EOY Cosplay Festival’13 Coverage

We ended last year off with a BANG! (ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

It’s a bit late from when the actual convention happened, but I’m here again with a guest blogger – Sleepy from Nabe!! who’s going to be covering the night activites, while I’ll be giving you a little peek into the day activities. If you remember, I also covered EOY’12, so let’s take a look at how it’s changed since then.

Hi I’m Sleepy and during the course of EOY, I became a cross-dresser and lost all dignity. (Miyu: Ooh, you’ll want to hear the juicy bits for this one, but suffice to say Sleepy had a fun time in knee-high socks and a mini skirt :3)

DAY ☼

*miyu// Like last year, it was also held at Singapore’s Marina Barrage, which although allowed for many pretty cosplay backdrops, was really harsh on cosplayers and event goers alike because of the fabulous weather that day. By fabulous I mean scorching hot, and because there was also little facilities to help against the heat (it’s an outdoor venue so no aircon and perhaps only a few fans), it’s enough to say that almost everyone was feeling miserable 1 to 2 hours in. And to think the weather forecast had predicted that that day would have thunderstorms.

Merchandise

The merchandise this time round was your standard anicon fare – badges, posters, laptop decals and everything you could think of. There was quite a variety of fandoms featured too, although expectedly, Shingeki no Kyojin, Free! and Kyokai no Kanata still had the most hype. There were a few booths selling doujin too, which is pretty rare in Singapore (as compared to America and Japan, I should think) so that was definitely an added bonus.

Stage Performances

Wanna know a secret? (*whispers* That’s me on stage)

>>> open spoiler to hear me sing… if you dare www

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The highlight of the convention this time round though, has to be the stage performances. While EOY’12 had a mini-stage around the booth area, EOY’13 boasts a huge stage complete with runways, perhaps about ten times the size as compared to the year before. They also included better mics and speakers, and had a viewing area right in front of the stage where people could drop by to have a look while shopping. The day was packed with talent performances from day to night, and featured dancing, singing as well as instrumental performances by many gifted people.

Special Guest: Wata

Kawaii Wata with the event’s producer, Tim and his proudly signed guitar!

The most anticipated, though, was probably Wata’s performance. Wata is an Odorite from Niconico with a steady following of 15k on Twitter (you can check out her dances here), and has a pretty big fanbase in Singapore too (Sleepy here is one really big fan of hers – suffice to say that he went a little crazy during her performance.) In her first performance in the late afternoon, she danced to Melancholic and Luka Luka Night Fever and rocked the stage. She is definitely as adorable in real life as in her videos on Niconico, and she got the crowd roaring with her amazing dancing.

Luka Luka Night Fever – Wata

Melancholic – Wata

NIGHT ☪

*sleepy// At around 6pm, most of the visitors had already left or were planning to even though the best part of the event was starting. There were a few stage events left, but the main highlight of the night was the second time Wata took the stage.

She danced 3 more songs, “Natsu koi Hanabi”, “Minna Miku Miku ni Shite Ageru” and “too Cute!” and finally wrapped up with a flash-mob of “Gravity = Reality”. Despite how late it was getting, many of the people who were still there cheered her on throughout every one of the dances.

Wata turned out to be really touched by the energy of the fans that were there and after dancing Natsu koi Hanabi, she started to tear up to which her fans responded with even more cheering. By the time of the flash-mob, you could tell from everyone’s expressions that they were definitely having a good time!

After this it was time for the special buffet dinner with Wata which I was too poor to afford. Instead, I watched the last few stage performances. The surprising part was that the last few performers were so good; it was really a pity that they did not perform earlier in the day when there were more people to enjoy it. And with that, the last event of the year in Singapore came to a close.

☆ COSPLAY CORNER ☆

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Overall, EOY was an event of new experiences and fun. I tried out what it was like to both cosplay and cross-dress. I even managed to meet a dancer I really respected. It was definitely the best way to wrap up the year and I definitely look forward to EOY 2014. If you weren’t there, hopefully these videos will let you experience what it’s like to be there!

I enjoyed EOY’13 a lot more than I did the previous year despite the sweltering heat, and besides the fact that the event got bigger and definitely better, I think the fact that I met up with a lot of lovely online friends, including some anibloggers from Nabe!!, made it a whole lot more fun. Actually, I confess that I spent the earlier part of the day melting down in anxiety because I too, performed on stage this time round. (This is embarassing but, if you want to watch me you can watch the video above in the spoiler near the section on stage performances – it’s definitely not a perfect performance because my voice broke twice HAHA but it was fun nonetheless c:) I managed to walk around and buy some cute stuff too. Although at this point in time, EOY’s still a lot smaller than AFA, I think it’s still one of the anime conventions in Singapore that’re worth checking out. I’m sure that EOY will get better and better from here onwards, so check it out if you haven’t next time round (…if you live here xD)!!

Acknowledgements:

• A huge thank you to our wonderful photographer Hiromi from Nabe!! for some of the lovely photos you’ll see in this post!
• Another shoutout to Nabe!! as well as Tehepro Studios who’ve collaborated with us to make this coverage post possible.

About Miyu

A stressed-out jyoushi kousei doubling as Metanorn's loli with a soft spot for sappy romance animanga. She will watch anything with bishies in it. :3