It’s a day after EOY 2007 – Spark. Yet, I’m still feeling the buzz and sparkle of this fantastic cosplay festival. This is my second experience at the End-of-Year cosplay festival oraganised by Shiro Tsubasa Animation Club (STAC). Compared to the previous EOY, this year’s event felt bigger and much better.
EOY 2007 – SPARK
There was a lot more to see. There appear to be more cosplayers covering a greater variety of themes, including original costume designs and non-Japanese characters (such as those magic users from Hogswarts). Most remarkable was the quality of the costumes and the stage performances. For those interested in doujinshi, there’s also more circles than before and their art is awesome. Among the doujin circles, there’s one that made a doujin game too!
I didn’t attend this year’s mid-year Cosfest, so I am not able to make a comparison between the two. However, even without comparing with EOY 2006, this year’s event is good enough to stand on its own. Here’s a quick walk through of the memorable event.
Singapore Expo Conference Halls A – F
I arrived just after 12pm, an hour after the opening. Entrance is S$12, and this time they didn’t throw open the gates towards the end of the day.
Ticketing Booth
KKnM is the main sponsor for EOY this year. Among the rest are industry stakeholders such as Freshmode, Playworks, and Black Alice. This event was also supported by the genshikens from the local tertiary institutions. The strength of a convention can be denoted by the sponsorship it receives, and I must say that EOY had grown much stronger. How long do you think it will be before the government institutions such as STB or MDA start taking an interest?
Door Gifts
By the time I arrived, there was already some buzz. It didn’t take long for the place to become crowded with cosplayers, photographers and everything in between. Last year, I was among strangers and only knew the guys from moetsukiru. This time, I met friends at every turn of the corner. The spirit of camaraderie is great, especially with the otakus from the anime blogger community.
Lensmen
You can cover the event solo, or form a band. Like the veterans who chiong Comiket, they organise themselves, plan their route of advance and try to cover as many booths as possible by assigning sectors to each of the members. For EOY, the cosplayers are too numerous for a single camera cover. There could be a number of random interesting scenes happening at the same time in different places. Not to mention, a single memory card might not be enough to contain all the images that you want to capture. It’s better to form band.
1:1 Scale Rei Ayanami
Comrade Double, on his first visit to EOY, had only his digital camera without a memory card. It’s like bringing a six-shot revolver charging up a fortified platoon objective. Making his memory count, he spent it all on the [in our/anime bloggers opinion] the best cosplay at EOY – the girl who cosplayed as Rei Ayanami. Cosplay isn’t about just putting on a costume or a fancy dress, its also about bringing out the essence of the character that you are imitating.
Graffiti Wall
Someone had spotted her earlier but lost her among the crowd. There were whispers among the kindred that there’s a REAL Rei Ayanami walking among us. We were on the look out for her. When I sighted her right before the graffiti wall, she gave me the chills because it really looked like Rei Ayanami was standing there. With a quick tap of the SMS, the lensmen rallied to my location. In no time, Rei Ayanami was surrounded. She looked like a deer stunned by the flashing camera lights.
Photo Pro
There weren’t any lack of photo opportunities, and if you’re a cosplayer – someone’s sure to have taken your photo and have it posted on Sgcafe. However, if you’re a cosplayer and would like to have your memory better preserved, there’s always the professional photographer en site. The photo session is free, but you’ll have to pay for your prints.
Doujin Works
There are about 46 exhibitors, featuring sponsor booths, retailers, doujin circles as well as showcases for ball joint dolls otakus. I brought S$200 in cash to EOY. By the time I left, I had only S$70 left in the wallet. All of my expenditure went to the products from the doujin circles.
Ball Joint Dolls Display
This year’s EOY was more all-encompassing, and the organisers had set aside space for the (Japanese goth) Lolitas/Visual-kei tribe. This emerging group had gathered strength in recent years, and the number of new businesses supporting their mania is a testimony of their clout.
X __ X
There’s a greater diversity of characters, including original ones. I have no idea who these “X __ X” box heads are, but they sure turned heads with their originality. I guess they’re somewhat related to the doujin group Comix Pandora – because they were horsing around with one of the ladies from that booth.
However, the number of tokusatsu characters at this EOY had dropped right down to a single person.
WTF is that thing, the boy wondered
There was one lonely Kamen Rider that walked among the cosplayers and lensmen. His costume was rather realistic and he looked as if he had just walked off a Kamen Rider production set. A pity that he’s the only person doing a tokusatsu character. This phenomenon is probably related to the popularity of the tokusatsu genre among the otakus these days – not very popular. Usually, those people who dig tokusatsu are those around my age.
I’d say, the majority of the attendees are in their late teens or early twenties. It’s a youthful crowd. I could easily be one of the oldest otaku there. There’s less recriminations for the young to indulge in these hobbies. But for some who’re around my age and are beginning to hold senior positions in buttoned-down organisations, it might not augur well if they’re spotted unescorted by their own kids at this event. If you’re one of those and I’d happen to capture your guise in the background, do let me know if you want the photo removed.
Laughing Man mask
Or I could do a Laughing Man mosaic to protect your identity.
I had a lot of fun at EOY 2007, so much that I aborted my plans of attending Chuang Yi’s MUGEN presentation at Suntec City. Other than the visually exciting cosplays, it’s really fun going around with fellow otakus.
I have taken a lot of pictures on this event [more than 200+], and have some interesting ones to share. To make reading manageable, I’ll be pacing the coverage of EOY 07 over a series of entries:
- LOL
- MIL
