The 2024 WCS “feels” post …

I've been sitting on this for a week and I still don't feel like I've even begun to process WCS.

Amy and I put THE Kaneda bike on stage.
In Japan.

We worked hard on solid but difficult ending poses to our skit ... and we held them like rocks ... and we had to because there was a world-endingly long delay between hitting those poses, Tetsuo's final screams, and the audience finally reacting.
Did we do good? Were we awful? Did people just not know what to think?
Flash backs to our Magic Knight Rayearth skit a year earlier where I lay on the stage waiting for a crowd reaction and not hearing anything but Amy's breathing and my knee's internal screaming after it was destroyed the day before in a scheduling mishap caused by hubris and ego ... 
There's a reason I'm so proud of standing up at the end of that ...

2024 is the shortest WCS I've been involved in with limited Courtesy events,  and just the Red Carpet Eve Festival, Ohs parade and Finale all crammed into the same days as judging and rehearsals. The lack of free time and events such as the Chika/Underground mall parade, Laguna Cosplay, and Meiji Mura meant that there was less travel and less time to socialise...
Possibly. 
I spent the first two nights of the event in my tiny hotel room assembling the wheels and accessories for The Bike (2.3) while Amy camped at her sister's air bnb assembling her gross arm son (2.5). The first day on site at the Aichi Arts was a marathon of prop building (I even called on our Organiser to assemble our clothing rack and tape the artwork of the Olympic throne back to it that I'd drawn and had printed) and napping in the side of stage ... with 0 lighting.
(The first group was put side stage for holding, but we had no lighting because mystery theatre tech reasons, unlike the 30 other teams who were backstage in the light).
(I had intended to add a heap of push lamps to the bike but jettisoned them to make weight limit and I'm glad I did as this meant we could provide our own lighting.)

So what I'm saying is - I'm an old cosplay uncle who had to build things and deal with emotions rather than making friends….

Side stage is where I'm used to standing for WCS. It's where I run stage props and give pep talks and smooth wigs and hold all of the babies (the smaller weapons and hand props). It's where I'm most comfortable, watching nervous cosplayers with cardboard sets transform into gods and monsters and superheroes and ninjas with stone castles and magical tricks.
I could have watched from the dressing room but my brain was already frayed enough as I tried not to "work, " so I watched from our box kingdom in the dark and cheered everyone on, even if they didn't know it.

(I did 1 emergency translation and only herded people towards events twice ... ish).

The World Cosplay Summit was founded in 2003 in Nagoya. In 2003/2004 I was on exchange to Kinjo Gakuin University (studying Japanese language, traditional culture, and British Fairytales and Arthurian Myth and Legend - both taken in Japanese with source texts in a mix of English and Japanese).

I saw my first WCS when I somehow managed to get tickets from then WCS Australia Representative, Asham, and cosplay uncle Widya in 2010.

I published my first article about cosplay in 2013, and my first one on WCS in 2016. 

My "serious academic" work on literature is always a struggle. 
My work on textiles and material culture and cosplay sometimes feels like cheating as, in spite of the literal blood, sweat and tears, it feels like play (and indeed, I've been refused grants because my research apparently didn't seem "hard" enough - whatever that means).

I am the only cosplay studies academic to take part in WCS as a Representative and as a staff member and volunteer translator.

I'm writing this in our thin winter sun and I'm not sure where it's going or if it means anything.

I burst into tears during Mori san and Oguri papa's opening words. 
I caught Doll in the air when she threw herself at me after 5 years. 
I got to hold Amy's hand as she floated down the red carpet looking like a literal princess. 
I cheered myself hoarse for Team Japan as they whipped the audience into a frenzy. 
(I am still in awe of Bulgaria when they literally bailed from a poorly planned event in a taxi in their Death Note costumes - perfect character acting, no notes).

In many ways, while this year didn't have the extra events for bonding, it was in the Discord set up by Team Netherlands last year that bonding and planning (and crying over the endless paperwork) took place. 
Like standing front and centre on the Aichi Arts stage, this was new for me as well. 
I am used to being on the sidelines - there for support and guidance, and a last minute prop fix - rather than being in the thick of it, singing karaoke, eating pub food, and meeting people.

I've sat on this for a week already, and I have two talks coming up that I need to gather my thoughts for. I will still need weeks to process this further. 

WCS is a long journey.

This is a ‘feels’ post because I have many feelings and I’m not sure how to contain or present them.
If my legacy for this year is The Bike and the emergency mini-saw, then I am content.

2024 was a phenomenal year of WCS cosplay, and one that I am honoured to have been a part of.