We at arkadymac.com love cosplay at school events, which was why we were thrilled to have been invited to Cosplay Fest 2014 at PSBA, or the Philippine School of Business Administration, one fine weekday during their Foundation Week celebration. I was asked to be a judge along with fellow blogger from Otakista, Richard, but truth be told we would rather shoot photos of cosplayers, so with our cameras we were on double duty covering the event.
Cosplay Fest 2014 was an event open to PSBA-QC for the students who enjoy cosplaying as well as the many endlessly fascinating aspects of Japanese or Western pop culture. The contest actually started several weeks prior with a “liking” contest on Facebook, where people were asked to like the photos of the cosplayers. It was then part of the score coming into the competition and the one with the most likes got a special prize.
It was late in the afternoon when the event started at the lower parking area of the school after another event that coincided with the school’s Foundation Week celebration. A good-sized crowd of schoolmates and supporters were on hand to watch the event and cheer the cosplayers on.
After a few introductions and welcoming remarks about the event, the competition started with Angeline as Maka Albarn of Soul Eater. She had the costume nailed good, and she got to show off decent moves with a scythe, a skill no longer popular with today’s generation, but I digress.
Next up was Gertraud as Merida from Brave. She sure dressed the part and had a pretty amusing skit with an accomplice. She had really hardcore fans and they never wavered in extending their support.
She was followed by Zain as Kaneki Ken of Tokyo Ghoul. Barefoot for most of the afternoon, he gave a really strong portrayal of the good-natured but close-to-insane character, and left the audience with a particularly bloody performance.
Lady was up next as Lara Croft of Tomb Raider. She gave an action-filled performance as the popular game and movie heroine as she was cheered on by her friends.
Camille then took over the stage cosplaying as Haruhi Suzumiya. She performed a (near perfect) Hare Hare Yukai dance. I’ll be honest in saying that it was probably the best one I’ve seen in quite a while. Sure its been done for ages, but its rare to see a good one nowadays. Everyone can dress up as Haruhi but not everyone can catch Haruhi’s character as Camille did this afternoon. She was quirky, bubbly and perky, and her performance was definitely my highlight for the week.
Rounding up the contestants was Karen as Mio Akiyama of K-On. She had a musical performance reflecting her character as the bassist of a high school band and afterward gave a song number for everyone.
The judges had a really hard time deciding the winners as the cosplayers all prepared well for the competition, but after the scores were tallied with the results from the liking contests, the winners were announced. Lady as Lara Croft won first place overall with some special awards as well, followed by Angeline as Maka Albarn for second place while Camille as Haruhi Suzumiya took third place. They received some really great prizes from the organizers. It was a friendly competition as they knew each other and they were all happy to have participated in a cosplay event in their school.
After the awarding, head organizer Cherry gave some final remarks and thanked everyone for participating in and supporting the event, and that they look forward to a bigger and more exciting event next year.
Afterwards, even though it was already dusk, we took the opportunity to shoot some more as events like these don’t really come that often. We were all a bit tired but we were all happy to get to celebrate a small but cozy cosplay event together. Our thanks to the organizer for inviting us a judge as well as inviting us to cover the event. We hope to see everyone again soon.
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