Finland
The 90th anniversary of friendship between Japan and Finland
The Finnish preliminary round of the World Cosplay Summit, being held for the first time, was held as part of the Finnish book festival “Helsinki book fair,” and was one of the highlights of the event. It was held at Helsinki Fair Centre, one of the largest exhibition halls in Finland.
2009 will be a remarkable year for Finland, participating for the first time and celebrating the 90th anniversary since diplomatic relations began between Japan and Finland. The Finnish ambassador endorsed the event, and cosplay will be a bridge between Japanese culture and Finnish culture in this commemorative year.
This is Finland’s first year but their history of cosplay is quite deep. NPO Cosplay Finland Tour has sponsored this contest 12 times since 2006, and the organization said that these events are not only for cosplayers, but for all cosplay fans.
At the venue, aside from the contest, a variety of other events expressing Japanese manga such as showing how to draw pictures, introducing artworks and so on were held.
October 25th (Sat)
Fans of Japanese culture lined up in front of the gate before the opening. When the gate was opened, people rushed into the event site, and hundreds of seats were immediately filled.
This contest consisted of two sections: individual performances by 25 people, and the cosplay summit contest. Everyone looked like they were enjoying themselves in their respective individual costumes.
Seven [remaining] teams participated in the contest. We were anxious about the level of cosplay due to this being the first time for Finland to participate, but our worries disappeared as soon as we saw the first team’s performance. In fact, we couldn’t take our eyes off the performances and elaborate costumes that were in no way inferior to other countries that take part in the contest. The venue really was buzzing. It wasn’t only the performances themselves, but the props were also used well, giving a real sense of completeness.
Performance Program
- 1. Naruto: Shippūden
- 2. Trinity Blood
- 3. Lovedol ~Lovely Idol~
- 4. Revolutionary Girl Utena
- 5. Death Note
- 6. Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion
- 7. Vampire Knight
The choices were from:
- 1. Naruto: Shippūden
- 2. Trinity Blood
- 4. Revolutionary Girl Utena
- 5. Death Note
This pair chose the low-key characters “Kazekage the third” and “Akasuna no Sasori” from Naruto. The fight scenes were very powerful. I felt sorry for them because the sound went quieter during their performance.
A well-matched and glamorous couple. The man, 190cm tall, refusing to lose out to the gorgeous costumes, gave a strong performance; and the lady brilliantly coordinated her lithe movements with her costume. We were interested to watch them because they have a lot of cosplay experience and had also made their costumes in great detail, and they were really interesting to watch.
Competing with the winning team right to the end, they held back their tears and took second place. Of course, not only their costumes but their stage set, with its appearance of a school world, was created very well. They were quite a dignified couple.
This is very popular in Finland too. They performed as the well-known “Light Yagami” and “Luke.” They expressed the tension of “Light Yagami” and “Luke” well using a huge “Deathnote.”
The Judge’s Results
The winning team was Iris Rönkkö as “Esther Blanchett” and Arttu Seppi as “Leon Garcia de Asturias” from the anime Trinity Blood. The audience screamed with excitement as soon as they appeared on the stage. People cheered and applauded for Arttu’s giant movements and Iris’s sensitive performance that supported his.
At the victory ceremony, Arttu, in sharp contrast to his stage performance, cried quite loudly with happiness. He said he was looking forward to enjoying “the real thing” in Japan. In contrast to him, Iris’s happiness exploded as she shouted out loud with all her might to express victory!! The two of them were so enthusiastic! They aim to practice more and more to get a good result in Japan. I am pretty sure they will be like the eye of a hurricane at the championship next summer!!
WCS