I'm quite late since the event was held almost two weeks ago but, given the international userbase of this place, I was curious to know if other people here followed it.
For who doesn't know, the World Cosplay Summit is, as the name implies, the biggest international event in the field of Cosplay and, to part of the community, the biggest goal a cosplayer can achieve. It's held in Nagoya during the first weekend of August and is organized by the TV Aichi network. Started in 2003 with few countries, it got bigger in 2005 when the World Expo was being held in Nagoya, with four cosplayers from each country and the first competition between them. Since 2006, there's the current format of two representatives from each country, chosen during selections held in conventions partnered with TV Aichi. New countries have been constantly added, for a total of 17 this year.
The main events are meetings with local authorities (the mayor of Nagoya and the governor of Aichi prefecture cosplayed too!) and also some envoys of the Japanese government on the friday, a parade through the streets of Nagoya on the saturday, and the contest on the Sunday. An additional monday of meetings and photoshoots has been added this year. Visits in Sendai and Aizu-wakamatsu (a city in Fukushima prefecture, more than 150 kilometers west of the disaster zone, mind you - for obvious safety reasons, the latter was more of a symbolic visit) with three teams, Italy, Denmark and Spain, have also been held. [I still don't know why these three team exactly, but so far I heard they volunteered]. I'm glad for this initiative to show the international cosplayers the current reality of the zones struck by the march 11 disaster, instead of keeping them only in the glossy atmosphere of the WCS.
Speaking for my country, Italy, the result was excellent: our team were the champions in 2010 [and also hold the record of the oldest at the WCS: 30 and 42 years old!], a second victory in a row was very unlikely, so this year's second place may have been the best possibile result. It's worth noting that they got the same score as their predecessors from the jury, it's just that the winners got a little more. It's also a case of repeated history - Italy won in 2005 and stayed on the podium in 2006.
But another reason to be happy of Italy's result is also how it came to be despite all the difficulties - this year's team was a case of Troubled Production. The original project for the August 7 finals was scrapped in January and, in late March, one of the girls decided to retire, a first since the beginning of the WCS [later happened to Netherlands and at the last minute - ouch!]; a replacement was quickly found but she was too different for the old project to be adapted to her, so this time all the three pairs of costumes had to be redone from scratch. Basically, even if Italy has the advantage of being one of the first countries where the selections are held, ten months before the WCS, the first six months had gone to naught and, due to real life commitments during the remaining four ones, the available time was even shorter. So, few expected such outcome. I've been also under the impression that our girls have been among the teams that have gotten the most attention during the WCS - also thanks to being quitesexy during the parade ;)
And here's the winners. Let's first put aside the envy since not only it's the third WCS won by Brazil, but their team are the same who won in 2006. That said, a lot of people (not only in Italy since we went so close) are puzzled by their victory - personally, I found both costumes and skit nice but not worth the first place. Beside Italy I favored China (who actually came third) and USA, with Korea and France just a notch down; Thailand had great costumes but the skit was nothing special, same for Australia.
While the addition of Great Britain beginning next year was already known, the surprise announcement at the end of this year's contest was that, finally, Russia will enter the WCS too. If they are able to pull off skits as good as their costumes, I might end up cheering for them during WCS 2012 :p
On a more serious note, I feel a little sad for Italy's next team, whoever they will be. This two years of great results will surely have the unpleasant side-effect of making cosplay even more Serious Business for some (last year's victory was seen by many Italian cosplay fans as sort of a consolation for the country's embarassing performance at the World Cup), and the next representatives will have to carry the weight - after all, I've heard of people considering this year's second place "shameful"... [I suppose the same can be applied to Brazil, since they are triple winners and last year they were on the podium]
I'm quite late since the event was held almost two weeks ago but, given the international userbase of this place, I was curious to know if other people here followed it.
For who doesn't know, the World Cosplay Summit
is, as the name implies, the biggest international event in the field of Cosplay and, to part of the community, the biggest goal a cosplayer can achieve. It's held in Nagoya during the first weekend of August and is organized by the TV Aichi network. Started in 2003 with few countries, it got bigger in 2005 when the World Expo was being held in Nagoya, with four cosplayers from each country and the first competition between them. Since 2006, there's the current format of two representatives from each country, chosen during selections held in conventions partnered with TV Aichi. New countries have been constantly added, for a total of 17 this year.
The main events are meetings with local authorities (the mayor of Nagoya and the governor of Aichi prefecture cosplayed too!) and also some envoys of the Japanese government on the friday, a parade through the streets of Nagoya on the saturday, and the contest on the Sunday. An additional monday of meetings and photoshoots has been added this year. Visits in Sendai and Aizu-wakamatsu (a city in Fukushima prefecture, more than 150 kilometers west of the disaster zone, mind you - for obvious safety reasons, the latter was more of a symbolic visit) with three teams, Italy, Denmark and Spain, have also been held. [I still don't know why these three team exactly, but so far I heard they volunteered]. I'm glad for this initiative to show the international cosplayers the current reality of the zones struck by the march 11 disaster, instead of keeping them only in the glossy atmosphere of the WCS.
Speaking for my country, Italy, the result was excellent: our team were the champions in 2010 [and also hold the record of the oldest at the WCS: 30 and 42 years old!], a second victory in a row was very unlikely, so this year's second place may have been the best possibile result. It's worth noting that they got the same score as their predecessors from the jury, it's just that the winners got a little more. It's also a case of repeated history - Italy won in 2005 and stayed on the podium in 2006.
But another reason to be happy of Italy's result is also how it came to be despite all the difficulties - this year's team was a case of Troubled Production. The original project for the August 7 finals was scrapped in January and, in late March, one of the girls decided to retire, a first since the beginning of the WCS [later happened to Netherlands and at the last minute - ouch!]; a replacement was quickly found but she was too different for the old project to be adapted to her, so this time all the three pairs of costumes had to be redone from scratch. Basically, even if Italy has the advantage of being one of the first countries where the selections are held, ten months before the WCS, the first six months had gone to naught and, due to real life commitments during the remaining four ones, the available time was even shorter. So, few expected such outcome. I've been also under the impression that our girls have been among the teams that have gotten the most attention during the WCS - also thanks to being quite
sexy
during the parade ;)
Here's their skit, by the way
.
And here's the winners
. Let's first put aside the envy since not only it's the third WCS won by Brazil, but their team are the same who won in 2006. That said, a lot of people (not only in Italy since we went so close) are puzzled by their victory - personally, I found both costumes and skit nice but not worth the first place. Beside Italy I favored China
(who actually came third) and USA
, with Korea
and France
just a notch down; Thailand
had great costumes but the skit was nothing special, same for Australia
.
While the addition of Great Britain beginning next year was already known, the surprise announcement at the end of this year's contest was that, finally, Russia will enter the WCS too. If they are able to pull off skits as good as their costumes, I might end up cheering for them during WCS 2012 :p On a more serious note, I feel a little sad for Italy's next team, whoever they will be. This two years of great results will surely have the unpleasant side-effect of making cosplay even more Serious Business for some (last year's victory was seen by many Italian cosplay fans as sort of a consolation for the country's embarassing performance at the World Cup), and the next representatives will have to carry the weight - after all, I've heard of people considering this year's second place "shameful"... [I suppose the same can be applied to Brazil, since they are triple winners and last year they were on the podium]