Cosplay is a unique and beautiful part of anime fandom, and it's also what I get more emails about than anything else. What are the prizes? When's it going to happen? How can I sign up? Well, today, live from NYAF's Otakon booth, I'm proud to reveal all our secrets -- and introduce the Yume Cosplay Prize!
The New York Anime Festival celebrates the world of cosplay through a Masquerade -- a costume showcase that is part fashion show and part talent show -- like no other. Taking place Saturday, September 26 in the Jacob Javits Center, NYAF's Masquerade offers an array of traditional awards and, this year, is proud to debut the Yume Cosplay Prize...
Two roundtrip tickets to Japan
Five nights in a Tokyo hotel
VIP tickets to the Tokyo International Anime Fair
$1,000 in prize money
"Yume" is the Japanese word for "dream", and as it is the dream of so many anime fans to travel to Japan, we feel it is only fitting for us to name the NYAF Masquerade's top honor the Yume Cosplay Prize. But there is a larger dream here, too. The Yume Cosplay Prize -- and its trip to Japan -- are intended to not only be the top honor for cosplayers at the New York Anime Festival, but it is our goal for it to be the top prize in a competition that touches conventions across the USA and Canada, with regional winners gathering together in New York City to showcase the best cosplay in North America. Is it a big dream? Absolutely. Is it an achievable dream? We believe so, and, in the coming months, we aim to announce more conventions which share this dream. And we are honored to say that Florida's Metrocon is already sending its Masquerade winners to participate in this year's NYAF Masquerade!
Now, those of you who have attended NYAF before may be wondering about the World Cosplay Summit.
For the past two years, the New York Anime Festival had the honor of hosting the USA Preliminaries of the World Cosplay Summit; however, we must say that NYAF will not host the WCS USA Preliminaries at our 2009 event. The World Cosplay Summit does not yet have rules ready for its next competition, and as NYAF cannot change its dates and cannot hold back Masquerade registration, we must go on without hosting the USA Preliminaries this September. We were very privileged to have been part of the World Cosplay Summit, and we were greatly impressed by the distances traveled and caliber of contestants who entered, but the WCS will not be with us this year. NYAF, however, is not done inspiring dreams, and it is with this aim that we proudly announce the creation of the Yume Cosplay Prize.
The NYAF Masquerade is your chance to have your costume and talent recognized in front of thousands of anime fans and -- if your costumes are good enough and your performance daring enough -- win two tickets to Tokyo!
To learn more and to enter, visit nyanimefestival.com and (shortly) yumecosplay.com.
