NAJ Winter Cosplay Wonderland-2 kicks off in Dimapur

Nagaland debuts to India’s final prelims for the World Cosplay Summit

The second edition of the Nagaland Anime Junkies (NAJ) Winter Cosplay Wonderland (WCW) kick started at Niathu resort in Dimapur on Friday.

Cosplay, a contraction for the two words ‘costume play,’ is a performance art in which participants called as cosplayers, dress up as characters from films, books, or video games, especially one from the Japanese genres of ‘manga’ or anime.

Anime aficionado from around Nagaland and various states of India came to witness the event on this special day.

The cosplayers were seen presenting their favourite characters with colourful costumes, props, and wigs, making one feel like they are watching anime.

To bring and unite all manga, anime, comic, and video game lovers is one of the main goals behind organising the two day annual event.

On the first day (Friday), three groups competed for the World Cosplay Summit (WCS) India local prelims.

Tosatengai I Phom and M Angchiwa Phom, who cosplayed as ‘Rabo’ and ‘Yato’ from the Japanese anime ‘Noragami,’ emerged as the winner. They will be participating for the finals today.

Meanwhile, Ati and Zaza, who cosplayed as ‘Elsa’ from the movie ‘Frozen,’ were selected as the winner in the solo round. Juno Pinggam, a national cosplayer from Arunachal Pradesh was the event host while Reika, an international cosplayer from Japan was the main judge.

It is to be mentioned that Nagaland, under the aegis NAJ, received the chance to host the India’s final prelims for the World Cosplay Summit 2019 which will be held today from 10:00 am onwards.

World Cosplay Summit is one of the largest global annual cosplay festivals held in Nagoya, Japan.

While talking to Eastern Mirror, one of the members of NAJ, Alo Semy, told this reporter that NAJ is based in Kohima and it started as a fan page in Facebook back in 2011. He said that the group consists of nine members with Biebe Natso as the founder and the team leader.

Semy said that they hosted the first annual NAJ cosplay in 2013 in Kohima. He said that the WCS in India is being managed by Anime Pop Mall which is based in Delhi. “WCS India hosts such events in different states of the country. Previously, Bangalore hosted the event. This time, Nagaland got the chance to host it. The winner will be given a chance to have a free trip to Japan,” he added.

One of the participants, Kadangchie Sangma (21), who came all the way from Tura, Meghalaya participated in day’s event. She cosplayed as ‘Yuuki Konno’ from the anime, ‘Sword Art Online – 2.’ She said it was her third time participating in a cosplay event and it took her one month to prepare her costume and three hours to dress up.

The winners, Tosatengai I Phom and M Angchiwa Phom, told this reporter that they had four years of experience and had spent INR 4000 and a week of preparation for the competition.

Altogether nine finalists from various states including Nagaland will be competing at the India’s final prelims for the World Cosplay Summit 2019

Eastern Mirror Desk