Rules

AnimeCon preliminaries

Team

• Participants may enter either as a solo, duo, trio, or quartet.
• The team may consist of cosplayers from the Netherlands and those owning a permanent residency card in the Netherlands.

Costumes

• Your team must be in costumes from the same source.
• Your team must wear an 80% self-made costumes.
• You may use small props that were store bought.
• Your cosplay must be from an animated movie, anime, comic, J-Music, manga, live action movie, stage musical, TV series or video game.
• Personal creations and fan art are not allowed.
• You are not allowed to compete with a costume that has already won any prize at a national or international competition.
• Costumes previously used in any AnimeCon preliminary should be altered according to feedback by the judges.

Act

• You must perform an act on stage that may not exceed:
  - 90 seconds for solo participants,
  - 150 seconds for duo participants,
  - 180 seconds for trio participants,
  - 210 seconds for quartet participants.
• AI is not allowed in any way, though having someone else voice your lines or using a voice changer is allowed.
• Solo, duo and trio Participants have the option to make use of a stage ninja for their performance.
• A stage ninja doesn’t count in the number of participants on stage and should be selected by the team themselves.
• The stage ninja is an assistant on stage that can help the participants in various ways. For example the operating of various devices or props or assisting with costume change, as long as they remain hidden from the audience view. Stage ninjas are not allowed to wear any costumes.
• Teams may not use any items that can spill on the stage, like bubbles, glitter, confetti etc.
• Teams may not use live fire, dry ice, live steel weapons or other things that could be a danger to yourself or others.
• For our cosplay weapons guidelines read the house rules. Dutch weapon law will always apply!
• You may not perform an act already done at AnimeCon, it needs to be a new performance.

Preparation

• Once entered, you will receive a form to fill in the details of your performance. This will have to be handed in on March 21st, 23:59h at the latest.
• In this form you will have to provide: 
  - Script with cues
  - Work in Progress pictures from all parts of the costume and relevant props, 
  - Reference pictures, 
  - Any audio/video you want to use during the skit.
• In the case of 3D-printing: add a screenshot with history screen to your WiPs.

Preliminaries

• You must attend AnimeCon at least on the day of the preliminaries.
• You must be 18 years or older on the date of the preliminaries if you want to compete.
• Participating in our preliminaries will take up most of the day with rehearsals in the morning, judging in the afternoon and the competition right after that. Please keep this in mind when planning other activities.
• Dressing rooms and showers are provided by AnimeCon.
• In the case of cancelling your participation within two weeks of AnimeCon without a valid reason, you will not be able to sign up again for one year.

Judges

• AnimeCon’s Guest Relations team select an international panel of judges ranging in several disciplines. If you have any suggestions or questions, please direct them to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• It’s not possible to correspond with the judges about the results of the cosplay competitions, but asking for feedback afterwards is encouraged.

Winners 

• All winners will be announced during the Closing Ceremony on Sunday.
• Winning teams and solo contestants will receive an entry ticket to the next edition of AnimeCon.
• The AnimeCon cosplay competition sponsor CosplayShop.Be should always be visible when posting award photos online.
• If one member of the winning team cannot go, a replacement will be chosen by the original team members in conjunction with Stichting J-Pop.
• If the whole team cannot go, the runner ups who were chosen by the judges will be informed.
• Final representatives are expected to read and uphold the rules and procedures of the ECG and behave in a responsible manner befitting guests to another country. Failure to do so by disregarding said rules, getting disqualified due to avoidable actions by the representatives or otherwise, will result in recouping any costs made by Stichting J-Pop.

ECG finals

• You must be available for travel to France in the first week of July 2027.
• The winning team must present a valid passport or ID card as soon as able after the preliminary.
• Your travel will be paid for by Stichting Japanse Popcultuur, the rest of your costs (food, drink, trips, extra luggage, trip to/from the airport/train station, etc.) will NOT be covered.
• The performance at the finals can be the same as the performance given in the preliminary round, but if it is the same, you should try to improve upon it.
• Big size props can't exceed 20 kilos and require 2 staff to carry it in AND off the stage in one go in 15 seconds max.
  Middle size props can't exceed 11 kilos and require 1 staff to carry it in AND off the stage in one go in 15 seconds max.
  Small size props can't exceed 3 kilos and must be carried by the cosplayer in AND off the stage in one go in 15 seconds max if no staff is available.
• Each entry at the finals will have the help of up to 4 staff members max to carry the stage props in and off the stage.
• Weapons and accessories held in hand don't count in this limit.
• Two extra costumes should be brought along for any extra events.
• For more information about Extreme Cosplay Gathering, please visit:
  https://www.ecg-cosplay.com/en/