A Brazilian pair won the World Cosplay Summit Championship held Sunday in Nagoya.
Jessica Moreira Rocha Campos, 21, and Gabriel Niemietz Braz, 26, won the competition wearing costumes of characters from the "Burst Angel" animated TV series.
Fourteen teams that had won qualifier contests in their home countries competed for the championship, which went to the team with the most outstanding "cosplay," short for costume play.
The team from China finished in second place, while a team from Osaka received a special award. Some 12,000 people watched the event held at the Oasis 21 complex.
Contestants dressing up and acting like their favorite "anime" and "manga" characters came from Italy, France, Germany, the United States, Spain, China, Thailand, Singapore, Brazil, Mexico, Denmark, South Korea, Tokyo and Osaka.
The annual championship was accompanied by a cosplay parade in which some 300 people took part in Nagoya on Saturday.
The number of participating countries has steadily increased from the four that competed in the first contest in 2003, suggesting cosplay is gaining popularity worldwide.
The championship and parade were organized by Aichi Television Broadcasting Co. The events were co-organized by Central Japan International Airport Co.
The Foreign Ministry, the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Aichi Prefecture and the city of Nagoya supported the events.