The female cosplayers (and their occasionally male characters) of Summer Wonder Festival

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Last weekend, it was once again time for Japan’s model and garage kit enthusiasts to gather for the summer iteration of Wonder Festival, held at the Makuhari Messe convention center in Chiba Prefecture. But while the event’s primary goal is to showcase the talents of those recreating anime and video game characters in plastic and resin, you’ll also find plenty of fans bringing their favorite heroes and heroines to life in flesh and cloth, as Wonder Festival has also become a major draw for cosplayers.

But would the soaring temperature during this year’s Summer Wonder Festival keep cosplayers in their air-conditioned homes? Not at all, and we figured if they were going to brave the heat, we would too, so we grabbed our camera and headed for the convention.

You’d be hard pressed to find a more intense fandom in Japan these days than the Love Live! community, so of course the high school idol singers were well-represented.

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▼ Eri Ayase, one of the franchise’ most popular characters

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▼ A little less girlish, but no less colorful is Jolyne Cujoh, star of the sixth arc of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.

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▼ The fact that the Macross franchise hasn’t been officially available outside of Japan in over a decade hasn’t eliminated its overseas fanbase, as this international Sheryl Nome/Ranka Lee duo proves.

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▼ Dragon Ball’s Goku gets a feminine makeover, and appears with son (or daughter, in this case) Gohan

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Speaking of gender-flipped melee fighters, we also came across a female version of Guilty Gear’s Sol Badguy.

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Even though all of Touken Rambu’s characters are men (or actually male personifications of historical Japanese swords), the majority of the game’s players are women, and so there were plenty of ladies dressed up as members of the online hit’s cast.

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▼ Pink-haired Lightning actually hails from Final Fantasy XIII, but as a skilled swordswoman, we’re sure she has plenty to discuss with her new Touken Rambu pal.

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We’ll leave the debate over the gender of Final Fight’s Posion up to game developer Capcom, and just say that the costume looks top-notch.

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▼ We weren’t sure who this was until we looked at the ears and ribbon and realized she’s a human version of Hello Kitty!

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While there’s undeniably a lot of time and effort that goes into making a costume, these cosplayers proved that it’s not time to relax once the outfit is done, as they bravely posed in the 35.4-degree Celsius (95.7-degree Fahrenheit) heat, smiling the whole time.

▼ Although occasionally those smiles were obscured by a panty mask.

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