You may have heard about Japan-Expo in Paris before, because it's the largest Japanese Pop-culture related event outside of Japan. A couple of years ago, they started a Pan-European Costume or Cosplay competition where only the Top 13 European Cosplay countries can compete!
The Netherlands is of course considered as one of these thirteen countries! Japan-Expo, in its wisdom has chosen AnimeCon as the event that will send the Dutch representatives to the European Cosplay Gathering (ECG) at Japan-Expo in July! You as a solo Cosplayer or as a team of two or three people can win an expenses paid trip including hotel rooms to Japan-Expo where you will have to compete and represent The Netherlands at the European Cosplay Gathering and hopefully win fabulous prizes there!

Sign up now!

Sign-up starts on 05-03-2022 at 12:00 here

When signing up for this competition, you will in any case need to provide us with:
- Small storyboard about your act in 5-10 lines of text
- Ticket reference number
Without these, your entry will not be valid.
Materials like scripts, music and such are due on a later date and will not be needed for the initial sign-up.

Restrictions

Aside from the usual rules, the following applies:
Visitors of this specific event are allowed to take pictures of the event. All entrants need to agree to this if they want to compete in this event. A special entry for this purpose has been added to the Cosplay Competition registration form. However, it is NOT allowed, to use FLASH photography! Remember other people's personal (as well as third parties) rights will always apply, but what you do with YOUR pictures/recordings is YOUR OWN responsibility!

Rules

- For cosplay weapons guidelines read the house rules. Dutch weapons law will always apply!
- The Dutch team will be represented by a team of two or three cosplayers (this team must be in costumes from the same series) and a solo contestant.
- You and/or your team must wear self-made costumes.
- You and/or your team may use small props that were store bought.
- The team must perform an act on stage that may not exceed 150 seconds; the solo act may not exceed 90 seconds*.

Once entered, you will get a script form to fill in the details of your act. This will have to be handed in on a date yet to be determined, but will be 4 weeks before the convention, 23:59h at the latest.
With your script, you will also have to provide:
- 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.
- 3D-printing: Somewhere on the final product needs to be an embossment of your makers mark (your initials) as part of the design. Make screenshots during the designing to add to your WiPs.

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.
Stage ninjas are NOT allowed.
You must attend AnimeCon at least on the day of the preliminaries if you want to compete for ECG Group.
You must attend AnimeCon at least on the day of the preliminaries if you want to compete for ECG Solo.
You must be 18 years or older on the date of the preliminaries if you want to compete for the ECG.
You must be able to come to France in July for the European Cosplay Gathering, which is always from a Wednesday to Monday.
Train costs (from the nearest HSL station closest to the winners to Paris) will be paid for by Stichting Japanse Popcultuur, the rest of your costs (food, drink, trips, extra luggage, trip to the train station, etc.) will NOT be covered.
Your Cosplay must be from an anime, manga, comic, video game, movie, TV series or J-Music. It may not be from a stage musical or be a fictional character you or your friends created.
*Please note that at the ECG, the solo act has to be 75 seconds max. The representative will have to adjust his/her act in accordance before the finals.

Questions? 

If you have questions regarding the Cosplay Competition, kindly direct them to us, using the appropriate forum (Before you submit a question, please browse the forum to see if your question has already been answered) or send us an e-mail using our contact form (choose 'Cosplay Event' from the subject dropdown menu).

Livestream

You can watch this event via our livestream at twitch.tv/animeconnl

For legal and safety reasons we are not allowed to exceed the Theatre Hall's maximum capacity. For the people that will miss out we will try to show a recording.