After celebrating its fifth year in Monaco, MAGIC is coming back to Kyoto for its second year!! Find out about some of the exciting things that happened at MAGIC Kyoto 2018 as well as the plans and programs for 2019 and the crowdfunding project that is a collaboration between the incoming cosplayers and GAINAX Kyoto!!!

A Look Back on the First Ever MAGIC Kyoto 2018

With MAGIC celebrating it's 5th year this year in Monaco, the Kyoto version is coming back for it's second year! With amazing guests that came last year for the inaugural MAGIC Kyoto, we will take a look back on what happened last year, and then look at what will happen this year! As well as that, you can also find out more about the special crowdfunding project that the organisers are running in collaboration with GAINAX Kyoto! The company that is sister to GAINAX Tokyo, creators of such anime like NEON GENESIS EVANGELION and is headed up by a founding member of GAINAX Tokyo, Yasuhiro Takeda! Let's first take a look back at what was an incredible start to a blossoming dynasty of MAGIC in Kyoto!

MAGIC Kyoto 2018 saw a fully packed programme, with conferences on things like: 

Traditional Japanese Art to Gaming design 〜Origin of Creativity〜 What happened to fusuma art in Kyoto 2018? with Isamu Kamikokuryo and Sosho Yamada

or round table talks with Famed Final Fantasy Designer Yoshitaka Amano, Sin City Creator Frank Miller, and Curator for Comics and Cartoons at Columbia University Karen Green. 

With this amazing big names featuring in the first year of MAGIC Kyoto was a huge success and is hoping to carry on this success to this years MAGIC Kyoto! 

Cosplayers on Stage!

Karen Green, Yoshitaka Amano, and Frank Miller host a round table

Haruyasu Makino, Mitsuhisa Ishikawa, Shinji Aramaki

What’s in store for MAGIC Kyoto 2019?

One big name that will be William Simpson! A massive artist from Ireland that has a long history of experience in the comic and storyboard scene, he was lead storyboard artist for the world famous TV series, Game Of Thrones! His other ventures include : Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper, Batman, Transformers, Hellblazer, Tyranny Rex, Aliens, and Vamps. 

With this amazing talent coming, it's sure to be exciting to hear his talk!

Creator of the Shenmue series, Yu Suzuki is also timetabled to come! This famed games designer is a mainstay for MAGIC Events, appearing at MAGIC Monaco as well and having close ties to the founder of MAGIC in Monaco, Cedric Biscay. With the third and final installment for Shenmue 3 coming out in just after MAGIC Kyoto 2019 finishes, maybe there will be a sneak peak extra at Shenmue 3?
 

Daisuke Ishii is an big name coming in from SONY, being Chief Art Director at the SONY Creative Centre as well as being the Director of Design for Sony Products! With this big name in the creative sector at SONY, visitors to MAGIC Kyoto 2019 will be able to gain a massive insight in to that world! 

Incoming Cosplayers for MAGIC Kyoto 2019!

With this whole event being a celebration of Anime, Games, and Geek Culture, it would be sad event without having cosplayers! That's why the organisers have asked a group of cosplayers from all around the world to come and display their talents at the event! With some big names such as REIKA from Japan, or Adami Langley from Brazil, there is a high amount of talent coming in! 

1. “REIKA” (JAPAN) … Cosplay Ambassadors Leader
954,129 Followers
222,000 Followers
96,692 Followers

* MAGIC KYOTO 2019 Participant。

2. “Rian CYD” (Indonesia)
5,668 Followers
4,782 Followers
* MICM 2019 Winner。
* WCS 2016 Champion

3. “Adami Langley” (Brazil)
188,000 Followers
144,000 Followers

4. “Calypsen Cosplay” (Poland)
61,000 Followers
47,200 Followers

5. “Nightcold Creations” (France)
12,000 Followers
4,099 Followers

6. “Lady LEMON” (Argentina)
6,700 Followers
44,500 Followers

7. “Pretzl” (Netherlands)
21,000 Followers
54,700 Followers

8. “Greenleaf” (Taiwan)
23,700 Followers
2,000 Followers

9. “Tenkou” (Sweden)
14,000 Followers
14,000 Followers

10. “NAYTHERO” (FRANCE)
677 Followers
36,700 Followers

“Aleksander Photography” (Austria)
5,400 Followers
4,200 Followers

Crowdfunding A Short Film Using Cosplayers coming to Participate in MAGIC Kyoto 2019 and the World Famous GAINAX Kyoto!

With the amazing talent that is coming to participate as cosplayers, the organisers of MAGIC Kyoto 2019 felt that it was a shame that they would only be able to show off their talents at the main event on the 6th. So with the help of GAINAX Kyoto, the sister company to GAINAX Tokyo, animators that made the world famous Neon Genesis Evangelion, they want to hold a crowdfunding project, that will allow them to create a short movie on the 5th! By using these cosplayers to create a short movie with the theme being [Transported to Another World], they hope to be able to make a movie that can be shown around the world! 
The project has a goal of 500,000 yen (about $4700) and will run until November 4th! Returns include a special evening meal ticket to be able to meet with your favourite cosplayer.
Project page can be found here: https://en.japankurufunding.com/projects/magic-kyoto-cosplayer/

Crowdfunding Short Film Outline

You can find the outline for the short film that is planned below: 

＜Outline of the planned short film＞
 

Narration in English
Subtitles in Japanese

Pictures from Toei Kyoto Studio Park, the setting for the short film. 

This is the kind of image that the project creators are looking at, however the final product will be longer with narration and Japanese subtitles!