Voice Actor Readings Fuse With Cosplay Performance: A Report on 'Akaribi Festival,' a New Kind of 2.5D Reading

World Cosplay Summit 2026 was held in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, over three days from Friday, July 31 to Sunday, August 2. Cosplayers from a total of 40 countries and regions, including Japan, gathered for the event, which drew lively crowds with a range of programs, among them World Cosplay Championship 2026, where the title of the world's No. 1 cosplayer was at stake.

On Saturday, August 1, the event's Day 1, Part 1 and Part 2 of Akari no Moribito 'Akaribi Festival': Voice Actor Reading × Cosplay Performance — A 2.5D Reading Theater Production were staged at the Aichi Prefectural Art Theater, co-hosted by the lighthouse personification project Akari no Moribito and World Cosplay Summit 2026.

Akari no Moribito is a project that portrays characters personified from lighthouses across Japan as they protect the sea and the people who live by it. Built around voice dramas, it has more than 100 voice actors bringing its characters to life. This production layered the performances of cosplayers representing the best of World Cosplay Summit onto that reading theater — a new kind of stage billed as a "2.5D reading."

The cast featured four voice actors: Toshio Furukawa, Kazuya Nakai, Yohei Azakami and Sōnosuke Hattori. From the cosplay world, 10 performers chosen from more than 130 open-call applicants took the stage, among them Miomayo, the WCS2024 Grand Champion pair, top Thai cosplayer Thames, and the Mikanpack couple, also known for cosplaying as a married pair.

Part 1's reading theater piece, Atsuta no Wasuregatami, was set in Nagoya, the city hosting the performance, and told the story of the lighthouses standing up to a disaster that struck without warning. Part 2, Kyokai Nijimu Natsugure, took a different turn, opening on the characters' quiet summer days. A dream mentioned in passing eventually carried the story in an unexpected direction.

The second half of each part featured a talk show with the voice actors and a runway walk by the cosplayers, both of which captivated the audience. The performance closed with Sōnosuke Hattori singing Gyakko, the theme song of the Akaribi Festival.

An archive stream of the performance is also scheduled for a later date.