Best of Anime (Manila) Day 1

So i was in Philippines for the Best of Anime last weekend. It was an amazing experience. Because as always, Filipinos are one of the best hosts!

 

 

To keep this blog entry relevant and concise,  I'll just blog about my experience at the 2 days event here. For other regular travel and off shows experience,  I'll throw them in my personal blog.

So Best of Anime day 1! We woke up around 630am to have breakfast at the hotel. Then rushed back to our rooms to get ready for our pick up at 9am.

 

 

Before the trip i was panicking and rushing to finish my costume. I wanted to finish my Elsa costume for BOA but didn't managed to. So 3 weeks before flying off, i decide to bring Homura instead. And i spent the 3 weeks buying the wig and sourcing for suitable materials and methods to make homura's shield; and honestly that thing is more difficult than I thought! i literally finished it the day before i fly. I also only found out that my shoes had died the day before i fly. Opened the shoe box to flaking shoes and a residential roach =___=;

 

There was no time to buy new shoes so i glued the heels back and spray painted them xD. I was banging my buck on getting new heels in Philippines but fixed and brought the old shoes anyway. As usual, getting ready for cosplay is nerve wrecking and it didn't help that my hairband decides to break apart when i tried to wear it =_=;

 

Costumes malfunctions aside, let's talk about my experience at the event.

 

So we arrived bright and early at SMX around 930am. We were invited backstage to rest and prepare for the ribbon cutting ceremony. It was then when they introduced us to our event Marshall of the weekend. Our awesome marshalls were mostly  people from Anime Alliance Philippines.

 

This is something different from our Singaporean Cosplay scene so please let me introduce and explain them. In Philippines, there are many voluntary based Anime/Cosplay groups that single handedly pitch and organises AMG events. It was like Singapore in the beginning (anyone remember MAC & STAC?)

 

I just find it very inspiring and heart warming to know that the 'Fan' power is still going so strong in Philippines (as far as I know, Indonesia too!). Regardless of their objective, one cannot deny the positive impact they have contributed to the progress and social penetration of our favourite sub culture. I wish there are more passionate Go-getters like that in Singapore instead of Facebook warriors that nit-pick and complain about every single thing.

 

For Best of Anime 2014, they collaborated with Anime Alliance Philippines and the Anime Alliance members all worked very hard to take care of the guests. Some of them were guest marshals while others were simply guarding the VIP doors. It may sound like simple work but try standing/seating outside a room for 8 hours. Or try attending to every single need of every guest. I can only say it takes a lot of humbling and a heart of service.

 

 

This is Allan and he was my Event Marshal of the weekend.

 

So the red ribbon cutting ceremony commenced and we were called out one by one. Something I didn't anticipate was standing so front up LOL. i was like O.O "oh no... frontline !". Does anyone have photographs of the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony?

 

After my undeserved limelight opportunity,  we went back to the holding area and waited for our schedules to roll out.

 

I had a meet and greet at 1030am and it was .... so awkward hahah. It was so much crack with my Filipino friends who were nice enough to buy tickets to troll me xD

 

 

Here i am drawing a caricature of my friend hahha.

 

 

TA DAR~ The finished product!

 

The idea of Meet & Greet is very embarrassing for me so i shall skip this segment xD thank you however to all the lovely people who took time out to meet me! All the best for all your cosplays and remember to post your cosplay photos at TCC's Facebook so i can see them xD

 

After that was lunch at the lounge again while we prepare for our performance.

 

During this period, the crowd were entertained with a string of Anisong performed by contestants vying for the Best of Anime SUPERSTAR Karaoke Contest.

 

 

 

But before that, Liui Aquino and a group of Disney Cosplayers did a wonderful performance on stage, mixing DreamWorks with Disney songs. The crowd licked it up of course

 

 

Kudos to the manly Rapunzel too XD!

 

After the DreamWorks x Disney performance, it was time for the Cosplay Competitions to begin! The Best of Anime Inter-School Cosplay Competition Grand Finals and the Best of Anime All-Stars Cosplay Competition. I was SO BLOWN AWAY by the level of craftsmanship and dedication to the costumes!  Once again, Filipino cosplayers have shown their passion and talent to this very impressed little blogger *_*

 

 

 

Much thanks to Bri for the photos!

 

 

Some cosplayers did a simple catwalk while others did more elaborate skits.  For the individual Cloth Category, Pein  Sasori from NARUTO walked away as champion. He wowed us with his intricate manipulation of the puppet, making it looked like it had a life of its own and then proceeding to change into Sasori’s final form.

 

 

I was also super impressed by the Ironman 3: War Machine Cosplayer. Not only does the costume looks realistic and imposing (like an armoured mecha should) , the individual parts moves by itself too!!

 

 

Photo with Liui, probably the best Hiccup I've ever seen. His costume was SO GOOD! Perfectly crafted with a very realistic effect and texture!

 

 

He was nice enough to lend his helmet to me for a while and this is what I became xD

 

 

Up next on stage was me *insert petrified face*. One of my BOA minder; Maricrista taught me a few Tagalog but I only managed to correctly say " Kamustaaa (hellooo) " =____=; * not linguistically talented* .

 

Saying a special shout out to all my minders during BOA. I thought it was only Allan but i ended up with 3 person minding me and they were all so much fun xD.

 

I sang Puella Magi's Opening and Ending songs. And quickly ran off stage xD

 

 

Next up was the super cute Onnies cosplaying as Kotori from Love Live. Onnies did a cute dance from Love Live.

 

 

STARMARIE web: http://starmarie.syncl.jp/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/starmariejapan 

 

After us was the super cute girl group; STARMARIE! They were absolutely adorable and gave a very energetic performance!

 

 

It was soon time for the prize giving ceremony! Congratulations to all the contestants who won! And to those who didn’t, please don’t feel bad nor give up on the hobby!

 

 

I honestly thought there were many awesome cosplayers who deserved to win the competition with their awesome costume and skits but the truth of the matter is that there can only be a few winners. Competition rubrics are usually broken down into a few segment. You may have a very awe inspiring costume that drives your points up in craftsmanship but there are also other segments such as your skit performance or crowd responses that can pull your points down. So aim to cover all aspect of the judging criteria for a more secured win.

 

 

heidi web: http://heidi-net.com/index.php
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heidi.Official

 

Then it was time for heidi. to rock the stage! heidi is a Visual Kei band that did the 2 ending songs for Kaishou Wa Maid Sama. They were SO GOOD on stage I was blown away (i sound like a broken record now xD)! Impressed that they were all playing and singing live but nothing was off beat and the vocalist was absolutely on pitch and on beat! And they kept at it for 1 and a half hour! Talk about stamina and talent!

 

 

Myself with Joe Inoue!

 

 

 

Joe Inoue facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joeinoue
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/joeinoueVEVO

This guy is da bomb! Born and raised in America, Joe speaks impeccable English and he was mega fun to be around. I believe Joe Inoue had a short performance after Heidi but we had already gone back to the Hotel by then since we were all very exhausted xD But I’m sure his fans licked it up as usual =)

 

Were you there at the event? How did you think about it? Comment and let me know~ if you have any photographs, please share them too!