Last week,
July 7 - Saturday, I went to HERO TV FACE OFF 2012. A cosplay competition
wherein the winner of the face off will get the chance to go to Singapore and
compete there :3
Before I begin, I'd
like to admit that this is the first time that I actually took the time and see
an actual cosplay competition. I've definitely gone through a couple of
anime/manga events out there and took pictures of anime figures and cosplayers
but never did I sit still (or stand in this case. LOL.) and watch a cosplay
competition. I guess I should thank HERO TV for the opportunity(:
~late post x_x but I guess it's better late then never, huh? :)
~on the side note,
sorry for the poor camera shots :3 && this is going to be a REALLY long post.
Now, let me go to
what's up with this year's HERO TV FACE OFF. First of all, I honestly don't
know anything about this event before the invitation. The competition goes in
three categories: the Kids Squad Category,
the League of Heroes Category and the Face Off Category. With how I'll be going on
with this post, I'll give brief thoughts on each category and some other more
things sure as musing around for cosplayers and
other stuff that happened in the event :D SO let me start accordingly
with the Kids Squad Category.
Kids
Squad Category.
I've only seen a
couple of kids cosplay through the previous events I've gone to some seeing an
actual cosplay competition that allows kids ages 12 and below to compete. Since
this isn't really the highlight of the event, this category didn't really excite
me as much as the other 2 had. Although I have to admit that it was pretty cute
to see the kids cosplay. I'd like to go mention a few that really caught my
attention.
 |
| Bumblebee - Transformers |
First off, I'm no
fan of Fate/Zero (and I've never even seen it) but
seeing that cute kid cosplay as Saber is definitely a
sight (and I wasn't able to take a nice picture of her -.-). There aren't much to see in the category other than kids doing their
best to portrait the characters they are playing. There were Sakura Kinomoto
and Li Meiling
from Card Captor Sakura and Tachibana Kanade
from Angel Beats!. The most outstanding cosplay
has got to be the kid in the Bumblebee (Transformers) cosplay. They probably
put too much effort to it. The details are just so amazing. I just wish I had a closer
look.
.JPG)
League
of Heroes Category
So what is this
category all about? This is practically more like a 'skit' category. The
cosplayers will perform a scene from the series that they are cosplaying for
around 30mins or less (???). I'd say that this one is unexpectedly the most entertaining category.
The first group did a scene from Naruto
with all the fight scenes and sound effects which awed me. Seriously. I'm not
fan of Naruto but I was really amused
watching them.
Anyway, there were
practically two groups that impressed not only me but probably most (or all) of
the audience. The first one (the champion) was the group who did a skit on Chōjin Sentai Jetman. It's a super sentai series if anyone
doesn't know. I watched it when I was a kid and seeing this group do the
typical super sentai stuff was just fun and nostalgic at the same time. Seeing
the 5 Jetmen fight the monster and kill him, then he grows bigger (yeah, that
always happens - the most basic reference for super sentai events has got to be
Power Rangers. I'm
pretty positive that most people knows that) and the Jetmen had to get their
mecha. AND believe me, this group here just had their own mecha :3 Here´s a link to a video of their performance shared by hyper.kid04. It´s definitely worth watching. I re-watched it just now. Seriously. Click Here (It´s a facebook video. There´s no other source. Beggars can´t be choosers :P).
The other group that
impressed the audience was the group that performed a skit on Battle Commander Daimos. It's also a pretty nostalgic anime if you
ask me. Naturally I don't remember it much since I just saw it when I was a kid
when it had a rerun. Similar to Jetman, of course Daimos had their own mecha (naturally. LOL.). In their skit, they
also had Daimos's first set up (the
trailer thing) and had the actual mecha transform right in front of everyone.
Yeah, there was a guy transforming the trailer Daimos into an actual mecha
(which was the coolest part they had). Apart from the mecha's battle, we see
Richard (Ryuzaki Kazuya) move as well at the side lines. If anyone has watched
it, you know how Richard moves when he's inside Daimos and yeah, the cosplayer
does that too. XD
Face
Off Category
Now, this final
category has got to be the main event. This is where many people would just
cosplay for fun, show off or has a mind set of actually winning. Let me first
say this, I always have in mind that typical costumes don't win and I still
have that in me. The winner of this face off isn't some big time mecha (as I
was looking forward to it) rather a cosplayer in a battle armor. Yeah, I don't
know which game she got her costume or what. So now, let me proceed to my
thoughts on the face off category.
There were a lot of
simple cosplayers which I think mainly join for fun. There were on character,
off character, funny to look at, cute cosplayers, epic costumes and many more.
With over 70+ cosplayers (I think - I forgot to check the last number), it was
a great experience seeing each of them. Although I'm still half disappointed at
how people would cosplay the same thing over and over and over and over. Yeah,
I'm talking about the anime Naurto and
character Miku Hatsune (not that I have
anything against mainstream cosplaying). Anyway, seeing fairly new characters
to my sight was pretty interesting. Some of them are: Koenma (Yu Yu Hakusho), Kisaragi Saya (Blood-C) and Alice
Baskerville (Pandora Hearts). With only 2 years of
comeback to anime and not playing that
much games, I still don't know a lot of them so sorry if I can't name that
many. 
Now, let me go to
those that really caught my attention. First off, (sorry I really just can't
get this off my mind) there's an Elizabeth
(Gintama) cosplay. I mean, seriously, who cosplays Elizabeth? Okay,
this guy does and it's funny (in a good way). XD Another attention grabber
cosplayer was Mr.
Satan (Dragon Ball Z) or popularly known as 'Master Pogi' here in the country due to the dub
:3 Believe me, he's too in character and even had the same voice as in the dub.
It was just so amazing. XD Other then the two of them, the cosplayer of Kagura from Gintama (uh-gain) has really caught my
attention. We first saw her when we were musing around before the face off
category and she's too mature looking to be Kagura... but still... I have to admit that like how she looked :3
ANYWAY, moving to
those who had really amazing costumes, I honestly don't know from which
anime/game they came from since I don't play too many games and I haven't
really watch that many mecha anime. First off, the first mecha
cosplay that awed me is this. She's beautiful and her white mobile suit just
looks amazing on her. Similar to the Daimos
cosplay I mentioned earlier on the League of
Heroes Category, she also had that 'transform-moment'. I wasn't able to
see it completely (too bad) but I did had a pretty good close up look on
her and on her amazing cosplay. There
were a lot more huge costumes but I barely saw them so I can't talk about them.
Other than the huge
mecha cosplays, the warrior-style cosplays also look amazing. The champion
actually came from this style. First off, her well made costume looks really
good on her and her props (the swords) looks amazing. She maximized her 30sec
stage time swirling around with her sword :3 Finally, I noticed this really
impressive cosplay which I believe came from a computer game character.
Musing
Around the Venue
Of course I wouldn't
just seat around the venue and watch cosplayers walk in the stage the whole
time. I'm not that type of person. Now, let me go to other stuff that's in the
event.
Prior to the 'main
event' or the cosplay competition itself, there's a movie screening of Yu-Gi-Oh!'s 10th Anniversary Movie: Ultra Fusion! Bond
Over Time and Space which features the first 3 Yu-Gi-Oh! main protagonist: Yugi Mutou/Yami Yugi, Jaden Yuki and Yusei Fudo. I've
seen the 'movie' before so I didn't bother to come early to see it again. For
those who haven't seen it, it's practically a one duel against Paradox because he
wants to end the widespread of duel monsters by killing Pegasus
Crawford because according to him, the world will come to an end because of
the power of duel monsters. This movie is actually a small portion of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's. Anyway, other than the Yu-Gi-Oh! screening, there's also a screening of Gintama's first movie: Gintama: Shinyaku Benizakura-hen. I've seen
this arc from the anime and I do plan to watch the movie although I want to
watch it in Japanese dub with English sub. Yeah, as obvious as it seems, the
movie screening was in Filipino dub and there's no way I'll around and listen
to how different Gintoki's voice is :P but seeing some parts of the ending, I'd have to admit that the script is pretty entertaining. Not really bad in my opinion but dub is still not my style :P
Musing around the
venue, I've seen cosplayers which I saw compete while there were also cute
cosplayers who didn't compete. It's actually fun to just see cosplayers around
doing their best to capture the characters they are portraying. I saw an Erza Scarlet from Fairy Tail cosplyer (or
did I got the character all wrong? LOL.) which I never saw (or did I missed
her?) in the actual competition. AND I get to have a picture with Daimos (LOL)
and the rest of the crew :3 Also, before the Face
Off Category, I get to see that mature and beautiful Kagura and Uchiha Sasuke from
Naruto.
Finally, after the
competition, there's also an intermission by Tanya Markova. I've heard
the band before but never actually
listen to them although the first song they perform was fairly familiar. I
probably have heard it somewhere (the radio perhaps. Psshh -.-). Anyway, there
are just two things I can say about their performance: it's pretty loud (I was
already seating in front when they perform. LOL) and their songs are pretty catchy.
In an overall look
on this event, I'd say that it's pretty fun to actually see a cosplay
competition. Also, I really like the idea how most people were actually there
to just cosplay and have fun. Looking forward to the next FACE OFF? Definitely
:D
