CEBU, Philippines — The IEC Convention Center became a haven for anime fans and cosplayers on November 5 as Kawaii Expo 2023 brought in famous cosplayers such as Chinese cosplayer Weian Vann, Manila-based Miho, HippoChii, and Sam Mi to Cebu.
Vann was impressed by his Filipino fans who showed up, telling them through his translator that Kawaii Expo “left an impression [on him] because from yesterday and today, [he] gets to meet all of [his] fans all over the Philippines.”
Aside from meet-and-greets with fans in their designated booths, they also served as judges of a cosplay competition that was split into kids and adults categories.
Local cosplayer Sonia Barriga in a Sailor Moon outfit won the adults round, followed by Noelle in second place for her cosplay as Nearl the Radiant Knight from the role-playing video game “Arkknights”, and San Xian at third place for her look as Chun-Li from the “Street Fighter” franchise.
In the kiddies round, champion Tony Isidore charmed the crowd with his Monkey D Luffy costume from "One Piece." Second and third placers Mijrina Zabelle and Valyrid also impressed spectators with their separate Anya cosplays from the anime manga "Spy x Family."
During the Q&A session prior to the competition, the judges minus Vann discussed the hardest part of scoring the cosplay outfits of the participants.
HippoChii admitted that it would be difficult for her to judge contestants whose cosplays are unfamiliar to her, especially since they weren’t able to have a preview of the cosplays the day before.
“Characterization is very important in judging. Sometimes, it’s hard to judge them cosplaying as an anime character if we don’t know them,” she said.
Sam Mi said she would quickly look at her phone to search for the characters that the cosplayers are wearing so she would have an idea.
“If I have the time, I would find a short clip [of their characters] so that I could distribute the points appropriately. It takes a little bit of effort for us to be fair,” she remarked.
“Every cosplay deserves to win because of the effort they put into their cosplay, performance, and execution. That’s the hardest part for us judges -- to choose the winner,” Miho said. — (FREEMAN)