The Cosplay Catwalk

I-i-it’s not like I wanted to c-cosplay or anything!!

Fastforward to the Cosplay catwalk proper, where I decided to stand up with all might and pride
 on a Monobloc chair (anticlimactic and lame, I know) — so I can get a better view of the cosplayers and take good shots of them too. Unfortunately, I was a few rows behind the other spectators in front, so lots of HEADS got in the way of my shots. Then there were cosplayers who quickly ran off the stage as though they had to hurry to the nearest restroom — either because they were shy, nervous, frantic, had LBM, or what — point is, they wasted their costumes by not strutting with all they’ve got. I know I’m not in the position to say this since I don’t know the feeling of the cosplayer up on stage, but hey, if you already had the guts to wear the costume and join the catwalk, the least you can do is to give it your best shot, right? Delight in the attention, enjoy the sound of shutters as people take your photos, and all that jazz.

And now, for the cosplayers who stood out and/or those I have something to say about (oh and I’m no longer going to talk about the Max Payne cosplayer who rendered this ‘max pain’-inducing song number, absolutely not):

The Chibis

There were three chibi cosplayers in the con, chibi Dekaranger, Ryoma Echizen, and Buttercup of Powerpuff Girls Z, and needless to say, they were all kawaii desu~! The appearance of these adorable chibis sent the crowds roaring — LOLICONS and SHOTACONS UNTIE!! Given the overwhelming responses of spectators to these little cosplayers, I’m starting to think that the road to cosplay fame is fairly easy if you start out this young. They’re supported by their stage mom/dad/bro/sis, who are more than willing to shell out cash for their adorable cosplay

Chibi Echizen was accompanied by his nanny… cute!

…and Buttercup was left to fend for herself D: She strutted her way to the catwalk, walking oh so slowly with all poise and elegance, like a flower girl in a wedding. She took her time, so people got to take lots of pics of her, that’s for sure. The other cosplayers could very well learn from this little girl, cosplay catwalk done right

zOMG They Glow in the Dark

They were a couple of cosplayers who had these reflectors on their costumes ( satin or metallic paper for the others), for obvious reasons. I mean, they are WARRIORS who need to SHINE and save people from the depths of DARKNESS [or whatever cheesy line you may think of with light and darkness]. It’s great if you want your costume to achieve that kind of effect, I guess.

PANDAMONIUM!! Pandaren Brewmaster from World of Warcraft. No I’m not a l33t gamer, I just learned about this character from my DotA fanatic officemates lol.

And here we have the beautiful geisha, who I’ve also seen (and took pictures of) in the other cons I went to. Aside from strutting down the catwalk with all poise and elegance, she also did a little “fan exhibition” (I don’t know what it’s called), which was really impressive. Awesome characterization, I’d say. She bagged the 1st place in the cosplay competition, which no longer comes a surprise to me ^^

Gaara is bishieliciously GAR. I haven’t seen other Gaara cosplays, but I’ve got to say this is one of the best.

And what do you know, Ultraman didn’t want to miss out on the fun too! The cosplayer also did the trademark Ultraman-moves, which just made his surprise appearance all the more hilarious

And LOL, Mr. Satan is here again! It’s amusing how they referred to him as his Tagalog dubbed name, “Master Pogi” [Master Handsome -- literal translation, but doesn’t quite deliver the same comedic effect as its Tagalog counterpart] XDD See, Tagalog dubbing brings the LULZ into our anime (in a good way)

It’s a Dark Magician crossplayer!! I’m using this in place of the pic I took of his catwalk, because it looks much better. Anyways, this crossplayer decided to make his catwalk ‘extravagant’ (for the lack of a better word) — he popped confettis (with this confetti toy) and showered the audience with candies. And no, I wasn’t one of the lucky people who caught one of the candy freebie, but rather one of the casualties who got hit on the forehead with it!! *grumble* And of course, someone else took the candy that hit me TT___TT

One of the most unforgettable highlights of the cosplay competition is the appearance of Bui and Hiei. Bui first did his catwalk, then later on issued a challenge against his archrival Hiei, taunting “Vincent, lumabas ka! Tapusin! Tapusin!” [Hiei, get your ass off here! Finish him! Finish him!]. Vincent is Hiei’s Tagalog dub name, and the “Tapusin tapusin” chanting has been quite a dubbing trademark of YuYu Hakusho (we hear this in most of the youkai battles after all The crowds happily joined in the chanting and RAWWWRING with Bui, as you can probably see in the video.

The roaring became all the more intense when the challengee (is there such a word? lol) Hiei appears! Summoning his BLACK DRAGON too (supported by his 3 pals )! W00t!! Epic battle ensues, and Hiei manages to kick some Bui butt! Hiei dashes to the front, he stabs, and he HITS! And the audience witnesses the smokin’ balloon explosion effects the Hiei cosplayer (and his buddies?) prepared for this event. The Black Dragon spits out some confetti before taking his leave, though it was kinda anticlimactic given the more awesome balloon effect earlier Oh, and the Gaara and Hiei cosplayer tied for second place.

Another LOLworthy appearance in the cosplay competition would be


Dun4x, it’s a Heero! Totally WTFudge, lol. Who would’ve expected that someone would actually cosplay him?!

And of course, what’s a Heero without a Relena (whom he wants to kill so much). Relena invites Heero to her birthday party, and he simply glares at her and says “Omae wo kurosu!” (I’m gonna kill you). Zechs joins them not long after (and the crowd was going “Zechs! Zechs!” to “Sex! Sex!” haha), and tells him not to mess with his sister (He said something along the lines of, “Ba’t mo inaaway ang utol ko?!” [Why are you messing with my sister?!” -- fellow Filipinos can attest to the LOLness of this line, it doesn’t translate well into English, sadly).

More Tagalog dubbing LOL + awesomeness factor came from this Hikaru Hanazono cosplayer, who issued her 'signature speech of rivalry' to Takashima before leaving the stage: “Takashima, tatalunin kita!!11!!” [Takashima, I'm gonna beat you!!].

The other Hikaru among the cosplayers, the mischievous older twin of the [twincestous] Hitachiin brothers from Ouran Koukou Host Club, in his kawaii Cheshire mode~!! *moeee*

And here we have the morena counterpart of Enma Ai, and I dub thee Moren(m)a Ai. What, lame pun, you say? I can’t hear you~~

As Enma Ai makes her exit, guess who gives her a friendly greeting — Pedobear!! I find it amusing[ly ironic] how these pedobear cosplayers deliver the totally opposite effect of its real counterpart, because lolis flock to them in conventions! Talk about reverse psychology

GIANT PORING!! If you think this cosplayer wasn’t able to go up the stage because of his costume, well, you’re right. The cosplayer could barely move! x__x He’s accompanied by his buddies almost 100% of the time, carrying his detachable wings for him too, lol.

Here’s the Suigintou who got “abducted” halfway through her catwalk, leaving the audience in “WTF-mode O_O” as the guy carries her all the way to the exit. Is the guy supposed to be his Father or Master, or something? I haven’t seen Rozen Maiden, so I don’t know what the significance of that scene is, if any.

I’m not sure if this is just a random parody of Uncle Sam, but to think that he even rendered a song must mean that he’s
 a special character from some anime/manga/game/whatever
 O_o;

I don’t know who she’s cosplaying… Guys will certainly agree that she’s hawt though. As if those *looks* from the guys on the left of the pic aren’t enough proof of that =P

I was surprised that someone decided to cosplay as Hino of Kin-iro no Corda. Even more awwstruckingly surprising was how she actually played Pachelbel’s Canon with her violin
! O_O

There were 2 pairs of Ranka x Sheryl cosplayers in the con, one of which showed the yuri-esque side of the relationship lool. The above pic is actually a “hybrid”, Ranka#1 with Sheryl#2.

So here we have Sheryl #1

Who is reconciled with Ranka her love, and yuri rabu rabu ensues. Or so the guys wished =P
The crowd was cheering “Yuri! Yuri!” while they were performing this “yuri-ish friendship act”

And the other pair, Ranka x Sheryl #2, the same Ranka who joined the karaoke competition (refer to part 1 of this post).

Amazingly detailed costume! She’s cosplaying Asagi of the J-Rock D (an androgynous MAN, or TRAP, for short). See the real one here.

Sgt. Keroro also campaigned for presidency
 to RULE THE WORLD, LOL. He even ‘hired’ a campaign manager

Beyond the Catwalk

Some of the notable cosplayers who weren’t part of the catwalk, the ones loitering around the place, strutting their stuff:

Kururu from Air Gear, definitely moe~ Oh and she’s part of the Air Gear group cosplay.

Shinigami-sama and Death the Kid, father and son :3

Someone actually cosplayed Cheese-kun ROFL XDDD

Glad I spotted this one, the ‘evil’ Princess Claire from Princess Tutu~! Ahh, I feel like rewatching it now.

I fail for not having spotted the Gojo and Hakkai cosplayers that someone else did, though D: I was too focused on the catwalk to look around for costrippers (from the root word ‘costrip’ – cosplay trip, which means you attend a convention in a cosplay but with no intentions to join the catwalk/competition).

The Group Cosplays

First up in the group cosplay competition was the PoT team, which seriously lacked manpower (well all of them were girls after all, but that’s not it) and had to resort to having one of the members do a “double cosplay”, switching from the Hyoutei side to the Seigaku lol. I honestly don’t know which PoT characters they were trying to portray, and the performance was rather draggy. They just decided to make up for it with BL moments…

The Battle Royale group cosplay was totally fun and crazy. They acted out various scenes from the movie (which I found out from my officemates since I haven’t watched it ), dubbed in Tagalog with wacky SFX
 all voiced by one talented member of the group. Too bad I wasn’t able to take a video of them
 the quality of the ones uploaded in youtube aren’t that good. And I don’t think it’ll be funny unless you understand it in Tagalog :[ But well, since you insist, here’s the link, just don’t expect me to translate it

The Air Gear cosplay group decided to go cheesy and dramatic, as they performed a rollerblade-powered interpretative dance of a medley(?) of songs — the one I can only remember is “I Believe I Could Fly” lolz.

The last performance I witnessed was this WWE group cosplay, which was totally MEH to me since I have no interest in WWE, at all T__T Sadly, I had to take my leave because it was getting late, saddened that I wasn’t able to witness the rest of the group cosplays.

(this one has better video quality, but not embeddable; this other one has better sound quality, but lower video quality x__X)

Fortunately, my fellow countrymen were gracious enough to upload their recorded videos of the event, and so I managed to watch the award-winning Naruto-themed performance of the “Tuxedo Team”, the winner of the group cosplay competition. Boy am I impressed. Awesome choreography in the fight scenes +__+

I’ve lost count how many times I said ‘awesome’ in this post, lol. Goes to show how awesome I found this con experience to be, I guess. No special guests, no silly doramas, just plain ol’ fun — that’s what this con was about

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A brief intro for starters: Think of AME (Anime Manga Enthusiasts) as the counterpart of Genshiken; it’s the anime/manga organization in one of the top universities in the country, UP Diliman. I don’t have much inside info about this organization since I’m neither part of it, nor do I hail from the aforementioned university (Animo LaSalle!), but from what I gather, AME is most known for the annual anime event they organize, and has since become one of the most anticipated anime cons each year.

This year marks the 8th anniversary of AME (hence the ‘8th Avenue’) and the organizers opted for a Harajuku-centric theme, so on top of the usual individual and group cosplays, they also had this “Harajuku fashion contest” (since Harajuku is a well-known fashion district in Japan), which I was no longer able to witness because I had to hurry home. Blah blah blah, I know you’re tired of reading this intro so on with the event coverage!

A Stormy Prelude

The weather gods bestowed us their blessing last Saturday, putting the 雹[ame] in this AME event (literally). Before the outpour of otakus in the place, there was an outpour of RAIN (freaking rain with semi-turbulent WINDS, demmit), which got me all soaking wet from waist down because I was by the roadside for about 20 minutes waiting for my jeepney ride! RAWRR. Good thing I wore a jacket so at least my blouse was kept safe from the rain, whew. I met up with my officemates, who accompanied me in buying a pair of slippers because my rubber shoes was all soaked (wouldn’t want my feet to stink now, would I?), before finally heading to the venue.

Into the Heart of the Con

A few minutes later, we found ourselves joining the long queue of people buying tickets, and I took this opportunity to take random shots of people in the queue and other cosplayers arriving in the scene, particularly this bunch of Naruto cosplayers who really stand out from the crowd (that’s a compliment btw). The venue was bigger than where Anicon and Cosmania (report on this has yet to materialize lol) were held (SM Megatrade Hall), but it was still jampacked as ever, despite having a second floor for other activities. Fortunately, it was more organized than the aforementioned cons, so there wasn’t much of a hassle despite the long queue and overall crowded-ness.

Strolling Around

There was this Q&A/gift giveaway session going on in the first floor by the time we got inside, and since we didn’t want to miss out on the fun (or the lack thereof), we decided to take a little peek, curious as we are. Apparently, it’s an Animax Promotion gig; they’re the major sponsor of this event, after all. Might as well pimp as much as possible, right? So the emcees ask the audience Animax-related questions, and every correct answer earns you an Animax freebie! w00t? We never bothered checking what the prizes at stake are though; none of us were zealous (and thick-skinned) enough to want to go up the stage and answer the questions that would’ve led us to fame. I guess it’s better that way too, at least we won’t know what we missed out on, heh. Oh, and a Yankumi cosplayer was one of the brave souls who went up the stage for this, and she was made to catwalk first before answering the question lol

We headed upstairs not long after, to check out what’s in store for us in the activity area, only to find out we had to pay extra monies the darts game, whose promised plushie prizes already ran out of stock T__T; Not like playing darts will be any memorable or worth posting about, unless I tried out and ended up hitting someone else instead. Then it would’ve been quite a hit! (literally)

We proceeded to the fanart exhibit after that, which made me all nostalgic about fanart-ing. Ahh, those were the days~ My faves among the fanarts has got to be this watercolor art from Bleach, and the one beside it
 from Trinity Blood, if I’m not mistaken.

BL biases aside (not like I have ‘em), I found this Kurama x Hiei fanart pretty impressive as well.

There was also this Soul x Maka fanart which I found rather cute.

On the same floor was the AME 8th Avenue CafĂ© (pun on RuroKen’s 4th Avenue CafĂ©?), which catered to both fanboys and fangirls as it featured meidos and butlers cosplaying waiters and waitresses! The meidos in Anicon were cuter, but hey, at least they’ve got guys here! I didn’t get up-close-and-personal with the mighty waiters, however, since that would rob me of the right to call myself a ‘stalker’, so I just stood by the sidelines and took pictures. Which reminds me, there was also this Photo Booth within the area, which is like a part-time photo studio and part-time stalker, as you can pay them to take your pic, or ask them to take a picture of a certain someone. Pandering to the shy otakus, I see. Gotta wonder who availed of this.

And of course, let us not forget to mention one of the main highlights of UP AME, no other than
 *drumroll* the Speed Dating! The perfect way for otakus to find the love of their life!!111ONE11! *insert cute onion head emoticon here* It turned out to be a big hit (no surprise in that), seeing how there was about 6+ rounds for the speed dating event. I didn’t dare joining because I’m a wimp, and the thought of meeting “super otakus” kinda scared me off -___-; I bet most of the participants are in their teens anyways, so unless I want to be called a shotacon, no way. Then again, I could easily pass as a teenager, haha.

It would’ve been great for the kicks though. And I guess if I really wanted, I could’ve taken a look at the guys signing up to see if my predictions were any true. If there ever was a guy I deem worthy of my affection then I wouldn’t have hesitated to sign up
 NOT! But darn, it only occurred to me that the speed dating would’ve been the perfect opportunity to pimp our blog!! Would love to see their reaction when I say “Wanna get to know me better? Visit my blog *wink* “ I guess I should start making business cards of our blog now, like tj, it’ll come in handy in times like these lol. Any one of our readers who participated in the Speed Dating and would like to share their stories? You can drop us an email if you’re too shy to comment

A few minutes later, our rumbling tummies led us downstairs, to the food stalls just outside the venue. We grabbed some takoyaki for snacks, and tried out some of the curry potato balls that Dean bought. Our happy snack time was accompanied by the sirens of the karaoke participants, many of which made me wanna scream 掟æ›ČăƒŹă‚€ăƒ—[1] (Genkyoku RAEEEEPPP)!!!!!! especially the off-key rendition of YUI’s LIFE -_-; Someone also sang Cruel Angel Thesis (Neon Genesis Evangelion OP), Triangular (Macross Frontier OP), and Mystic Eyes (Vision of Escaflowne ED), but alas, there wasn’t quite justice for them too (but at least it wasn’t off-key? >.>). There was another participant who sang Hare Hare Yuukai, which was pretty good, but would’ve been much better had it been accompanied with the famous dance

Then, as we were taking a look at the booths around the place (partially ignoring the karaoke competition going on), one contestant emerged from the shadows
 it’s a Ranka-chan!! I’m not really a Ranka or Macross Frontier fan, but I got [subconsciously] excited and found myself recording her performance. I was imbued by the spirit of the Ranka / Macross Frontier fans, I guess, so yeah, this one’s for you, ghostlightning, Crusader, Shin, Martin, also otou-san and Kabitzin (a little (?), since it doesn’t seem like these two are really fond of Ranka lol), and other fans out there. Given her all-out performance (with the costume and dance choreography), I really thought she was gonna win the competition, but the results said otherwise, as she has very well said in her blog. The one who sang Hare Hare Yuukai won, according to her, and I’d have to say it was well-deserved. Does this mean no extra points for the dance choreography and stuff? D:

Now for a little segue. I don’t know much about these karaoke events, considering this is the first time I got to witness one, but I really thought it would be comprised of divas / competitive singers, since only 15 people could participate. And what can I say, I underestimated the power of the gutsy zealous otakus, who had the courage to go up the stage, with their love for singing anime theme songs, even though singing doesn’t love them! Yes I’m an egotistic bastard, sue me. This actually made me relieved, since I was also trying to gauge the standards in these singing competitions, and seeing how the so-called “standards” isn’t that high made me gain the courage and confidence to join one, because even if my performance turns out sucky, someone is bound to be suckier hahahaha I just hope I won’t eat my words later, lol. It’s also reassuring that the participants are allowed to have the lyrics in hand while singing, so mental blackout (with regards to lyrics) isn’t something to be afraid of. RAWR.

…and this post has become incredibly long and self-indulgent, more of the cosplay piccies and lengthy commentaries in the next part!

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I’ve never attended an anime convention all my life, until last Sunday. Hard to believe considering how much of a fangirl I am, but not surprising given my shy and timid personality *cough *cough* Or more appropriately, my lack of guts to attend a con without someone to accompany me. But now, I finally stepped out of my cowardly shell and attended one, and had loads of fun! I brought my best friend along with me, and met up with fellow Filipino bloggers. It somewhat became an all-girls meetup since the male anime fans I invited were busy, or just no fun Well Zeroblade attended the con later in the afternoon, hang out with us a little while, turned out to be the only guy in the group, and went on his way to take a look around the place, and went home not long afterwards. Don’t worry Zeroblade, we’ll have guy acquaintances in the next con since my officemates will be coming along!

Random meido piccies

I brought my G9 with me so I went all trigger happy and took pictures of the cosplayers I spot, especially the more obscure ones. I activated my thick-skinned mode throughout the event so I was able to take quite a number of pictures, though I don’t really think my shots gave them justice. I also took some pictures of the meidos in the maid cafĂ©, even though it’s not allowed (you have to pay 10 pesos for each photo you take of them, or with them).

The maid cafĂ© became the main attraction of Anicon 2008, thanks to the cute meidos in the place, and the cafĂ© was filled with pedobears in no time! According to biankita, the pedobears were making the maids sing, dance, etc. Of course the maids can’t do anything but go “Kashikomarimashita, goshujin-sama~” and follow their master’s orders orz.

Oh, and this event became even more fun because all of us girls seem to have this ItaKiss hate running in our veins and we bashed the show to no end the moment it became our topic

what a catchy title for a magazine, lol.

Anicon 2008 might not be as awesome as the upcoming Anime Festival Asia 2008, considering that there weren’t special guests in the event (conventions here rarely get special guests), the cosplayers comprised mostly of Naruto and Death Note fanatics, and the main attraction became the maid cafĂ© (not surprising orz), it still is special for me because of the aforementioned reasons, and a whole lot more. And it’s our very own anime con! Hehe. Looking forward to CosMania this coming Sunday
 it’ll be a big get-together for me and my fellow otakus/anime fans in the office, as well as other blogger buddies. And I’ll make sure to wear my Toshokan Sensou shirt that day

Cosplay piccies

2 Misas, Luffy… and I don’t know the one in the middle.

It’s a Tifa!

I found it really amusing that this cosplayer’s mom supports her daughter so much doing touch-ups every now and then. I think she combs her after every 5 seconds

Cissnei from Final Fantasy Crisis Core

Looks ok, but lacks a certain ‘L’ factor. And I’m not sure if this guy is really quiet, or he’s just acting as L o.O

Neku and Shiki from the DS game ‘The World Ends with You‘

rofl Mr. Satan

I’m not sure what mecha anime the one at the back came from, I thought it was from Bubblegum Crisis but it doesn’t seem so o.O

zomg Predator!!

Poor kid, victim of his/her parents’ cosplay frustrations

I got really excited when I saw someone cosplaying Yoko, though I agree with Zeroblade that she looks like a guy (please don’t kill me, Yoko!) Oh and this cosplayer’s mom totally approves of her cosplaying btw, saw her assisting her daughter ^^;

lolz Voltes FAIBUU!

Saw this guy’s struggle when he was wearing this cosplay outfit with the help of his friends. Though, why Voltes V of all mechas? Then again, to each his own.

It’s Kamen no Maid Guy!

some random Goth guy with a very interesting choice of clothing

I didn’t have any idea who these characters are until hazy told me they’re from Avatar the Last Airbender. Though from what I remember, the guy is supposed to be bald lol.

Rider from Fate Stay Night

Prince(ss) of Tennis =P

Too bad I didn’t bring my Prince of Tennis umbrella, I would’ve lent it to them and make them pose while holding that

Tenma from School Rumble

Lloyd and Suzaku are chubby orz.

VK fangirl on the left.

I honestly can’t tell which Ouran character this guy is cosplaying. The only one I character I can think of with blue hair is either Hikaru or Kaoru, though that’s not really their true hair color o.O

It’s a trap!

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