The World Cosplay Summit, a tournament and festival for cosplayers from around the world, was held in Nagoya, Japan last Sunday. An annual event, the Summit is a chance for international cosplayers to come together and share a passion for all things cosplay. Each country is represented by a team of 2 people in the competition, and this year’s tournament had 17 countries competing – Australia, Germany, Spain, Italy, Finland, Denmark, Thailand, Mexico, the USA, China, Korea, Brazil, Japan, Singapore, France, the Netherlands and Malaysia. 17,000 attendees watched as the teams gave it their all in their performances.
Judges selected winners based on evaluation criteria regarding the costume, the performance (acting, creativity, entertainment value), and how faithful the performance was to the original story. After presenting an amazingly choreographed performance and mesmerizing costumes from Final Fantasy XII (Balthier and Ultima), it was Brazil that went home with First Place. This same pair from Brazil had also won in 2006, making this their second World Cosplay Summit win.
The champions were presented two round trip airline tickets between Brazil and Japan and a special award from the Foreign Ministry of Japan. Winners Monica and Mauricio Somenzari were extremely grateful for the honors bestowed upon them. Mauricio told reporters – “I’d just like to express my gratitude to everyone who supported us, our Brazilian friends who came to this event, and to our father who stuck with us even in tough times.”
Runner ups in the tournament were second place Italy (Sugar Sugar Rune), third place China (Dynasty Warriors 7), Brother Award (best costume) winners Australia (Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust), and Cyperous Award (best wig) winners the Netherlands (Mai Otome). The United States was represented by Alexandra Weber and Ashley Laure Rice (XXXHolic) but did not place this year.
And now, please enjoy these stunning photos from the Championship, the Nishiki-dori Parade, and the Osu Parade provided to us by T.V. Aichi! All images © TV Aichi Broadcasting Co., LTD.
A very special thank you to TV Aichi for providing us with photos for this special report! All images © TV Aichi Broadcasting Co., LTD. For more information, visit the World Cosplay Summit Website.