Otaku Expo 2011

Posted on September 11th, 2011 by Ruby Knight

Otakuzine Anime Magazine started off the first month of the so-called “-Ber months” with the Otaku Expo convention, held last September 3 and 4 at SM Megamall’s Megatrade Hall 3. Otakultura was able to cover both days, and here are the team’s experiences about it.

The first day (September 3) did not have much cosplayers in the morning, since the events for this day were the K-Pop Dancing Competition and the Battle of the Bands. K-Pop cover groups like The KoPals, H3AT and SecreTime performed, and bands like Stigma of Disgrace (recently featured in the Radiotaku segment) played near the evening. There was a cosplay competition in the afternoon, but this was for the group category – with the Silent Hill group winning by default since they were the only group present. Most of the cosplayers arrived in the afternoon until the evening. Present were the Showa versions of Kamen Riders Ichigo, Nigo and V3 representing the tokusatsu genre, Sergei Dragunov, Anna Williams and Miguel Caballero Rojo for the game category and Karina Lyle (Tiger and Bunny), Hansel and Gretel (Black Lagoon) for the anime genre.

The second day (September 4) saw much more cosplayer turnout, since the Hero Face-Off 2011 Cosplay Competition happened alongside the second day’s cosplay event. The second part of the Anime Karaoke Competition also happened on this day. Among those cosplayers seen in Otaku Expo were the Red Rangers, Gormins and Barizorg from Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, Shana from Shakugan no Shana and many more. Ozine’s usual Host Club and Maid Cafe were also present.

Here are the list of winners in all the competitions:

SATURDAY WINNERS:

Karaoke: Alyssa Marie Fulguteras
Battle Of The Bands: Wala pa pong Maisip
Group Cosplay: Silent Hill Group
Art: Kathlyn Abigail M. Bernardo
KPOP: H3AT

SUNDAY WINNERS:

ART CONTEST
Individual: Erika Agurias
Group: Patrick Clavina, Harold Balangatan, Erika Bunaves
Battle of the Bands: Reloaded
Karaoke: Denggoy Isidoro

COSPLAY
1st: Carl Marvin Zamora as Whitesmith
2nd: Jayralie S. Carlos as Red Angry Bird
3rd: Charlon Renzo Maño as Infinite Justice Gundam

CUBIZONE PICK
Meiji Bayanin as Hikaru Shindou

SPECIAL AWARDS
Male: Jake Gonzales as Aion
Female: Izabel Cortez as Guyver Valcuria
Mecha: Christian Umali as War Machine
Child: Bolen Lareza as Wyvern Rhada Manthys

Ruby Knight’s POV (Day 1)

I was only able to attend the first day, since I’m not allowed to leave the house on Sundays unless it’s summer. As soon as I arrived, I didn’t see much people outside since most were inside Megatrade Hall 3. I wonder why they only took one Megatrade Hall. In my opinion, tying up with Hero TV’s competition would have given them more publicity and a larger space to hold the convention in. Time and time again, one Megatrade Hall cannot accommodate the influx of attendees. Because of this, most of the cosplayers would end up staying outside the convention area itself by late afternoon. As usual, the Megamall guards would “round up” cosplayers in the common areas in order to facilitate smooth traffic flow. Meanwhile, people were packed up inside Megatrade Hall 3.

I went inside, and met up with Shinoda (who was manning Zee’s booth). I left my stuff with him, and after some reminders, walked around to take pictures of the event. As usual, most were outside and no one stayed in the hall due to the crowd. There were not much cosplayers who were walking around so I just joined Anonybear, Colocoy and Chylle who were at a juice shop one floor down. After a few hours, I went back up and saw some newly-arrived cosplayers – even Momo and Zee.

At 3 in the afternoon, I went back down to the juice shop where the others stayed to record OtK’s Radiotaku Sessions with Stigma of Disgrace (more about that on the Radiotaku: SoD entry). After the recording, I went back to have one last round of pictures. Finally, more cosplayers arrived. I saw Professor Snape and Bellatrix, and some of the Philippine X-Men Team members cosplaying as Tekken characters (PXMT head honcho Mike went as Miguel Caballero Rojo of Tekken 6). I went home at about 7:30 in the evening with this final thought – if the convention area was only larger, I would have stayed for a longer time.

Otaku Expo’s only redeeming factor (in my opinion) would be the figure and BJD display, sponsored by Manika Manila (for the latter) and Team Onii-Chan. They had a table there which displayed their figmas – from Nendoroids to Kamen Rider SHFs to Gundams. I really liked the variety of figurines present in the display.

Prawnt’s POV (Day 2)

I only attended Day 2 because of another event I had to cover the previous day. Prior to the event, I was expecting that the 5th floor would become another logistical nightmare knowing that there will be two events at the same time; one being Otaku Expo and the other being Hero Face-Off. Since my friends were going to Otaku Expo, I only bought a ticket for that.

It wasn’t as crowded as I had expected because it was a Sunday and most people attended mass. However, it was the very layout of the con that made it look very congested. Megatrade Hall 3 is notorious for being the smallest of the Megatrade halls and it appears that the organizers literally squeezed in everything into that tiny hall. The lack of space forced most people to just hang around outside the hall to get some breathing room.

Otaku Expo was your typical Ozine con. It was crowded, had booths, exhibitors, maid/host cafe’, and food stalls. Many of the aisles were only big enough for one or two people to pass through which was the main reason why many cosplayers, especially with the bulky costumes stayed outside instead. The entrance/exit of the event looked awkward. Two lanes for entry, one lane for exit, and there was this giant divider that acted as a wall which completely turned the area into a bottleneck when people had to pass through.

Overall, I didn’t like the layout of the event. With the lack of space, my friends and I decided to just stay outside the event hall for fresher air and to have photoshoots. There were some interesting things however. For once, they actually put the Artists’ Alley up front so more people could see their works. There was also the Gundam caravan that holds detailing contests which was also interesting. Despite the positives, it seems that this wasn’t really an event worth going. As expected from another random Ozine event; crowded, lacks novelty, and just plain.

Shinoda’s POV (Day 1 and Day 2)

Greetings, people from the anime and cosplay community. It’s me Shinoda once again delivering my perspective of the latest anime-related events this year. Yours truly has been given the privilege of attending the Otaku Expo 2011 for two days courtesy of my career at My Little Prince Wig Shop (shouts out to my boss, Zychez, also of Otakultura). Here are my thoughts:

Despite my limited free time due to the nature of the job, I was able to roam around the small con, and small con it is because of Megatrade Hall 3 having a tinier space compared to the other two halls. The convention had the standard stage. The organizers also tied up with two gaming companies (Cubizone and E-Games) that had free-to-play booths and game-related activities for their clients which they really looked forward to having. (Most of the early birds that came for the con were gamers.)

It was definitely irritating that I had to endure waiting for more than an hour on the ticket booth, despite me being the first one on the line. The organizers of the convention had to postpone selling the tickets and letting people enter, which made the lines grow long. They better do something about this next year, especially since there was no compensation for early birds (re: early bird freebies).

There was an unexpected multitude of people that actually went to the con, especially on the first day. They were in fact so many that most of the people resorted to just hanging out outside the venues. It was also quite hot and crammed up inside the venue.

Some of the events that happened during the two-day con were the Karaoke Singing Contests, the Individual Cosplay Competition, the Group Cosplay Competition, the Battle of the Bands, and the K-Pop Dance Contest. The booths that were present were the Gunpla Detailing Contest (which I joined and lost again, but still I got to grab home a new FG 1/144 Dynames Gundam), the various food and merchandise booths, and the maid café which I unfortunately was unable to try despite personal invitations from friends who worked there. An interesting portion of the con was the independent artists section, where various artists can make fan-arts for people to purchase. There was also the figma display section and the gunplay display section where figure collectors showcased their wares, much to the delight of fans.

I guess it was just unfortunate that this event had to go alongside the schedule of the Hero Face-Off. If it had two halls at its disposal, then it might have been a better event. Nevertheless, it was a start for convention-filled Ber-months to come.