Ozine Fest 2014 (day 2): Under the Heat Haze

For the fourth year in a row I've attended the 2nd day of Ozine Fest with my mom but this year wasn't actually anything thrilling to the next level despite the new venue and promise of a better and organized event.

Ozine Fest is an Anime/Cosplay convention held every year since 2005. It started calling SM Megamall its home since 2007 but this year it finally moved to the function halls of upsized events in the SMX Convention Center.

During the past events long lines and crowded halls were all too common and almost traditional for each of the three days of Ozine Fest, but when the first announcement of Ozine Fest moving on to SMX Convention Center was made during the hype of Ozine Fest 2013, most of the con-goers were stoked. Not only were we finally going to get a taste of a spacious Ozine Fest but we're also finally getting a better treatment from the venue staff.

Sadly our excitement was quickly destroyed immediately during the first hours of the event. The main problem of this year's event was that, despite its large venue, the organizers only managed to give Ozine Fest just one function hall to contain all the events and the booths, and another hall which acted as a waiting room. Of course we can all say that the convention was still warming up to its new environment and we can expect a greater improvement next year (which is also Ozine Fest's 10th year anniversary), but all the hype that was built up going into the event ended in a devastating let down.
Still, the main reason why the event felt so suffocating and unorganized was the great mass of people sharing the same passion attending the event, which means that a lot (and I mean A LOT) looked forward to this year's Ozine Fest regardless of all the bad criticism it endured before and during the event. So in a way, this year's Ozine Fest wasn't entirely a flop because at the end of the day, all was well and everyone goes home with a big smile on their face looking forward to next year's Ozine Fest.

The halls usually open 15 minutes after the universal opening time of the SM Supermalls which is 10 but some rule changes were made (I assume) because of the new venue.

On my part, while still in line waiting to get inside the SMX CC I kept hearing chatters about those who are participants of the day's events and those who purchased advanced tickets online get VIP status and can enter immediately. On the majority of the con-goers' case, we had to wait in line outside of the convention center and under the cruel and terrible heat haze. Unlike past events when Ozine was still held at SM Megamall, the long lines were still there but at least we had to fall in line inside the mall so it's still a little comfortable compared to this year's case.

Since I didn't purchase any special tickets online, I had to fall in line for three different things. First was to enter the convention center, second was to buy a ticket and third was to enter the actual event hall. It took my mom and I a total of an hour and a half just to get in the event hall.
But regardless of all that, I still felt the same chills going down my spine the moment I entered the function hall and saw a great number of people taking pictures, gaming and cosplaying.

Day 2's main events were the Cardfight!! Vanguard tournament, the Karaoke Contest, the Battle of the Bands and the Cosplay group competition. As always, you have to get in front of the stage as early as you get inside the hall to secure a proper spot and get a nice view of the stage and everything that takes place within it. The stage was obviously smaller this year hindering some performances.
I also note the pointless segments of the event's sponsors such as Sun Cellular's stupid advertisements and Animax's outdated anime lineup that still earned some cheers from the audiences.

The main driving force of the event was the fun technical crew and the two hosts that have been with the event for I don't know how long. Their interventions in-between some segments (aside from the contests) were actually much more enjoyable compared to the event's sponsors' segments. However, the lack of the anime quiz contest and the trivia segments were kinda a let down since it's one of the best parts of the event especially when the usual suspects (the two hosts) are on stage.

"the usual suspects"

I managed to stay on my spot in front of the stage for just an hour. After Sound Motion Sequence performed I browsed the stalls and took a picture of some cosplayers.

Sound Motion Sequence and their guest vocalist, Janelle (she's really cute and has a very beautiful voice)

Most of the stalls present in the event were returning stalls from past events including Cosmic Bytes, Doujin Shirts, Sakura Hime Kimono Shoppu, Waku Waku and Mango Manga among others. There's also this new to the eye booth situated far from the booth areas - Cospa Asia. Their products on display were mostly anime-themed t-shirts from popular and mainstream anime such as Naruto, Bleach, One Piece and several famous characters from visual novels, card games etc.. They also have box dolls (no there's a proper name for those kinds of dolls like Danbo but I just can't put my tongue on the actual word) and other paper crafts. They were currently holding a survey when I got to their booth. The questions on the survey were pretty much all about our preferences regarding anime merchandises and several other things related to our hobbies that we would pretty much like to have a store of in the Philippines.
I got a matcha flavored kit-kat as a giveaway for participating in their small survey.

There were also sponsor booths placed near the entrance. Animax was present as always this time with AniMate Rhianna; Friendster and Sun Cellular were also present.

Team Oniichan (they're actually Team Onegai Oniichan now) are present with their mouthwatering anime figurines on display. This time around their figurines are behind glass containers unlike past events where the figures are simply lined up on a long table.

Another special booth that stole the attention of most con-goers was the booth of Weib Schwarz. There you can obviously see all the hardcore card gamers alongside Vanguard players.
While the Precious Memory Hatsune Miku started calling my name urging me to pick up the starter deck and pick up money from my strict wallet, I managed to resist because I don't even know the rules of the game however I'm regretting not picking up that one box with Miku's image on it right now. It would've looked good on my collection shelf (if I actually had one).

About halfway through the event a lot of people were still lined up outside to buy a ticket and enter the event hall. The function hall beside the event hall was also opened up to serve as a waiting room, of course it would've been better if they just separated the event area and the fiesta area (pretty much like Cosplay Mania) but we can't all have nice things.

Around 6 o'clock the lines have finally died down and most of the people scattered outside were either re-entering the event hall or taking pictures of cosplayers. By that time the ratio of con-goers to cosplayers was about 4:1.

The trending cosplays by the number were:
- Shingeki no Kyojin (still going strong)
- Mekaucity Actors (the fandom is bigger than I thought, and that makes me happy)
- Magi
- Vocaloid (particularly the many variations of Miku, Kaito and Luka)
- Frozen
- RWBY
- KanColle

Elsa and Anna from Frozen (no Olaf?_

Ruby Rose from RWBY

Overall, while the event was really a let down to our expectations of a bigger venue and a grander Ozine Fest the event as a whole wasn't really bad. Maybe it was a little flopped in technical parts and some segments by the sponsors but the content and hype of all the main events on day 2 made it special and memorable.
Next year will be another event not to be missed because, aside from the promise of a bigger and greater improvement in store for us, it's their 10th anniversary. Whatever they have new, it'll be definitely (at least I hope so) fun and worth the long wait in the long lines.