Cosfest XIII Day 1 & 2 (Singapore)

The last time Cosfest will be held in Downtown East, hope they would held there again when the renovation is done. It left a lot of fond memories for my friends and me since 2004 (most of them already left the otaku world haha) and that really got me into cosplay photography too. Well, took me 6 years to save up my money to buy a DSLR camera.

Old story aside.... Both day were hot, humid and a slight rain to stop the open field picture taking on Day 2. The back building were taken up the pro with their cool equipment already setup (I dream of having those myself *saving $$*). The place were crowded with photographers, cosplayers and fellow otakus. Everyone was having fun and so do I. Been out with a dislocated right shoulder and sprained back from a fall so I was happy to be back taking pics of cosplayers ^____^v

My assessment for Cosfest, the booths look more organized than last year but still can be improve. The main stream booth sold anime merchandise and etc while smaller booth were selling badges, pins, postcard and a few of doujin. I wish the doujinshi culture in Singapore would boom like in Thailand or Taiwan, want to see SG artist showing off their stuff too. I find putting cosplay props display and cardboard walls in the middle of the tent made it less spacious which was hard to move around especially during raining period. Lastly, inside the tent on Day 2 was really warm >_< don't know if they really switch on the air-con or fan...However, it was fun and nice outside other than the rain =,="" More space for cosplayers and photographers to move around. If you ask nicely the cosplayers would be happy to pose for you! Oh remember to say "THANK YOU" to them too.

Anyway here are link to my Album:
Cosfest 2014 Day 1   Cosfest 2014 Day 2

Here are some shots I took on Day 1 & 2:

                

                          

International Cosplay Day Singapore 2013 (ICDS 2013)

Today is the day!! My first ICDS in Singapore!! It is at Orchard Road, SCAPE warehouse where some J-Artists had performed their concert before, Perfume, Scandal, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu just to name a few. There are special guests like Alodia (Cosplayer) and Jay Tablante (Photographer) from Philippines, Clive Lee (Cosplayer) and Yuanie (Cosplayer) from Singapore.

             

Of course not to forget the artist/doujin booths, cosplay contest, dances and interesting activities that you can participate in (Played WoW Bejeweled & Card game called "Crusade", I totally sucked at it even the person teaching me was kinda frustrated XD *sorry dude*). In addition, there is a post-event party and lucky draw and cosplay chess game (interesting concept!).

 

 For a medium scale event it was great. It encourage the visitor to be active by particicipating the game if they want to join the voting for the cosplay chess game(CCG) which if voted the winning team can entitle them to join the lucky draw.

 The performance of the CCG was very memorable for me, decent action scene and acting skill but there was some hick-up here and there on the sound/voice, hope they can improve it next year since this is event has been in the 3rd year but kudos to the cosplayers and staffs for the hard work (You guys deserved two thumbs up from me).

Overall, fun and enjoyable event! Manage to talk to Jay on Lin Minmei photograph (haha sorry a big Minmei fan =X), bought some goodies and participate on the activity and learn something new too (card game XD). For those that want to see the rest of the picture i took do visit my facebook album link below =)

ICDS 2013  - Photo Album

Cure Festival 2013 (Singapore)

A very very late report on Cure Festival from me. I have been busy after uploading the pictures on my facebook album.

It was an outdoor event near the Marina Bay Sand hotels. The weather was cloudy and humid but there was always a slight brisk of wind blowing so it wasn't that bad. Except the back of my neck got burnt (>_<"). Well anyway because of the weather I should have used more flash on my picture taking or maybe edit it with photoshop.

The event was crowded as usual and a with wide range of anime character being cosplayed. Especially, being in Singapore you would expect quite a number of foreign cosplayers/visitor/photographer(?) attending the event. The main attraction would be JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Posing contest and Pitcha, Japanese Cosplayer that was one of the judge of the contest. Sorry that I didn't take much of the stage event. There were a few Kagura Cosplayers, Mirai Nikki's Yandere girl and I was surprise to see Dark from DN Angel (very rare to see DN Angel cosplayers since 10 years ago I guess).

I left early since I got other stuff to do but all in all a good and fun event. I manage to meet a cosplayer that added me on facebook last year. Hope to meet him again at other events. There was also an unoffical 2nd day for Cure Festival but I didn't attend. Seen some of the pictures and they were having so much fun.

More on Cure Festival:
https://www.facebook.com/COSFESTASIA

More Pictures I took:
Cure Festival 2013

Japan Mania Festival Extra

I forgotten to add the video that I recorded... Silly me! Anyway Enjoy the short clips.

Random Dance by Random Cosplayers ^^v I really love this one:

A short clip on the Idol Group dancing on the main stage:

Japan Mania Festival - Thailand

Japan Mania Festival, the first anime related event in Bangkok after the Song Kran Festival was finish.  The event is held annually at ekkamai gateway shopping mall which is located beside the BTS station for easy access for tourist like me :) The mall has a Japanese oriented theme to it. There are anime like characters and traditional drawing on each floor of the restroom area. Some of the rest area are decorated with Japanese famous dolls as their benches. 

I went the event around 12.30pm and had lunch on the food court (food was decent no complaint) and then straight to the 2nd floor where there were a few booths selling doujinshi, accessories, figurines and etc. in addition, there was a booth selling food and beverages with cosplayers serving them. Oh let's not to forget a small stage :)

The turned out of cosplayers were good for a pretty small event. There were 3 or 4 of Rika from Chuubyou (maybe I lost track) and lots of maids and school girls (I guess from K-ON?) on the events. Most of them were pretty and cute too ((⌒-⌒; )) The most interesting cosplayers I came across was a guy with a panty on his head (what anime or game he is from?) and two cute Disney characters (Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse).

I managed to have my small adventure too. I did not know that on the 3rd floor, there were more cosplayers. However, most of them were preparing their costume and wigs so I decided not to disturb them and walked to a small anime shop called "BakaToon". They sold manga and illustration books in Thai language so did not stay long and go for my cosplayers hunting. Along the way, I took pictures of K-ON characters cardboard but "Where the hell is Mio?!" I was practically saying out loud in Bahasa Indonesia. Thank god nobody knows what I was saying at that time. OK let's forget about and move on! 

I decided to walk the escalator area and found a group of cosplayers trying to do something (dunno what they were talking) and when their hands were on dance like position. My god-like instinct changed the setting to video and managed to record most of their dance. I do not know what they were singing but the person beside was laughing. My guess maybe a gag song?

By then I had given up on finding my Mio and when to Toast Box for a rest and get myself a cup of Hot Milo.I have not done any photo taking for some time and legs were cramping up too. YES, life of an otaku ＞_＜ Gonna start training again :p

Getting a short rest, I went up again and watched a stage performance by a AKB48 like performance. They were pretty good to be able to dance on a small stage with 8 or more members. And yes everywhere you go you will always find fanboys dancing along with the performance *Salute* I got a lot of respect for you guys. 

After the performance, as i was heading to escalator direction, i found Mio!!! She was next to a booth all along (Baka me). After taking Mio picture, I decided to have an early dinner at the food court and head back home. Along the way, I had a bad stomachache after eating the beef noodle. HAha guess I should be careful on my food intake na....

Overall, a great event to kick start the anime scene after a crazy Song Kran Festival week :D. I would love to see more unused space on 3rd floor to hold a small doujinshi event but that would be highly unlikely since I bet the space is prepare for new shops that the mall management is planning. I love how the cosplayers tried to use the limited space, moving around a lot. Hope to see you again! Khob Khun Krab!

Pictures: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.161544560677344.1073741825.100004654028054&type=3

PS: For those that love Maid, there is a maid cafe nearby! (⌒-⌒; )