Hey everyone! Ted from OverDrive went over to Nagoya for the World Cosplay Summit.  So here it is:

World Cosplay Summit 2008 Day 1 Event Report

If you didn’t know, this is the competition which determines who the world’s best cosplayers are! This would be the 6th time for this yearly event and, this time, cosplayers from 13 different countries attended. Each nation had preliminary contests which the cosplayers had to win through and, finally, gathered in Nagoya to see who is the best of the best.

The World Cosplay Summit (WCS) is a 2-day event: the first day being a cosplay parade and the second, the World Cosplay Championships. The cosplay parade took place in Osu, also known as the Akihabara of Nagoya. Let’s see how the Osu Cosplay Parade was like!

It’s Ted from OverDrive! WCS took place on August 2nd and 3rd in Nagoya - about an hour and a half from Tokyo by Shinkansen (bullet train) and the 3rd largest city in Japan.

Let’s get on the Shinkansen and go!

There were cosplayers around the press registration area!

Many people were waiting for the parade to begin at the historical Osukannon Temple.

At last, the parade started! Leading it were the representatives from each country; followed by other cosplayers that came this event.

The cosplayers and the people taking pictures of them are jammed in a small street - just 10 meters wide! This many people in one place didn’t make this day in Nagoya (37°C or 99°F) feel any cooler.

Cosplaying Ken from Street Fighter is Gabriel who represented Brazil and took the World Cosplay Championship title this year.  I met him later that night for some drinks; he’s a very bright and fun person.

Here is a gallery of some of the other cosplayers who joined the parade! The quality was considerably high even compared to the WCS representatives.

And here are ladies and gentlemen who represented their country at the WCS; they are all wearing costumes  different from the ones they wore at the championships.

At the end of the parade, all the cosplayers gathered at the stone steps of the temple. Don’t they all look like professional models? (There were people of all professions like librarians, designers, and students!)

That’s it for the World Cosplay Summit Parade. Next time we’ll have a report of the World Cosplay Summit Championship event! Check it out!