The current onslaught of the corona virus has left convention halls, once filled to the brim with fans and pop-culture enthusiasts empty and silent. Cosplay has always been a part of conventions, whether these cosplayers are casual con-goers who dress up with friends, take photos, goof around and have fun or the more serious hobbyists who enter prestigious, life-changing competitions (have you seen the prize money in some of these contests?I)
Cosplayers have long been sharing their art and passion for the craft on different social media platforms and they’ve had to do more so during the pandemic, from professional-grade photoshoots on Facebook, cosplay transformation videos on YouTube, cosplay transitions on TikTok and even game streaming in cosplay, many of these artists have had to adapt to keep their pursuits alive. While, it may be some time before we have in-person conventions and cosplay events, World Cosplay Summit which was founded in 2005 and aims “to promote international exchange through the Japanese youth culture of manga and anime” has found a way to have a summit this year. The event will take place in Nagoya and will be under strict health protocols. Hey! If Japan was able to host the Olympics (albeit without a live audience) they can hold a cosplay summit right?
Jin &AC go to World Cosplay Summit!
Unfortunately, it’s not the “go to Japan” that would have been the usual case, pre-pandemic, a pre-pandemic stint at the World Cosplay Summit would mean getting to travel to Japan, meeting the other contestants from other countries in various mixers and events. Unlike most cosplay competitions, the World Cosplay Summit, also focuses to promote the culture of Japan to its over 40 participating country members. Participating countries are made up of two cosplayers in one team, the pair would first have had to win the preliminary round in their respective countries.
Meet Team Philippines (Team Namikaze)
The Philippines will be represented by Team Namikaze, made up of veteran cosplayer Jin Joson and master propmaker AC Hernandez, the duo will be cosplaying as Naruto and Jiraiya from the anime series ‘Naruto’. Check out their official get to know/interview video for World Cosplay Summit below.
So how will there be a (World) Cosplay Summit if the participants won’t be physically present at the event? Well through video submissions! In lieu of an in-person cosplay competition, winning teams will be asked to submit a two minute and thirty second video featuring the characters that they will be cosplaying. The entries will then be judged by the costume/cosplay and the video itself.
In an online press conference Joson and Hernandez answered some questions from the press, and when asked about last minute preparations for their video submission, AC talked about the challenges of doing their skit in Japanese.
“It was hard” says Hernandez, “(since) we had our skit in Japanese, so the preparation for that was really grueling and we wanted to thank Ate Joy and Sir Nakata of Ambox PH for helping us, because they were coaching us, and it helped improve our skit and for me that was one of the hardest preps (preparation) we had to do.
Joson added, “Because Naruto has a very distinct voice, I can’t come close to what Junko Takeuchi (voice actor) does, I can’t do that but I did what I could do to the best of my abilities.”
When asked about the growth of cosplay in the Philippines, Joson who has been cosplaying since 2005 and helped bring the art to the mainstream, talked about its growth with more cosplayers becoming influencers and content creators. “When I started, everything was just for fun and I never expected doing shoots after class (in UP Diliman) that would lead me to amazing work opportunities and opportunities to travel and to meet people all over the world, so I have a lot of reasons to be grateful and I know a lot of people feel the same way, I think there are negatives and positives when things become commercialized, for the most part I’m glad people are celebrating it, coz its really a great hobby when you learn a lot, when you can meet a lot of worthwhile people and make amazing memories, there’s nothing like it, in a sense of community, so even if, there may be some negative effects, like some people might say that people would come into cosplay to go clout chasing or whatever like that, I think the good outweighs the bad.
“Before we were the weirdoes, now we are no longer the weirdos because we are no longer the minority.” Hernandez added, he himself, is no stranger to cosplay competitions, joining numerous cosplay competitions in the past, in 2011 he was part of the team that won the Anime Festival Asia (AFA) cosplay contest, which was held in Singapore.
Team Namikaze needs your support! Make sure that you cheer for them, send those likes and hearts and comment on the different platforms-Facebook, YouTube, Twitch and Kumu.
The World Cosplay Summit will take on August 7-8 and fans will be able to join the summit online, make sure to follow the World Cosplay Summit Philippines Facebook page for more details and updates.