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Cosplayers across the region are gearing up for the third-ever Bahrain Comic Con (BCC), set to take place this weekend at the Bahrain International Circuit (BIC).
Cosplay stands for costume play and is a performance art where the participants called ‘cosplayers’ generally don fashion accessories and costumes in order to represent a specific character from a comic book, movie, TV show or video game.
“After an absence of two years, BCC is returning this year, and in addition to our celebrities, we have some of the finest cosplayers from across the region who will be judging this year’s competition,” BCC organiser and Dallah Promotions managing director Salman Bukhari told GulfWeekly.
There will be three categories for prizes – three each for crafters, performers and children.
For crafters, more than 60 per cent of the cosplay must be hand-made, and they will be permitted one-and-a-half minutes on stage to highlight their costume. They will be vying for purses of $1,000 (BD377), $500 (BD188.5) and $300 (BD113) for first, second and third places, respectively.
In the performer category, competitors will be allowed a three-minute performance slot on stage, with prizes of $700 (BD264), $300 (BD113) and $200 (BD75) up for grabs.
Children under the age of 10 can participate in the ‘Kids’ category with a two-minute stage skit and have a chance to win special BCC goodie bags.
“I am happy that performance and craftsmanship have been separated as categories!” said Emirati Aisha Alhammdi, better known as ‘Paris’ in cosplaying circles, who is going to be one of the judges for the competition.
“As a cosplayer myself I don’t enter competitions because I am fully aware I won’t be able to win since I am more into performance than craftsmanship and my fellow crafter cosplayers are not good when it comes to performance.”
In addition to Paris, Majed Alkanderi known as ‘Majed Cosplay’ will also be judging the competition.
Although it is Paris’ first time judging at a convention, she has been part of the scene since 2018 and has cosplayed as Claire Redfield from Resident Evil, Ariel from The Little Mermaid as well as Lightning Farron from Final Fantasy 13.
For her, the most important thing is bringing the character to life through the performance.
“For me, it’s more about, ‘what if this character was a real person and how would they act if I met them in real life’ and that’s an art itself!” Paris explained.
“You use your own imagination and personal touch to bring them alive and I think that’s beautiful.”
Majed on the other hand is more on the crafting spectrum and has created costumes including Basim from the upcoming Assassins Creed video game as well as The Chainsaw Man from the new eponymous anime.
“I like to pick characters that suit my build and sometimes my personality as well,” the Kuwaiti crafter and performer explained.
“I used to build with cardboard at the beginning but now I deal with EVA or craft foam for creating my costumes, because it’s easy to work with and can handle many materials after the initial build including PlastiDip or white glue and colours.”
Having been in the scene for more than nine years, Majed has previously judged at Dubai Comic Con, Comfest Con Kuwait and Insomnia Egypt.
Although both Majed and Paris are coy about what they will be dressed as during BCC, they have teased that their costumes will be something ‘beautiful’ and might be from ‘a game’ and ‘a famous new anime.’
“The amazing thing about cosplay is the variety of arts including drawing, crafting and acting that go into it, and it’s amazing to see the passion that each cosplayer brings to it,” Majed added.
To learn more, follow @bahraincomiccon, @majed_cosplay and @paris.ae on Instagram.
