Ozine Fest 2009: Tales of an Anime Con n00b
I've never been to an anime convention before, largely because while I pounce on the occasional figurine (or drill-bit) when my love for the series is strong enough, all I really look for are products with story/narratives, and that's usually more the province of komikon (our local comics convention) rather than an anime con.
Still, I'd heard there were going to be some independent manga/doujins at Ozine Fest 2009, and since I now have the time to go places on Friday mornings, I decided to check it out.
Didn't find a lot of indies (though I nabbed all I could, except there was a Naruto doujin I didn't pick up because I'm utterly behind with the manga) but I did get to see a lot of cosplayers, since the Ozine Fest included "the First National Cosplay Summit" or something to that effect, so I thought I'd share my (admittedly bad/shaky) pics, in case anyone is interested in a glimpse of what the con was like.
The anime/manga scene here seems to be closely intertwined with the local online game/MMORPG scene, so gaming was a big presence (Level-Up Games was one of the big sponsors)
Gamehopper, a video game rental service I'm a member of, had a neat booth set up with consoles where people could just play. I got to see RE5 close up for the first time, which was neat.
I was surprised to see that Green Peace also had a presence at the con - apparently they made an environmental awareness manga of some sort to promote their cause. The art seemed pretty good, but I didn't get to read any of it.
There was a lot of anime merchandise on sale, a good number of figurines but primarily clothes and cosplay props: from wings and trenchcoats to what I think may have been relicas of every Final Fantasy sword fro VII onwards. Oh, that and a huge familiar looking scythe which I couldn't quite place:
There were other areas as well: a set of tables for card games, another for assembly of models--
.
--and yet another row for artists, though only one was selling any stories; most of the other artists were doing art commissions or had on display other sorts of merchandise like key chains and stickers.
There was also a maid cafe--and while I was curious, I wasn't about to go in there without my wife on my arm, just so no one (especially my personal Asuka Sohryu) gets the wrong idea.
Obviously there were a lot of cosplayers present - and a lot of persona 4 characters (yay!)
I was impressed by a lot of the costumes I saw, although many of the grander ones I only saw from long distance (and hence couldn't get clear shots with the camera). Some stand-outs were a cute little kid dressed up as "Chibi-L", a Robocop, and a kick-ass War Machine whose get-up was apparently so heavy that he couldn't get up on stage (hence I got no pictures). I did get some pictures of the following however:
A very short Terminator (T-1/2 maybe?)
A Raichu( I think? Not up on my pokemon)...
A very cool Samus, complete with a yellow umbrella (which she hid behind to pretend she was in her ball mode) and confetti shooting gun
Then there was this unbelievable Yakult bottle costume--
--oops, my mistake. Just a booth prop.
But the highlight for me came before the "cosplay catwalk" began when I was standing around near the line of cosplayers, when I caught sight of something... special...
Could it be?
It was! A very authentic looking Prinny :D
(Prinnies get all the chicks dood!)
.
Couldn't get a good shot of him/her/it on stage, but it was obviously a fan inside - the Prinny did the pirouette and shouted "Dood!"into the mike, to resounding applause. (I wish I had a video of the Prinny attempting to dance to Caramel Dansen when they started playing the song).
All in all it was great to be surrounded by people obviously having a great deal of fun. I was honestly surprised by how good natured the crowd was--despite some, sorry, truly awful costumes, there was practically no heckling or rude/lecherous behavior during the catwalk (except for (a) the guy who came to represent J-Rock fashion or something; (b) the girl who came out and claimed she was from a famous hentai anime. @_@). You could tell by how many and how high the cameras were raised just how much the audience liked a given cosplayer.
Since it's summer here it's probable there will be a reat many more cons over the next two months. Don't know if I'll hit any except for the ones with a substantial local comics/manga/doijin presence, but I'll take my camera along if I do. ^_^.
[For a more "official" article on the con, just head over to Bahay Talinhaga as usual for a less rambling article ^_^]
Still, I'd heard there were going to be some independent manga/doujins at Ozine Fest 2009, and since I now have the time to go places on Friday mornings, I decided to check it out.
Didn't find a lot of indies (though I nabbed all I could, except there was a Naruto doujin I didn't pick up because I'm utterly behind with the manga) but I did get to see a lot of cosplayers, since the Ozine Fest included "the First National Cosplay Summit" or something to that effect, so I thought I'd share my (admittedly bad/shaky) pics, in case anyone is interested in a glimpse of what the con was like.
The anime/manga scene here seems to be closely intertwined with the local online game/MMORPG scene, so gaming was a big presence (Level-Up Games was one of the big sponsors)
Gamehopper, a video game rental service I'm a member of, had a neat booth set up with consoles where people could just play. I got to see RE5 close up for the first time, which was neat.
I was surprised to see that Green Peace also had a presence at the con - apparently they made an environmental awareness manga of some sort to promote their cause. The art seemed pretty good, but I didn't get to read any of it.
There was a lot of anime merchandise on sale, a good number of figurines but primarily clothes and cosplay props: from wings and trenchcoats to what I think may have been relicas of every Final Fantasy sword fro VII onwards. Oh, that and a huge familiar looking scythe which I couldn't quite place:
There were other areas as well: a set of tables for card games, another for assembly of models--
.
--and yet another row for artists, though only one was selling any stories; most of the other artists were doing art commissions or had on display other sorts of merchandise like key chains and stickers.
There was also a maid cafe--and while I was curious, I wasn't about to go in there without my wife on my arm, just so no one (especially my personal Asuka Sohryu) gets the wrong idea.
Obviously there were a lot of cosplayers present - and a lot of persona 4 characters (yay!)
I was impressed by a lot of the costumes I saw, although many of the grander ones I only saw from long distance (and hence couldn't get clear shots with the camera). Some stand-outs were a cute little kid dressed up as "Chibi-L", a Robocop, and a kick-ass War Machine whose get-up was apparently so heavy that he couldn't get up on stage (hence I got no pictures). I did get some pictures of the following however:
A very short Terminator (T-1/2 maybe?)
A Raichu( I think? Not up on my pokemon)...
A very cool Samus, complete with a yellow umbrella (which she hid behind to pretend she was in her ball mode) and confetti shooting gun
Then there was this unbelievable Yakult bottle costume--
--oops, my mistake. Just a booth prop.
But the highlight for me came before the "cosplay catwalk" began when I was standing around near the line of cosplayers, when I caught sight of something... special...
Could it be?
It was! A very authentic looking Prinny :D
(Prinnies get all the chicks dood!)
.
Couldn't get a good shot of him/her/it on stage, but it was obviously a fan inside - the Prinny did the pirouette and shouted "Dood!"into the mike, to resounding applause. (I wish I had a video of the Prinny attempting to dance to Caramel Dansen when they started playing the song).
All in all it was great to be surrounded by people obviously having a great deal of fun. I was honestly surprised by how good natured the crowd was--despite some, sorry, truly awful costumes, there was practically no heckling or rude/lecherous behavior during the catwalk (except for (a) the guy who came to represent J-Rock fashion or something; (b) the girl who came out and claimed she was from a famous hentai anime. @_@). You could tell by how many and how high the cameras were raised just how much the audience liked a given cosplayer.
Since it's summer here it's probable there will be a reat many more cons over the next two months. Don't know if I'll hit any except for the ones with a substantial local comics/manga/doijin presence, but I'll take my camera along if I do. ^_^.
[For a more "official" article on the con, just head over to Bahay Talinhaga as usual for a less rambling article ^_^]