October 30, 2009

Update: Finland Preliminary Round Report

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Finland

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Approximately ten hours from Central Japan International Airport Nagoya, we finally arrived in Finland! We were very excited since it was our first time to Finland.

We landed at 3:10p.m. Finnish time but immediately jumped into a taxi and headed for the hotel. We had an important interview at 6:00p.m. So there was no time to waste.
At that time 1 Euro cost 147.57yen, meaning that I paid around 6,095yen for a taxi ride. Expensive!

We arrive at SCANDIC CONTINENTAL HELSINKI where the “Aichi as a gateway of Japan”convention was held for the purpose of introducing Central Japan International Airport and promoting tourism of Aichi prefecture.

After Makoto Nishimura(Vice governor of Aichi prefecture), Hiroshi Maruyama(Japanese ambassador to Finland) and Petteri Kostermaa(Vice president of Finair) greeted each other, a promotion DVD about tourism of Central Japan was played.
Then Shigeki Ito (Vice president of Chubu International Airport) greeted the audience after that DVD on the history of WCS was played.
Following that, Arttu Seppi and Iris Ronkko (WCS2009 Finnish representatives) and YuRiE(WCS2009 grand champion/Japanese representative) held a Cosplay performance and live interview.
Arttu and Iris discussed good memories of their trip to Japan, and two members of YuRiE talked deeply importance of Cosplay exchange of the world.
Finally Shinji Yoshikawa (A member of parliament of Aichi prefecture) greeted and finished the reception.
By participating in this reception, we can see two things. First, that there are so many people who enjoy international exchange through Japanese Anime and Manga culture. The second thing is that the WCS is held every year in Aichi for people aiming to be the world champion. It is not only covered by Japanese media but also by news organizations all over the world.

Friday, October 23, 2009

A presentation regarding Aichi prefecture and Central Japan International Airport for Ilta-Sanomat(Finnish newspaper) at the Japanese embassy in Finland.
Two members of YuRiE wore Cosplay participated in the presentation.
Member of the press who were interested in Aichi prefecture's tourism and public transportation systems seemed like they didn't know about the WCS. However, after hearing about the Cosplay, they said they wanted to see it.
He took a lot of memos. The articles will certainly be printed in Ilta-Sanomat (Finnish newspaper).
If you live in Finland and you find this article in the newspaper, please send it to Aichi Television!

Saturday, October 24, 2009

The WCS2010 Finland Preliminary Round was held at the Helsinki Book fair 2009 at Helsinki Fair Center.
There were seven teams who entered, but one team forfeited by absence. So the competition was held between six competing teams.

Entry team

No.1	Angel Sanctuary:Alexiel･Lucifer
No.2	Bleach:Toshiro Hitsugaya･Jushiro Ukitake
No.3	Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion:Nunnally Lamperouge･Lelouch vi Britannia
No.4	Strike Witches:Sanya V. Litvyak･Eila Ilmatar Juutilainen
No.5	Final Fantasy VII:Vincent Valentine･Yuffie Kisaragi
No.6	Le Chevalier D'Eon:Lia de Beaumont, D'Eon de Beaumont･Chevalier D'Eon

Judge
Mr. Janne Suominen from Egmont Kustannus, manga publishing company
Mr. Janne Kemppi from Japan Pop magazine
Ms. Aurora Raiskinen-Kujanen from Belle Modeste corset boutique
TV Aichi staff
Iris Ronkko and Arttu Seppi-WCS2009 Finnish Representatives

At first we had some interview about costume judgment and costume design at waiting room. Each team's interview is below.

No.1	It had a lot of effort to make a black mask. Tatto is a fake.
No.2	The person who wears the Cosplay of Toshiro Hitsugaya didn't have a wig. It was his real hair. Although original character wore “Setta”(Japanese thong sandals), the performer chose not to wear them, because it would interfere with his movement on stage.
No.3	The red ball is Christmas ornament. Originally brown bird was painted white.
No.4	The costume of leg section was a little sloppy. The big prop is made of pipe of poster.
No.5	Both props are made well. The costume of Vincent Valentine was made of curtain cloth and leather. It took 300 hours to make the prop. The hand metal was bent to make it. The shoes of Yuffie Kisaragi were made of bed sheets. The prop was made of wood.
No.6	Though they would rather to use thicker clothe, there wasn't good enough it in the shop. They had no choice but to use thin clothe.

It time to start when MC Kyuu Eturautti appeared on the stage.
Just before that the Cosplayers who entered individually and therefore don't participate in the main competition showed their costumes on the stage.
Next the history of Cosplay DVD was played.
Makoto Nishimura(Vice governor of Aichi prefecture), Shinji Yoshikawa (a member of parliament of Aichi prefecture) and Shigeki Ito(Vice president of Central Japan International Airport)wore "Kabuto"(helmet/armor) appeared on the stage. They and YuRiE promoted Aichi prefecture and Chubu International Airport.
It was time to start the performance.
Each team was interviewed after stage performance.

The characteristic of team performance is below.

No.1	Latin sexy dance
No.2	The constitution of their performance was playing dialogue for the first half and showing comical dance for the second half. They incorporated rock scissors paper in the performance. Vincent Valentine performed without putting his name tag.
No.3	They used contrast of lightning and shade well and it was good effect to use bird cage.
No.4	They replayed fighting scene. The leg section of costume was lighting.
No.5	It was well matched serious scene and comical scene, so the audience was heated up to see their performance. "Rock, scissor, paper"was inserted their performance. Vincent Valentine performed without his name tag.
No.6	The fighting scene used sword was mainly. Only they made scenery set and did quick costume changing in six teams.

After finishing all six teams performance, YuRiE(WCS2009 grand champion ) appeared again. The audience cheered as they performed on the stage.
Then WCS2009 Finland representatives (as a judge) and YuRiE held live interview. After that it was interrupt darling judgment.

Judge of all had seen result of their costumes and performance and decided the first place, the second place and the third place at other room.

And then the audience came into a hall again. At first Candy Love (trio/ Finnish dance group) had a live concert on the stage.
"Hare-Hare- Yukai"was so cool!

Next it was time to announce the result of judgment.

The third place
Le Chevalier D'Eon

The second place
Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion

And the people who successfully obtained the first place and became a Finland representative were Sami Saltiola and Riina Saltiona (Final Fantasy VII).
They are brother and sister who live in Juvaskyla 300km far from Helsinki. They said they are looking forward to visiting in Japan so that they have never been in Japan.
Brother Sami is sophomore in the university and studying Japanese language.

Do the best to get the WCS 2010 ground Champion in next summer! See you in Japan!