After my Mom’s interment, nag-invite barkada ko na manuod ng ROGUE ONE sa Fairview Terraces. Hindi dapat ako sasama kasi parang hindi tama na gagala kagad ako after ng libing ni Mama pero sabi nila I need to unwind badly after what happened so sumama na lang din kami ng boyfriend kong si Josh. Tutal, wala din naman kaming gagawin sa bahay after nung libing. Saka kinabukasan, I’m planning to go back to work na so sinulit ko na din na makalabas ng bahay to bond with my high school friends. One way na rin siguro toh para hindi ako ganun ma-depress.
The year 2014, also the Year of the Wooden Horse, is definitely one of the best years of my life. Although it began with yet another chapter in my life, after quitting my job as a call center agent (in training), things have become much better since that day. But I struggled to find another job after that, and I simply gave up.
The World According to KCOX celebrated its first anniversary, during which I listed some of the blog's notable posts from its first year. Along with that, I also published the Golden Post special, which is a list of facts about me, Keihancarl X (I have only used that name since 2019), as well as a series of Obsessions posts and several personal posts. I also managed to muster up my courage to publish an awareness post, dealing with the...
Hi everyone, Keihancarl here once again. And I bet this weekend’s gonna be awesome.
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The Ozine Fest Halloween Special, held at the Fairview Terraces, will be the third anime/cosplay event I attended for this year, after the Pinoy Otaku Festival 2023: Shizen (Robinsons Novaliches) last May and the Best Of Anime 2023: The Reunion (SMX Convention Center Manila) last September. I never got to visit Coshabatsu, which was also held at the Fairview Terraces a few months ago.
Anyway, my awesome weekend should begin with a post-birthday celebration, with a cup of caramel macchiato iced coffee, cinnamon roll, and bloody velvet cupcake from Cafe Luca. I was initially planning to have a slice of Basque burnt cheesecake, but I changed my mind at the last minute.
I managed to take a lot of selfies, as well as food photos. I even took a couple of videos of the fork cutting a piece of the bloody velvet cupcake (one of the Halloween items).
I then uploaded the first batch of photos to my Instagram accounts. At that point, I was probably enjoying myself too much, knowing that I’d be attending the Halloween-themed anime/cosplay event later.
I only stay for about an hour since I need to get to the Ozine Fest. It was already 4:00 PM when I left the cafe.
Next stop, Fairview Terraces. I immediately headed to the event center to check some of the booths and bought a few souvenirs, including a couple of anime pins, a small Pochita plushie, and a book by Sskait (yup, he had a booth at the event).
As it is a Halloween-themed anime/cosplay event, the cosplay competitions are, of course, Halloween-related. There are also some mini-games as well. And there’s the trick or treat.
By the time I got there, the Worst Nightmare Cosplay Competition was about to begin. Seeing that most of the booths took up the event center, there’s very little space left in front of the stage. Not only that but some of the booths are located in the eastern hallway near Owndays.
From the second floor of the mall, the event center looked incredibly crowded.
Back at the event area, I had a few selfies with some of the cosplayers.
At the fountain area, I took some more selfies. The wacky ones.
The first day of the event ended as soon as the winners were announced. It was almost 7:00 PM, but the stage was empty. But the booths remained open until about closing time, I assume.
I then head to SM Fairview and visit a couple of bookshops. I managed to buy a second-hand manga at Booksale (Bodacious Space Pirates) that was on the shelf for almost four years. I remember seeing that book a lot of times whenever I passed by that branch, but it seems like no one bought it nor it was pulled out. But on that day, I finally decided to pick it up, and that was that.
I only checked the lower and upper ground levels and had dinner at Bonchon Chicken at the mall’s second level. I checked the department store after that (there’s a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf branch inside the department store aside from the one at the Parkway) and bought a couple of items at the supermarket before going home.
I must have spent a lot of money on these items, but they all serve as awesome souvenirs from the event. The manga, however, was bought outside the venue and may not be considered one of the souvenirs from the event, but I decided to include it anyway.
I'll definitely read the comic book very soon. Wish I also bought the eggplant plushie as well.
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That day was really special to me since that was the first time I celebrated my birthday at my favorite hangout place post-pandemic. I bought some awesome souvenirs from the Ozine event too. I never got to eat out at a Japanese restaurant (which I did a week later) or shop for some clothes to replace the ones in my wardrobe (I only bought a Shoyo Hinata shirt at the department store a week later as well). The small Pochita plushie and the recent book from Sskait serve as my birthday presents to myself. Too bad I never got to visit the second day of the event, but I somehow managed to squeeze almost everything in one day.
And that’s how my post-birthday celebration/first time at an Ozine event went. Hopefully, I can plan my next mall-hopping trip by November, as soon as I can procure some potential additions to my wardrobe.
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Most of the pics are from my Instagram account, @kcox_105. The Ozine Fest haul and the pages from the Sskait comic were exclusively uploaded to my Threads account of the same name.
It’s been a couple of years since I started attending otaku events like the ones featured in this post. It felt kind of awkward for me to attend an otaku event on my own, but I did enjoy checking the booths and buying various souvenirs, watching various live performances, taking selfies with some of the awesome cosplayers, and listening to panel discussions on various topics relating to anime, manga, and cosplay.
The pic was taken more than a month ago... Holding a cup of Passion Fruit Tea Burst from CoCo while enjoying the second day of Pinoy Otaku Festival: Ai 2018 at Fairview Terraces.
The fruit tea I’m holding looks invisible, it blends well with my yellow shirt.
All right, this is going to be an awesome weekend! And best of all, it's right near my place.
Of course, there are some things I wanted to do first before proceeding to the main part of a really awesome weekend, the Pinoy Otaku Festival: Ai 2018.
To be honest, I'm still nervous about going to an otaku event all by myself, just like the last time. Being the shy, introverted person I was, I somehow managed to check most of the event happenings as well as missing some of them.
June 2nd
I decided on my favorite black fleece coat, my brown polo shirt, black fingerless gloves, and a pair of red socks. As much as I wanted to wear an anime shirt to an otaku event, I resist the urge since I'm not really keen on wearing all-black like the last time (all of my anime shirts are in black).
I left home early, but I decided to come to the otaku event later. For the next few hours, I’m dealing with a light to moderate rainfall, but luckily I didn't get wet.
Anyway, let's start with the usual mall-hopping fare and a sip of caramel frappe at my favorite milk tea shop in Lagro. I'll definitely need to calm down first since I tend to get overexcited at the thought of going to an otaku event for the second time.
I arrived at Fairview Terraces at exactly 2:00 PM. By the time I got there, a panel discussion Anime vs. Manga vs. Visual Novel vs. Light Novel is about to start. The panelists are asked about the first anime series they watched, as well as the first manga series/visual novel/light novel they read. They discussed the pros and cons of manga series adapted into anime and debating whether an anime adaptation is better than the original manga and vice versa (if I recall correctly).
There was a cute intermission number with OO-kun and Chu Chu, plus highlights of some upcoming anime shows on Animax (POF: Ai 2018’s official media partner), some performances and other intermission numbers, another panel discussion May Forever Ba Sa Cosplay (English: Is There Love In Cosplay) and a game show Anime Game Challenge. As for the latter, there were groups of contestants who answer the questions from three categories: guessing the anime character, what title of an anime theme song being played, and guessing who's the seiyū (Japanese voice actors) of the characters featured in a series of different anime clips.
There was also a singing game show The Otaku Singing Bee and another panel discussion about the issues within the cosplay community (Issues In Coscom).
The Otaku Singing Bee features the theme songs from old anime shows like DNAngel, Yu Yu Hakusho (Ghost Fighter), Fushigi Yuugi, Inuyasha, and Full Metal Alchemist.
For the first part of the game show, the contestants must rearrange the words that appear on the screen, that is actually part of the lyrics that will follow soon afterward. The second part of the game show, they must guess the missing part of the song's lyrics. One guy really nailed the last part of Ghost Fighter's theme song, too bad I never got to record it on video. It was really fun, and some of the audience/event-goers couldn't resist singing the lyrics to the opening theme songs, even if they are about to sing the correct answer.
As for the latter, the panel discussion tackles about the issues cosplayers faced in the industry, like bullying/cyberbullying and crab mentality within the cosplay community.
There was the announcement of those who will advance to the final round, and the first day of POF: Ai 2018 is over. I managed to upload some of the pics and videos, including selfies with some of the cosplayers.
June 3rd
Same outfit, but with a yellow shirt and striped white/black/yellow socks. I arrived at around 2:00 PM, around the same time as yesterday.
The second day of the event had singing competitions, cosplay competitions and the battle of the bands, with some performances, games, stand-up comedy, auctions, and panel discussions. I did have some additional selfies with the cosplayers too, some of the pics are uploaded to the event's FB page as comments to the cosplayers' posts.
I did catch Who Wants To Be An Otaku, an anime-oriented quiz game, and the panel discussion on seiyūs or Japanese voice actors. There’s also the Cosplay Idol Finals, but I didn’t get to see much of it since I decided to take some time off from the event for a nice stroll in the adjacent malls and check out some of the shops as well. I then head back to the activity center an hour and a half later.
It was already 6:00 PM and I'm starting to feel hungry so I immediately head to Yoshinoya at the mall's second level. I decided on a beef and mushroom bowl, which actually tasted like corned beef with mushrooms. It was okay. Cosplay Xtra already started by the time I head back to the activity center.
I then decided to have a sip of fruit tea. Come to think of it, CoCo already has branches in SM Fairview and Fairview Terraces a long time ago, but I've yet to try out their drinks. And so I did, and I had a Passion Fruit Tea Burst. I have to wait for about 20-30 minutes before my drink is served since the line was pretty long and there were a lot of drinks to be served to the waiting customers.
It was worth the wait, though I was wondering if the crunchy, tarty seeds from the passion fruit are edible. I eventually researched all about it, and it is indeed edible. I finished the drink inside the mall area.
And there's the final part of the event, the Battle Of The Bands. Eleven bands participated in the event, each performing a cover of their chosen anime theme song and either a cover of an OPM song or their own composition. In between the performance, there was an auction of stuffed plushies and other items while waiting for the next band to perform. By the time the eighth or ninth band was about to perform, it was already near the mall's closing time (about fifteen minutes to 10:00 PM).
Despite this, the competition continued until about a quarter past 10:00. The event finished at exactly 10:30 PM. By then, most of the mall's lights are dimmed and only a few restaurants and cafés are open. I got home at around 11:00 PM.
During the two-day event, I only bought a few souvenirs at the event (a couple of button pins on the first day, and a handmade keychain on the second day) since I don’t feel like spending too much, considering the fact that I have a limited budget for the entire weekend.
Regarding my outfit... well, there's a possibility that I might get mistaken for a cosplayer (I wish I was one of them, but...) since my outfits often include black fingerless gloves and the black fleece coat. Some cosplayers wear gauntlets and gloves as part of the [character’s] costume like in the case of Noctis Lucis Caelum of Final Fantasy XV, so there’s no surprise that wearing my black fingerless gloves alone will make them assume that I was actually one of them. A couple of guys asked if they can have a selfie with me, but I politely told them that I’m not a cosplayer... with an awkward smile, of course. Maybe I might reconsider the thought of wearing them again in my future otaku event visits.
They have the photo printing booth where you can have your photos from the event printed for free (I think you have to sign up first), though I never had any of the photos printed, which is a total shame on my part since that would serve as a wonderful remembrance of the event. Aside from that, there were stalls selling various merchandises, mostly anime-related stuff, and some food stalls as well.
There are also workshops too, one of them is the Baybayin Writing Workshop, where one can learn the ancient Filipino writing system. If you notice the unusual writing below the word Ai on the poster, that’s how the Baybayin script looks like.
The event is also helping out charities, mainly Hands Of GOD Charity Works.
That concludes the two-day otaku event, and just like the last time (POF: Danketsu 2017), it was really fun. I had a lot of selfies with the cosplayers and it was really awesome! I’m definitely looking forward to the next POF event, in a larger venue. I’m hoping for the event to be held in either Vertis Tent or The Elements at Eton Centris, but then I wouldn’t mind going as far as MOA Complex just to experience the otaku vibe.
It sure was a really awesome weekend to remember. Until next time!
All pics are taken by yours truly, Keihancarl. Most of the pics are posted to my private Instagram account, @kcox105.
