DaiCon 2009: A good flop?

What makes an event a successful event? Good floor layout? Good sound system? Good attractions? Good crowd? All?

In the case of DaiCon 2009, an ACG (anime, comics and games) event held at MMU Cyberjaya, the only good thing I got to notice in the few hours I was there last Saturday was a better floor layout than what I'd seen at the previous ACG event I had attended which was HELP's C2AGE.

If C2AGE was rated one over five stars, DaiCon's only two.

In other words, not that fantastic.

Which, is a pity considering the kind of hype it had over the event way in advance. They had a snazzy looking website promoting the event and they even managed to rope in a seiyuu all the way from Japan to perform but again, this goes to show that things can always go wrong if you've failed to nail down the itty-bitty details.

Like Point Numero Uno: I was told that there was going to be a maid cafe. I'm no otaku by far but I thought it'd be something different to be served coffee and cake by girls in maid uniform and had looked forward to it. So I saw all these maids, right? And I had no idea if they were just random maid cosplayers or the ones who were supposed to work the cafe but I didn't see any cafe.

I did though, see the Nescafe truck and there was this Indian uncle OK, and he was serving people free instant coffee in the little paper cups. And not to be racist or anything (the point's not about the uncle to begin with) but I actually wondered if the organisers had gotten the idea of a cafe all wrong and decided that coffee was best served in paper cups, the instant way, and from a small booth set up next to a truck. I nearly asked the uncle, "Uncle, mana itu costume maid uncle?" but I decided that I had better not risk my free cup of coffee since I really wanted a drink.

Point Numero... uh, Duo?: Only questions submitted to the DaiCon committee AND that were approved will be asked during Minori Chihara's Q and A session. Said, a media friend who received an e-mail notifying the ruling two days prior to the event. The last minute-ness of the whole thing was because the committee had forgotten to notify the media much earlier.

Said media friend also decided to screw the whole thing altogether after getting so bored, going round and round the hall for a few times and realising that the attractions only amounted to a few booths selling artwork, a few booths selling shirts and other things, a makeup booth whose products you can find in Guardian and Watson's, a few booths displaying figurines and a bunch of cosplayers whose costumes were all right but not too fantastic.

A seiyuu comes all the way from Japan and the media were not granted exclusive one-on-one interviews but forced to sit in on the Q and A session with the rest of the paying fans. This was a far cry from previous interviews had with two other seiyuus who had made appearances at previous years' ACG events, namely Mr Tuxedo Mask and the guy who voices Ichigo Kurosaki.

Ah, let's screw it. The said media person is me. I had a one-on-one with Mr Tuxedo Mask, which was fantastic because although most reporters will tend to ask similar questions, at least they are able to write about their individual experiences or get a few questions asked differently (if lucky). Even when I was unable to attend last year's event that had Ichigo, thanks to the local PR team for Animax which is Roots, was still able to get a one-to-one phone interview with said seiyuu.

Because, your boss will not like it if you wrote the same stuff the other media wrote. In fact, my boss will tell me, since the other paper has the shit, let's just scrap it or yay, let's just rely on Bernama (but that's usually for news stuff).

Anyway, I'm rambling but why do people need to pay to see Chihara, whom some people (who spoke to me at the event) have labeled a "manufactured idol"? Why can't it be an attraction for all? To me, it seems like discrimination on the organisers part and a bit of a ripoff. I say, a ripoff because she is supposed to be a major crowd-pulling factor and yet, you are denying the crowd a reason to remain at the event longer than necessary (since the attractions got boring after a while).

The conclusion is, it's not an entirely bad event (although some of the karaoke contestants were scary and there was this mysterious long line for people to buy I don't know what). I was told that due to certain "political rifts" within the organising committee and the ACG club, a lot of things managed to get botched up and ended up the way they had.

However, a lesson to be learnt is this: Having a big name at your event (like with C2AGE and its Hannah Tan) does not necessarily guarantee it a success. It draws in some crowds and keeps some visitors happy (like the pervs, don't we know?) but if it has the visitors coming home and saying that this sucked and that sucked, you know that your event definitely needs a lot more improving.

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because we love toasted ass

H/L: Getting into the cosplay groove
Byline: MM
Date of publication: 29/12/2007

I THOUGHT I'd met my knight in shining armor, but after he took off his headgear, I realised that he was a man in his late thirties, with a chubby face and thinning hair.

This is not meant to insult, mind you, but more of a sneak preview of what cosplay entails - that anybody could be anybody as long it is what the heart desires with results that will shock even those you are closest to. Take for example, the lovely blonde cosplayer wearing a unique costume that bespoke volumes of regality and noble bearing: She is a character from console-playing game Tales of the Abyss, the proud Natalia Luzu Kimlasca-Lanvaldear... or so you thought. Take another guess, for Nadia is actually a guy in costume.



For the uninitiated, the idea of cosplay sounds almost scary. Some may liken it to a freak activity for freaks. There may be a grain of truth in this.

After all, one would have to be mad enough to dare wearing a Sailor Moon outfit out in public. But for those who adore this wacky subculture, it's all about bringing your biggest childhood (and for others, adult) fantasies to life.

And bring to life many of them did, like the quartet of girlfriends who were cosplaying as the heroines from Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon (PSSM).

"PSSM has always been a childhood favourite of ours and it had been a sort of secret dream that one day, we, too, could become just as beautiful and heroic as the Sailor Scouts. Today, we're living that dream and it's been great," said the gang's leader Nor Hashimah, 20, a cosplayer of six years.

At this year's most anticipated ACG (animation, comics and games) event, Comic Fiesta 2007, she cosplayed the Soldier of Water and Intellect, Sailor Mercury. Nor Hashimah's costume is based on the version from the final arc of the series, the Shadow Galactica arc. The event was held at Berjaya Times Square Kuala Lumpur on Dec 15 and 16.

Her childhood friends from Bangi, Nur Aina, Nur Asyikin and Nur Dinni, are dressed up as Eternal Sailor Moon, Sailor Pluto and Sailor Mars, respectively.

When asked on why there were only four instead of nine people in the group, Nor Hashimah said as theirs was a last minute plan, the other friends in the group were not able to have their costumes done in team for the event. The four of them took one month to get their costumes ready and even then, they were missing the elbow-length gloves which are part of the costume. On a side note, the Sailor Team is actually made up of the five Inner Soldiers and four Outer Soldiers which added up make up all the planetary bodies in the solar system.

"People wonder why we settled for the Shadow Galactica arc instead of going for the first arc, the Dark Kingdom arc, and this is because nobody else in Malaysia has cosplayed any of the series' characters from the last arc. (The writer happens to be the first in the country to cosplay Sailor Mars, with the costume being from the first arc by the way.) We also loved how there is a uniformity between the costumes of all the characters. In the previous arcs, each character had accessories which
were exclusive to only herself," said Nor Hashimah.

Next on the list are Yau Ju Anne, 18, and Marina Shukry, 20, who were cosplaying Esther Blanchett (White Queen version) and Seth Nightlord from the anime series Trinity Blood.

Their elaborate costumes, reminiscent of the Victorian era, had cost them RM800 and RM900 respectively.

Both are not newcomers to the cosplay scene: Yau has been cosplaying for three years and has cosplayed Tifa Lockheart (Final Fantasy VII), Miyu (Vampire Princess Miyu) and Karin Koenig (Shadow Hearts: Covenant) while Marina, a diehard fan of Trinity Blood, has four costumes belonging to two characters from the series, Abel Nightroad and three versions for Seth Nightlord due to her absolute love for the character.

However, these were only a few out of the many that had come proudly in their costumes, to the delight of the crowd upon identifying the characters cosplayed. Although still on a somewhat small scale, there is no doubt that this is a fastrising subculture what with the many new faces coming onboard to embrace this passion for role-playing and dressing up.


What makes an inspiring cosplay?

CERTAINLY not when you're wearing a rush job which clearly shows that it is. You know, a rush job.

While not everyone can work miracles on a sewing machine, it does help a lot when you make the effort to find yourself a good tailor. Not an idea that will bode well with those with lean wallets though as an elaborate costume will have you forking out a crazy sum like RM500 for something that you'll wear like what? Once, or twice, a year?

There are also those who have no imagination, coming to such events as Gothic Lolitas, which isn't much challenge as far as cosplay goes. Just put on something black with layers of lace, tie a frilly apron round your waist and then plonk a mini crown on your mass of curls. Oh, and don't forget the platform Mary Janes and the knee-high beribboned socks. Or what about the kind of cosplay where the character is wearing clothes so normal that you cannot distinguish whether the person is cosplaying or not? That's quite uninspiring, too.

However, an inspiring cosplay does not come entirely from good tailoring. Just like buying the right shade of foundation to match your skin tone, choosing the right character to portray is just as important so it is quite unfortunate when there are those who choose to cosplay a particular character because of whatever hype that is attached to that particular anime/manga/ game the character originates from at the moment.

That is why cosplayers who are able to give me an in-depth description of the character and elaborate what makes the character special to him/her get my seal of approval instead of those who tell me that, "I like this character but I don't know why. He/she looks cool, I think", because you know that with the amount of passion the cosplayer has for that certain character, he/she will do a better job portraying him/her because the character has been studied so well, it becomes like a second
persona. Like how actors `become' their characters, the same should go for cosplayers.

But then you argue, what of people who are too obese to cosplay Sailor Moon but go ahead with it anyway? No matter how good an actress she is, she'll never be as close to the real thing. Well, my dears, that's another story for another day and didn't your mother teach you not to discriminate the horizontally-challenged people?

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HELP's C2AGE: A flop that goes without saying

WHAT sets an ACG (anime, comics and games) apart from the other 'regular' exhibitions and conventions I've felt, is a unique feature, that is usually also the most-anticipated highlight, 'called cosplay'.

Short for 'costume play', it is an activity that had its roots in similar-themed conventions in Japan and the States and has over the past few years, seen it rising to slowly becoming an up-and-coming staple especially in the local universities' and colleges' ACG club-held events.



Anyway, I accompanied a friend to cover the C2AGE (Comics, Cosplay, Anime and Games Exhibition I think the acronym stood for) event in HELP University-College (did it have a -College to its name? I forgot) and having attended a few cosplay, correction, ACG events in my time, had anticipated something... a lot more impressive, to say the least.

Needless to say, the event was a total flop by most people's (read: cosplayers and others who have attended other ACG events) standards and I couldn't help but feel embarrassed for my part as there was nothing much to show my friend, whom I had raved on and on about the exciting-ness of cosplay and why people cosplay and etc. an hour prior to the event. (There wasn't much point for me to talk to him of anime or comics or games - these are considered 'mainstream' forms of hobbies here and in many parts of the world anyway.)

So, anyway, I'm just going to stick to the whole cosplay bit so if you wanted a more comprehensive self-report on the overall event and its activities, perhaps you could check up the Comic Fiesta forums, where I'm sure they'll have a thread created to discuss it.

If, you had come to an ACG event to take a look at the cosplayers - maybe you were just curious or just like snapping interesting photos, etc. - and the most interesting cosplay was Kame-Sensei from Dragon Ball, you know that you're in for some really dull times.

By the time we left at close to 3pm, I can safely say that there must not have been even 30 cosplayers at the event. Some Naruto cosplayers, Vampire Knight (I think, I haven't been watching anime for some years now and the last title I saw was Trinity Blood) cosplayers, hmm, random Gothic Lolitas that JUST DIDN'T CUT IT (*grimaces*) and oh, there's that Sven dude from Black Cat. And others. I'm just too lazy to list them all.

My friend had a 'talk' (which is to say, interview) with some of the cosplayers and whoopee, surprise surprise, they weren't even from HELP. Gosh. What's the point of holding an ACG event in your own backyard when you aren't even enlisting your own club members to 'support' the event and make it more interesting for the visitors?

And that dance during the launch? It was lameness beyond all reason. You call that a dance? Seriously? You call THAT a dance? (Never mind if it's done to the chirpy-happy Hare Hare Yukai song. It wasn't cute at all.)

But I'm diverting from the matter of importance which was that the event was a flop. Because the organisers failed to create 'attractions'.

There were some odd smattering of booths here and there which, unfortunately, didn't sell anything worth buying. So there's a booth selling your standard fare of comics and anime DVDs. Big hairy deal. I can get those from any shopping mall any day. There was only one booth selling self-made artwork. There was... a booth promoting Hannah Tan's album. Like I care?

They had Gempak Starz their list of sponsors. Why didn't they arrange for an autograph-signing session with some of the cartoonists? That would have been an interesting highlight.

That's the least they could do, I felt, instead of the following 'highlights' (add a sarcastic tone): Japanese ambassador to Malaysia putting on his rendition of Getaran Jiwa on stage and that floozy Hannah Tan just prancing around looking sexy WITHOUT even bothering to cosplay and live up to her name as a (former) Animax Asia ambassador. (IS THAT ALL SHE CAN DO?)

Obviously not everyone can pull off getting a seiyuu (voice actor) all the way to Japan to guest at their ACG event - just as how MMU Melaka had managed to pull off in the past two years. I'm actually looking forward to who they plan to bring in this time around - but I'm diverting again.

I'm not sure if the organisers of C2AGE thought about the suitability of dates because when I checked with some friends still studying at MMU, they told me that finals start Monday. And I think my friend is a committee member for EMiNA Cyberjaya and he said he had no idea about this C2AGE thing. Had they known, and had it not been close to finals, perhaps they'd have sent a bus or two over to 'support' HELP's ACG event.

Speaking of lending support, I wonder if the C2AGE committee members had even bothered to invite ACG-based clubs from other universities and colleges? Or even promoted the event in the Comic Fiesta forums - I haven't checked the forums in a long time, so I can't say as to the latter. Somehow I get the idea that it might likely be a big NO because the cosplayers my friend talked to were all newbies, who decided to join Malaysia's current growing list of freakily-dressed camwhores (including yours truly) after getting 'inspired' at the last Comic Fiesta event.

Gah. I just can't write a straight opinion piece. I'm rambling.

Anyway, it was. Just sad. Some fellows who caught the Cosplay Gameshow thing, whatever it was, said it was super lame. Things did not follow the schedule and there were long delays. Hannah Tan served absolutely no purpose to the event. Whatever happened to the Sailor Moon cosplayers? The Trinity Blood gang? (I'm not going to talk about Naruto or Bleach cosplayers - they are SO overrated and overdone.)

This isn't the first time an ACG event was held at HELP. You'd think that the organisers would have improved from the previous time. Or... not.

ALRIGHT! Let's forget today's disappointment and concentrate on MMU Melaka's GACC (Games, Anime and Comics Circle)!

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