Cosplay Competition

The cosplay competition will take place on Sunday, the 3rd of December. Exact time to be announced!

REGISTRATION | RULES | CATEGORIES | JUDGING CRITERIA | PRIVATE DATA USAGE | JUDGES

REGISTRATION

Just like every year, this AniMatsuri will also feature a cosplay competition! To register, fill in the application and submit it no later than 19th of November 2023 (23:59 (GMT+3)). Note: The deadline is 2 weeks before the event. Please take the deadline seriously, later applications will not be accepted! In addition to the application, it is important to add the selected background music as an MP3 file and provide a video of your performance.

• We ask you to edit your background sounds (music and/or dialogue) to the form and length suited for you, save it as a single MP3 file, and add it to a Google Drive media folder (see the application). It is not possible to use microphones on stage.
• We ask you to upload the video of your performance either to Youtube (as a private video) or to a cloud service (Dropbox, Google Drive etc). In case you don’t have the video done by the time you apply or you don’t have a Google account to modify the application later, please send us a link to your video no later than 19th of November 2023 (23:59 GMT+3) to cosplay@animatsuri.eu. As the subject of the email please put “AniMatsuri 2023 cosplay competition video – yourstagename” and in the email please mention your full name, stage name and the name of the performance.The quality of the video does not matter and you don’t need to be in full costume for the video. If you have props, our cosplay team would really appreciate it if you could involve them in your video, that way we can support you better on stage!). Please also note that the video does not have to be the latest version of what you are about to do on stage unless there is a drastic change (in which case you have to inform our cosplay team the latest by 19th of November at 23:59 (GMT+3)).

We love early registration! This way you will have time for improving your ideas and costumes. If you register before the deadline but can only show a work-in-progress costume and a lot of enthusiasm, that’s wonderful! Experienced cosplayers among the organisers and winners of the festival are happy to give you advice. What’s important is that everything is more or less ready by the deadline. Everyone polishes their performance till the last moment, after all. Every year we have festival visitors who do not dare to take part in the competition but walk around, clad in fantastic costumes. Gather up your courage and register – in reality, you have done a great job and your costume is epic!

RULES

You can cosplay any characters from a published source of entertainment. You can cosplay from any official entertainment source: anime, manga, movies, TV series, cartoons, celebrities, etc. A character can also be an original character or an original design of an existing character. All good! The only restriction: NCC prequalification contestants must be from an official and widely known source – fan fiction and original characters are not eligible (including gijinka/human versions of the characters or genderbend versions). In the case of original characters, it is necessary to provide a comprehensive description and a picture (e.g. fan art) of the character (if possible, add the description to the folder with the picture). You should also submit a suitable image that could be shown on the screen during the stage performance. The image of the character that goes into the prejudging should be sufficiently detailed (so a photo of the finished costume or a simple sketch drawn with a pencil is not suitable – you can always ask the organizing team if your photos are suitable). The better the description and picture of the character, the easier it is for the judges to evaluate your work. Bought costumes are only allowed to compete in stage performance category. Only costumes that are self-made or heavily modified will be pre-judged. If you are not sure if your character is suitable for our competition, or if you have any questions about the costume guidelines, feel free to contact us at cosplay@animatsuri.eu.

Apparel

1. All persons within the festival venue must follow a dress style that is appropriate for a public place.
2. Consider that visitors include underage children so the clothing cannot be too revealing. Your clothes must cover at least your groin, buttocks, and the chest region.
3. The most minimal apparel is the top part of bikinis and shorts/short skirt. If you have a really short skirt, we ask you to wear safety pants (shorts) underneath (the stage is higher than the viewers, this is for your own wellbeing). We often have children at our event, so make sure you don’t go overboard. Visual guide:

If your planned costume happens to be more revealing than allowed by the festival rules, we ask you to find a way to cover the parts in question for the duration of your presence on stage. The judges will be informed about this and will take it into account when assessing the accuracy of the costume.

Stage performance

1. It is forbidden to use obscenity, profanities, gestures encouraging violence, and pornography. Performances going against cultural and/or social norms will not be let on stage. Please make sure your performances are ethical and aesthetic.
2. If there are major/important changes in your performance after submitting the video, the cosplay staff must be informed by 19th of November at 23:59 (GMT+3). The video is necessary for us to see the idea of the performance. There is no need to wear a finished cosplay in the video.

On stage

1. On stage it is forbidden to use glitter, liquids, or other substances hard to remove (anything that takes more than 1 minute to clean and cannot be swept with a brush). If you want to throw something into the audience, you must be careful. Things that break easily and pyrotechnics are not allowed.
2. All props used on stage must be safe and cannot be used to cause bodily harm (blunt blades and plastic marking on weapons*). Additionally, all organisers reserve the right to confiscate any knives, knife-like objects and other cutting utensils that can cause bodily harm.

* Weapons are all items that are regulated by the Republic of Estonia Weapons Act (firearms, gas weapons, pneumatic weapons, throwing weapons, cut-and-thrust weapons, and electroshock weapons). Regardless of the size of the group, every performer and group can bring 1 assistant to backstage. If needed, the cosplay staff can also help you. As organisers we reserve the right to restrict the number of performances. We are aiming for up to 50 performances in total. If the number of submissions is much higher than this, we reserve the right to use the information in your submissions (especially your work-in-progress photos and video) to choose who gets to go on stage. However, AniMatsuri still prides itself on letting cosplayers of all experience levels participate and we will only use this option as a last resort! This year, we have our traditional cosplay categories, but also some new and really exciting ones!

CATEGORIES

Category name	Mostly about…	Maximum people	Maximum length	Open to non-Estonian residents?	Open to AniMatsuri volunteers and crew?
Défilé (1st, 2nd, 3rd place)	Costume quality	1-6	70 seconds	Yes	Yes
Stage show (1st, 2nd, 3rd place)	Choreography and your original creativity	1-8	150 seconds	Yes	Yes
The Nordic Cosplay Championship (NCC)	Both costume quality and choreography	1	90-150 seconds	No	Yes*
AniMatsuri Travel Prize (ATP)	Leaving one hell of an impression	1	Whatever category you entered in	Yes*	No
Audience Favourite	Fanservice! (But keep it within the festival rules)	1-6	Whatever category you entered in	Yes	Yes
Best novice cosplayer	For recognising those who are just starting off	1	Whatever category you entered in	Yes	Yes
Best original character/design	Separate category for original designs	1	Whatever category you entered in	Yes	Yes

* Detailed info below Note: In general, AniMatsuri’s Cosplay Competition likes to have as many winners as we can. This means that you cannot win in two categories. (But you can win one category and take 3rd place in another!) For example, you cannot win both Stage show and Défilé, but you can win Défilé and place 3rd in Stage Show. Our international guest panel will judge all categories except the audience favourite one. The judges will also have the opportunity to award special prizes at their own discretion.

MORE ABOUT CATEGORIES

1. Défilé: This is mainly about your costume and your ability to present it on stage as well as you can within approximately 1 minute. The performance must be between 50-70 seconds. The category is mostly meant for solos and duos, but if it’s your choice then up to 6 people can take part.

• Accuracy (40%) and craftsmanship (40%) are the most important in the category. The cosplay performance only forms 20% of the total score.

2. Stage show: This is about your choreography and/or the story you tell on stage, but don’t forget your costume! Here you can use your imagination and creativity to craft a short performance or a dance routine based on your fandom. You can perform either alone or with someone and the whole performance must be no more than 2 minutes 30 seconds.

• Cosplay performance is the most important in the Stage show category. The total score consists of 80% for cosplay performance and 20% for accuracy (5%) and craftsmanship (15%).

3. The Nordic Cosplay Championship (NCC): You will be judged both based on your costume and performance. The winner will represent Estonia at the Nordic Cosplay Championship in Sweden during NärCon 2024.

• The costume and all props must be self-made (not purchased from a store), the exception being wigs, footwear and tights, underwear, electronics (it can be a completed kit, you don’t have to program and assemble it yourself). The contestant must be prepared to give an overview of how the various parts of their cosplay were made.
• The costume must be based on an official source (no original characters or costumes based on fanart allowed).
• Both the costume and the stage performance will be judged.
• The costume may have participated in other costume competitions (except previous NCC).
• The contestant must be a citizen or permanent resident of Estonia (have an Estonian ID and personal identification code), must be of legal age by AniMatsuri 2023 (3rd of December 2023), and must be able and ready to go to Sweden on the last week of July 2024 (5 days total).
• The contestant can be a member of the staff of AniMatsuri but cannot be associated with organising the cosplay competition (organiser or volunteer).

4. AniMatsuri Travel Prize: this is a special prize rather than a special category. The judges will select one cosplayer who stood out and wowed them – from any performance – to receive AniMatsuri’s travel prize. The winner will be travelling to J-Popcon in Copenhagen, Denmark on the 16th to 18th of February 2024! The trip will be organized by Estravel.

• The competitor must be a citizen of Estonia, Latvia, or Lithuania.
• The competitor must be of legal age by AniMatsuri 2023 (3th of December 2023).
• For costumes, standard AniMatsuri costume rules apply (read more HERE).
• The exact date of the prize trip will be decided alongside the winner but the trip must cover the dates of 16-18th February 2024 so the winner must be available to travel on these dates.
• The prize includes a two-way plane ticket from Tallinn/Riga/Vilnius + accommodation, and tickets for the event.
• The organisation of the prize trip is in cooperation with Estravel travel agency between the winner of the prize and travel agency.
• If the performers belong to a cosplay group (two or more people), it is possible to state which members of the group wish to compete for AniMatsuri Travel Prize.
• The competitor cannot be a staff member of AniMatsuri or UniCon.

5. Additionally, there will be an audience favourite special prize which will be selected by the festival’s visitors through a secret vote. The audience favourite’s voting is not divided by categories. Note: as of 2017, the one-win-only rule does not apply to Audience Favourite! The winner will be the one with the most votes, even if they’ve already won something else. An exception will be made in case of a tie.
6. The Novice Cosplayer Award is to recognize those who are just starting their cosplay journey. To participate in the category, a cosplayer must have been cosplaying for less than 2 and a half years and has not won any awards in competitions. Cosplayer must have participated in less than five competitions (including cosbands).
7. Best original character or original design. This award recognizes a cosplayer who has used their creativity and created something completely unique. They can take part in either Stage show or Défilé category.

Competing in multiple categories is allowed, but the winner of a more high-profile category (ATP, NCC) cannot win in any other category.

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