Two Tasmanians gunning for the crown of world’s best cosplayer at World Cosplay Summit

As the world’s top sporting talent countdown to Paris two Tasmanians are preparing to head to Japan for their own niche Olympics at the World Cosplay Summit.

As the world’s top sporting talent countdown to Paris two Tasmanians are preparing to head to Japan for their own niche Olympics – the world’s largest cosplay festival.

Award-winning cosplayer and cosplay scholar Dr Emerald King has had an affinity with Japanese literature since her first exchange to Japan through a Cadbury scholarship in the 1990s.

“I’m really interested in the meaning of the character that’s put into the costume,” Dr King said.

“What you can read from the design choices that have been made by the person that made the costume,”

Cosplay is a combination of the words costume and play and refers to participants who dress up as characters from film, television or video games particularly from Japanese sources.

Hobart based cosplayers Dr Emerald L King and Ms Amy King will take their handmade costumes to an international cosplay competition in Japan. Picture: Benny Tang

Tasmanian cosplayer Dr Emerald L King is heading to Japan to represent Australia in an international cosplay competition. Picture: Benny Tang.

Dr King is a lecturer in humanities at UTAS and her research is based on Japanese literature. She said she is one of the few people in the world studying cosplay as an academic area.

Dr King and her cosplaying partner Amy King (no relation) are heading to the World Cosplay Summit in Japan this weekend after securing the top spot to represent Australia.

The pair will be wearing handcrafted costumes and props depicting iconic 1980s anime film Akira and performing a short skit backed by music written by musician and sound technician Ms King.

Award-winning Tasmanian cosplayers Dr Emerald King and Ms Amy King will represent Australia at an international cosplay competition in August. Picture: Benny Tang.

For the World Cosplay Summit at least 80 per cent of the costume has to be made by the wearer using traditional textile techniques and contemporary technology such as 3d printing.

“That can be everything from cobbling shoes to knotting a wig,” Dr King said.

“I’m a curvy woman trying to appear as a very short 16 year old Japanese boy.

“So there are a lot of tricks that go into the costume to hide things and emphasise other things and you know, tuck things,” she said.

Dr King is excited to be representing Australia in Japan at the 10-day event where she has volunteered backstage for her research several times.

There are representatives from 36 countries attending the summit which begins on August 2.

“It’s one of the biggest competitions in the world,” Dr King said.

“It’s called the cosplay Olympics for a reason.”

Originally published as Two Tasmanians gunning for the crown of world’s best cosplayer at World Cosplay Summit