See the guy with the blue face in the picture above? He’s a middle-aged Japanese politician. Why is he all dressed up with a bunch of cosplayers? Is he a closet otaku? Most importantly: why is his face blue? Read on to find out:
The guy with the blue face is the governor of Aichi prefecture, and he’s dressed up as Lord Dessler from the classic anime series Space Battleship Yamato. Another politician, the mayor of Nagoya joined in too, cosplaying as Dragonball villain Piccolo.
So why on earth are these two middle-age politicians dressing as anime villains? You can thank the World Cosplay Summit for that.
World Cosplay Summit
Every year, the city of Nagoya hosts the World Cosplay Summit (WCS), bringing people from all over the world to show off their elaborate, handmade costumes of their favorite anime or manga characters. The WCS is a huge event, bringing hundreds of thousands of people every single year. This year’s WCS happened just this last weekend.
World Cosplay Summit brings tons of tourism and business to Naogya, so it’s not really too surprising that the mayor and governor would try to really get involved in the event. As the saying goes, politics make strange bedfellows. In this case, it’s politicians and diehard cosplaying otaku.
The main event at WCS is the World Cosplay Championship, where teams representing countries from all over the world perform onstage to see whose cosplay is superior. These performances can be very elaborate and grand, featuring huge props, fancy costumes, and interesting storylines. Check out this video of last year’s champions, Brazil, and their intense performance.
[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G21QBe6QP_c']
But as an Oregonian, I know all about politicians dressing up in ridiculous costumes that might embarrass them. After all, up until recently my congressman was this guy:
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