SMX Convention Center, Pasay City held one of the biggest events of the year: Cosplay Mania 2017. Although the venue is big, the upper halls were filled with people who waited up to four hours to get inside.
The lines weren’t chaotic as there were guards who lead people to the end of the lines. However, there were people who cut into the line. To prevent stampede, the staff made attendees enter the halls a group at a time. The line goes from outside the halls to the escalators going up. By noon, the line was the longest. Waiting for hours in queue were prevented by those who arrived early.
The halls weren’t packed as there was still space for some attendees to sit. However, there were fewer booths than last year’s event. There were also less cosplayers and more con-goers. The most cosplayed series were Boku no Hero Academia and Jojo’s Bizarre Adventures.
At 3:00, one of the highlights of Day 2 happened, the Seiyuu Panel. The guests there were Koutarou Nishiyama (Binan K?k? Chiky? B?ei-bu LOVE! ‘s Atsushi Kinugawa, Haikyuu ‘s Kazuhita Narita and Ensemble Stars! The Animation‘s Kanata Shinkai)and Wataru Hatano (Gajeel Redfox in Fairy Tail , Reo Mibuchi in Kuroko no Basuke , Higashikata Josuke in Jojo’s Bizzare Adventure ASB and EOH and Georgi Popovich in Yuri!! On Ice). Watano-san is also well known for singing the ending song of Yuri!! On Ice: You Only Live Once.
The panel started with them talking about their experience in the country so far and how they loved the foods here, saying it was “Mecha Mecha Masarap.” They said they liked Jollibee and Sinigang. They were also asked questions that their fans had sent beforehand, one of the most memorable being “If you were to produce a game, what would it be?” W.Hatano said it would be an Otome Game about seiyuus. Wa-chan also said that if he was going to choose, Kou-chan would be the lea, whike Kou-chan said Wa-chan should be the lead. Wa-chan said the last scene would be him saying “Mahal Kita.” Kou-chan said the end scene will be on the beach and him saying “Bababa ba?” Then they picked 10 people who joined the raffle for meet and greet and autograph signing.
After the Panel they played “Pinoy Henyo.” Kou-chan, whose birthday is on October 11, had an early birthday celebration. Everyone surprised him with a cake while everyone sang Happy Birthday. They ended up having a massive group photo.
This year wasn’t the best Cosplay Mania but it’s not the worst event either. It depends on how you prepared for it and how you spend your time there. It could have been better but no one foresaw the sudden surge of the crowd, which were thrice the previous events. May the organizers learn something from this, hoping it would be organized better next year. Here’s to hoping they will bring more Voice Actors to the event!
Cosplay Mania 2018 will on September 29-30, 2018 at the SMX Convention Halls.
-AnonyMouse
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