OtaGonzo: Otaku Taiki 2009
by otaking on Aug.24, 2009, under Otagonzo
Vigilant artist Shuu's wares! Visit her deviantart page!
I admit it: I didn’t have high hopes for Otaku Taiki.
Otaku Taiki was postponed from July to August, eliciting doubts from the community whether the organizers could pull this off. Compared to Metro Comic Con, Otaku Taiki had less than half the space, and was held on only one day — Sunday — instead of the entire weekend.
But when I arrived at Megamall, I noticed immediately that the vibe was very different. Cosplayers filled the corridors, shopped around, ate at the restaurants and food courts. This little con that could was making its mark all over the mall.
Outside Megatrade Hall 3 the crowds were so thick that I could barely make my way to the ticket booth. The Thailand Convention next door at Megatrade Hall 2 went largely unnoticed. Cosplayers leaned on the rails, sat on the floor, bought flavored fries and mango desserts. Roving costumed gangs posed for pictures with delighted onlookers. There was a definite festive atmosphere around the entire event.
But… why?
Inside the convention hall, I pushed and elbowed my way around to check out the layout. There was an entire section devoted to the 1st Philippine Anniversary of Highstreet 5, the online dancing game, complete with mesmerizing laser light display.
The usual stalls of merchandise were given an entire quarter of the hall, and I found Shuu, the artist for my upcoming webcomic Vigilant, at her own stall, selling cute keychains, stickers, and other cool doodads.
Say hi Shuu!
Another entire corner was dedicated to row upon row of Gunpla enthusiasts, taking part in an on-the-spot model kit paint and line contest, concentration evident upon their faces. The products of the time and labor of true enthusiasts graced shelves and tables.
I mean, take a good look at this thing. Wow.
It takes a good eye to distinguish the great works from the mediocre ones. I sure can't.
Wandering the aisles some more, I soon ran into the cosplay equivalent of Afternoon Teatime from K-On!, and realized that Mugi-chan was actually Taiga in disguise.
Mugi-chan looks like she wants to smack her bandmates around with a wooden sword.
Alodia and Ashley Gosiengfiao arrived and the crowd got even thicker. I wanted to have a word with them but the gaggle of photographers and fans prevented me from even approaching the very earnest looking bouncers around them, let alone the sisters themselves. Their mom sat at one of the tables at the Cosplay Circle booth, proud of the attention showered upon her daughters, as usual.
I decided to wait before talking to them.
Soon after the cosplay contest proper began, with the Gosiengfiao sisters as judges. I only had a spot next to the sound guys, but it was good enough a vantage point to take a few pictures.
The never-ending battle between insane bishie and amnesiac bishie.
Don't let the pigtails fool you.
Maylene should really get better glasses. She tripped on her way off the stage. Again.
Megatron menaces the sisters with his pointy talons
Jeff Hardy about to give his brother Matt a hard dropkick to the crotch. The crowd groaned in sympathetic pain.
KILL IT WITH FIRE
I have no idea where this maid is from. But more maids = good.
This guy had a hard time standing straight. His entire right side was too heavy.
Get over here!
As the cosplay competition ended, the crowd began to thin out. I took the opportunity to make my way to Alodia and Ashley, who were chatting up Megatron.
“Hi!” I greeted them as a scrawny bouncer started to push me aside. “I’m Cliff, from–”
“I remember, from Cosplay Fusion!” Alodia replied. “How are you?”
I gave the bouncer a smug look. He let me through. “I’m fine thanks. Listen, I just wanted to ask you about something.”
“What is it?”
“Well,” I said, “I was at Cosplay Mini-Summit and I wanted your opinion on something. Robert Wong from Cosplay.ph unequivocally stated that if you dressed up in costume for money, it isn’t cosplay, it’s modelling. What do you think about that?”
Alodia raised her eyebrows but kept smiling. “Well, we’re not getting paid.”
“I know that. But I think he meant any sort of commercial gain from cosplay. And since you endorse stuff, I was wondering–”
Ashley interrupted me, smirking. “Excuse me, can I take this question?”
“By all means.”
“As long as you’re wearing a costume to play a certain character from a game or anime or whatever,” Ashley replied, “then it’s cosplay. That’s all there is to it.”
“Well, I think Robert was coming from a purist standpoint,” I said, “and from the opinion that any sort of commercial involvement taints the hobby, which his group claims to represent.”
Alodia smiled, almost a colon-three. “Well, that’s Robert.”
Picture courtesy of Seedsop of the dot hacker review. Visit his blog for more Otaku Taiki reviews!
Soon after, I said goodbye to my friends and left the convention. I had enjoyed Otaku Taiki despite the fact that I hadn’t expected much out of it. Why was that? What did this convention have that others didn’t? It certainly felt like a rougher production than previous events I’d attended. The venue was cramped, there was less merchandise this time around (something Marielle complained about), but there was a real festival mood to the event. Why was that?
Maybe it was the tight focus of the event. There was only one day to get everything done, and space was a scarce commodity. Maybe the organizers realized that they had to pack as much awesome as they could in as little time and space as possible. Or maybe it was the feeling that this was an enthusiasts’ event instead of a platform for advertising. Or maybe I was just in a good mood and wasn’t as picky about anime as I am about comics.
Well, whatever it was, I actually had fun. Even packed in with other people like sardines. Even in the heat. Maybe the success or failure of a convention isn’t measured in tangibles like spacious venues or good sound systems or effective marketing. Maybe fun is just fun. And maybe it isn’t something you can construct, or calculate.
Or maybe I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about. 
150 Comments for this entry
8 Trackbacks / Pingbacks for this entry
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August 24th, 2009 on 1:52 pm[...] Please visit Otaking’s review of Otaku Taiki: Otagonzo: Otaku Taiki 2009 [...]
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August 25th, 2009 on 9:14 pm[...] crap. Despite Ashley Gosiengfiao’s assertions to the contrary, it seems that based on the comments to yesterday’s Otaku Taiki post, there aren’t [...]
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August 25th, 2009 on 9:49 pm[...] Project Otaking’s Otaku Taiki Article [...]
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August 26th, 2009 on 8:04 pm[...] had an exciting couple of days, haven’t I? First my Otaku Taiki comments page bursts into flames, and then I get accused of stirring up [...]
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August 28th, 2009 on 3:29 am[...] been impossible to miss the brouhaha generated by the cosplayer-versus-costripper-versus-model debate. As much as I’d love to give out my own two cents on the matter, I honestly [...]
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September 1st, 2009 on 4:40 pm[...] go to Otaku Taiki: the 2,391st and 11,054th times. In addition, there were 437 instances where a flamewar didn’t break out in the comments page of my Otaku Taiki report. (Unfortunately this isn’t one of [...]
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September 15th, 2009 on 10:04 am[...] considering the resistance my opinions have sometimes encountered, I was bracing myself for a battle. People had gone so far [...]
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April 12th, 2010 on 7:12 pm[...] an Ozine event (O-zeen? O-zayn? No one I’ve talked to seems to agree…) the year before, but only during the final day. I wanted to get a sense of the entire con this year, so this year I decided to attend all three [...]
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August 25th, 2009 on 1:48 pm
Like it or not, the local cosplay community uses the term. Yes, others may disagree and protest against it’s use but it doesn’t mean it’s not there. When the term “Cosplay”, “Anime” or “Otaku” first appeared, it was probably not viewed with much enthusiasm either (and in some parts, Otaku is still viewed negatively.)
To be honest, there’s no harm to word “Costrip” or “Cosplay Tripping” although I personally don’t like the innuendo in the conjunction. It’s just had a bad rap because a minority have used it to promote elitism.
August 25th, 2009 on 8:07 pm
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August 25th, 2009 on 8:15 pm
Hi Chunkybutt.
I’m afraid I’ve to disagree with you.
There’s much distinction between cosplaying and costripping. Same is true, if you compare anime with other cartoons and otaku with other forms of fandom. The term costripping cannot be deemed important by most since it doesn’t hold any difference with cosplaying. And besides, cosplaying is a general term for what we know as dressing up as someone or something.