The long long WCS feels post

I'm an old cosplayer.

I started this hobby back in 2007 after years of doing costuming in the SCA and being vaguely gothy. When I was in the early years of my PhD I was introduced to Kotani Mari, not as a student of Japanese literature but as a cosplayer.... it would change my life.

In 2003/2004 I was on exchange to Nagoya - this is the year the first WCS was held. Later, as a PhD student on exchange in Tokyo at Ocha no Mizu U, I was thrilled to be able to go to Nagoya to see Asham and Level 4 Chaos perform as Team Go,Wu, GO! I was given tickets to the seated area as a guest of WCS Australia and spent the day with Uncle Widya. I still have that ticket stub - I carry it in my bus pass case.

My voice has been "on" the stage of the WCS Championships twice already - for Team Aus 2011 and 2018.

It's been heard a lot back stage, though, as I volunteered as an interpreter and translator while I was in Japan on Research Leave from my job at Victoria University of Wellington in 2017. I have had the pleasure and the privilege of helping to look after 3 years of in person WCS Championship teams and 2 years of video Championship teams. Due to work commitments and an ongoing health condition I can't travel this year, but I'll be wishing all of the 2023 teams the very best and doing what I can from Australia to support them all, including our own Team Aus 2023, Marmalade and Mangalphantom.

In 2018 I was thrilled when Tessu (an icon, an inspiration, a gift, and best of all, a friend) agreed to do an X/1999 skit with me - she took my ideas and added a hundred Beauty and the Beast references and a whole lot of leather and rhinestones (a trend!). I could not imagine doing that skit with anyone else and I'm still incredibly proud of our 3rd to the teams who would eventually become WCS Grand Champions 2019 and WCS 1st Runner Up Stage Division 2022.

After being backstage for WCS 2018 in Japan, I immediately messaged Amy, asked her if she would do an Akira skit with me for 2019, and assured her that there was 0 pressure as we would be in dirty jeans and t-shirts (Amy claims I said something like "do you wanna lose WCS Australia with me?"). We came a very giddy 2nd.

A pandemic, a stressful new job, a move home to live with my partner and cats for the first time in 10 years, and really annoying health stuff later we get to the end of 2021. Amy and I were set to enter with a cracktastic skit based on the manga Tonde Saitama and our problematic love of Gackt - but life happened and we had to pull out.

At the end of last year Amy and I had a serious talk - do we want to have one more go at WCS?

Amy pointed out that our niche, Gackt ideas would be no match for the tour de force that would no doubt storm the 2023 WCS Australia Stage (she was right - did you see that stage? Every team was fantastic in their own right. We put on a damn fine show).

I was sure I was out of ideas, but there was one pair of characters - one dream costume I had always wanted to wear but could never find a partner for - Princess Emeraude and her Zagato.

Amy is a generous cosplayer and creative in ways that it's hard to explain. She was willing to be subjected to my selfish gremlin needs to make the Princess Emeraude gown MY WAY, to MY needs. I knew I could create the Zagato robes fairly quickly, but that I would need months to research and create the PERFECT Emeraude.

After 2020, my birthday in March has been very difficult - for a lot of us, that was when the world changed completely. As a birthday treat this year, I asked Amy to come over for the first of many bodice fittings and the race was on.

I wrote a 10 minute radio play and Amy somehow managed to edit and refine it, to record, mix, and compose our beautiful 2 minute 30 second audio.

While I used sewing techniques I was confident with (apart from the piece work on those boots - absolute nightmare, do not recommend, how do people work with Lycra??), Amy made it her mission to learn how to make and wire light up gems, including learning how to work with resin in Tasmania - the state where UV resin doesn't set.

She literally made us glow.

To balance out Amy's ball gown, I decided that Zagato - a space priest - needed full Vestments including a Cassock, Alb, Chasuble, Cope, Gauntlets and the ridiculous CLAMP Tm armour.

I knew I could do all of this because I am old. I have years of stuffing up and crying over cosplay.

This year's teams - your 2023 WCS Australian Preliminary Finalists - are an incredible and amazing bunch of artisans and cosplayers.

Forged in Fire - the skills that you have learnt and implemented since last year are incredible. MonHun skits are hard because of the nature of the game, but you brought something to the franchise that was new and fresh (and I love a good puppet prop!)

Doom Flag - I cannot get over how clean and beautiful the shapes your bell skirts were. I'm sorry if I over stepped with the cookie talk. ...

Field of Dreams - your skit kept on building in such brilliant and clever ways, but that final delivery on "the ocean is right over there" was killer.

Get in the Robot - you had me at "bite me Ritsuko." That quick change was intimidating in a year of intimidating quick changes!

Hot Chips - Angels! Thank you for coming back to the cosplay stage and literally lighting it up in ways that I could never imagine. Congratulations 🎊

Nianecos - soupy armour friends! What happened to our winter convention, hmm?

Pretty Prism - these two Pretty Sailor Guardians may have dazzled on stage, but the support and enthusiasm that they gave to everyone off stage was blinding. Thank you for being on constant train and shoulder pad watch.

Team Jacob - the perfect in character Princess Jellyfish team. Thank you for also being on train and shoulder pad watch. Awoo does not suffice.

Team Edward - my beautiful cosplay nibblings. You know what you did. Congratulations 🎊

We could not have done what we did without the amazing backstage and tech crew lead by Cam and K8. Thank you for your care, your hard work, and for being such good humans.

WCS Australia does not happen without the year round hard work of Natalie and the committee - and while we are breathing a sigh of relief, Nat and Widya are gearing up for the moist Nagoya heat in a few weeks time.

I cannot sing my praises and thanks for Asham loudly enough. All of the behind the scenes work you do is amazing. I found out my new mascara was waterproof on Sunday as I ugly cried through Morris's shout out to you. Thank you to you, Beau, and Bartok.

Thank you to Jo and to Nayzeers (MVP Saturday SMASH 2023) for your hard work. Jo is a magician and an artist - I am in awe of how beautifully you captured Amy and I. I am looking forward to working with you at Icon Cosplay Photo Fest.

I don't have enough words to describe my thanks to you Jayne for looking after Amy and helping to carry weird things around a crowded convention centre. Thank you for letting our Magic Knights scream in your living room. I don't have the words, but will tea and cake do?

If you were backstage, you may have met Star, my mum.

I am so lucky to have your support and encouragement. Thank you for letting me take over your dining room because my house was too small to sew in. Thank you for taking my question of "how do we make a giant flower and put it on stage?" no less seriously than "can I take a dressing table and mirror to Adelaide?" or "How do I put a castle on stage in Brisbane?" or "can you drive this massive cherry blossom tree to the casino for Taspop?" and perhaps most infamously "can I have your luggage allowance to Sydney to flat pack a bike?"

Thank you for encouraging your strange children and their brilliant visions of ballet, ballroom, feasts, and costuming.

At the very end of this mini essay - but also perhaps right back to beginning - Amy.

I cannot thank you enough for your trust. I've been told I'm incredibly frustrating to write with by my co-authors because I take a long time to think about my work and then somehow produce polished prose at the last minute.

I imagine cosplaying with me is very similar.

Thank you for putting up with my endless filthy swearing, and my walls of text FB messages.

You are a vision as Princess Emeraude.

Your performance ideas, your technical skills, and your beautiful musical talents are incredible and beyond my skill or comprehension.

It was a privilege to stand on stage with you as Zagato and an honour to stand next to you as WCS Team Australia 2024.