Costumed Manga summit in Japan
RG: for the competition, our costumes are really annoying and include reflective materials, we have to be as obnoxious as possible because we’re Americans. We’re trying to do the most typical American things: so my costume has reflective blue with gold rhinestones everywhere and my counterpart’s is blue and magenta and a bit of green. We’ll have a dance off to decide who’s most fabulous but then we decide we’re both fabulous. There is dialogue but it’s pre-recorded Japanese dialogue. (What do you say?) I say, now is the time to see who is the strongest and bravest. And then we ask, who is the most fabulous? We lip-synch so we won’t have to hold microphones. (Do you have fierce competition?) Yes, but everyone is nicer than I expected, because cos-play attracts some interesting people. (Are the other teams mostly Japanese?) No, Japan has two teams, but there are 13 countries, and Europe is well represented. (It must be strange to meet someone from Brazil or Korea and you can’t interact outside of cos-play.) It’s funny you mention Brazil, because no one knows Portuguese so no one knows how to speak to them.
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