Interest

Anime Expo to Award US$25,000 in Cosplay Prizes

The Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation announced on Thursday that it will be awarding a total of US$25,000 in cash and prizes to cosplayers attending Anime Expo 2011, which will run in Los Angeles during the extended July 1-4 holiday weekend.

The biggest of these prizes will be a US$10,000 grand prize to the team that wins "Best of Show" at the AX 2011 Masquerade, a competition where teams of cosplayers act out a skit while being judged on their storytelling, performance, and cosplay design. Masquerade's second and third place winners will receive US$2,500 and US$1,000 respectively, while winners of the smaller masquerades and on-the-spot competitions will split close to US$12,000 in cash and prizes.

“The fans who work so hard on their costumes and performances all year long and who make Anime Expo so exciting will be well rewarded in 2011,” said Chairman and CEO Marc Perez in SPJA's press release. The SPJA is a non-profit organization that produces Anime Expo, the largest and one of the longest-running anime conventions in North America. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the event.

Whitney Brown, a college student from Long Beach, California who participates in masquerades in smaller California conventions, said that the announcement, "has certainly spun up a craze in the cosplay community. There will probably be the full variety of skits from good to bad to 'what did i just watch,' but the groups that have consistently brought out good skits in the past will probably just amp up their game."

Registration for Anime Expo 2011 is currently open; however registration for participating in events such as the masquerade are not available at the moment.