Cosplay Mania ’15 – A Weekend of Anime Fun

Thousands of cosplayers and anime enthusiasts trooped over to the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City to participate in this year’s iteration of the country’s premier cosplay event, Cosplay Mania ’15, held over the weekend of  October 3-4.

Cosplay Mania has always been a fun event where anime fans from all over the Philippines gather, and this year was certainly no different. Both ordinary congoers and cosplayers alike were treated to a weekend full of various activities including special appearances by various international cosplayers (like KANAME, Ying Tze, and Baozi & Hana) and revered Anison (anime song) artists (like Aya Ikeda, LOVERIN TAMBURIN, Ladybeard and μ’s member Pile). There was also a huge space dedicated to Magic: the Gathering where they held demos for interested people and gave out free decks. New local idol group Kawaii5 also made their debut whilst promoting the new TV5 show, Amachan.

The Cosplay Mania weekend was filled with a lot of interesting cosplays, varying from classic anime characters (like Sailor Moon and Fushigi Yuugi’s Miyaka and Tamahome), comic book superheroes (like Ant-Man and Batman), current fan favorites (like Himouto! Umaru-chan’s Doma Umaru and Love Live!’s μ’s) and even controversial personalities (like North Korea’s Kim Jong-Il and Eat Bulaga’s Kalyeserye stars). The cosplays weren’t limited to a certain age bracket either, as kids as young as five years were already in cosplay, some even with a high degree of proficiency. And as always, the Cosplay Mania weekend served as the final chapter in the Torch cosplay tournament tour, which was won this year by Team BAN X KAI.

Both days were capped with the JAM Concert, which were headlined by different artists depending on the day. Saturday’s JAM Concert saw KANAME jamming with local anison band Moonspeak, followed by an alluring performance from LOVERIN TAMBURIN. Aya Ikeda came in to power up the crowd with her signature Pretty Cure songs, and Ladybeard capped the night off with his/her(?) brand of Kawaiicore metal which broke the necks of the audience. Sunday’s JAM concert featured another alluring performance form LOVERIN TAMBURIN, followed by a dazzling set by Itsuki Akira, and was capped by a marvelous performance from the beautiful Pile.

But despite all that good points, there were still quite a few issues that could be worked on. Despite the bigger area this year, there were quite a few empty booths, which weary cosplayers took advantage of when they wanted to take a rest. This unfortunately resulted to more litter on the premises, as quite a few of these people did not even bother to clean up after their stay. There were also a few booth people who felt that their booth positions were disadvantageous,  and there’s still the problem of the walking space in-between booth blocks, as we now move in to the era of BFGs and huge armored cosplays.

Altogether however, Cosplay Mania ’15 managed to deliver in everything that you would expect, and a bit more. We’re looking forward to another wonderful Cosplay weekend next year!