Marielle performs the only physical attack attempted on my person during the entire convention

(Read the rest of my Cosplay Mania 2009 report! Part I is here. Part II is here.)

By 4pm most of my crew were too tired to even attempt to reenter the convention hall and left just me and Marielle, my wife’s niece, to brave the crowds. I said I had to go back because I wanted to see the cosplay competitions, and Marielle wanted to go back because she was high on sugar, and she wanted to meet with her friends.

But I really wanted to go back because being in costume at a cosplay convention was… addictive.

Sese as Yowane Haku!

When we got back it was worse than when we left. A huge crowd had gathered around the stage in anticipation of the cosplay competition. I wanted to watch my friend Sese’s group perform but they seemed to be having trouble with their soundtrack for their skit — apparently they’d been told to submit their soundtrack on the day itself, but when they did they were then told that the deadline for submission was the day before, so they were in a bit of a fix.

We decided to escape the crowds by entering the Cosplay Museum, but before we did we had a short chat with Rotch at the entrance to the Mech Cafe.

Like a starship captain, Magnetic Rose commanded the entire operation with clockwork efficiency.

Rotch told us that they were still recovering from the previous shift, since apparently some rowdy customers ignored the queues, took a bunch of photos, and then left without paying. Although clearly harassed, everyone was still in high spirits by the time the last shift started and the crowds started milling in.

I checked out the costumes, adorning some rather plain-looking mannequins. Each costume was accompanied by a placard explaining who wore the costume, when it was worn, and why it was so significant to the history of Philippine Cosplay. The legendary Saito costume by JM Chua, the teeny Voltron outfit worn by Belldandy, all of the costumes served as a reminder that the organizers valued everything that had come before.

And yet… With the costumes on mannequins, I was struck by how plain the costumes seemed without the cosplayers who once wore them. Particularly the Saito costume, which seemed like a simple uniform without the razor-sharp portrayal of the man who for all intents and purposes WAS Hajime Saito, as long as he was in costume.

Gundam Girl without the Girl

Marielle and I lined up for our free studio photos that came with the Cosplay Museum tickets. Other cosplayers came in for their own photos: War Machine, the girl who cosplayed as Maka Albarn from Soul Eater, and Bumblebee. Marielle wasted no time in arranging a photo op with her and Bumblebee.

This Bumblebee probably transforms into an extremely tiny Camaro.

While waiting for our photos to develop, we watched the young mecha-headgeared maids and butlers of the Mech Cafe go about their business, to the sound of Initial D Europop playing over the sound system. Even though they were all tired, they all seemed to be having fun despite it all. They played games with their patrons, they cheered, they greeted new arrivals, they skillfully weaved around each other while serving tea and snacks. It occurred to me that these kids loved what they were doing. I doubted any of them really wanted to be waiters and waitresses, and yet here they were, giving up a Sunday to serve other people in costume.

Meanwhile, the mannequins and the once-famous costumes they wore stood silently, impassive witnesses to everything.

The silent Alucard mannequin in the foreground, the animated Mech Cafe in the back.

We stayed in the cool conference room for a little while longer, reluctant to subject ourselves to more push-and-shove. But eventually we returned to the convention center, just in time to witness a truly epic Valkyrie Profile skit. The technical excellence of the skit amazed me. The costumes were spot-on. The choreography (especially with the kurokos performing all the attack special effects) was breathtaking. If this was the benchmark for what could be accomplished locally then the mark was set pretty damned high. It didn’t surprise me one bit when they won. Their prize… a printer. Good luck divvying the loot, guys.

After this, we wandered around, checking out the cosplayers who didn’t participate in the competition.

You just don't mess with a guy who has a massive pyramid for a head and scratches all over his bare torso.

I spotted the Joker (Heath Ledger edition) posing for photos. I asked him if I could get a photo with him, and he agreed. I suggested a pose. “Kill Lelouch,” I told him.

“Gladly,” he replied as he put his knife up to my neck.

Look at how happy he is... and how distressed I am.

The facts of what happened next are in dispute. As far as I can tell, a girl and her mother went up to me and the girl asked if she could take a photo with me. Marielle swears that the girl said, “I’m a big fan of yours, I think you’re really cute,” and that I blushed beet red when she said this.

I have no recollection of these events, I’m telling you! (Plus I think she meant she was a big fan of Lelouch, not me, per se.)

At any rate, her mom took a photo of us, and then she took a photo of me and her mom. As she walked away, I gasped as I realized something.

She popped my cosplay photo op cherry.

The photo op requests kept coming after that, and I got more and more comfortable posing for them. I guess it’s only really hard the first time.

Why so serious? It's only a happy meal!

Something clicked inside me. When you’re in costume at a cosplay convention, it is everyone else who is out of place, not you. I felt completely at home, even though I was running on fumes at this point. I could strut around in costume without feeling the least bit self-conscious. It was, as I’ve asserted, but never actually experienced at this scale, as if I was someone else, as if I was freed from my everyday identity by pretending to be a fictional, two-dimensional character. If people gawked at me, pointed, took pictures, laughed, it only made them stick out more, as if they were tourists and I was in my home country, surrounded by wildly-different looking countrymen, but countrymen nonetheless.

It was truly Play, in Costume, like a festival. It was a Technicolor Mardi Gras. It was a rush. It was liberating. And as I found out too late, it was addicting. Because I want to cosplay again.

So when’s the next event?

Like

Unlike