The cosplay contest was the most "colorful" part of the Spring Carnival for the year and was the shinning moment that fit the "comics" theme for the carnival. The various booths that were there often served an educational purpose, often helping Animalians learn about various aspects of human culture and rules that fit within certain themes. This year happened to be comics. Not every Animalian came, as some converted Animalians weren't necessarily into comics and a fair number of uplifted Animalians often had work, but this was generally something that applied to many activities that Animalia had through the course of the year. The point for the carnival was to make things good for those that could come, and the cosplay contest was one of those things, though most of the participants tended to be younger and often either converted Animalians or Humans.
But the contest worked out well enough as plenty did show up and gave the judges for the contest plenty to consider in accordance with the contest's rules. Contestants could enter as part of a "team" or as individuals, and most of the rules for both tended to apply. Contestants generally had to have some understanding of the characters they portrayed and could either copy an iconic pose or use a line that the portrayed character was well known for. This was something that could be difficult, but that was what helped the judges narrow down contestants as they came across the stage to present themselves to the judges. For the most part comic book characters were preferred, but television and cartoon characters would also be tolerated so long as they met the sort of "superhero" genre that most comics fell into.
From there, things then fell into the accuracy of the costume. How much it resembled a character's portrayed look was a key part of the contest, and those who did the best would get more points with the judges than those who did less. And many contestants did make quite the effort to try and make their costumes as accurate as they could, which was part of what made some of the Spring Carnival fun and attracted some people that might not be interested in the carnival otherwise to come and see the contest as it went, regardless. It brought a fairly steady crowd to stand behind the judges table as the contestants made their way across the stage to make their presentation. Some of the judges were a bit nervous as they would then update the scores that were up on a screen that put up at the back of the stage, just in case someone disagreed with the ranking, and this was made even more important when some of the people in the crowd were there to cheer on those that were participating. However, for the most part, things didn't go too badly in that department. Most of the time, the judges were more asked questions on things.
"So you guys don't work with any of the comics companies?" one visitor asked as Andre gave a few poses on stage in what looked like a tattered lab coat and trousers.
"No," the judge answered looking over his shoulder to see that the person who had asked the question was Human, "We work with Animalia's PR department. We don't get as much attention as Animalia Ambassadoria, partially for a few of us were hired from Horizon... or transferred over from Horizon to work for Animalia's city government."
The guest gave a slow nod as the panel of judges were also all Human as well. That sort of thing was something that had raised a lot of curiosity that many had had with many aspects of Animalia's PR department. Everyone knew about Animalia Ambassadoria, given the success of the web show had very much become Animalia's public face, but much of the rest of the PR department wasn't always seen enough to be recognized by people, even those from Lyre and Animalia.
"Did you read a lot of comics as a kid?" the guest asked.
"Some..." the judge answered, "though not all... And most of what we have to go by is essentially based on printing out pictures of some of the more obscure characters that aren't always known and so on... Admittedly... that took a LOT of printing."
"So you're comparing the look to what you printed out?" the guest asked.
"For the more obscure characters," the judge answered, "remember that much of this was set up on the fly and on short notice. Most major comic conventions are planned out months if not a year in advance. This gives the comic companies time to see if they want to participate and register either booths or representatives. We really didn't have time for that. Most of those that do work in the "industry" in an official capacity were some of the people from the various Japanese and Chinese comic companies who I think have been here because they wanted to produce material covering the five elements."
The judge then turned to point in the direction where that part of the carnival was. It included the names of the companies and styles in block letters. They also had an artist seated on a stool doing caricatures for some of the other guests. The guest he was talking to glanced over and nodded before returning his attention to the stage. And that was really the "worst" of the interactions that the judges had with those that had come to see the contest.
And those that did participate generally had some fun with it too. Much of this was seeing what others were dressed up as, which many noted seemed to reflect a lot of the "educational" aspects that went through things that became part of Animalia's main events. Uplifted Animalians that came to the carnival got curious of the bright costumes and were eager to find out more, and some were more than willing to explain the costume or the show/comic that it was taken from. Some of it even lead to some comparison conversations.
"Well... you may not know all the characters... but I think there are some various comic characters known for running around bikinis or lingerie," Jessica commented to Sora as they waited for their respective turns to go up on stage.
"Wait... lingerie... underwear?" one uplifted bird asked from nearby.
"It generally depends on the character," Codey commented, "and like many things in comics... the design has often been done to make sure that everything is covered. Why some characters have had that sort of costume design... I really don't know, but it does exist. And Jess is right... there are comics that have characters in a sort of cavewoman swimsuit. I think one was actually called "cavewoman..." or was it "cave-girl?" One is also called Shanna."
"Still sounds dumb," commented.
"Did you read the comics?" Yuki asked.
"I'm afraid not," Codey admitted, "I just know the characters are out there."
Sora and Yuki traded sighs and glances. That probably meant they wouldn't get a shot at winning the contest, but then meeting other people that were dressed up was plenty of fun too. She eventually figured that that was worth it in the end. Winning would have been nice, as just as at Halloween, the prize was some coupons to some of the restaurants that had been built in Animalia, which would have gone good for a date, but having fun was enough. And Sora did get some sense that everyone in the contest did have fun, even if it wasn't something they normally did.