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HYPER JAPAN2014 , the finale!

Posted on by marketing

All good things must come to an end, even our favourite J-culture celebration, and so HYPER JAPAN 2014 is closed! We’ve had a wonderful time, and we hope you all have too, we’ve got the photos to prove it:

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These sake drinkers are a great example of the happy tasters at our Sake Experience this weekend! With 25 different sakes from 11 different brewers, we hope many of you went home as newly-minted sake connoisseurs.

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The delicious application of Japanese flavours to less traditional desserts also made an impression on both us and our visitors. We enjoyed the demonstrations by our Eat-Japan and Taste-Japan specialists, some of which dealt with this very topic! From the packed demonstration area, it’s obvious that our visitors did too.

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Speaking of packed, HIROKI, the Masked Ninja, drew huge crowds to every performance on our main stage, his incredible physique stunning almost as many people as his amazing martial arts skills.

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He wasn’t the only performer to excite our crowds though; between Broken Doll, Yanakiku, KeroKero Bonito, Yano Anna, the Vocaloid Yuzuki Yukari and One Not’e on Sunday alone, our visitors were all spoiled for choice by an amazing bevy of musical acts. Added to that SIRO-A, DEN Entertainment and demonstrations by Robo Garage and ITK, for the ultimate selection of J-culture on our many stages!

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HYPER JAPAN wouldn’t be the same without cosplay though, and we had two major contests this weekend.

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Our very own COSParade took place over two days, with the main judging on Saturday. The ECG likewise took to the main stage and there was a combined prize ceremony for the two on Sunday, a grand celebration of the costuming skill of all our participants. We’re very proud to mention in particular that the winners of the ECG, who will represent the UK in 2015 at the Paris Japan Expo, are Shirak as Lydia Deetz from “Beetlejuice”, and the group of Nomes and Altria as Lennth and Valkyrie respectively from “Lord of Vermillon”!

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We have enjoyed seeing you all again at our biggest HYPER JAPAN ever! Our next event is HYPER JAPAN Christmas 2014, taking place from November 14th-16th. See you again there!

Finally, if you’re one of our pop-culture fans, we’d love it if you could take some time to answer this survey.

Final Cosplay Guests and ECG + Cosparade Judges!

Posted on by marketing

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Samie Cosplay

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One of our judges for ECG – European Cosplay Gathering UK preliminaries is Samie Cosplay– all the way from Denmark! Samie has represented her country in the World Cosplay Summit in 2012, the European Cosplay Gathering in 2013 and was selected to take part at the World Cosplay Masters 2013.

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Samie has been cosplaying for 5 years and is a trained seamstress assistant. Samie loves to use cosplay as a way to be creative and challenge herself, especially by trying out new stuff – but most importantly, cosplay to her is about enjoying what you do. Samie’s biggest joy when it comes to cosplay is the performance, she loves to get on stage and deliver an entertaining show that the audience will never forget!

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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SamieCosplay?fref=ts

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Cosplex

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Lex aka Cosplex has been cosplaying for 10 years and is based in Aberdeen! Recently, cosplay has taken her to many different countries and she has represented the UK during WCS 2012 and ECG 2014. She is most comfortable creating all things fabric based with cosplay providing a creative outlet from her day to day job as a petrophysicist in the oil industry.

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https://www.facebook.com/cosplex?fref=ts

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VCosplay

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Totoro superfan, Vcosplay is all about the fun that cosplays brings him,  cosplay gives him an artistic outlet from his day job in IT. VCosplay built Totoro as he is a HUGE fan and wanted to try his hand at building something that replicated Myazakis amazing work! Descriving himself as arty, nerdy and gadget mad Vcosplay can’t wait to get photos with you, judge our Saturday Cosparde and provide a fursuit workshop Sunday.

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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vcosplay?fref=ts

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TheKillingDoll

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This experienced cosplayer got into cosplay a number of years ago. In the past few years he has challenged himself, winning awards at several conventions and even represented the UK at the 2011 Eurocosplay Championship. Since then he has been a regular judge at numerous events, including HYPER JAPAN! TheKillingDoll will be one of the four ECG judges.

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(photo credit: Many Lemons)

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Chiquitita Cosplay

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Chiquitita cosplay our Spanish seamstress has a degree in costume design and specialises in millinery and corsetry. She has  produced costumes for several theatre shows around the country. Her love of history has insired her creations, she has a soft spot for the tudors! At Hyper Japan Chiquitita will be providing demos and workshops for adults and children. Chiquitita will also have a stall selling signed prints.

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Twitter @Chiquititacoz

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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChiquititaCosplay

More Cosplay Guests confirmed!

Posted on by marketing

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We’ve got more cosplay guests and judges confirmed for ECG and our Cosparade!

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Enja Cosplay

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Benjamin Hunt aka Enja Cosplay is a London based cosplayer and all-round geek. He began competitive Cosplay in 2011 when he represented the UK in the first Season of the European Cosplay Gathering in Paris. He’s since represented the UK at Eurocosplay and ECG Season 4, as well as winning the final of Cosplay World Masters.

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Ben will be sharing his knowledge and answering your cosplay questions at HYPER JAPAN, he also has a special performance in-store with cosplay partner in crime Laura Sindall

Laura Sindall

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Laura Sindall is a London based cosplayer who has been creating costumes for 8 years. During this time she has cosplayed around the world, representing the UK at the 2012 World Cosplay Summit in Japan!

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Laura works as a full time Special Effects Artist for Artem, working on films, events and commercials including Prometheus, the London Olympic ceremonies and the official Halo and Titanfall suits for the launch of the games. She has also created costumes for several other companies within the video games industry including Sony, Namco, TecmoKoei, Nintendo, and 2K.

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Laura will be performing at HYPER JAPAN as part of ECG Team UK 2014 together with her team-mate Enja Cosplay and will be helping to judge the Sunday COSParade.

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Paine

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Paine Cosplay, one of our ECG preliminaries judges, is travelling all the way from Belgium to attend HYPER JAPAN!

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Paine has been cosplaying for 7 years and has represented Belgium twice at the ECG – European Cosplay Gathering
(season 1 and 3) and once at the EuroCosplay finals (season 1). Since then she has been a Cosplay judge in many countries, including Belgium, Scotland, Switzerland, Romania and France judging contetss such as ECG, EC and WCS selections.

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Paine’s favourite costumes are intricate dresses with props. She loves embroidery and discovering new materials. That’s why, at the moment, most of her ‘costume challenges’ involve detailed embroideries and leather work.

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As well as judging, Paine also hopes to provide a workshop on embroidery over the weekend!

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Our other ECG preliminaries judge is the one and only Tabitha Lyons!

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Tabitha has been making props with her dad since she was 12 and is part of Artyfakes Action-Props. As well as an avid cosplayer she has been LARPing since she was 8! Tabitha will be at Hyper Japan SUNDAY ONLY and will have a stall selling signed prints! Tabitha is an experienced cosplay contest judge and she can’t wait to see all your cosplays on the day!

This Summer’s Cosplay Guests

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HYPER JAPAN 2014 will feature a host of cosplay veterans, who’ll be showing off their recent work, helping judge the UK round of the ECG and our CosParade as well as sharing advice and tips with our visitors via workshops and talks.

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Here’s a selection of the confirmed guests so far!

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Kelly Jean

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Kelly Jean has been a cosplayer for many years and studied Fashion and Textiles at Kent University. Kelly sings in a band called Rexon, she even roped them into doing a cosplay themed cover of the opening song to Borderlands 2! Kelly hopes to remake Sailor Moon for Hyper Japan and looks forward to attending.

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Himezawa

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Himezawa is a cosplayer and performer from Germany currently living in London. She participated in the German Cosplay Championship Finals and the European Cosplay Gathering. She was featured on Germany’s largest television program, “RTL”, and has been featured as a Cosplay Star by both “Koneko” and “Neo Magazine”.

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Stacey Rebecca

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Stacey Rebecca is a model, cosplayer and mega nerd based in London. She makes all of her own costumes and props, spends far too much time obsessing over her many fandoms, studies mathematics and drinks an obscene amount of tea. Stacey will be at Hyper Japan for Saturday only.

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EUROPEAN COSPLAY GATHERING DETAILS

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UK Preliminaries – Sunday 27th July on the HYPER JAPAN main stage

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The ECG final will take place at Japan Expo in Paris, France. Japan Expo is the largest pop-culture event in Europe, with over 200,000 visitors and dozens of guests from the world of anime, video games, movies and comics. HYPER JAPAN will be sending one solo cosplayer and one group on an all-expenses paid trip to Japan Expo to represent the UK at the ECG final in July 2015!

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Why enter?

As well as having the chance to represent your country and the fun of an all-expenses paid trip to Paris, ECG is a great chance to meet like-minded cosplayers from all over Europe and share an exciting experience together meeting new friends both abroad and at HYPER JAPAN. Many of our previous representatives have made friendships with their fellow contestants which have lasted well after the contest was over.

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Who can enter?

Anyone who lives in the UK or is the holder of a British passport. You can enter by yourself or in a group, and you must be aged 18 by 1st June 2015.

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How is the contest judged?

ECG is judged on 50% costume, 50% performance. Performing doesn’t need to be scary – it just means that well made simpler costumes have a fair chance at placing as well as complex ones if they have an interesting presentation to go with it.

What’s a progress book and why do I need one?

We ask that all ECG contestants bring a small book with them explaining how they made their costume. This is just so the judges can see all the hard work you’ve put into making your costume. Your book can be as simple or as detailed as you like, it just needs to contain a few in-progress photos of your costume and one or two notes explaining how you made it.

How can I enter?

The UK Preliminary for ECG 2015 will take place on Sunday, 27th July 2014 at HYPER JAPAN. This means the winning team will have almost a year to prepare for the finals in 2015!

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Entries are now closed! Thankyou to all who applied for entry.

You can download the rules and entry pack here.

Cosplay Events at HYPER JAPAN 2014

Posted on by hj_developer
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This year we are pulling out all the stops for Cosplay at HYPER JAPAN!

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Ready, steady, suit-up: after the spectacular shows last year we’re getting set for even more cosplay fun in 2014! HYPER JAPAN is the event where UK cosplayers get to step up to the world stage, so all eyes will be on HYPER JAPAN in 2014 for the next ultimate UK cosplayers!

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The HYPER JAPAN cosplay team will be involved in the World Cosplay Summit (WCS) 2015 UK preliminaries this November, but there’s plenty more action before then:

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EUROPEAN COSPLAY GATHERING

We’re proud to announce that we will be one again hosting the UK Preliminaries for the European Cosplay Gathering (ECG) contest this year, an exciting contest bringing together cosplayers from all over Europe!

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More details about the ECG at HYPER JAPAN 2014 can be found here. You can download the rules and entry pack in advance here

COSParade

Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th July

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The COSParade is a chance for both experienced and beginner cosplayers to show off their costumes on the HYPER JAPAN stage! Simply strut your stuff on our catwalk, and we’ll be dishing out prizes for the best costumes. Prizes TBC.

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There are two ways to enter:

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Online

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You can download the rules and entry form here. However, pre-registration is now closed.

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On the day

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There will be a small number of places reserved for on-the-day entries. Arrive early to avoid disappointment!

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HYPER OTACHIDAI & Photo Gathering

HYPER JAPAN 2014 will feature our biggest and best HYPER-OTACHIDAI to date!

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Taking advantage of Earls Court 1’s larger area, we’re setting up a special space for cosplaying HJ attendees to show off their costumes and get some lovely snaps taken, with lighting set up especially for photography. While it is open to all attendees, we are organising slots for meetups and gatherings with a theme, you can see the details here.

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Cosplay workshop & Guests

Learn how to make costumes with community staff
Our HYPER JAPAN Cosplay area isn’t just for the finished product this year, as more experienced and knowledgeable members of the cosplay community will be on hand demonstrating techniques to help you make the costume of your dreams just that little bit better.

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Facilities for Cosplayers

HYPER JAPAN offers full changing room and costume repair facilities for cosplayers. The changing rooms are open to all cosplayers attending HYPER JAPAN, but priority will be given to event contestants during busy times.
If you have any questions about cosplaying at HYPER JAPAN, please email cosplay@hyperjapan.co.uk

Weapons and Props

For safety reasons, cosplayers are allowed to carry props as part of their costume as long as they are shorter than 1.5m, made from a lightweight material and have all sharp edges rounded off. If your weapon / prop is heavier or larger, you can take it on stage during the contests but please leave it at the Cosplay Desk while you walk around the event.