Cosplay: East and West

Finally, I made it to the fifth event in five weeks one after the other. It's a little tiring to be sure, but it's a lot of fun as well. Now, this event is the second one held by what I believe is a local association of Japanese fans after the one they held one a year and a half ago; this effectively acts as its sequel. As for the name of the event, I had some trouble deciding how to call this event (by the way the logo was written) until it was announced and I saw it written clearly that the event was titled as you see in the title of the post.

How would you call this event, by this logo?

After much self-debate on what to wear, I chose to go with my original plan and cosplay as Ash BW. Typically, when I know there will be several events over several weeks, I make plans as to what I will cosplay at which event so I can structure costume usage appropriately. But sometimes, I may change plans suddenly due to specific circumstances, and that was one part of the self-debate. The other part was because I wanted to look my best so I could stand to win the prize in the cosplay walk or parade... which I didn't win. There were only two prizes and 20-plus cosplayers registered for it, so the chance of winning was already small from the outset. I still had a good time though, so that is what matters most.

I have to say that while there were fewer people than usual for a cosplay event on Sunday, they did try an innovative stage layout: the stage is a box in the center, visible from four sides, rather than a single side for the audience. Even so, most bands and dance cover groups did not make effective use of this arrangement and continued to perform facing one side, leaving the other mostly empty. It did, however, benefit cosplayers in the parade or walk to give them a place to pose as the parade proceeded. I would like to see this done more effectively at future events as well.

By the way, the title of "East and West" really means what it says: this event is designed to try to bring in Western influences, including animation, characters, and so on, to local events, which tend to remain on the Japanese or Eastern side. To that effect, all bands were asked to perform one Western fandom-related song in addition to the usual helpings of Japanese (Eastern) songs. I personally applaud this effort of bringing in a different flavor, although I also think Pokémon could be placed in this framework as well, as it can be considered to transcend the two sides.

As I've said, this is the fifth event in five consecutive weeks, and I think we all deserve a break. We're getting one, in fact: for approximately the next month and at least one week after, we are pretty much assured of not having any events; it is in effect our cool-down period. Thus as a closure to the five-event period, this event works out despite being underwhelming in some aspects. I am glad, though, to have participated in all events in the week prior, and I can't wait to partake in the next one after the break.