And it was Cosfest weekend once more! There’s so many people this year (and less Vocaloids) going about. The programme for Cosfest had karaoke competitions, the World Cosplay Summit (WCS) competition for representatives of Singapore and well performances.
Reika was there as a guest and judge too and she has mucho fans who were lining up to buy her photobooks and yes, her photobooks with various cosplays are very good and gets sold out pretty quick here since she brought them along with her from Japan.
ANYWAY, you’d know the official programme, see photos and videos from this year at the Cosfest website.
I go to Cosfest mostly to meet my friends, and I did!
Firstly, Cosfest was both Saturday and Sunday and wow it was really crowded on both days. Held at Pasir Ris Downtown East, lots of cosplayers take public transport in half or full costume.
It’s always super amusing to see kids going “WOW!” or whisper to their parents that they just saw a superhero or cartoon character that they liked and that said characters are actually walking around.
Next to d’Marquee this year was Megazip’s Megabounce which is super apt because the latest anime/manga to hit is called Shingeki No Kyojin (Attack on Titan) and the characters undergo training with those bouncing things too!
Only minus the trampoline in the story, the characters get 3D movement gears where they hook and swing around trees or buildings.
Anyway, as you can see it’s pretty crowded inside, especially when the performances or competitions are happening. Artists booths are to the left and there are booths or stalls near the entrance, leaving a huge empty space for the crowd in the middle.
Well, not so empty but you get the idea.
The traditional graffiti wall lets you draw whatever you want. Just hopefully not to R rated of course. It’s a bring your own pencils/markers affair and draw your fandom or original characters or messages there. It can get really silly whenever people continue the ‘convo’ from a previous drawing or something.
To the other end of the hall near the graffiti wall are bike itasha-s. You can take pictures of them but you can’t touch or ride them of course.
A new addition! a Mika Mika Maid and Butler cafe is a new thing to debut at this year’s Cosfest.
Sure, there’s always been maid or butler cafes at AFA or other events but this is a first here.
And only for the first day, there was a runway and it was pretty cool? Like a fashion runway but instead it was for cosplay.
As I said, there’s also enough space for photos inside the d’Marquee. Bonus points if you know which game character this is.
While Cosfest is held in the d’Marquee most of us just go outside where the grass patch is. One of the more popular spots for photos is the bit where the rocks and bamboo trees are and the ‘back’ of the d’Marquee where there’s a hall.
That’s Saiko as Michonne from the Walking Dead. She made the zombies the week before Cosfest, less really but wow, it turned out really well.
A lot of cosplays have last minute sewing or painting and everything and every year cosplayers keep saying “I SHALL DO THIS EARLIER NEXT TIME”. Yeaah, but in the end we have fun anyway hahahah.
It’s Mass Effect! I like how there are western game characters this year. There was a Rosalind Lutece from Bioshock Infinite walking around somewhere too.
Some Hobbit characters aka Tauriel, Kili and Balin. It’s not just anime or manga characters you see at Cosfest, it’s all sorts from games, books or movies too.
The non-rule is: If you like a character just go cosplay the character from whatever series or fandom you like.
A non-rule because it’s not a rule but everyone should know this.
While I don’t take so many cosplay pictures since you can find them at the various forums or cosplay FB groups (or photographer’s albums), I like to take pictures of photo walls!
It’s always fun to see how large the photographer wall can get when shooting one person.
AND EVERYONE IS SO INTENSE.
You know, besides taking photos and all that the whole point of going to Cosfest is to meet people. It’s great when you can talk the same anime/series/etc to other people who know it too and lots of friends are made like this.
People are always excited when you do recognize the character they’re cosplaying or prop they made so it’s nice to be appreciated like that.
So you have the cosplayers, the fans, the photographers and you’ll also have the students or researchers. No matter what, there’ll be at least one group at any event who want to do it for their own school project or video because they’re interested in it.
Either students or even the press, there’ll always be interviews to be had too since people just want to know what is cosplaying.
And oh, that’s a random horse.
I just like this shot. A random horse behind the armoured Saint Seiya characters. Anywhooo, the next ‘closest’ event would be STGCC!
It’s not about what pictures you take at these cosplay events, it’s what they mean and the memories behind it!
