Japangelion 2.22: World Cosplay Summit.

It's that time again. World Cosplay Summit Nagoya 2014 was just as wonderful (if not more so) than my previous one, though there were a number of points which made it almost a completely different experience. Shall thus conduct this blog as a comparison piece with sentences from 2009 in green being contrast to my experience of WCS this year. No Michelle this time, though much less frustration and panic.

2009 - "Woke up at 8, which is a sleep in here"

2014 - Woke at 7am (8am is still a sleep in here) to catch three trains and a bus (1.5 hours) to the dorm as the money I had loaded onto it had not reached my card yet. Breakfast was a caramel latte.

"Trying to find where the anime parade was going to be held was very annoying"

Knowing where to find the Cosplay Red Carpet (Saturday) and Cosplay Parade (Sunday) was helpful. The Cosplay Red Carpet was held down a street near Oasis 21, though instead of waiting in the sun to catch a brief glimpse of the finalists, I chose instead to photograph the cosplayers in the vicinity and sip more Starbucks lattes.

"The parade started from a temple, and ran down streets of indoor shopping, so even with the rain it was possable."

Cosplay parade was held on the Sunday in Osu Kannon which meant that I was able to spend Saturday chilling in Oasis 21. It possessed instead towards Osu Temple this time and the weather was fine, though my trusty sun umbrella was ever useful for getting from the station to the indoor shopping section.

" I recognised Tsubaki and Katty Patra from events in Aus, and we also caught up with Widget ( Michelle's friend) and two other people from Australia who were there as part of the crew."

Was there when Mijiko and Elro won the Australian Finals with their Death Note cosplay last year, though did not get to chat with them in Japan due to plan layout changes from last time. Fairly sure I saw Widget three days previous in the train station, though barely said two words as this time the Australians felt like the "them".

Did however meet with a number of my friends from club who were also cosplaying as well as a number of awesome Japanese friends met on previous outings. We walked around together taking photos of the cosplayers and talking more about our plans for the day and favorite anime. This time these people were the "us".

"(TICK(me off)ETS
Alright, from the beginning it was impossable to buy them from outside the country.The site said there were none, but really you received one if you baught a shirt(found out about this on sunday morning)they never actaully told you that you were buying a ticket.the other way to buy one was by mobile,japanese mobile of corse.one that you needed rededancy to obtain.>.<(found out about that one while waiting in line on Sunday).Only chance to obtain one if your from overseas,it to be early in line.However this rule was changed about an hour before the even started,no tickets were to be offered.)"

TICK(this off my list)ETS
Purchased my tickets at 7 Eleven the night before. They were roughly $20.

Final

"2009 - The waiting game.

- Caught the first train, that is 5:29.

- Waited in line from 7am within barriers divided into"those with tickets" and "those without" (we were without)

- Told we may receive tickets at 3, when the event started, if people from inside the seated area canceled, we waited, leaving one at a time to fetch food and go to the toilet.

- I brought a WCS towel and at 3 when we were fairly sure we would not get tickets i went and brought 3 chairs for Michelle, Rei and i, only to realise when i got back that Michelle had
moved...into the line of people to receive tickets to get in.

- The ticket was free, and all 4 of us got in, and sat next to each other. :) I gave the chairs away to people that looked like they needed them before going to get a proper dinner.I had tempura."

2014 - Pleasant day in the city.

- Arrived at Osu Kannon at 11:30 after sleeping in and having a relaxing morning.

- Took photos of the cosplayers from a relatively good spot and enjoyed a bubble tea before spotting Jerry and Gretchen and perusing the shops.

- Headed to Oasis at 2:00pm and had coffee and cheese cake from Starbucks for lunch before taking some more photos. Had WCS painted on my arm.

- Dinner at Nigiri No Tokube was delicious

- 6:00 walked straight into the special seated area and took my allotted seat after receiving my merchandise bag complete with plastic folder and event fan.Did you know they have lychee Fanta.

WCS main event

The World Cosplay Summit was a joy to watch, i would love to make comments on all the contestants individually but it would take all day.However you can watch the action on youtube.
1st Japan
2nd Spain
3rd America

(This is the area where the actual event of the Finals differed most greatly from 2009 in a negative way.)

The World Cosplay Summit was..interesting. Felt distant as it was not held live at Oasis but instead in the adjacent Aichi Arts Center Concert Hall and streamed to Oasis where broadcast was given it's own commentary panel who consistently talked over the actual presenters. Though it meant no waiting and a much more specious area with which to watch the event, the atmosphere was nothing compared to the live event.
1st Russia
2nd Italy
3rd Indonesia

Link to my complete World Cosplay Summit 2009 blog

Here are some of my favorite cosplays for the weekend Noragami, my favorite manga (left) and an Eva from Neon Genesis Evangelion my all time favorite anime (right).