fight scene, they did a great job of getting into character.

The last group was a brother and sister team from Panama. They had won an event in Costa Rica and the prize was a trip to compete at TNT GT3, it was good to see them here!

I was surprised by the variety of events they had at the TNT GT3 event, they had 3 stages and things were going on regularly on all 3.

Yesterday on the side stage they had Naruto, today they had a number of the bad characters from Sailor Moon. You can see Elsch among the group of cosplayers.

First on the agenda for the second day was a signing. Otohiko, Nadia and Elsch took seats on the stage and a long line of people formed for their signatures.

Elsch is dressed as Sailor Aluminia Siren from Sailor Moon, Nadia is Izumi from Watashi no Goshujinsama and Otohiko is cosplaying Mass Hughes from Full Metal Alchemist. The signing went on for about an hour, clearly the guests were very well received!

Wandering around the TNT GT3 event there is a big main stage that right now has various bands playing, often dressed up in costume.

Some of the guys in this band were dressed up as the heros of “Lucha Libre”, the very popular pro-wrestling phenomenon here in Mexico. The same stage will be used for the WCS preliminary final on Monday.