Canon presents

Anime Festival Asia will once again host its wildly anticipated Regional Cosplay Championship at this year's AFA'11! Last year's championship saw over 7,000 attendees, with at least 70 cosplayers spanning over 30 teams. Regional Cosplay Championship is arguably one of the largest cosplay competitions to be held in Southeast Asia!

The top cosplay team from each participating Southeast Asian country will be sponsored by AFA'11 to compete in the Regional Cosplay Championship during the two-day anime festival where they will perform and be judged by a panel of distinguished guests from Japan and around the region, which includes internationally renowned cosplayer KANAME☆ This year, local auditions will be held in all participating countries. Our quest for the best team in costume quality and character portrayal just got more prestigious!

Representatives

Prizes:

• 1st Prize: Trip for 2 to Tokyo, Japan from Singapore via All Nippon Airways + 1x Canon Powershot G12

• 2nd Prize: SGD$500 + 1x Canon Powershot G12
• 3rd Prize: SGD$300 + 1x Canon Powershot G12

Participation

1. Restricted to Japanese intellectual property including, but not limited to, anime, comics, game and novels
2. Characters in the team must be from the same intellectual property
3. Participants are to provide the title of the intellectual property, plus the name and picture of the character they are cosplaying
4. Original, generic and self-modified characters from media of Japanese origin are not eligible
5. Each participation entry must have a team/performance name
6. Each country is represented by a team of two cosplayers
7. Competition is open to Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.
   Philippines will have their teams represented by Cosplaymania's TORCH II event.
   Thailand will have their teams represented by NEGIBOSE's Akihabara Festival and Comic Party 30th event.
8. One representative team of 2 cosplayers from each country will be selected to enter the finals
9. Participants under the age of 18 will require consent from a parent or guardian to enter the tournament
10. AFA has the right to use images, video clips of participant's cosplay and performances prior and after the tournament.

To participate in Regional Cosplay Championship, teams are to submit their details in the provided form:

1. Your team's entry will then be uploaded onto figure.fm
2. All entries are to be submitted before 5th October (Wednesday) 2359hrs GMT+8.
3. 5 teams of each country will be contacted for the semi-finals at the location provided in the email.
4. All results will be out on 15th October (Saturday)
5. Finalists from overseas will have their flight and accommodation provided during their stay in SG
6. All overseas participants must ensure that they have their passports and respective visas applied for
7. The duration for overseas' finalists in Singapore will be from Friday, 11th to Monday, 14th November
8. All costumes must be completed before 2nd October or on the date of semi-finals audition in your region, whichever is earlier.
9. Filipino participants will be judged at Cosplaymania'11 TORCH II cosplay event.
   Thailand participants will be judged at NEGIBOSE's Akihabara Festival and Comic Party 30th event.

Submission format:

Submit your team's entry at http://www.animefestival.asia/form/view.php?id=11. The form requires you to fill in the following:

1. Name (or nickname) of performing member(s)
2. Gender of member(s)
3. Name of group/performance
4. Representing country
5. NRIC/Passport No. (for verification)
6. Contact Info (mobile no. & e-mail address)
7. Title of intellectual property
8. Name of character(s)
9. A picture of the character who the individual member is cosplaying in the finals, including a write up of the character's personality and traits, including any links to provide more character information
10. Photos of previous cosplay in high resolution for official publicity and pre-selection. Photos are preferably unedited by any software. Digitally edited photos will result in a penalty being imposed during pre-selection.
11. Pictures of the character(s) cosplayed in previous cosplay photos
12. Photos of contestants in normal clothing

Finalists are required to submit a performance-requirement form, notifying us of all required items, before 24th October 2200hrs GMT+8, containing the following:

1. Number of people involved in making the costume(s)
2. Man hours spent to complete the costume(s)
3. Props and/or sets to be brought on stage
4. Effects (dry ice) to be used on stage
5. Requirement for microphone
6. Other requirements

Rules and Regulations

1. Each group's performance on stage is limited to 3 minutes, not including preparation and setting up time for set(s)
2. Preparation and setting up of set(s) is limited to 1 minute
3. Costumes can be self-made, commissioned, purchased. Commissioned, purchased costumes will have to bear a handicap (refer to judging guidelines)
4. Contestants are to provide music/video clips to be played in the background during their performances. The following are allowed but must be credited to the intellectual property rights owner:
   i) Original animation extracted from the title
   ii) Voice(s) of original voice actor(s)
   iii) Song(s) with voices of original singer(s)
   iv) Full music or portion of music from the title
5. The use of pyrotechnics is strictly prohibited on stage
6. Contestants may bring their own sets to be used in the performance. Each competing category is limited to maximum 5 pieces of set and they have to be declared to the AFA Cosplay Committee upon confirmation of contestants as finalists prior to the tournament
7. Contestants are to engage their own helper(s) to aid them in preparation, setting up their performance, with up to two (2) helpers per team
8. Contestants are to appear for a rehearsal/technical run for the competition on a day decided by the AFA Cosplay Committee

Judging details and prerequisites

• Pre-selection:

  1. Participants will be judged based on photos of their previous cosplay and picture of the character(s) cosplayed for pre-selection. Digitally edited photos will bear a score-penalty determined by a case-to-case basis
  2. Participants' cosplay photos will be judged with reference to photos of participants in normal/daily clothing
  3. Cosplay in the photos are restricted to Japanese intellectual property including, but not limited to, anime, comics, game and novels
  4. The AFA Cosplay Committee reserves the right not to publish cosplayers as participants on the organiser website if they have failed to provide the relevant and/or necessary information required for registration
  5. 5 teams will be selected and contacted by our corresponding partners (Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia) via email or mobile number. From there, they will attend a closed door judging session based on the locations our partners have set upon.
  6. Judging methodology will be based on the criteria as stated below.

• Pre-selection criteria:

  1. Costume accuracy – 45%
     Reference pictures provided by the finalists will be compared with the cosplay photos back stage before the performances
  2. Costume workmanship – 35%
     The quality of the costume will be reviewed based on the cosplay photos:
     i) For commissioned costume(s), the participating group will have to bear a 5% score-handicap
     ii) For purchased costume(s), the participating group will have to bear a 10% score-handicap
  3. Choice of character – 20%
     Awarded based on suitability of character for the participant

• Regional Cosplay Championship criteria:

  1. Costume accuracy – 25%
     Reference pictures provided by the finalists will be compared with the cosplay photos back stage before the performances
  2. In character – 15%
     Character write-up and other media provided by the finalists will be compared with the finalist's character acting
  3. Performance – 40%
     The finalist will be judged on the stage directions, movement, and entertainment value of the performance piece. Entertainment value will take up 30% of the performance score. Technical directions will take up 10% of performance score
  4. Costume workmanship – 20%
     The quality of the costume will be reviewed backstage before the performance.
     i) For commissioned costume(s), the participating group will have to bear a 5% score-handicap
     ii) For purchased costume(s), the participating group will have to bear a 10% score-handicap

Contestant Responsibility

1. All information furnished by the contestant to the organiser should be truthful to the best of knowledge of the contestant
2. Contestant is responsible for condition of his/her costume at all times
3. Contestant should voice any difficulties to the AFA Cosplay Committee prior to the Championship
4. Contestant backing out of the Championship has to give official notice to the organiser at least 1 month prior to the Championship
5. Contestant is responsible for the condition of any music or video to be played during his/her performance
6. Contestant should remain contactable during any reasonable time before the Championship. In the case whereby contestant is unable to be contacted for a period of time, this period of time has to be make known to the AFA Cosplay Committee

Disclaimer:

1. All participants are required to bear the cost of any overweight luggage charges when shipping costumes and other items
2. All finalists' flight and accommodation will be sponsored by the AFA Cosplay Committee, where applicable
3. All details are subjected to change, at the AFA Cosplay Committee's discretion

Questions and Clarifications:

• For enquiries on the Championship, please email: [email protected]
• To submit your team for preliminaries for the Championship, please visit http://www.animefestival.asia/form/view.php?id=11 and fill in all required information

Affiliate Partners:

Indonesia Go Raikon

Philippines Cosplaymania

Thailand NEGIBOSE

Malaysia akilina