Cosfest @ Downtown East

Okay, now that I've got a bit more time, I'll elaborate more on the day's events.

This cosplay event was at Downtown East, in Pasir Ris, which is just beside my town, Tampines. Because I love cycling so much, I decided to cycle all 6 kilometres just to get there. With me was my trusty Canon Powershot IS (actually, my mum's).

I got there in barely half an hour, and was greeted with this sign:



It seems the Tourism Board has prepared for Japanese visitors too. Very impressive.



This is how my bike looks like, by the way. It carried me all the way from there to here, so it deserves a little mention, at least. Urata's Numero Uno, coloured in what I'd like to call 'Caterham Yellow'.



Here's the main hall.



There's a smaller one to the side, mostly a waiting area for cosplayers during the cosplay exhibition in stage. I decided to check it out, anyway, and lo:



They were all on discount, but being the poor pitiful young man I was, I could only afford a $19 wooden kunai. In the end, I got myself a catalogue.



OMG only $39.90! Plus CD! I really wished I had at least $40 then. The stallholder was even willing to reserve it for me.





All sorts of posters and stuff at the Kare Kano no Mise (some Singaporean Otaku shop company or whatnot) booth. I couldn't snap any close-ups, sorry.







Losta fanart stuff too, on the benches at the corner of the hall.



BTW, it's actually Arisa Mizuhara. I'll remember that. ;)



I couldn't bring myself to buy this. Not only am I poor, I'm thrifty.

Moving on, let's have some cosplayer pics!





Believe it or not, this was the very same guy in the picture in previous post at the MRT station. Doing the same character, no less.



Back at the side hall, the cosplayers are getting ready to make their entrance on stage. I particularly like this picture here, cos they look so natural, and I've never had so many girls smile so adorably at me before (I'm deprived). I wished them 'ganbara!' after the shot, to which they gamely replied, 'arigato!'

Of course, you can't expect all cosplayers to be that friendly. found that most of them are quite aloof, or only close to their friends. Ah, well, it's natural. Either that or I'm being too extroverted.



Here they are, all on stage.



Pink Chii's the organiser of this event, or so I suppose. You can see black Chii in the row behind.



A close-up on the panel. We got some big names there, like the director of some Japanese Godzilla movie, a director of this thing, a manager of that company... And pink Chii.



At this point of time I got bored with the stage exhibition, so I only took one picture of Yuna (I saw her at Ngee Ann as well) before going around and shooting the non-performing cosplayers.



Pretty awesome, this Archer costume. I never thought one could pull it off so well. It's well enough for me.



Not sure where they came from, but the costumes are fantastic all the same. My camera lens wasn't wide enough to capture the Nodachi in full length, sorry.





I don't know who the character she's portraying is but I saw a mob of cameramen surrounding her, and just decided to join in. Nicely done, you don't get a lot of cosplayers who can do it so accurately.



Cloud demostrates to Shana and a Kimono-clad girl how to put his sword together.



I bit blurry, but you can clearly see Chikin Little and Shana snapping her cam at the Spidey behind him.









I love the costumes, even though I don't know where the outfits came from. Now I realize how much of a noob I am when it comes to knowledge about anime and manga. (BTW my favourite is the last one)









The Danny Choos (coincidentally, Darkmirage calls Stormtroopers Danny Choos as well) were present too. This scout trooper just got pwnt by a Star Trekkie.



There happens to be another Ichigo cosplayer, no surprise. The Rukia person didn't pull it off very well. My friend calls these people, who can't make it either because of their bodies or faces, 'cosfucks'.



There were reporters present as well. Can't wait to see this creepy face on TV.



I was drawn back to the stage when I heard the Hare Hare Yukai song playing. My cam didn't have enough memory to film the whole thing, sadly.



I stuck around long enough to watch a Kingdom HEarts skit, before moving on again.



The gang, and Guy Haruhi, the same one from Ngee Ann.



It seems that Yuki's a guy too. I think.







Back to the Grafitti wall. It's a bit more filled up now, and everybody was gathering round to watch this pro in a kimono in action.





Honestly, her drawing's really wonderful. Plus, she's a left-hander, a good sign of artistic quality.

One thing about conventions is that you soon runout of places to walk, and end up walking around the same place again and again. You also would happen to meet the same few noticeable people again and again, like somebody in an SOS-dan t-shirt, somebody with an ill-porportioned head, some fat dude in a Command & Conquer 3 shirt, etc. I never saw Darkmirage and his patented 'I am Darkmirage' shirt though.



Here's Shana. I think she's okay enough (the shoes are a bit too much), much better than a plump Sakura (from Tsubasa Chronicle) I was watching on stage, or another plump Sakura (from Fate) whom I saw at one of the bench-booths. There was a tubby Yomi, Chiyo and Osaka trio too.



Another personal fave of mine. The poor girl, she had no pockets to keep her Siemens phone, and I had to hold on to it while I snapped this shot. The guitar looks suspiciously like my Fender Strat, but it turned out to be a Suzuki immitation.









My spoils! Here they are, arranged on my table. A Haruhi necklace, a Haruhi postcard, a Death Note postcard, three Ouran High postcards (I'm practically a beggar, evidently), and the catalogue.

The event in whole was fun, and it was a real shame for me when I left at 5pm and rushed home (the run over Pasir Ris flyover was much harder than when I rode it from home as it's going uphill and there were lots of bumps and sudden turns) to catch my weekly screening of Rec on Animax (I sincerely think they should give it more air-time, it seems like an entertaining show to watch), only to realize that the 5.30pm slot was for a repeat telecast of Music Station, which I've already seen on Friday. What a friggin' waste.