World Cosplay Summit Preliminary (Australia)

In 2008, Animania Festival is proud to host the first preliminary competition that will qualify an Australia representative to enter the World Cosplay Summit!

The World Cosplay Summit is an annual international level Cosplay competition held in Nagoya, Japan and hosted by TV Aichi. The competition brings together contestants from all over the globe to showcase their prize-winning costumes. Some of the participating countries include Germany, France, Brazil, China, USA - and now Australia.

We look forward to a grand and extraordinary year of Cosplay as we expect fans to pull out all stops to bring the ultimate self-created costumes that will pay homage to their most favourite character and bring it to life for all to see. The winning team of the World Cosplay Summit (WCS) Preliminary Competition for Australia, as hosted by Animania Festival, will win a trip to Japan and the chance to represent Australia in this awesome competition!

Animania Festival will also still host its own traditional Cosplay Competition separate to the World Cosplay Summit (WCS) Preliminary Competition. Entrants may not necessarily be competing in both events. Individuals wishing to enter either or both competitions must indicate this when they register online. Once registered, they will be informed by email if they qualify for the competition.

This page outlines information for the World Cosplay Summit (WCS) Preliminary Competition for Australia ONLY. For information, rules and procedures relating to the Animania Festival Cosplay Competition, please click here.

UPDATE: Due to the expected high demand in August, we have changed the pre-selection qualifers from 3 teams to 4 teams final rounds.

PRE-REGISTER

All entrants into either the Animania Festival Cosplay Competition or the WCS Preliminary and Preselections MUST pre-register their intent to compete online prior to the Festival. This is to ensure a fabulous, on-time show and also saves both you (and us!) time and hassles by sorting out the paperwork before hand - oh, and it cuts down on the queuing time too!

For WCS, all participants will need to email through the portfolio, details below in the Rules & Entry Forms.

WCS pre-registrations closes August 1st. Portfolios submitted after that date won't be accepted. For Animania Cosplay Competition online registration please check the details available here.

RULES & ENTRY FORMS

Have you got an awesome costume planned? Are you ready to take your game over to Japan and compete with the best of the best? Then read on and download the rules of entry below:

• 2008 World Cosplay Summit Preliminary Competition Rules
• 2008 World Cosplay Summit Preliminary Competition Portfolio Submission Template

PRESELECTION FINALISTS

Click on the images below to see more information about the WCS Preliminary finalists selected at Preselection Rounds held at our earlier Festivals this year.

And there's still one more Preselection to be held at the Animania Festival Weekend - who will they be? Find out at Animania Festival!! For more information on how to enter, download the entry forms and competition rules above.

Sydney March

Melbourne april

Brisbane may

sydney august

All Preselection Finalists will compete against each other in a showdown to take the title of Australia's first entrants into the World Cosplay Summit. Awesome costumes, awesome skits, amazing prizes and world firsts - Animania Festival Weekend will definitely be HUGE!

2008 Cosplay Judges

Chen
First cosplayed in year 2001, as one of former AUNSW execs who initiated and help organized the very first cosplay event / competition in Sydney - AUNSW Xmas Party.
Recently won best Group cosplay at Supanova Sydney 2008, as Hades from Saint Seiya.

Kim
Kim has been cosplaying since 2005. She enjoys making props and costumes from games and anime. She has won awards for group costumes at Supanova Brisbane for Kingdom Hearts costumes, and at Supanova Sydney with a Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle group.

Kenny
Kenny has been cosplaying since 2001. He has won several cosplay awards at Manifest and Supanova. Kenny has been organising cosplay/anime event since 2001, first with AUNSW Xmas Party, and then has been Animania's Cosplay coordinator since 2003.

Widya
Widya Santoso is a former cosplayer with over fifteen years' experience, both in Australia and overseas. He has performed, judged or hosted at conventions such as Anime Expo, Comic-con International, the Science Fiction Worldcon and Costume-con.

Akiko Okubo
Coming all the way from Japan to judge at Animania this year! Okubo-san is the representative from WCS. She's been involved with the World Cosplay Summit for the last two years, and will be bringing her own intuitive sense and critical eye of Japanese fashion with her.