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Japanese Mayor, Governor Cosplay as Dragon Ball, Yamato Villains (Updated)
posted on by Egan Loo
Nagoya City Mayor Takashi Kawamura and Aichi Prefectural Governor Hideaki Ohmura cosplayed as Dragon Ball antagonist Piccolo and Space Battleship Yamato antagonist Lord Dessler, respectively, for World Cosplay Summit (WCS) 2011 this week. Nagoya, the capital of Aichi, has hosted the international cosplay event every year since 2003. This year, teams from 17 countries took part.
WCS held a red carpet parade through Nagoya's shopping area on Saturday morning. Just as he did last year, Mayor Kawamura opened the parade while cosplaying as the legendary Japanese lord Tokugawa Muneharu. However, Kawamura had cosplayed as Piccolo the day before. Governor Ohmura appeared at the parade as Lord Dessler from the Space Battleship Yamato anime franchise.
Lord Dessler was known as Leader Desslok in the American adaptation Star Blazers. Both Piccolo and Lord Dessler began their respective series as major antagonists, but slowly developed as honorable characters.
Other participants include Nagoya's AKB48 spinoff idol group SKE48 and the main voice cast of the Detective Opera Milky Holmes — cosplaying as their respective characters. WCS will continue on Sunday with the Osu Cosplay Parade and the WCS championship competition with voice actor Tohru Furuya, musical group JAM Project, Bushiroad's Takaaki Kidani, cosplayer Tatsumi Inui, and Tokai Walker magazine editor Masaaki Nagase as judges.
Astronaut Sōichi Noguchi sometimes wore the signature red-arrow-on-white shirt of Yamato protagonist Susumu Kodai (Star Blazers' Derek Wildstar) during his stay aboard the International Space Station last year. During last year's World Cosplay Summit, one cosplayer at Nagoya demonstrated what Konami's virtual girlfriend simulator Loveplus would look like in real life.
Sources: Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web, Rocket News 24 (link 2)
Photographs via World Cosplay Summit, Hideaki Ohmura, Nobuyuki Nakamura
Update: The second parade occurred on Saturday afternoon, not Sunday. Thanks Sydney2K.
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