There were roughly 20,000 visitors over 4 days!

The Mexican preliminary round of the World Cosplay Summit 2009 was held as part of the 16th “Expo Manga Comic TNT GT3” event.
This time the venue had changed to the Tlatelalco Convention Center. The rich-poor gap is very wide in Mexico City and this area was comparatively poor. This area stands on the verge of where the Olympics were held in 1968, and is also a street with a history: many students and laborers were forcefully crushed by the army during anti-government demonstrations and were killed. There was also opposition to the event being held here this time, but as Japanese culture such as manga and anime are not concerned whether people are rich or poor, the sponsors have made the event a reality. Accordingly, the spaces within the venue are wider than usual, a great number of people were able to visit, and the event was a huge success. Inside the venue there were areas with manga and anime on sale, as well as other things, and special corners that were really buzzing, where people could experience Japanese culture such as karaoke, calligraphy, and origami etc.
There was also a cosplayer stage and a music stage for bands; this was an event for entertainment.

30th January (Fri): First day of the event

In spite of it being a weekday the event did great business. Cosplayers posed and took photos all around the venue. What really made an impression were the dining areas in the venue! There was no Mexican food and almost all Japanese food. When I asked people about this, the majority of them said that as they were used to eating Mexican food, they were happy to be able to eat Japanese food here. Although the prices were a little high (lunchbox 85 pesos/850JPY; fried octopus 50 pesos/500JPY), these places did well.
On this day, a packed talk show was held with 3 guest cosplayers: Nadiask (WCS 2008 representative for Italy); Elsche (a cosplayer from Germany); and Otohiko (a cosplayer from Japan).
Also, in the live venue, there was a guest appearance by the well-known singer Megumi Ogata who took on the roles of Neon Genesis Evangelion’s Ikari Shinji and Yu Yu Hakusho: Ghost Files’ Kurama in her live performance.

31st January (Sat): Second day of the event

The pre-preliminary round began at 11:00am in a conference room. This took place over the course of 2 days and on the first day 18 teams from Mexico City took part.
The judges were myself and Paulo Monroi, the TNT Cosplay Coordinator. The interpreter was Alvaro, who has studied in Japan.
The judges judged on a points system: 10 points for costumes, and 5 points for individuality (the degree of expectation for the performance) for a total of 15 points. After the Q & A session came the performances.
We the judges asked things such as the reasons for taking part in the WCS, and what the cosplayers were most proud of in their costumes. Each gave thoughtful, enthusiastic responses regarding cosplay.
For the question “Where in Japan would you like to go?,” as expected Tokyo, Akihabara, and Kyoto were the most popular, but some also answered “Hiroshima” and “Miyajima.”

Introducing the works showcased at the Cosplay Preliminary Round (31st January):

1. ･The Rose of Versailles
2. ･Digital Monster
3. ･NARUTO
4. ･Final Fantasy
5. ･Saint Seya, etc

The lineup included a variety of performances from anime, manga, games etc. On this day there were 4 teams that had very high level cosplayers.

1st February (Sun): third day of the event

Judging took place for the 19 teams from outside of Mexico City.
There were more elaborate costumes than the previous day, and I got the impression that the performances were also of a higher standard. Which Japanese manga artists and voice actors did people want to meet? CLAMP were very popular.

Introducing the many works showcased at the Cosplay Preliminary Round (1st February)

1. ･The Legend of Zelda
2. ･ONE PIECE
3. ･Card Captor Sakura
4. ･Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles, and so on.

At 7pm, after 2 days of preliminary rounds, the 15 teams that were to advance to the final were announced. For the cosplayers who came to listen to this announcement, listening to the results they either shouted out in joy, or became a little dark and miserable……..Looking at them it was easy to see their enthusiasm coming through loud and clear. After that, a draw was held to decide the order of the performances for the final stage.