arkadymac.com got to cover Cosplay Mania ’14: Day 1 as a media affiliate over the weekend. Thousands upon thousands of people poured into the SMX to take part of this grand yearly spectacle, which is undoubtedly the biggest cosplay event of the year. And being the most anticipated cosplay event of the year, Cosplay Mania draws in more and more attendees each year, coming from not only all over the Philippines, but also from all over the world, filling the SMX Convention Center at the SM Mall of Asia to capacity during the entire length of this exciting two-day event.
In light of its successes in recent years, the Philippines’ premiere cosplay convention, Cosplay Mania, is taking another step forward to reach ‘world class’ status with Cosplay Mania Evolution! Cosplay Mania Evolution promises to deliver even more thrills for fans of cosplay, anisong, anime, manga, and gaming in the Philippines and the rest of South East Asia. Cosplay Mania Evolution has revitalized the Cosplay Tournament of Champions (TorCh), mixing in a new flavor that will certainly bring more depth and life to the competition! The TorCh Mentor system has been implemented, where each team will be assigned mentors to help them win the honor of representing the country in the Anime Festival Asia Regional Cosplay Championships, to be held in Singapore in December 2014.
The event also features Meet-and-Greets with world-class cosplayers such as the all-time favorite KANAME☆ and Reika, along with international cosplayers Orochi X, Pinky, Vic and Jesuke. Cosplay Mania Evolution has even increased its stellar roster to include Japanese authority on cosplay Tatsumi Inui, and American cosplay superstar Vampy Bit Me.
The convention once again featured its signature events the Cosplay Solo Showdown, where Cykah was name Grand Champion, cosplaying as Wo Kung. Stephanie Sumbre won the Hybrid Category and the Magic the Gathering Cosplay Award while Serreniethy Fionah won for the best Cosplayer 13 and under.
There were activities, games, and giveaways, the awesome music, stellar cosplay performances all throughout the day, so everyone was sure to be busy enjoying themselves. Prominent celebrity cosplayer Liui Aquino was there for autograph signings and appearances at the Cosmic Bytes Cosplay Shop booth and at the Otaku Asia booth for autograph signings, and the fans couldn’t get enough of him, with along line eagerly waiting for their turn to take a photo, a selfie, and share some words with their idol. Liui told us that he was really overwhelmed and very grateful to the people who turned up to support him.
To end the event with a bang, Cosplay Mania Evolution featured the first ever JAM: Japanese Anime Music Concert in the Philippines, headlined by Aya Ikeda — the voice behind the theme songs of popular animes such as Heartcatch Precure!, Kindaichi Case Files and the online games “Finding Neverland Online” and “Harezora Monogatari”, and Loverin Tamburin — the band behind the opening theme for the anime Disgaea and the ending theme for Natsuhiro Drops. They along with performances by Reika and Kaname gave the attendees a night of amazing music to remember.
Sorry for the very quick recap of Day 1 as we need to go cover Day 2 right now. The photos are all unedited, so please bear with us as we will be updating this article with better edited photos as soon as we can.
We hope to see you there for Day 2. Thank you for dropping by, and please visit us again for more cosplay features here at arkadymac.com.
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