France Final Round

With the coming of hot summer, this year's Japan Expo has just begun at Villepinte Exhibition Center, the big exhibition hall a short distance away from Paris. During the four days, you could come into contact with every aspect of Japan: traditional culture, manga, animation and games. On the third day, Saturday, July 3, the hall was so jam-packed, you could hardly move. The preliminary round started at 14:00. The audience was close to the stage, bringing some affinity. The stage was slightly elevated so some of the audience watched the show standing up while the others sat on the floor.
The following nine teams won:

No.1	Cardcaptor Sakura
No.2	XXXHOLiC
No.3	Kirarin Revolution
No.4	Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
No.5	Final Fantasy VI
No.6	Opera
No.7	Gurren Lagann
No.8	XXXHOLiC
No.9	Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chiru

The final round was held on the main stage at 16:00. It was a large hall with the stage overlooking the audience. There was a screen and lights as well as an extended walkway through the audience. The waiting audience, some of them in authentic costumes, quickly filled the seats. The qualifying round began as the audience was filled with excitement by the call of the MC. At the same time the nine teams above, makeup finished and dressed in costumes, were getting ready to appear on stage with their partners. Some of the teams held each other in silence others called out to each other. They were all nervous.

All the teams’ costumes were very impressive; so carefully made in every detail that the audience couldn't have seen it all. In addition, the perfection of their hairstyles and makeup were nothing less than astounding.
The two people dressed as Cardcaptor Sakura’s Dark and Light appeared in a boldly cut black and white dress. Their narrative told the story of coming out of the cards and performing before retuning.
The team that performed Maru & Moro from XXXHOLiC was smooth and good. It began with the mysterious or even occult scene of a white hand coming out of a box before they appeared on the stage. Partially through the performance butterfly wings expanded to several times their size as they ran about on the runway. The dynamic movement of the trialing wings showed their withered beauty. Since they were chosen as French representatives, their costumes may be shown in Japan.
The outstretched wings of Opera team were also beautiful. Using colors other than white or black that are rarely used in clothing the costumes were very elegant and rather remarkable in their simplicity. Despite being off on the starting timing and having to begin a second time it was still a charm. Undaunted by the tension the two entered their own world earning applause for their performance.
The group Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chiru performed a tailoring scene. It was an absorbing performance of a portrait coming to life.
Another team performed pantomime or a four-frame comic strip style making it possible to see their individuality. While singing and dancing like an idol, their quick changes were designed to hold the attention of the audience throughout. Backstage even rivals, who mutually love cosplay, applauded while watching on the monitors. After the performance mixed expressions could be seen. While reflecting on their show with comments like, “I should have done that.” or “That wasn’t smoothly carried.” those around them spoke words of praise.
One thing became readily apparent to all contestants: showing one complete performance in the limited time, and merely changing forms wasn't enough.
Even as all the teams finished their performance, appreciating the pain each went through along with the joy of getting relief from the stress, next time’s new challenges and expectations of obtaining a ticket to Japan were in mind. Both the beautiful smiling faces of the chosen teams and the tear-filled faces of those not selected are aspects of the exciting French Cosplay. At the end there was a feeling that the quality of the costumes and the perfection of the performances will continue to improve in the future.