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NEWS: World Cosplay Summit Runner-Up Raises More Questions

People keep talking about the RoV team 'not being aloud to compete', the other team being 'robbed' of their taxi ride... I think perhaps you're forgetting that Aichi TV PAID for all international and domestic travel once inside Japan; accomodation; hosted parties and sightseeing for the participant etc etc. There are a lot of people involved... so a taxi didn't show up on time? Cut them some slack, they had alot of organising to do! I watched this year's contest and all I saw were friendly Japanese staff who were all into cosplay doing everything they could to keep all the contestants happy... running backwards and forwards to Macdonalds, finding ice to keep them cool in their costumes and so on (they even got us poor queing spectators cooled down with regualr cold water). The judging itself was certainly not biased; as has already been pointed out the judging panel could hardly have been more qualified. The selection processes within the countries themselves may well have been stacked on the side of looks and they may have been reluctant to offend anyone by saying this. I have no idea. I can say that obescity is far more villified here then any other country I have visited. For example, there is a weekly program here devoted entirely to having fat women brought on in their underwear and being abused by skinny celebrities who them do some pretty hiddeous things to them to try and make them lose dangerous amounts of weight in a short period of time. I am not directing that at the RoV cosplayers, rather at the person who commented that fat people are treated much the same here as in other countries. They aren't. And no, manfaye would not have been welcome because an aim of the event is to represent cosplay as a legitimate cultural expression, hence the presance of the Minister for Culture and the Arts on the judging panel. There were some crossplayers there, but all were tasteful. Brazil had the best skit and the best costumes and fully deserved to win. TV Aichi, who expend an enourmous amount of resources on the competition which, btw, is primarily live (I couldn't find any mention of it in the TV guide), should be appreciated for their contribution to promoting cosplay and for providing a wonderful opportunity for cosplayers from around the world to meet. The main complaint seems to be that the competition wasn't fair... but it isn't called the "World Cosplay Championships". It is a "Summit".

The judging itself was certainly not biased; as has already been pointed out the judging panel could hardly have been more qualified.

So they have 4 judges on stage deciding who's going to win.
- Kitadani Hiroshi - anime song singer from One Piece and Kamen Rider as well as Radio DJ
- Ushijima Essai - Head organizer for cosplay at Comiket in Tokyo (Comic Market)
- Tokita Yuji - representative from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign affairs.
- Go Nagai - Creator behind such venerable anime classics as Devil Man, Majinga-Z and Cutie Honey. All Around Anime Grand Daddy.

People keep talking about the RoV team 'not being aloud to compete', the other team being 'robbed' of their taxi ride... I think perhaps you're forgetting that Aichi TV PAID for all international and domestic travel once inside Japan; accomodation; hosted parties and sightseeing for the participant etc etc. There are a lot of people involved... so a taxi didn't show up on time? Cut them some slack, they had alot of organising to do!

Ushijima Essai is the only person that seems remotely qualified to judge cospaly. Aside from him/her ( assume its the former), the "judges" are just celebreties that probably have little to no experience with cosplay and certainly are not 'experts'. They are just there to get attention and boost the ratings.

I'm not in any way saying that what happened to the US girls was anything less then misserable. However, I think people are bagging out a great event and missing the point that the only complaint there seems to be is that two teams were turned down by the organisers, who according to official sources retained the right to make a final decision, and that the reason they gave for turning down those teams apparently was not the genuine reason.

Yes, that sucks. Yes, it is a major cultural difference that Americans in particular favour upfrontness even when feelings may be hurt and the Japanese tend to avoid being rude if they possibly can. Esspecially for the teams who feel like they were didched for no reason, it isn't great.

But. The event is a fantastic all expences paid international cosplay party. Everyone I have met personally who participated in the finals came away with nothing but positive feelings towards the organisers. So be angry about the specifics, but it seems stupid to discount a great event on far fetched assumptions like "Japan is paying back America for Hiroshima" and other assumptions based on very little evdence.

Umm, boosting ratings seems far fetched to me since the show proberbly wasn't actually televised. I'm saying proberbly because ir seems odd that it wouldn't have been; but I checked both the printed TV guides for a week and the TV Aichi website and the event website and nowhere was there a listing for the event being televised. It wasn't broadcast live because I phone a friend while I was there and asked her to tape it and it wasn't on. It seems wierd that it wouldn't have been on TV, but they certainly weren't making it easy to find or promoting it hard in any way to get ratings. So although a lot of people are very angry, please remember that all anyone is really doing is jumping to conclusions. As for the selection of judges, with the exception of the MP (and I don't know if he participated in the judging, he didn't deliver any comments and mostly sat around until the prize awarding) the other three are people whose professional lives have been dedicated to anime.

Do we know for sure that it isn't going to be televised at a later date? Furthermore, because someone's draws anime, or directs it for a living, they can judge the quality of a costume? Bullshido.

After looking at the photos of the Japanese team cosplaying as RoV characters, I was a bit surprised.

The WCS is probably run the same way. Even if it isn't aired now, check a few weeks from now.

Anyway, I've said everything I wanted to say and I have no intention of pissing anyone off. It's just that no-one had mentioned how generous TV Aichi is in hosting the show, or what a great opportunity it is for promoting cosplay and for letting people from all over the world with similar interests meet up and have fun at no expence to themselves. There are valid grievances about the selection process, but that should detract from the very good aspects of the event. Where else in the world would a member of cabinet come out to award the prize at a cosplay event? I had a lot of fun as a spectator and all of the contestants I personally spoke to had nothing but praise.

I would like to agree with you with tv aichi ....but as any television network, they get money (and lots of it) from airing advertisements and commercials. I currently work in the entertainment industry and I know that any large network or tv station airs shows because they will make them money! I highly doubt TV Aichi's main goal was to promote cosplay unfortunently.