Two of America’s best cosplayers will be traveling to Japan this week to complete in the World Cosplay Summit (WCS). But just what is WCS anyway?
Sponsored by Japanese television station TV Aichi, WCS is an annual cosplay competition that seeks to uncover the best cosplayers in the world. Drawing contestants from 15 countries, including the United States, Brazil, China, Japan, Germany, Mexico and France, the competition has become the ultimate cosplay showcase, bringing in crowds for the live competition that number in the hundreds of thousands.
Each year, participating countries select the two cosplayers that will represent them at WCS. Some countries hold multiple preliminary rounds.
This year's Team U.S.A. after winning at NYAF.
For the past two years, the United States has selected its Team U.S.A. at September’s New York Anime Festival masquerade. This year, cosplayers Elizabeth Licata and India Davis, will represent us this weekend. (You can find more interviews and information about Team U.S.A. here and on GEN as we draw nearer to WCS.)
The representatives of each country fly to Nagoya, Japan, the following summer to participate in press events, a parade and the highlight of the event, a competition featuring craftsmanship and skit performances from each of the two-person teams.
The competition started in 2003 and featured just three international teams:
Last year's winners: Team Brazil.
Italy, Germany and France. The following year, 2004, the United States joined. Since 2005, Brazil has taken home two of the four grand prizes (Italy won in 2005 and France in 2007).
This year, the competition will take place August 1 and 2. GEN will be updating throughout this week with information about the competition, the teams and our own Team U.S.A. so check back frequently for updates!
Get more information at WCS’s official Web site.
July 28th, 2009 at 7:05 am
this sounds amazing
thanks for letting us know
July 28th, 2009 at 10:47 pm
In fact in 2003 and 2004 the WCS was only a “summit”, the World Cosplay Championship began in 2005 during the universal exposition
July 30th, 2009 at 1:07 am
Like the Olympics, the WCS is more fun when one has a team to cheer for.
This is growing every year…but slowly. The strangest country absent from the list is most likely the United Kingdom… I would have thought they’d get on that by now ;d
The other thing about the WCS I find is that most people don’t know what it is, even in the cosplay community. Glad someone is doing a report on it xD, perhaps it will raise interest and swell entries. Then again, is it the country that contacts the WCS? Or the WCS who contacts the country? :/