World Cosplay Summit 2008

08.08.2008 by Patrick W. Galbraith

Amid 40-degree heat and blistering cosplay performances, Gabriel Niemietz Braz and Jessica Moreira Rocha Campos of Brazil emerged from among 13 countries and 14 teams as champions of the World Cosplay Summit 2008 in Nagoya.

"This is what we promised Brazil we would do," said Braz, who literally jumped out of his costume and drapped himself in his country's flag when the results were announced. "I am so proud that cosplay and Brazil have come so far."

It was the second win for Brazil, who went up against elaborate choreography, romantic themes and spoken Japanese more polished than ever before.

The special effects of their "Burst Angel" fight scene carried the day, with Braz, dressed in a 10-foot tall Jango robot suit, littering the stage spent shell cases and losing his arm upon taking damage from imagined enemies. Campos fought alongside as Jo and handled the spoken sequences.

The appearance of Jango was an unexpected surprise for some, as the Brazilian team visited the Ministry of Foreign Affairs the week before the summit dressed as "Street Fighter" characters.

Braz, who has been cosplaying for over four years, said it only took him several months and hundreds dollars to craft Jango, but importing the costume to Japan cost over $1,000. The team won a commendation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and return tickets to Japan.

China's Chin Zhao and Li Zhang, fresh off a victory at China Joy in Shanghai, were voted runners up for their elegant dance as "Sengoku Basara" characters.

Osaka's Yiu and Mino, self-proclaimed "fujoshi artists" and fan favorites who set the bar high early in the championship with an incredibly erotic rendition of "Code Geass" complete with a last dying kiss and professionalism approaching a stage musical, came in third place. The ladies apparently had so much fun chatting with the international cosplayers backstage that Korea, two burly lads who came in strong with an "Escaflowne" choreographed sword fight, invited them to another event overseas.

France, last year's winner, and Germany, featuring Katharina Wehrmann, did not enter the rankings. Likewise, Italy, winners of the first competitive Cosplay Championship in 2006, did not make it despite incredible props and 19th century European costumes researched to a fault.

On the other end of the spectrum, Thailand shocked the capacity crowd of some 10,000 in Oasis 21 by staging a battle between "Yugi-Oh!"'s Kaiba and Yugi, who summoned Pikachu at one point and finally defeated Kaiba when Dark Magician Girl attacked him with a PSP.

Teams of two from each partipating nation performed for three minutes each and were judged on their hand-made costumes, the accuracy of the story portrayal and the quality of their performance. Discrete variables such as entertainment, showmanship, effort, creativity and loyalty to the Japanese source material were evaluated by Matsumoto Rika, the voice actress for Satoshi in "Pokemon," mangaka Igarashi Yumiko of "Candy Candy" fame, Yoshida Hiroyuki, owner of Akihabara's Toranoana and Mr. Nakagawa, representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Sponsorship by three Japanese ministries and several local government agencies made some wonder about the agenda for the summit, especially with Brazil and China coming in first and second even as Japan reaches out to these strategic trade partners.

However, for the first time in the history of the summit a 10-person audience jury was also elected to offset the official panel judges. The jury was mostly longtime cosplayers and summit attendees chosen by online lottery.

Among their criticisms was teams depended too much on props and gimmicks - a giant robot, "Nausicaa" insect, costume changes, speaking Japanese, kissing - instead of solid cosplay.

Overall, however, the judges were pleased by what they saw.

"We manga creators are so happy to see our works become anime and then loved around the world," Igarashi said. "That they love them so much to cosplay really makes me feel that I was blessed to be a mangaka."

Furuya Toru, the voice of "Gundam"'s Amuro Ray and a long-time commentator for the summit, spoke of a "leveling up" in global cosplay.

"I remember when I first participated in this from the second annual event in 2004, it was mostly like cosplay karaoke under the hot sun at a small stage in Osu Kannon," he said. "I feel it is now an event worthy of the title summit. The quality of the cosplay just keeps going up as anime spreads around the world and people begin to know it better. Today, we saw contestants speaking lines from anime in Japanese, singing anime songs in Japanese, and that love and respect is really rewarding to see."

Fellow commentator Kato Natsuki, a model and actress who loves anime, made similar comments on the friendship forged by the universal language of cosplay and the love shown through labor and memorization to enact the original work.

In addition to the Cosplay Championship, hundreds of cosplayers from around Japan and the world joined the largest ever Cosplay Parade on August 2. Many familiar faces from Akihabara were there, making the atmosphere at Nagoya something like the bohemian streets of the Electric Town in 2007.

Click here for more images of the contestants and events.