World Cosplay Summit

Held in Nagoya, Japan, the World Cosplay Summit (WCS) is an annual cosplay event promoting friendly international exchange through Japanese pop culture. Starting in 2003 with only a handful of countries, it has since grown to include over 35 countries from all over the world. Otakuthon brought WCS to Canada in 2014, allowing Canadian cosplayers to shine on an international stage.

The World Cosplay Championship is the core event at the World Cosplay Summit. Cosplayer teams from around the world compete on stage in 2.5-minute performances in costumes that they created themselves. Canada first participated in the World Cosplay Championship in 2015 as an observer nation and competed for the first time in 2016 as a full participating nation.

The winners of the World Cosplay Summit Canadian Preliminaries at Otakuthon 2025 will go on to represent Canadian cosplay and compete against teams from around the world for the chance at the title of Grand Champion at the 2026 World Cosplay Summit in Japan!

On this page

If you have any questions, please email wcs@otakuthon.com.

1. General Rules

2. Schedule

Note: All times in Eastern Time.

3. Registration

To participate in the competition, your team must complete the WCS Canadian Preliminaries Application Form during the registration period as specified above. In the form, you will be asked for the following.

The WCS Canadian Preliminaries will have a total of 15 teams that will be selected by random lottery. The remaining teams will be assigned to the waitlist in rank order by random lottery.

Please review your responses before submitting to ensure all sections are completed. Any registration form determined to be incomplete will be rejected. The applying team would then be ineligible to participate in the 2025 WCS Canadian Preliminaries.

4. Competition Rules

Eligibility

  1. Each team member must be a registered attendee of Otakuthon. You will be asked to present proof of purchase of your badge or a proof of registration if you are accepted to participate in the Canadian Preliminaries.
  2. Each team member must be at least 18 years of age as of August 1, 2025.
  3. Each team member must either be a citizen or permanent resident of Canada possessing proof of citizenship, such as a passport or a citizenship card, or permanent resident card.
  4. Canada must be the primary country of residence of both team members on August 1, 2025, with the expectation that Canada will continue to be the primary country of residence until August 1, 2026.
  5. Each team member must be eligible to travel to Japan during July and August 2026 and must possess a valid passport or be able to acquire one for that period.
  6. No team member may have participated in another country’s preliminaries or finals for the 2026 WCS Championship in Japan.
  7. No team member may have judged another country’s preliminaries or finals for the 2026 WCS Championship in Japan.
  8. No team member may have been a member of Team Canada in the previous year.
  9. No team member may have been a member of a Representative Team of a country other than Canada in the previous five years. If you were a representative of any country other than Canada in 2022 or later, you cannot compete at the Otakuthon 2025 event.

Costumes and Costume Sources

  1. Teams must abide by the Otakuthon Convention Rules and Prop Policy.
  2. Costumes worn by the team must be for characters from the same source material.
  3. The costume source must be from a Japanese anime, manga, video game, or tokusatsu.
    • Characters and designs from dōjinshi (fanzine), fan art, and anthology works are not permitted.
    • Costume variants from stage or theatre productions, live-action adaptations, and toys or figures may be used as additional references, but costume judging will be based on the original work.
    • The character must be recognizable as being of Japanese origin. For example, characters from Disney or Star Wars are not allowed, even if the anime is made in Japan.
    • Titles based on novels or popular stories originally published or created in countries other than Japan are allowed as long as they have been adapted into manga, anime, or games in Japan and their character designs have been created in Japan.
  4. When in doubt, contact wcs@otakuthon.com to confirm the acceptability of the costumes in question.
  5. Costumes are to be constructed by the team members.
  6. Assembling a costume from store-bought pieces is not permitted. For example, buying or upgrading a pre-made costume, or assembling the majority of a costume from purchased items is not permitted. However purchasing wigs, shoes and small costume items as a base is permitted.
  7. Use of technologies that require data input such as embroidery machines, fabric printing, laser cutters, and 3D printing is permitted, provided that the team members were involved in some aspect of the production of the final piece.

Stage Props

  1. A maximum of 3 stage props are allowed. Each item must weigh under 10 kg and measure no more than 210 cm in height, 210 cm in width, and 90 cm in depth. It must be constructed so that it can be safely and quickly moved by at most 2 people.
  2. Items other than the stage props that need to be set on or at the side of the stage before the performance are to be set by the representatives.
  3. All props need to be self-contained. Items which require external power sources are not permitted. The use of any convention property as a prop will also not be permitted.
  4. It is not permitted to use trademarked illustrations, logos, or to copy or trace scenes or images appearing in original works on equipment or stage props.
  5. All costumes, wigs, props, and equipment for both team members combined are limited to a maximum of 40 kilograms.
  6. Teams are required to attend a large prop drop-off and stage prop setup on Saturday morning to review with the stage ninjas how to move each stage prop and to have all stage props measured. If a stage prop is found to violate the above rules, teams will have the options of:
    • modifying the prop to conform to the above rules,
    • proceeding without the prop,
    • withdrawing from the competition – see the Cancellations section below.

Presentation

  1. The performance time limit is 2 minutes and 30 seconds.
  2. A description of the presentation must be submitted with the application form.
  3. Only the two team members are allowed on stage during the presentation. Stage ninjas are NOT allowed to participate in any way during the performance.
  4. Stage ninjas will be available to place the stage props on the stage prior to the presentation and remove them from the stage after the presentation. Setup and removal should take at most 40 seconds.
  5. It is prohibited to enter the audience area as part of the presentation.
  6. The use of fire, water or other liquids, lasers, strobe devices, and smoke-related special effects is prohibited.
  7. The act of staining, marking, or damaging the stage, the props or costumes of other competitors is prohibited.

Audio

  1. The audio must use royalty-free music and sound clips. No sound sources used in the audio should incur copyright infringement. The source of each sound item must be documented to ensure the audio does not include any copyright-infringing material.
  2. Voice tracks from the source material are NOT allowed.
  3. All audio used in the presentation must be recorded in advance of the competition. Speaking on the stage is not allowed.
  4. Audio must be submitted as an MP3.
  5. Voice tracks containing the original voices are not allowed.
  6. Teams are expected to bring a backup copy of their audio to the event on a USB drive.

Late Penalties

In the case that required documents are received after the submission deadline (see Schedule), a 10% deduction to their overall score will apply for every 24 hours after the deadline. If the delay exceeds 120 hours, a score of 0 point will be awarded without judgement. For example, documents received 0-24 hours after deadline will incur a 10% deduction to their overall score; for 24 to 48 hours after deadline, a 20% deduction; and so on. This penalty applies only once for one or multiple late documents.

In case that WCS Canada requests the correction of documents deemed defective or insufficient, it is required to resend an updated version of the documents addressing the defects indicated within 48 hours from the communication of the request. In this case, as well, a 10% deduction of the overall score be applied for every 24 hours of delay, and a score of 0 points will be awarded without judgment in the case the delay exceeds 72 hours.

In the case that a team is late to their scheduled judging time, a 5% deduction to their overall score will apply for every 5 minutes after their scheduled judging time. If a team is late by more than 30 minutes, a score of 0 point will be awarded without judgement. For example, if a team is scheduled for judging at 12:00 and they arrive between 12:00 and 12:05, they will incur a 5% deduction. If they arrive between 12:06 and 12:10, they will incur a 10% deduction, and so on.

If a team incurs multiple late penalties, they are applied cumulatively. For example, documents submitted 18 hours past their deadline incur a 10% deduction, a resubmission of correction documents that is late by 12 hours incurs an additional 10% deduction, and the team being late to their judging by 4 minutes incurs an additional 5% deduction, which would result in a total 25% deduction of their overall score.

Cancellations

Teams choosing to withdraw from the competition will incur penalties for the next World Cosplay Summit Canadian Preliminaries based on when notice is given:

  1. Prior to June 21, 2025: no penalty.
  2. Between and including June 21, 2025 and July 18, 2025: any submission from either team member will be assigned to the waitlist during selection.
  3. After July 18, 2025: any submission from either team member will be ineligible from entering.

Exceptions may be made in the case of a medical or family emergency. There is no penalty for withdrawing from the waitlist.

5. Judging

The following judging rubric will be used to help decide the winner of the WCS Canadian Preliminaries. Neither the scores nor ranking beyond the winner and runner-up will be released to any of the participating teams nor to the public. The judges may also request input from the directors of WCS Canada during their deliberations.

Presentation (50 points)

  1. Performance: 25 points.
    Evaluation of aspects such as the quality and degree of accomplishment of the performance, how the story is conveyed, the usage of props, the respect for the original work, and the overall entertainment value.
  2. Acting and stage proficiency: 10 points.
    Evaluation of the expressiveness on the stage, including aspects such as the degree of accomplishment of singing, dancing, or other active elements in the performance and how well rehearsed they appear, the expressiveness of performers in scenes with simple or no action, and the delivery of dialogue.
  3. Costume stage presence: 10 points.
    Evaluation of the impression caused by the costumes on the stage, such as the values that are first perceived when the costume appears on stage. Aspects such as the use of gimmicks to change the appearance or the structure of the costumes during the performance are also taken into consideration.
  4. X-factor: 5 points.
    Additional evaluation of points that exceed expectations and results which are particularly moving or exciting, or the realization of new ideas that had not been seen before in the competition.

Costume (50 points)

  1. Level of precision in the costumes: 20 points.
    The costumes are evaluated by comparing the costumes with the design of those in the original work.
  2. Costume quality: 20 points.
    The costumes are evaluated according to multiple factors, such as how well the costume is combined, how well it suits the contestant, or how beautifully it is painted or sewn.
  3. Technique: 10 points.
    Evaluation of costume-making skills. Costumes that have been made by utilizing a variety of challenging techniques are scored more highly than those using a few basic skills. These criteria look more at the level of quality rather than the number of techniques employed.

For costume construction judging, teams will have a total of 10 minutes. Teams will have 5 minutes to present their costumes to the judges. The judges will then have 5 minutes to ask questions and examine the costumes.

NOTE: Because teams are required to prepare PowerPoint presentations with progress photos for the WCS Championship in Japan, teams participating in the WCS Canadian Preliminaries are also required to do so. This costume report should include photos that show the production process, to help the team explain the features, quality, precision, and techniques that have been applied to the costumes.

6. Interviews

In addition to the costume and performance components, there will be a short interview portion as part of the WCS Canadian Preliminaries. While WCS is a cosplay competition, Team Canada, like all other participating teams, will also be acting as national cosplay ambassadors who may meet important members of Japanese corporations and government, as well as be interviewed by Japanese and other participating nations’ media.

At the convention, during the scheduled interview slot, each team will be asked a few questions to evaluate how the team responds.

NOTE: Because the official languages of the WCS Championship in Japan are English and Japanese, the interviews will be performed in English. That said, the level of English fluency is not a factor; only the way the teams present themselves.

7. Media Rules

  1. Application information, such as team information, cosplay names or aliases and submitted photos, may be used for press releases and on the Otakuthon and WCS Canada social media accounts. Real or legal names and personal contact information will be kept private. If you want to use your real name for the press, please note this in your submission.
  2. Media such as TV programs, websites, newspapers and magazines may use photos and images of the WCS Canadian Preliminaries. By submitting your application, you agree that no compensation will be provided should your likeness be used.
  3. After the World Cosplay Summit Canadian Preliminaries, all media (including but not limited to images, photographs, video footage, programs broadcast or DVDs) of the contestants will become the property of the WCS Canada organizational team and Otakuthon. No compensation will be provided should your likeness be used.

If you have any questions, please email wcs@otakuthon.com.