Cartoons from Japan, more widely known as anime, features lots of colourful characters. When you have fans of these characters trying to dress up like them, you will get what is called cosplay.
On the 10th of March, I went to 1Utama to catch the Animax Carnival 2012. It's an event organized by the Animax channel and Astro. The highlight of the event was the cosplay competition which is also the main reason I was there with my camera.
Besides the cosplay competition, there were plenty of other activities such as games and body art drawing. Entrance was free on the 10th provided you bring your January Astro bill or you come in costume. I tried passign myself off as a cosplayer but they would buy my story that I was dressed as a paparazi so I whipped out my Astro bill and got my ticket. What got on my nerve a little was the fact that I was in line for almost 2 hours before they let anyone in.
Anyway, here are some photos I took while I was there:
Below : Cosplayers dressed as characters for the video game Modern Warfare 3. Above and below: The main reason I was there - Alodia, the cosplay queen from the Philipines gracing the event. She came as Yui Hirasawa from the anime K-On! and it was really like Yui stepped out from the TV and into real life. Below: Alodia as a member of the panel of judges for the cosplay competition. Leftmost is Maria Ong, director of Animax Singapore and rightmost is Ayase, a pioneer in the cosplay scene in Malaysia. Below : Some of the contestants in the competition. They have to perform a skit on stage for both the preliminary and the final round. Each was given 3 minutes to perform.
Some of the cosplayers that were there just to have some fun and did not participate in the competition. There were lots of them around and they really gave the event a carnival-like air.
The Grim Reaper was also milling about and was stopped by lots of people wanting to take pictures with him. Above: A Stormtrooper with a ninja-like character holding a double bladed lightsaber. That's what you call fusion between east & west! And of course the winners for the cosplay competition. Points were awarded for costume and performance. I thought all the finalist fared equally well in the costume part as their costumes were all very elaborate and detailed. Thus it boiled down to performance.
The competition ended around 5 something pm and after that most of the cosplayers dispersed and went home. I too headed home after that. I was not very satisfied with the photos taken on that day but I did have some fun meeting up with fellow photographers.