Cosplay

Cosplay: A costume spectacular that brings together vivid colour, extravagance, grace and eccentricity in a wild showcase of devotion by fans to their most favourite Japanese pop culture characters.

Visitors of Animania Festival in 2008 will be treated to a feast for the eyes (and also the fandom heart in all of us) as we expect Cosplayers to pull out all the stops to present, simply put, the best costume.

And this year in particular will be bigger than ever because Cosplayers will have the chance to compete in not just one Cosplay event, but TWO!

Alongside the Animania Festival Cosplay Competition - the Festival's oldest and most longest running competition - we are proud to host for the first time ever in Australia, the Preliminary Competition for the World Cosplay Summit (WCS) held in Nagoya, Japan! The winning team of the WCS Preliminary will be the first Australian team ever to compete in this international level Cosplay event.

With so much buzz about the Cosplay scene, and definitely so much to offer, we expect 2008 to the biggest year of Cosplay at Animania Festival EVER!

WHAT IS COSPLAY?

Cosplay is a truncated term for the phrase 'Costume play'. It refers to the act of dressing up as a favourite character, typically from a Japanese anime, manga, and more recently, Japanese video games.

Cosplay is a much-loved event at anime events worldwide and definitely at Animania Festival! A Cosplayer often dedicates a great deal of effort and time to creating the ultimate costume that best represents their most favourite characters and pays a homage to that character, their characteristics and the medium from which they originate. Sometimes with their realistic costumes the individuals seem to become the characters themselves, bringing fantasy to life!

In 2008, the Animania Festival Cosplay Competition - Sydney March and the WCS Preliminary and Pre-selections will feature on the Main Stage. Times will be listed in the Schedule on this website and on the Festival Guide.

Click here for Animania Festival Cosplay Competition - Melbourne April

Click here for Animania Festival Cosplay Competition - Brisbane May