WCS2012フィンランド代表が選ばれました！
With WCS 2011 finished not even a month ago representatives are already being confirmed for 2012. This year the Finland selections shifted to Tracon in Tampere, the third largest city in Finland, 2 hours by car northwest of Helsinki.

The Finland representatives who will be coming to Japan in 2012 are Majo (Maiju Härkönen) and Rimppu (Elina Rimpiläinen)!

Photo courtesy of Cosplay Finland Tour

The pair won with a performance from the game Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner.

Majo has been cosplaying for about 8 years, her favorite anime is Last Exile, Ergo Proxy and Utena. Rimppu's been cosplaying for about the same amount of time and hasn't been to Japan yet, she is looking forward to the food.

We are looking forward to welcoming you to Japan!

The World Cosplay Summit representatives for Germany were selected at Connichi in Kassel Germany, they are Claudia Heinrich & Anna Maxeiner with a impressive and humerous performance from the manga/anime classic Ranma 1/2!

They performed as the characters Ranma Saotome und Akane Tendo, you can watch their performance here! You can find other stuff including information about the judges on the WCS Team Germany blog and more on the WCS Deviant Art account.

Well done Claudia and Anna, looking forward to seeing you in Japan!

WCS2012オーストラリア予選で決定、ツバキとウイルが代表

After an amazing trip to Australia with fine Spring weather and delicious meat pies it was a great pleasure to participate in the WCS Australia preliminaries in Sydney.

It was good to see so many familiar faces with many WCS Australia and Singapore representatives in attendance.

After a number of regional rounds in different cities the Australia finals consisted of 5 high power performances that all could have very well competed on the final stage in Japan. Tsubaki and Will took the prize with a clever interpretation of Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance. Here is a great compilation photo of their performance thanks to AmenoKitaro (aka Will) on Deviant Art:

They put together an action packed 2:30 minutes which included imaginary battle scenes, authentic character development, interaction and a little humor. You can watch their performance here!

Here is a photo of the winning pair, lifted straight from their Twitter account.

With regional rounds being held the final ensured very strong competition and the strongest performance of the day came out on top. Congratulations Will and Tsubaki, see you in Japan!

Stay tuned, in the upcoming days I will upload a recap of the Animania convention with all of the juicy details!

WCSオーストラリア予選会場Animaniaのまとめ

I took a whole lot of pictures of my trip to Australia and of the Animania event so I thought I'd share it with you and give everyone a better idea of how things went at the WCS Australia preliminaries. Animania takes place in several cities around Australia and the Sydney event is essentially 2 days but I'll begin with the Friday where I stopped by for a visit to see everyone getting the venue ready. Before I get to that I will include a completely gratuitous image of the Sydney Opera House:

I got down to the event site in the evening around 5 pm to see how set up was going and get my first view of the venue. Animania in Sydney is currently held at the Australian Technology Park which was originally the site of the former Eveleigh railway yards. The structure was built in the late 19th century and has a old fashioned feel to it with plenty of brick and warehouse like backgrounds that are great for cosplay photography. Here is a look inside the building before the guests arrived:

There were a lot of train related and industrial machinery set up here and there giving the location a nostalgic ambiance and a reminder of the sites history.

Booths selling all sorts of fandom goods were set up on Thursday and Friday.

Friday evening was also the opportunity for the WCS preliminary teams to do the staging for their performances. We got a sneak peek of the show and got a chance to see how everyone was working hard to make sure there were no miscues for both the cosplayers and the stage team.

It was good to see the effort the finalists had been putting into things and I was looking forward to seeing how the final performances were going to turn out. They are always surprisingly different from what you imagine from a rehearsal.

My day would not have been complete without finding my first Aussie 'Itasha', the Animania truck. Isn't it cute?

That was about it for Friday, in the next couple days I will post on the main event - Saturday and Sunday.

WCSオーストラリア予選会場Animaniaのまとめ - 2日目

After what has been perhaps the longest winter holiday ever, let me get back to where I was with day 2 from Animania.

Things started early and there was a long line up outside of the Australian Technology Park venue location before the doors opened.

First thing in the morning was general cosplayer judging. Individual entrants were judged on a variety of qualities from costume quality to weapon construction. A couple of the judges can be seen above - the sagacious Widya and WCS 2010 Australia representative Asham, both looking very judge-like. There were some amazing costumes many of which could have been very competitive in the stage performances although not all did take to the stage.

In the afternoon we moved to the WCS Australia preliminary to determine the representative team for 2012. (Sorry the team photo picture quality is not great)

The first team was Pu.rin.ka.zan performing as Lelouch VI of Brittania and Kururugi Suzaku/Lancelot of Code Geass.

The second team was Social Link Level 9 performing as Minato and Thanatos from Persona 3.

Third up was Faille 'n' Lame doing Lian Shi and Zhen Ji of Dynasty Warriors 7.

Fourth on stage was F@P performing as Shinji Ikari and Mari Makinami from Evangelion 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance.

Finally the fifth team was Hanami who did a performance from Elise Lutus and Jude Mathis of Tales of Xillia.

Here are the special Animania medals for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place teams.

And the WCS2012 representatives Wirru and Tsubaki were awarded the trip to the finals in Japan for their performance from Evangelion!

The evening ended up with a little night view sight seeing with Sydney Harbor Bridge...

...and the always beautiful Opera House. After that we went and ate kangaroo burgers as everyone does in Australia. Stay tuned for Day 3!

WCSオーストラリア予選会場Animaniaのまとめ - 3日目

Sunday was the last day for the Animania event and as with events in many countries Sunday was a slower day as many people were heading home. I had a good chance to see different parts of the event in a more relaxed atmosphere.

Here is the Animania event MC sporting the new pink tank top version of the WCS t-shirt, brand new from WCS2011.

Here is a shot of Jill and Skye, the representative team for WCS2009 from Singapore. They are both living in Australia at the moment and it was good to catch up with them. This picture was actually taken on Day 2 but they are looking awesome in it together so I added it here. I believe Jill had already left on Sunday as she is going to university in Perth on the other side of the country.

This is a shot of Cattypatra WCS representative from Australia 2009 looking great as Yoko Littner from Gurren Lagann.

Here are the WCS2011 Australia representatives Tess and Jess who were actively involved in judging this year. We finished things off on Sunday with a 1 hour presentation on how things went at WCS2011 in Japan from their perspective. It was a great way for the audience to get an idea of how many activities take place during the week long WCS event. This picture again is from Saturday again.

I snuck out in the afternoon and got a chance to do a little more sightseeing.

Finally the great weekend was finished off with a flourish when everyone involved with the WCS preliminary and friends got together at a Japanese restaurant for dinner. It was a very memorable weekend, very good to see so many familiar faces and very good to see how vibrant cosplay is in Australia.

メキシコの地域予選情報

TNT GT6 is coming up in less than 2 weeks and this year again Mexico has gone through an impressive series of regional rounds around the country that stated in September and went through until December. Here is a wrap up of all of the representatives:

Event: Loli Fest
Location: Tampico, Tamaulipas
Date: September 3rd
Representatives: Rafael Gómez Flores and Óscar Eduardo Perez Ramírez
Series: The Pet Shop of Horrors

Event: Comagon
Location: Tlaquepaque, Jalisco
Date: September 10th - 11th
Representatives: Miguel Vilareal Franco and Nancy Genoveva Nogueron López
Series: Castlevania Judgment

Event: Senka
Location: Mérida, Yucatán
Date: October 7th - 9th
Representatives: Diana María Alcocer Mézquita and Mady García Várguez
Series: Castelvania Judgment

Event: ExpOtaku
Location: Villa Hermosa, Tabasco
Date: October 22nd - 23rd
Representatives: Jaqueline Alejandra Quevedo Morales and Carmina Quevedo Morales
Series: Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto

Event: Winter Fest
Location: Chihuahua, Chihuahua
Date: November 12th - 13th
Representatives: Lucia Garcia Rodriguez y Tania Quintana Rico
Series: Yu-Gi-Oh!

Event: Soracon
Location: Mexicali
Date: November 19th
Representatives: Francisco Pelayo y Quetzali Pelayo
Series: Scissors Crown

Event: Imagina
Location: Oaxaca, Oaxaca
Date: November 19th - 20th
Representatives: Xareni Valle and Nephti Villaseñor
Series: Howl's Moving Castle

Event: Anime Holic
Location: Culiacán, Sinaloa
Date: November 26th - 27th
Representatives: Karla Delia Piña Miranda and Wenzel Raimundo Neudert Alatorre
Series: Hiiro no Kakera

Event: Veracon
Location: Veracruz
Date: December 3rd - 4th
Representatives: José Adán Alejo Martínez and Nancy Ivete Cabrera Landa
Series: Pet Shop of Horrors

Event: ECOM
Location: San Luis Potosi
Date: December 17th -18th
Representatives: María Bañuelos and Julio Rojas
Series: Kaleido Star

There are 10 teams in total and I believe there will be a few representatives selected for the final at TNT GT6 in Mexico City. I will be attending the event myself so will let you know how things go!

メキシコ予選情報　－　到着

I just arrived in Mexico in the evening and although the big event was checking into the hotel, I'll share a couple pictures with you.

Here is the front view of the hotel. I visited the Mexico preliminaries 3 years ago, you can see those blog posts here! We stayed at a different hotel this time which has a very nostalgic look to it. It is over 100 years old and the rich interior makes it excellent as a cosplay backdrop. I'm sure in upcoming days we will be taking some cosplay photos in the hotel too so I will have more photos for you to see.

We checked in dropped off our bags and went for dinner right away. The restaurant we went to was actually a part of a bookstore with a live piano performer. It too was very luxurious. Here is a shot of all of us, from left to right Mogu from Italy, Nadia (WCS Italy representative 2008) super Mexico organizers Paula (Marmota) and Mario and on the far right is Matteo who works at CosmoPlay.

Tomorrow will be a light day as people will still be working. Nadia and Mogu will be doing some signings. There are a total of 91 WCS preliminary teams to take part in the preliminaries including all teams that took part in the regionals. 50 of those teams will take part in a first round of costume checks and interviews on Saturday and Sunday. 10 teams will be selected to join the 10 teams that won the regionals for a total of 20 performing teams in the WCS Mexico finals to be held at 5pm on Monday Japan time. You can watch the Mexico finals being streamed live on CosmoPlay so check the time wherever you may be and take in the great performances!

メキシコ予選情報　－　到着

I just arrived in Mexico in the evening and although the big event was checking into the hotel, I'll share a couple pictures with you.

Here is the front view of the hotel. I visited the Mexico preliminaries 3 years ago, you can see those blog posts here! We stayed at a different hotel this time which has a very nostalgic look to it. It is over 100 years old and the rich interior makes it excellent as a cosplay backdrop. I'm sure in upcoming days we will be taking some cosplay photos in the hotel too so I will have more photos for you to see.

We checked in dropped off our bags and went for dinner right away. The restaurant we went to was actually a part of a bookstore with a live piano performer. It too was very luxurious. Here is a shot of all of us, from left to right Mogu from Italy, Nadia (WCS Italy representative 2008) super Mexico organizers Paula (Marmota) and Mario and on the far right is Matteo who works at CosmoPlay.

Tomorrow will be a light day as people will still be working. Nadia and Mogu will be doing some signings. There are a total of 91 WCS preliminary teams to take part in the preliminaries including all teams that took part in the regionals. 50 of those teams will take part in a first round of costume checks and interviews on Saturday and Sunday. 10 teams will be selected to join the 10 teams that won the regionals for a total of 20 performing teams in the WCS Mexico finals to be held at 5pm on Monday Japan time. You can watch the Mexico finals being streamed live on CosmoPlay so check the time wherever you may be and take in the great performances!

メキシコ予選情報　－　1日目

Friday is the first day where TNT is held, it is a work day for many so there are not as many people out as on Saturday or Sunday. They did have some stuff going on and did have an awesome WCS Mexico preliminary screen backing up the main stage.

Bands playing a variety of music from heavy metal to anison are highlighted on 2 seperate stages and they have a full schedule throughout the 4 days starting today with good music to excite the atmosphere.

The cosplayer guests for TNT GT6 are the prolific cosplay pair of Nadia SK (WCS 2008 Italy) and Mogu. Here they are teaching everyone some Italian on stage...

...and here they are attracting a crowd of fans taking photos.

There were not so many cosplayers walking around today. With the craftsmanship/interview judging taking place on Saturday and Sunday there will be many more incredible costumers in upcoming days. Here are a couple great costumes I did see:

Finally we finished up the day with a trip to the incredibly entertaining Mexican version of Pro Wrestling - Lucha Libre!

So, Saturday and Sunday we will have 50 teams vying for the final 10 spots available for the WCS Mexico final stage through the interview stage. It is going to be some tough judging and teams who have devoted a lot of time into making their costumes will not be making it to the final stage. I'll let you know how things go!

メキシコ予選情報　－　2日目

The second day of TNTgt6 started for us with the craftsmanship/interview judging for the WCS Mexico preliminary stage. We were to meet about 20 teams but only 12 of them showed up as often happens. We spent a good 10 minutes talking to each team, examining their costumes taking a look at a bit of their performance and asking them about their general cosplay knowledge.

Even for just participating in the interviews each team received some goodies.

Both Nadia and Mogu took part in many activities, here is Nadia as Lydia of Final Fantasy IV...

...and Mogu as an original adaption inspired by Final Fantasy IV.

Both of them on the stage here with a number of other cosplayers.

Masami Okui, the anison singer from Yu-gi-oh! and other titles was at TNTgt6 today and had a stage performance. The crowd was large and enthusiastic, some of them even waving glow sticks as can be seen at idol stage events in Japan.

There were many more cosplayers around the event and here are a few of them:

The TNTgt6 event is becoming one of the premier events in Latin America and cosplayers are sent as a prize to participate in the event. Here are a pair of cosplayers from Costa Rica, I got a chance to talk with them a bit and they were excited to be there. For one of them, it was her first time abroad and she seemed to be enjoying being able to share her hobby with others in another country.

Super Mario of the TNTgt6 staff puts together a lot of the posters, flyers and visual images for the event, here are some excellent banners that he made of Nadia and Mogu. They will be auctioned off to the highest bidder and the proceeds will be going to a local cosplayer in Mexico who has recently been diagnosed with cancer to help with the hospital bills.

The evening finished off with group cosplay performances and after judging the stage and awarding the winning team the Italian cosplay duo had a chance to finish off Day 2 with a dance.

We will finish off the craftsmanship/interview judging on Day 3 and there will be more cosplay performances. Stay tuned!

メキシコ予選情報　－　3日目

Day 3 at TNTgt6 falls on a Sunday and has been the busiest day so far. For myself too I had very little time to walk around and enjoy the event as I spent about 6 hours doing craftsmanship interviews. Below is a shot of the entrance of TNTgt6. As the doors had already opened it wasn't the busiest time but there was still plenty of people about. TNTgt6 is one of the biggest events in Mexico with about 30,000 people coming out for each installment.

Here are a couple shots from the craftsmanship judging. One of Mario and Luigi...

...and Card Captor Sakura.

In the end about 35 teams participated in the initial craftsmanship interview round. To have to reduce that number to 10 teams was very difficult considering how much time and effort all teams put into their costumes and performances.

For the official list of teams that will be participating in the Mexico final check out the WCS Mexico Stage facebook page.

There were a lot of great costumes around but I didn't have a lot of time to take many pictures. I did catch a few though:

Once event staff had finished up their duties we had one more meeting for the evening. We sat down to discuss the judging process for the WCS Mexico preliminary stage. To ensure satisfaction with the results clear measures were laid out for the judges. On the day of the preliminary we are not to speak to the entrants and we cannot take pictures so I will not be able to upload live pictures to twitter. Make sure to watch the live streaming on CosmoPlay!

I will finish off the Day 3 blog update with a photo of the judging keyboards. For speedy and accurate judging results Mexico has started using a digital method of registering scores. There will be time for discussing results among judges but it was very impressive to see how much thought went into the process to ensure the best team will be representing Mexico this summer in Japan.

After a long day we left the event location at 9:30 pm. Looking forward to some awesome performances on day 4!