August 23rd 2008 (Sat), 7:00 am

Arrived at Sydney airport! The moment we went out of the airport, we felt a cold wind! It’s still winter in the southern hemisphere in Sydney. I regretted not bringing a coat.

9:30 am

Went to the Animania Festival 2008 where the Australian preliminary round was to be held at the Australian Technology Park. The location used to be a factory where trains were built, and in the building there were assembly machines and train parts exhibited here and there that recalled that era. The venue opened at 10am, but there was already a long line of people waiting. I felt an atmosphere of intense excitement even though it was pretty cold.

10:00 am

The venue opened, and all the visitors rushed in! The first place that everyone went was to the booths selling anime goods and the communal corner. Immediately there were loads of people gathered there! We discovered a takoyaki (fried octopus balls) stall amongst the booths! Then on closer inspection we found that what was written there was “shrimp” and “crab”. It’s usual for Takoyaki in Australia to be not only octopus, but also shrimp and crab. The taste is not sauce and soy sauce, but chili sauce, which was a bit spicy, but it tasted delicious. In the venue, the place was buzzing with a cosplay chess contest, a lesson corner for haruhi dancing, and a karaoke contest.

2:00 pm

The main event on stage, the cosplay competition, began! There was a costume contest separated into singles and groups and a group performance contest; the place was really buzzing!

4:00 pm

Just as the spectators had really warmed up, the World Cosplay Summit preliminary round began!
Competitions to choose the 4 finalists had already been held in Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne. At this stage there were 5 teams competing for the last 3 places.
Their performances were as follows:
1. Air Gear: it looked as if they had even handmade their rollerblades!
2. Sakura Wars: Their dancing was perfectly in sync! This was well-rehearsed.
3. Shin Sangoku Muso 5: Their costumes were superb!!
4. Rozen Maiden: we were surprised at the equipment they had made just for this day.
5. Chobits: it was the first time for these two to do cosplay, but their costumes were very good.
The three teams that chosen for the next day’s final preliminary round were: Sakura Wars, Shin Sangoku Muso 5, and Rozen Maiden.
The 3 teams had to try to take to the stage as different characters for the next day! What incredible enthusiasm!! We were looking forward to Sunday’s final preliminary round even more!