Thailand
About 20,000 visitors came!
Thailand is hot all year round, but December and January are relatively cool and dry, and this is the most comfortable season of the year.
Of course, this is the best season in which to do cosplay, isn’t it? The World Cosplay Summit 2009 Thai preliminary contest was held in Bangkok, the “City of Angels,” in Thailand, the “land of smiles.” About 20,000 people came to the event itself.
Comic Party was held for the purpose of promoting Japanese pop culture in Thailand, with the company Negibose Thailand staging it, and manga and anime at the core of the event.
Negibose Thailand has focused on programs that contribute to society using manga and anime. This event has been recognized as a Foreign Ministry project commemorating Mekong-Japan exchanges.
On top of that, the World Cosplay Summit Thai preliminary contest 2009 was co-hosted by the Japanese Embassy and Negibose Thailand.
For more details please click here.
Fukuoka prefectural government made a presentation for this Comic Party (because Bangkok and Fukuoka are sister cities). The winning team of the cover dance contest participated in the Hakata dontaku festival as part of the project.
Ordinary people full of enthusiasm took part!
The Thai preliminary contest was held on the 18th of January (Sun)
The venue was the biggest shopping mall in south-east Asia, Central World.
Entry to Comic Party was free, and as it was held in a public place, many members of the general public took part, resulting in a really exciting event.
There were 4 judges for the World Cosplay Summit Thai preliminary contest 2009: From the Japanese Embassy, Mr. Aoki, the Director of Cultural Publicity; Mr. Hata, the Vice Chairman of JETRO Bangkok Centre; Mr. Mikawa, Bureau Chief of Nihon Keizai Shinbun; and Mr. Umeda, Director of Art & Culture at the Japan Foundation.
Each judge scored their points based on the points criteria, and the Thai representative was chosen by total score.
14:00: The event started with a speech by Mr. Aoki, the Director of Cultural Publicity at the Japanese Embassy.
Twenty-three teams took part. There were many cosplays such as Code Geass Lelouche of the rebellion, Katekyo Hitman Reborn, Naruto, Super Robot Wars, Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles, Mobile Suit Gundam, etc.There was also a huge Gundam. Japanese manga and anime is established far and wide in Thailand, and it appears that there is no real difference to Japan in terms of the timing of information when it comes to fashion/current trends.
Every year the performances improve, but as Thais are basically shy people, many of the performances are somewhat middle-of-the-road. Even so, many teams faithfully reproduce the appearance of the fictional world of the works themselves, and really impressed the judges.
And finally, the results!!
As there were many excellent teams, the judges suffered a lot…
The team chosen was the team of Pennapa Thanornpradit and Rujipas Distaprom, who performed as Sin and Valentine from Guilty Gear 2 Overture. Pennapa Thanornpradit was the Thai representative in the World Cosplay Summit 2007, while Rujipas Distaprom was the Thai representative in the World Cosplay Summit 2008. The two of them, friends from before through cosplay and now the “golden team”, have admirably been in successive championships.
Incidentally, Rujipas Distaprom is a student at the prestigious Chulalongkorn University, and Pennapa Thanornpradit is a student at Thailand’s most famous arts university, Silpakorn Universtity.
They gave a superb performance and we could really feel the artistic qualities of their performance and costumes.
WCS