Craftsmanship Competition Requirements

All participants must have an Ohayocon badge with a Competition Badge Sticker. Ohayocon Staff of any kind are not allowed to compete.

Must have READ and AGREE TO the guidelines set by Ohayocon’s Weapon and Costume Policy.

Maximum number of members for a group is 6 people. If participant’s group has more than 6 members, they may petition Cosplay Department Head to allow the group to compete.

All costumes must be based on Asian animation (e.g. Trigun, Wonderful Days), manga/manhwa (e.g. Angel Sanctuary, Faeries' Landing), an Asian-origin video game (e.g. Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Kingdom Hearts), Asian music artists (e.g. Morning Musume, Malice Mizer), Asian Live Action Films (e.g. Battle Royale, House of Flying Daggers), Street Fashion (e.g. Lolita, FRUiTs, Gal), or East Asian mythology (e.g. Kirin, Ten-gu, Amaterasu, Fujin). Generally, if it originated outside of East Asia (Japan, China, Korea, Vietnam), it does NOT qualify. Adaptations of foreign material that are nevertheless extremely Asian are permitted (e.g. Rose of Versailles, Gankutsuou, Avatar, or Revolutionary Girl Utena). Other animation styles (e.g. Teen Titans), comics (e.g. Star Wars, X-Men), video games (e.g. Halo 2), TV series (e.g. X-Files), and films (e.g. Harry Potter) do NOT qualify.

No commissioned, purchased, or rented costumes. Costumes from a costume shop, designer direct, eBay, Yahoo Auctions, Cospa, or any other store-bought costumes are prohibited and will negate participant's eligibility (or group's eligibility, even if only one participant in the group has a disqualified costume).

Exception 1: The costume is a "found item" costume, which was constructed by collecting various pieces from stores and putting them together (with or without sewing) to make a costume. May only compete in the Found Item Costume category.
Exception 2: The costume's creator is present (the creator wins, not the model).
Exception 3: Junior Division participants (at least 50% of the work had to be done by the participant).
Exception 4: If competing as a group and the creator is part of the group.

Participants MUST have adequate reference documentation with them at their Judging Appointment. Judges cannot possibly know every detail of every character in existence. Reference documentation will greatly assist them in judging. Participants failing to provide documentation will receive a score of 0 in the Technical judging area. Good references show at the very least the front and the back, but side views are highly recommended as well. They may also have close ups of details and props. Printed references that the Judges can keep would be beneficial to Judges during deliberations. Good reference documentation can make or break a participant's score. Examples of reference documentation include: screen captures, DVD covers, art books, PVC figurines, magazine articles, manga, colour printouts, etc. Judges prefer to have printed documents, however, participants may bring their own laptop computer that contains references (no outlets are available and no laptops will be provided).

Exception: Original Design category participants. Documentation isn't necessary, however in order to better understand the overall look the participant is trying to achieve, references showing the style (e.g. Sweet Lolita style, you could bring references from Gothic & Lolita Bible or photos/scans from other sources; Harajuku Free Style, FRUiTs is a great magazine; for visual kei you could bring SHOXX, album inserts with photos or scanned magazine articles) or inspiration documentation (e.g. if you were doing Jewish Wolfwood, you'd have reference documentation for the original Wolfwood), would be beneficial to the Judges. Additionally, design sketches are also appreciated. Street styles MUST be of East Asian influence. At least 60% of the costume should be handcrafted by the participant. Western Goth styles are NOT Gothic Lolita or Elegant Gothic Lolita/Aristocrat. Hot Topic Lolita do NOT qualify.

Revised 07.29.07