The preliminary contest for America for the World Cosplay Summit 2009 was held as part of the New York Anime Festival at the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York from September 26th (Fri) to the 28th (Sun).
The venue in Manhattan was full of NYPD cars because it was right in the middle of the UN General Assembly, with VIPs from around the world gathered there, including the newly-elected Prime Minister Aso from Japan. The NYPD’s cars were all over the city! We were hoping that Prime Minister Aso, who loves manga, would show up at the venue…….
The New York Anime Festival is an event that promotes the latest Japanese anime, manga, movies, music, games and so on; the event attracted about 20,000 people in the 3 days that it was held!!
Sonnya and Renee, the American representatives from the World Cosplay Summit 2008, also showed up at the venue. The two Japanese Osaka representatives Yui and Mino were invited as guests and they were busy: they gave a performance on the stage and then took part in a panel discussion with both of the American representatives! (They were doing a homestay at Renee’s house; it’s great that these international friendships and exchanges have been fostered through the World Cosplay Summit.)
The American preliminary contest was held on the 27th (Sat). Fourteen teams participated in the final contest. The contestants competed to be representatives through the judging of their costumes from 11am to 3pm, and then their stage performances from 7pm to 10pm.
In particular, in the evening when the performance part of the contest was held, nearly 1,000 cosplayers filled the venue, and hundreds who couldn’t get in excitedly did their own performances outside.