Seeing Stars: Ozine Fest Anime Figure Special x Wargods Expo

Finally, we have come to the last event of the year! Ozine Fest is one of the most-awaited events every year, probably because they always make it a point to reserve the last weekend before the New Year comes in cosplayers' schedules.

I thought, how very fitting for cosplayers! Usually, at this time of the year, people are on vacation and they usually try to find some semblance of bonding time with family and friends, as well as some pretty cool things to burn their Christmas money on. Ozine Fest AFS was the perfect excuse.

I planned to arrive at the event at around 2-2:30pm, but due to the moderate yet tolerable traffic, I arrived at 3pm! It seems that people are eager to get out of their own homes as well.

(c) Pefdgraphy

I cosplayed as Galaco of Vocaloid 3. I've been putting off this character for a while now, especially due to budget constraints, but I found the cheapest white jacket during a Christmas sale and I knew that I couldn't resist Galaco any longer.

The silver triangle on my belt fell off before I could reach the event, and I have no idea where it is. The gem on my crown is also off (it should be oval-shaped but there were no pink oval gems in sight). Nevertheless, I pushed through with cosplaying her, despite the minor inaccuracies. My boot covers were also very rushed, and pardon me if the look sloppy in some photos. They were hand-made and hand-painted, and it's my first time to make boot covers. I will improve more in the future.

Anyways! When I arrived, I was greeted by a queue that looked like the lines for relief goods after a storm.

(c) Louis Ramos/Infinity Studios

I hurriedly met up with my friends and they told me that nobody could get into the hall anymore because there were too much people. I was partly disappointed because I was looking forward to seeing and buying some merchandise for myself.

We walked around the perimeter of the event and even though there were lots of people, there weren't any guards visible who scolded cosplayers for loitering. We thought that they gave up and just let the crowd do what they want because of the huge amount of people. The guards were obviously outnumbered.

Despite the crowd, we were able to take really good pictures! (Photos are by Infinity Studios. Click on a photo to enlarge.)

My bodyguards.
They are Guardians of the Galaxy. #LAME

OMG MINA KIM I AM ALREADY WEARING
A TALL CROWN AND YET YOU'RE STILL TALLER

We also had a photoshoot in the parking lot, where (surprisingly) there were only a few people shooting as well. There were a few guards who lingered around us and checked on us occasionally to make sure we weren't doing anything illegal. It was fun, especially when we had to signal a few cars that there were no spaces left for them to park in the immediate area.

We only entered the event at around 5 or 6pm, when the line was shorter and there were lesser people in the hall. The booths area were crowded, but I managed to buy a few goodies for myself as a remembrance.

Here are some un-glam moments of us.

Yes, sitting down is painful.

My friend, Angel, bought this adorable Pusheen plushie and I couldn't stop hugging it.

I'm not actually sure why the crowd control wasn't very effective this time. I'm pretty sure the organizers did their best to accommodate as many people as they could, but I guess the mix of people who wanted to see Wargods Expo, people who wanted to see Ozine, and people who wanted to see both were simply too many.

We roamed around the booths and we managed to watch Team Gost Payter (not a typo) act onstage with their incredibly funny yet nostalgic skit. Congratulations to them for winning the group cosplay competition!

I had a lot of people taking photos of and with me, and I'm really flattered by it. I'm well-aware that Galaco isn't a very popular Vocaloid, compared to other voice banks in the V3 line like SeeU. I saw that a lot people were interested in getting to know Galaco and listening to her songs as well. For that, I'm really thankful.

The moment I heard Galaxias! (which was sung by Galaco), I fell in love with her voice. I started to listen to her other songs and covers, and I also saw a lot of fan art about her. I'm also a sucker for galaxy-print things, and to me, Galaco was perfect. But then I also read an article about how she was almost deleted, because she wasn't getting a lot of attention like other Vocaloids (probably because she wasn't sold like others and raffled instead). I'm happy that they updated her and released Galaco NEO, but I still think she needs a little more loving.

Mushy Galaco feels aside, I encountered one con-goer in the event who thought I was cosplaying as Rainbow Dash from My Little Pony. I guess it's the wig's colors.

Selca with the group!

I won't talk much about the process of becoming Galaco because I might save those for another blog post (if you want to).

Despite the crowd, I had fun in Ozine x Wargods! I think that even though the lines were eternally long and the event was packed like a sardine can, it's all up to the people on how to enjoy the event. I think this event was a great wrap-up for the cosplay community this year, and I'm also looking forward to more awesome cosplay conventions in the coming year.

Thank you for the gifts! I super love them all~

I hope you enjoyed reading this entry. Photos are from Infinity Studios. Thank you for reading.

- Aki 

PS: If you noticed, I have disabled right-clicking in my blog. This may sound selfish of me, but this blog is now an official media partner of Infinity Studios. This is to protect the content (most especially the photos) shown in my blog from copyright theft. I am strongly against stealing photos without permission or reposting them without credits, and so I have made this decision to make my blog more secure. I hope that you, dear reader, understands my predicament.