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The best Japanese cosplayers from the first day of Winter Comiket 2018【Photos】

Oona McGee Dec 30, 2018
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Ghibli, Star Wars, and a Japanese politician inspire some of the creative cosplays in this photo collection.

This weekend a cold snap hit Tokyo, with news reports advising people to rug up and stay warm as snow fell in Japan’s northern areas, and temperatures in the capital’s Kanto region plummeted to below zero.

This didn’t deter the nation’s avid comic fans, though, who had been looking forward to the weekend for some time, as it marked the start of one of the season’s most exciting events: Winter Comiket.

▼ Winter Comiket 2018 runs from 29-31 December.

Held in August and December every year, Comiket draws a huge crowd of people from around the country who congregate on the Tokyo Big Sight venue to purchase self-published doujinshi manga, magazines, and novels.

The weekend’s cold weather did nothing to keep crowds away from the venue, and this year one of our Japanese-language reporters, Tasuku Egawa, was on the scene to bring us a first-hand report of all the cosplay action from day one of the event.

▼ Comiket is the largest fan convention in the world, with more than half a million attendees.

Every time Comiket is held, cosplayers also attend, drawing attention outside the venue as photographers crowd around each cosplayer’s cordoned-off area in an attempt to capture their best angles and poses.

Seeing as Tasuku had arrived early on the first day, though, the cosplay area was relatively crowd-free, as most people had gone straight inside to get their hands on the best items at the fair. That meant he was able to get some great photos, with cosplayers looking straight down the barrel of his lens and giving him their undivided attention.

So let’s get right to it and take a look at this selection of his top 13 favourites from day one of the event!

▼ Donald Curtis and Porco Rosso from Porco Rosso | Cosplayers: @hiropokomaru, @dugongr

▼ Takeshi Konno from Sengoku Comiket | Cosplayer: @Satokken1

▼ San from Princess Mononoke | Cosplayer: @elle_taso_oo

▼ Gilles de Rais from the Fate series | Cosplayer: @pumpkin6non

▼ Saichi Sugimoto from Golden Kamuy | Cosplayer: @dgcksk529

▼ Ashiripa from Golden Kamuy | Cosplayer: @dgcmy1

▼ Genjirou Tanigaki from Golden Kamuy | Cosplayer: @goropachi

▼ The three characters from Golden Kamuy together

This next cosplay depicts red-spectacled Keizo Obuchi, who announced the Heisei era on television on 7 January 1989, when he was chief cabinet secretary. It’s a particularly poignant image, as this is the last Comiket to be held in the Heisei era, due to the emperor abdicating the throne next year.

▼ Heisei Announcement from The Obuchi Cabinet | Cosplayers: @SirCry_s56, @EtO8y

▼ Padmé Amidala from the Star Wars series | Cosplayer: @MarieBoPeep

▼ Marie Antoinette from the Takarazuka Revue version of The Rose of Versailles | Cosplayer: @totoko03s

▼ And rounding off the collection is this “National lightbulb”, because… well, why not?

▼ This character, along with its sign saying, “Lightbulbs are…National” hark back to an older era of advertising.

And though it’s not a cosplay per se, Tasuku couldn’t help adding in an extra shot of a Fate/Grand Order poster he found by the escalators in the northern part of the stallholders’ area.

The image was made up of hundreds, if not thousands, of smaller images from the popular franchise, making this some next-level virtual cosplay.

Covering a wide range of genders, characters and costumes, Tasuku was satisfied with his day’s work. As he made his way home, he was pleasantly surprised to see the clear day gave him a view of Mt Fuji jutting out on the horizon, just to the left of the Ferris Wheel.

With Day 2 and 3 yet to come for Tasuku, this was just the start of his Winter Comiket 2018 cosplay collection, so be sure to check back in the next few days for more new photos. Until then, feel free to enjoy these beautiful cosplayers from August’s Summer Comiket!