In only its second edition, Japanime has become one of the biggest and most exciting Japanese-themed campus events in the country, rocking the PUP Sta. Mesa Manila Campus last March 20, 2015. Organized by Otaku U Rule, a network of campus-based student organizations aimed to promote youth development through Japanese pop culture, Japanime 2015 was filled with games, booths, bands, cosplay, art displays and contests for the fun and excitement for Japanese pop culture enthusiasts from all over the metro. arkadymac.com is the proud media partner for Japanime 2015, and we bring you all the great highlights of the event with our special coverage with our correspondent Ami.
We at arkadymac.com particularly enjoy school anime and cosplay events, which was why we were particularly thrilled to be at Japanime 2015. The sight of all those guests and visitors and Japanese culture enthusiasts and cosplayers filling the Freedom Plaza Open Grounds of the PUP Main Campus to near capacity was an encouraging sight that so many people can take part and support such an event.
There were lots of booths to be seen, with a wide variety of offerings, with some giving away freebies to those with the Japanime Passport. Great food, anime-themed merchandise, art and manga, and fun promos abounded for curious and for the hardcore alike.
What personally made me happy was the sheer number of cosplayer who attended the event. I counted almost a hundred, which was by any means a good turnout fr a school event. They had fun posing for visitors and the local studentry, as well as had fun interacting with other cosplayers in and out of character. We of course did not pass up the chance to take a few shots of them.
There were fun contests too that engaged the audience, like the Mogu Mogu dance contest with the Mogu Mogu mascot.
All throughout the program, special guest Jrock bands played familiar and well-loved songs from iconic anime, much to the delight of the crowd, who were even singing and dancing with them. The Freedom Plaza Open Grounds was filled with the beat of guitars and drums and amazing vocals in Japanese as a great lineup of bands played from afternoon all the way into the evening.
There were also raffles during the program, the biggest prize of which was 3 pairs of tickets to the One Direction concert happening the day after, all courtesy of major sponsor SMART Communications.
Otaku U Rule founder RG Gamurot was there to address all the guests, sponsors and participants, thanking them for all their support into making a Japanime 2015 a huge success. He said it has been one challenge after another, like not getting support from the establishment that they were asking it from, but that with everyone’s help they were able to put on an event people will remember.
The highlight of the event was the Cosplay Planet Individual Cosplay Competition that also served as the PUP Main Campus Best of Anime 2015 Inter-school Cosplay Competition Qualifiers. Serving as judges for this grueling contest were Romeo Encisa Jr., Creative Director of CNPH; Eiri Mina, model for Great Toys Online and cosplayer for Hobby Japan; Louise Betita, TORCH 2014 champion; and Xtian Mack, Creative Director of arkadymac.com.
They had the unenviable task of deciding who among the participants get to take home the top prizes. More than 40 cosplayers gave their best performances in front of an excited and appreciative crowd.
Choosing among these amazing cosplayers for the winners was tough, but in the end the judges scores have been tallied and the awardees were announced. Winning best female was Krishna Mallari as genderbent Rengar. This marks her second time to win the award as she claimed the smae title during the inaugural Japanime.
Best Male went to Jason Tabuzo and Best Mecha went to RB Cheng as King Gojulas from Zoids.
After the last band finished their performance, Japanime 2015 officially came to a close. Our congratulations and our thanks to all the members of Otaku Urule for all the planning and hard work that went into making this event happen. It was an amazing feat considering the many people involved in the program and the thousands of things that needed to be done before and after the event. We look forward to more such events in the future.
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