About a month ago, the day Go Kaisho became No Kaisho, a bunch of people decided that it would be fun to simply show up at the Eastwood Mall instead of waiting for an excuse to cosplay. Since it was also Children’s Day at the park, this led to some rather amusing consequences. Among the cosplay guests at this so-called ImpromptuCon: Jagi-sama (Romeo), Hatsune Miku (Sese), and an off-duty Geisha Girl (Monique).

As I was laughing my head off watching Jagi-sama get thrown off by an mechanical bull, I wondered: Why do people need an excuse to cosplay, anyway? This convention-centric view of cosplay doesn’t seem to be shared by Akiba itself. Every Sunday the main road that cuts through Akiba, Chuo-dori, is closed to vehicular traffic and becomes a stage for cosplayers. No entrance fees, no cramped venues with poor ventilation, just miles of concrete serving as the ballroom for a weekly fancy dress party.

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Read Part 1 here! Part 2 here!

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[This is Day 2 of my Ozine Fest 2010 report! Read day 1 here! All pictures are by my friend Ksolaris, as you can tell from the watermark -- not that it's stopped some very high profile scrapers from swiping her pics and posting them on their Multiply without attribution before. And what's with those uniformly crappy captions?]

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I attended 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 days of Ozine Fest 2010.

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Stuck in traffic.

For some reason, the 2009 Komikon, at Megatrade Hall 1 in SM Megamall, was held on the same day as the 3 Day Mega Sale. That meant traffic jams. That meant parking wars.

I stayed upbeat about it, turned up the music, plurked on my phone. It’s tradition to curse in traffic, blame the traffic aids, blame reckless drivers, blame the government, blame the weather, but I guess I’m not much of a traditionalist. Even the empty parking lot next to Podium, my go-to place whenever I suspect that parking is going to be scarce, was full.

I hoped a lot of the people in line with me liked comics.

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

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(Read Part I of my Cosplay Mania 2009 report here!)

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I was afraid.

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I apologize for the whole L thing, which is overdone, I know. But I think this time it adds a certain level of poignancy to what has by now revealed itself to be a sordid tragicomedy. Please indulge me. I have artistic pretentions, and a sudden bolt of inspiration.

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I was finishing off my cup, watching the crowds at the Shangri-La Mall line up for photos and frozen yogurt, when I realized that this particular cosplay event wasn’t anything like a convention at all. It was a carefully choreographed, well-organized media event that appeared to be a cosplay competition. It was pure publicity for a charity tie-in with a consumer product.

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