This may be the perfect way to end a year full of personal breakthroughs—becoming the ring announcer of Manila Wrestling Federation (and doing it well) and figuring out how to cover events my own way. The latter has been more hit than miss this year, after having tried making event vlogs for a few years now. Cosplay Matsuri 2017 seems like a great way to cap things off and celebrate the realization that doing this content creation thing isn’t just a waste of my time.
In a year full of fan conventions going “next level” in both programs and ticket price, Cosplay Matsuri 2017 seemed to remain even-keeled by sticking to the formula of being an anime and cosplay convention for the people. Of course, holding it in SMX with a P199 ticket price means there should be a lot of people going throughout its 3-day run.
NOTE: Opinions expressed in this post were made mostly from my first-hand experience while attending the event. Additional information comes from reports from other publications and social media posts by others who attended the event. If I get anything factually wrong, it wasn’t on purpose and I’m open to corrections. Reader discretion is advised.
Cosplay Matsuri 2017 Review
Perhaps I didn’t do enough to really get ready for this event, but I planned to attend it anyway. I was prepared for a canned sardines sort of crowd situation and long lines like in Cosplay Mania 2017, but perhaps it being held at the very end of the year and not in peak con season made it less packed than I expected.
Take note, both Cosplay Matsuri and Cosplay Mania are organized by Cosplay.ph.
Aside from it being a back-to-basics anime convention with most of the things you’d expect from such an event done well, the only major things of note are the timing and incidents of theft in the artist alley. According to a fairly reliable source, they’re career thieves for the most part, with at least one of the captured suspects being from a family of thieves that reside in a particular district of Manila known for skullduggery. I’ll leave it at that.
Security should be kept tighter in these events, with more personnel manning posts all around the event floor. Other than that, the people manning the booths just have to remain vigilant and come up with ways to secure their money, wares, and valuables.
For instance, my friends at OliveCubes put up an action camera with a fisheye lens (SJCAM) to serve as their makeshift security camera so they’ll know if someone stole something from their booth. Meanwhile, the booth next to them actually put a plastic cover over their table to deter thieves while still keeping their wares visible.
The most important thing for booth owners for this new year is to send a message to those thieves that they’re no longer easy prey. It turns out these thieves have turned fan conventions in SMX as one of their regular gigs. Therefore, simply getting caught won’t deter them since they can post bail and do the usual shenanigans that career criminals in this country tend to do.
Other than the theft, the event was pretty good. It was certainly more fun than Geek Day 2017, although mostly due to a better set formula from many years of anime conventions. I do think geek conventions (the non-weeb variety) can catch up this year in many ways, but there has to be more things to entertain attendees other than celebrity guests and Hooq booths.
Making the Vlog
At first, I had to delay production a bit due to finishing the really silly No Man’s Sky post-postmortem to open up the year. Once I got done with it, I then had to hurry up with finishing this event vlog for Cosplay Matsuri 2017 (I don’t know if I’ll also do highlights for Facebook). I do my best to keep post-production to three days since I have work and other videos and blog posts to deal with. If I don’t finish it soon enough, the vlog goes by the way of the ESGS 2017 vlog, which is still not finished as of this writing.
Another thing that the lack of proper preparation for this event got me was being late to the venue and not being able to riff well enough to have good material for the vlog. I keep vlogs at around 15 minutes, I do what I can do get at least 2 hours worth of footage. With my current camera, its batteries, and the SD cards I have for it, I could get up to 4.5 hours of footage. However, limiting factors include my energy level, attention span, and whatever the event happens to give me.
Also, there were times when I wasn’t recording and certain cosplayers would pass by from whom I could actually get material (i.e. that Filthy Frank cosplayer, and Joji had just announced the retirement of that character around that time). I have to change my methodology so I can get as much good footage from these cons while still being able to enjoy them. I think using a lavalier mic instead of just screwing my Zoom H1 to the bottom of my camera can help with that.
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