We recently made the trip across the Pacific to Comic-Con in San Diego, where we checked out the newest titles from the exhibitors and the costumes made by their fans. Our traveling reporter Yoshio even decided to join in and dress up too.
San Diego wasn’t the only place to see some cool cosplay last weekend, though. Back here in Japan, the summer Wonder Festival, the world’s largest model and figure exhibition, was going on, so we headed over to the Makuhari Messe convention center to photograph the amazing costumes.
The train ride from RocketNews24’s Tokyo office to Makuhari Messe in Chiba Prefecture takes a little over an hour. That meant we’d have to get up early on the Sunday we were attending the show, but we figured a little drowsiness was a small price to pay to see anime, video game, and movie characters come to life.
We weren’t the only ones who brought our cameras, either. Wonder Festival has a dedicated area for cosplayers to pose for pictures in, and as we headed towards it we saw a mass of people. There were tons of fans in costume, and the most popular and photogenic had lines with dozens of camera-toting admirers waiting to snap a picture.
While most of the characters being portrayed at Wonder Festival hail from Japanese franchises, we also spotted a pair of Hollywood horror icons.
Ordinarily, we’d be terrified to unexpectedly run into the slasher genre’s two most notorious figures, Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees. Thankfully, rather than the hideously scarred man and hulking brute featured in the Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th movies, Wonder Festival was instead graced by these two women cosplaying as the sexy figurines manufacturer Kotobukiya announced back in May.
These weren’t the only cases of mixing a pretty face and the unspoken threat of terrible, terrible violence.
This young lady is cosplaying as Gloomy, one of Japan’s many “character goods” mascots specifically designed to sell merchandise. Ordinarily, Gloomy is a cute yet gigantic pink bear who viciously attacks his owner (because, he is, after all, a bear). This costume retains the color scheme and bloody claws of the original Gloomy design, but swaps the furry hindquarters for a frilly skirt and thigh-high socks.
For girlishness without a darkly subversive, Ichigo Hoshimiya and Seira Otoshiro, two of the idol singers from video game and anime Aikatsu were on hand.
▼ Somehow, we don’t see this duo doing anything to dampen the enthusiasm of Aiatsu’s adult male fanbase.
Speaking of enthusiasm, nothing gets people fired up like a straight-up cheerleader.
Carefull research/staring at her chest reveals that this is in fact Maki from Love Live, the current reigning champion of cute girl anime.
Another franchise that still doesn’t show any signs of slowing down is Kantai Collection, which mixes World War II warships with cute girls, as demonstrated here by Hacchan.
As popular as Love Live and Kantai Collection may be at the moment, though, they’ve still got a few decades to go before they can match the popularity of evergreen hit Sailor Moon.
In recent years, Wonder Festival’s been drawing more and more foreign visitors, like this Sailor Venus.
Making another strong case for classic anime series that’re still cool were these two separate Jojo’s Bizarre Adventures groups.
It was also nice to know someone still remembers Hoshin Engi over a decade after both its anime and manga versions finished, like the modeler of this Dakki costume.
Despite looking like an ordinary girl, Haruhi Suzumia is actually a super-powered entity who can warp reality….
….not to mention her face
Extra credit for this dedicated individual who strapped on a pair of gloves when we turned our lens on her, despite the roasting hot weather that saw the temperature shoot past 35 degree Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit).
On the gaming front, Capcom’s Monster Hunter continues to be a juggernaut in Japan.
Its category rival from Namco Bandai Games, God Eater (retitled Gods Eater Burst in North America), was represented too.
▼ Some really nice detailing on the weapon
Finally, even though we’re still a half-year away from the scheduled release of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, we’re already seeing cosplay for it, such as this gender-flipped version of child soldier Eli.
What do you think, Eli? Should series creator Hideo Kojima pull another Sons of Liberty trick and make players go through the game as someone other than perennial leading man Snake?
Yeah, us neither.
Photos: RocketNews24