FrancescaDani.com :: Official Site Of Italian Model & Cosplay Performer

~ 3rd WORLD COSPLAY SUMMIT ~
[Nagoya-Japan]

I have been invited as guest and contestant at the 3rd WORLD COSPLAY SUMMIT in Nagoya, Japan.
WORLD COSPLAY SUMMIT is an annual meeting of cosplayers from all around the world: TV-Aichi's staff choose every year a rappresentative group of cosplayers from countries like Italy, USA, Spain, France, Germany, China and Japan. Sometimes dreams come true and this time I really had luck by my side: I was choosen for a trip to Japan to partecipate at the 3rd WORLD COSPLAY SUMMIT, and... WE MADE IT:
ITALIAN TEAM WON THE WORLD COSPLAY SUMMIT CHAMPIONSHIP!

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29th July/30th July 2005 [ARRIVAL AT NAGOYA AND PHOTOSESSION FOR CHUNICHI SHINBUN]
Stranger in a strange land... that's my own adventure in Japan at the World Cosplay Summit in Nagoya.
In March 2005 I received an email from TV-Aichi's staff: I was selected to represent italian cosplay in Japan at the World Cosplay Summit Championship, in August 2005. Oh my gosh! I couldn't believe that! Me in Japan??? At the World Cosplay Summit??? Thanks Lord, it's true: sometimes dreams come true! (^_^)
This was the 3rd World Cosplay Summit. The first World Cosplay Summit was organized in October 2003 and till 2004 it was only a meeting for international cosplayers, but this edition was a greater and more crowded event: it was the first international cosplay championship and the main event, the WORLD COSPLAY SUMMIT CHAMPIONSHIP was held in the super famous International Exposition of Aichi.
So, after 5 months of hard work on 4 costumes, me and my italian Cosplay Summit team mates (Giorgia, Emilia and Elena) left from Italy to Japan. Each country had 4 rapresentative choosen directly from TV-Aichi's members staff.
We had around 12 hours of flight and finally we reached Nagoya airport where some members of TV-Aichi were waiting for us. We were so tired but NO SLEEP-NO REST! We immediately had our first cosplay apparition: they took us at TV-Aichi's offices for a fast lunch with the infamous bento box and after that they took us at Chunichi Shinbun headquarters where we had a photosession for the main newspaper. For my first apparition at the World Cosplay Summit I worn my most famous costume: Francoise Arnoul from Cyborg 009 and few days after, my face was on the newspaper's page! Ahah! That was so great! (^_^)

After the photoshooting for Chunichi, TV-Aichi's staff took us at our hotel for some good rest and a shower! Finally I could lie down on a bed for a bunch of minutes! Yay! We had rest just for few time and after that we had our first dinner all togheter, cosplayers representative and TV-Aichi staff. In this occasion I met Cindy, a long time email-pal from Germany. She's so nice! I miss Cindy very much. The lunch was in a tipical japanese restaurant very famous in Nagoya, one of the best. The "real" japanese food is so... strange... yeah... How much I love MY pizza...???

31st July 2005 [COSPLAY PARADE AT OSU KANNON AND COSPLAY PARTY]
On the 31st of July took place one of the most important (and funny!) event of the World Cosplay Summit: the Cosplay Parade along Osu streets till Osu Kannon temple. For this event I worn a brand new costume: Black Cure aka Nagisa from "Pretty Cure Max Heart", a very famous anime series in Japan at the time. We had a lunch at TV-Aichi's offices and around 2.00 pm they took us at our cosplay show. Yes, because before the parade we had a little stage show in front of hundreds of people, we had a Q&A, karaoke and posing for photos. I remember a guy that yelled my name and when I went out from the stage he follow me trought the people for touch my hand! Japanese people is so nice! (^_^) After the show we had the Cosplay Parade: people followed us throught the streets, taking pics of us from every side of the parade, tv, magazine, newspapers and radio, all of them following us: there was so much media interested in this event, we was really like superstars! We finished the parade in front of the temple of Kannon Godness where we had some photoshooting for magazines and for TV-Aichi.

After Cosplay Parade we had a party at the Layers Cafè Comok where all the waitresses are dressed up in cosplay costumes and it was so fun ordering a drink to Lum or Lupin! At the party we met a lot of Japanese cosplayers and we had a lot of fun with them. All of them was so nice and they had wonderful costumes. After the party we had dinner with Mari Kato, TV-Aichi's member. We were so tired but excited at the same time, the Cosplay Parade and the party really were so funny.

1st August/2nd August/3rd August 2005 [FREE DAYS IN TOKYO AND NAGOYA]
On 1st and 2nd of August some guys from TV-Aichi's staff took us to a Tokyo tour. We were free from World Cosplay Summit's stuffs so we had 2 full days to visit the city. After 5 hours of driving from Nagoya, we reached the chaotic city of Tokyo: it was one of the dream of my life to visit this city! I lost half of my bank credit in some wonderfull shops and I visited the famous Cospa Shop too! I bought a lot of gashapon, cosplay stuffs, magazine, plushies and finally I found a wonderful "Ashita no Joe" 's action figure! (*_*) In the late evening of the 2nd of August we left from Tokyo to return in Nagoya and the day after we had again free time to visit Nagoya's castle and the neighborough of the city.

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4th August / 5th August 2005 [WORLD COSPLAY SUMMIT CONTEST REHEARSHAL AND KARAOKE PARTY]
On the 4th of August the remaining cosplayers rapresentative arrived in Nagoya in the early morning: now all the World Cosplay Summit roster was complete. We were around 50 cosplayers from all over the world. This day was spent to test every rapresentative performance for the main event, the World Cosplay Summit Championship and the italian team had the rehearsal in the afternoon. We talked for about 3 hours with light and sound technicians to decide the best timing for our contest performances.
On the 5th of August Emilia and Elena were at the Aichi Expo for a promo interview of World Cosplay Summit Championship that would take place on sunday, so me and Giorgia had free time in Nagoya again and the night we had a karaoke party+buffet with one of the World Cosplay Summit's sponsor: GoodWill. It was a nice party where we had a lot of fun doing interviews, crazy things with Ed (our canadian interpreter) and singing all night long!

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6th August 2005 [TV-AICHI LIVE PROGRAM AND MEETING]
This day we had an apparition on a TV-Aichi live show. All the cosplayers rapresentative were in costumes for this occasion and the italian team worn the Outher Senshi uniform from Sailor Moon.We was a super nice cosplay group! (^_^) I was Sailor Neptune, my favourite character from the series. I was so happy to worn this costume but my shoes gave me a pain of hell during the entire taping session, cause it were 1 size smaller with super high heels! *Arghhh* Like the tv program, we had some interviews and an appearences into a live talk show broadcasted by TV-Aichi.
On late evening we had a meeting with all the World Cosplay Summit and the cosplayers representative: the "Great Day" of World Cosplay Summit Championship was behind the corner (OMG! Tomorrow!), so the whole staff had to explain us all the things about: prizes, categories, timing, etc.

After the meeting all the cosplayers representative and the staff had a very nice buffet with japanese food but I was so nervous about the day of the contest, so I haven't touched any food and I refused the taxy to reach the hotel. I preferred to go to the hotel with my own legs and smoking thousands of cigarettes: I'm so irritable near the performances! (^_^);
Before going to sleep I tried my performance several times with Emilia and Elena: I was so really nervous and freakin' scared to forget my moves and steps during the following day performance. So, I tested the whole performance till 1 a.m. on the street behind the hotel.

7th August 2005 [WORLD COSPLAY SUMMIT CONTEST]
The "Great Day" was coming! Around 10.00 am we left from our hotels to "Aichi Expo" and we reached the Expo Dome in only 30 minutes. During the morning we had another meeting with the staff and all the cosplayers and we visited the stage. Everything was so big! Lights, sounds, smoke from behind the stage and... a lot, really lot of chairs in front of the stage! Oh my goshhhh! I was so nervous! And, arghh! My God! I met the GrEaT Leiji Matsumoto!!!

At about 2.30 pm the "World Cosplay Summit Championship" went on stage. Me, Emilia and Elena worn Soul Calibur 2' girls costumes and we performed an acrobatic choreography from the original Soul Calibur's videogame exibition arena. During the months before our leaving to Nagoya, we spent whole days trying over and over again our performance till we were exausted.
I was Cassandra Alexander (sister of Sophitia), Emilia was Taki and Elena was Seung Mina. We were 8th on the groups schedule entrance and it was a tremendously long waiting!
When the speakers announced our names my legs started to shake and the breath lacked me: it was my turn and the moment we waited for from such a long time! I was the first to go on the stage because our performance started with a slow walk of Cassandra. When the lights went down till complete dark and then all headed on me it was really amazing.
I don't have any words to describe how I felt during our performance: I was in Japan, at the World Cosplay Summit Championship, thousands and thousands eyes watching me during the exibition... For the first time in my life I felt so great on the stage. During the exibition I, Emilia and Elena were like one single thing and all has gone for the best, no wrong step or big mistake was made and our performance was perfect as we couldn't imagine before... and...
THE ITALIAN TEAM WON THE WORLD COSPLAY SUMMIT CHAMPIONSHIP!
Yes! Yeahhh! Me, Giorgia, Emilia and Elena were the absolute winners of the World Cosplay Summit Championship! We dreamed about the Cosplay Summit for many months and now we won the absolute title! Our dream coming true! When the speaker had announced Italy as the absolute winner of World Cosplay Summit Championship we ran towards each other going into a big hug: four italian girls realized their dream!

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8th August 2005 [FAREWELL PARTY]
On the morning the winning team was at the "Aichi Expo" one time again: we had a nice commercial karaoke session in front of thousands visitors. I worn again my Black Cure costume. I have sung "Saint Seya" original japanese song, it was so nice! (^_^)
On the late night we had the farewell party with all the cosplayers and the whole staff in a very nice pub: World Cosplay Summit was coming to the end. We engaged for many months to bring a good performance on the stage, but we never imagined to succeed taking the champions title to Italy: It's really true, sometimes dreams come true.

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Thanks to:
Mari Kato, Mr. Shirakawa, Ed, Atsuko, Mr. Kubo, our italian translator on the contest day, and thanks to the whole TV-Aichi and World Cosplay Summit's staff! Thanks for making our dreams really come true.

JAPAN IS COOL!!!

READ THE WORLD COSPLAY SUMMIT 2006 REPORT!