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2004 Kigurumi Chronicle

This volume records events, works and publications from this year. Announcements and completed events are identified separately.

Verifiable nodes

September 24-26: calendar, venue, and public-day window

The organizer's home page lists September 24 as Business Day, September 25-26 as public days, Makuhari Messe as the venue, and 10:00-17:00 as opening hours. It also provides a separate rules entry for cosplayers.1

September 25-26: large kigurumi enter the public costume boundary

The rules group large kigurumi, large papier-mache forms, and floor-dragging skirts or capes as costumes that inconvenience others; a complaint could also lead the organizer to stop the cosplay. Props had a separate 50-centimeter limit, with dangerous weapons, combustibles, strong odors, and noise-producing equipment or conduct prohibited.2

This is the earliest directly verifiable public rule for large kigurumi among the years now catalogued, but it remains a policy record rather than evidence of attendance.

The designated changing room cost JPY 500 including cloakroom use. Changing elsewhere, including toilets, and arriving or leaving in costume were prohibited. Eating, resting, and photography were barred inside the changing room; staff checked costumes at its exit and could hold non-compliant props.2

Photography was limited to part of the Yasuragi Mall between Halls 3 and 4. Photographers had to obtain the subject's permission and use a wall as the background to avoid including unrelated people. Sale or submission of venue photos to publications was prohibited, and personal-homepage publication also required prior explanation and permission.2

September 27: the organizer confirms completion of the three-day show

The closing report confirms that the show ran September 24-26 and recorded 160,096 admissions across the three days.3 It establishes that the overall event corresponding to the rules took place, but it gives no separate account of cosplay-rule enforcement and identifies no large-kigurumi or animegao participant.

Sources

  1. Tokyo Game Show, “TOKYO GAME SHOW 2004,” https://expo.nikkeibp.co.jp/tgs/2004/english/index.htm ↩

  2. Tokyo Game Show, “TGS2004 コスプレイヤーの方へ,” https://expo.nikkeibp.co.jp/tgs/2004/cos.htm ↩↩↩

  3. Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association and Nikkei Business Publications, “TOKYO GAME SHOW 2004 Report,” September 27, 2004, https://expo.nikkeibp.co.jp/tgs/2004/english/0927.htm ↩