We are at a loss – Kiryu Coco has decided to graduate on her own terms. We cannot do anything about it but to cope.
In a once-in-a-blue-moon scenario, I got my good friends Madekuji-san (who lend his hand in building the Cocodex), Eighty and Ehee (from the Virtually Talking podcast) to recap Kiryu Coco’s legacy. We got around two hours of discussions celebrating Kiryu Coco’s legacy.
You’ve seen me visit virtual Japan, virtual USA and virtual Indonesia – now I’m going to share my experiences in virtual Germany, where DigiKomi, the online edition of the annual Dokomi convention is.
Aside from Discord and Twitch, DigiKomi has its own virtual platform provided by MixUp. Imagine this: You are a rounded square. All of you inside the virtual convention floor are rounded squares. If the camera’s on, we can see you. This is a perfect opportunity for VTubers to introduce themselves.
Heck, this con, I believe, is made for VTubers.
Difference between DigiKomi and other virtual events
At DigiKomi’s MixUp, you have the option to open your camera and mic to join discussion floors in select booths. For example, I spent the most of the con sitting at one of the roundtables in the Hololive and VShojo booths. I get to meet KFP slavesvolunteers employees who joined in for their boss Kiara Takanashi, who is one of the guests.
The employees are so wild upon Kiara’s invitation to join her at the virtual space, it crashed the server.
At DigiKomi, I was able to listen to VTubers based in Germany, including a goblin, and a programmer who serves small businesses. The conversations I had are interesting. Aside from this, I virtually met Denchi from DenchiSoft (VTube Studio) and Iron Vertex. Denchi is among the personalities I recommend to you if you want to know more about VTubers.
Unlike in Discord where you are in a voice chat, the virtual space MixUp made for DigiKomi is a much more awesome feat. While there are technical issues, either browser crashes or server limits, I’d still believe that we are getting closer to a physical-like virtual atmosphere. I get to talk to VTubers, people!
Conclusion
To conclude, visiting DigiKomi and meeting fellow fans hits close to home. I miss going outside to visit events, meeting people and taking photos. Provided that MixUp will address the issues they had with their platform, I’m pretty sure that this will help merge virtual and physical words – at least, in a browser.
Congratulations to the Dokomi Team for a successful DigiKomi. Looking forward to more of these soon.
I started the year with hopes and dreams that I can go to Iloilo or La Union, only to end up stuck in one place and working my ass off. This is definitely not the situation I wanted to be.
Imagine having time for friends and hobbies in person, or creating more projects – then all of a sudden, you have no place to go anymore. Can we go back in time to avoid COVID-19, the CCP Virus, altogether?
Setting that aside, here’s what I’ve done for keepsakes., as well as other activities, this year:
January
I enjoyed playing UNO with friends at Reiwa Anime Station. By this time I was already set for my next trip to Cebu for Otakufest 2021.
February
Otakufest 2020 was held once again at SM Seaside City Cebu. Here I was thinking that it will be held at UP Cebu – it was supposed to be my first time going there – but because of the pandemic, it had to go back to last year’s venue. If I recall correctly, this is the first time I used my gimbal to record footage, and I felt satisfied with the output.
Hypnosis Underground 2 elevated last year’s experience by having water. Lots of it. You know, the fandom’s good when you see an event dedicated to it and the fans are having a fantastic time. This one is for the books.
Just saying, Anime Idol Convention 2020 can be much more cooler when I’m present there – except when I had a work call at the same day. Damn. I’m lucky to have Josh on board while I try to sort out myself at work doing live voice-overs for a youth event.
March
Quite frankly, if I was not able to go back to Manila (I had to, work calls) , I’d be stuck for long – Cebu had a bad COVID-19 outbreak, which is definitely sad given that I would love to go back there. I made friends there, and now all of a sudden we’re only limited to our screens and cameras!
Just a day before the community quarantine (lockdown) was imposed, I went on a movie date of my own, given that I won’t be able to visit the movie theater for long (the next visit after that was when I watched Saekano the Movie: Finale).
April
Driven by my innate annoyance to some Tiktok users making fun of actual sign language interpreters who take turns on who will interpret next for the Deaf, I sought assistance from Hello, Mirai to get in touch with the Filipino Sign Language Access Team for COVID-19. I am happy they accepted my request for a brief interview despite holding it on a Sunday.
Following that, I got in touch with the Solid North’s Cosplay Community (Baguio, La Union) – I’m keeping in touch with them about their current situation, and they are also doing their own contests to keep the community spirit alive. I want to get back soon – I miss visiting the city’s cosplay events.
Speaking of the community spirit, the cosplay community held its own Online Cosplay Convention where cosplayers showed their cosplay trials-gone-real on Facebook. We even had guests from Malaysia joining us!
I also recorded another interview – this time on Discord, with Wonderland Hiraya who released their debut song on Spotify.
May
On my first major live stream on Twitch, I talked to Ai Natsumi in Manila as well as Mais Semblante and Diane Sabandeja in Cebu. Joining me is my Cebuano counterpart Gary Montejo.
We weathered through the whole discussion despite internet difficulties – and we followed it soon after. This time, we tapped into Cebu’s hobby event organizers for an insightful roundtable discussion hosted by Red Mendoza of Anime Pilipinas.
June
I released my Cebu 2020 Vlog on the date when I’m supposed to be back there – it’s a bit bittersweet. I was about to see a Bon Odori event there.
Aside from this, I also posted some videos about Virtual YouTubers, that one piece of entertainment that helped me survive 2020.
I started attending more online events by this time too, helping me keep in touch of what’s going on in the community. Fan panels are the best.
July
It was in June where we formally start pivoting to online events, and now I have to fill in more content to keep up with the schedule, which I apparently missed given that I have no content last month.
It was around this time that some cosplay drama popped up on Facebook, and as someone looking for trends, I jumped in and got my first Instagram “Emergency Meeting” Live.
It was also on this month where the Creators Super Stream in Indonesia was held, perhaps my first paid online event.
August
So after watching Lyrica’s Tetris competition streams – a proof that her community is a wild, active one – I decided to play Tetris too…. sometimes. I mostly dabble on beating my own records in the 10L Cheese Race.
September
I made my birth month special by doing a huge service to my Rotary Club as the one who edited its first virtual Induction and Handover Ceremonies.
Sadly, all thing have to stop for now as the -ber months have gone wild, leaving no space for me to produce my own content – except when I flex on. I had to schedule my upcoming videos accordingly, which leads to me producing the Deremoe Archive series of videos for the rest of the year.
Haachama read my superchat question, which sheds light on the food she ate at Jollibee when she was in the Philippines. Too bad she has not yet eaten a CHAMP during her time.
Following the successful panel discussion with Naruto Cosplayers Philippines last August, I got invited to join an online program called “Animazing Show.”
While I’m really hesitant to host the show full-time due to my work commitments, I am allowed to share snippets of my opinion in the “Animazing Community” segment. You can check the archives here.
November
https://www.instagram.com/p/CHE1IiZBBAy/
Speaking of CHAMP, I’ve been eating Big Macs for so long that when I had my first CHAMP, I was amazed. Again, the CHAMP is bigger than the Big Mac. You have been lied and cheated to. Please try their Amazing Aloha CHAMP.
December
By this time, I went on to finish the rest of the content I have for 2020, and I’m set to sail for a new content schedule come 2021. While this happens, I’ve finally played a game of modified Among Us thanks to a tip I got from Cosplay Matsuri Online.
In line with my future goals, I am rekindling my presence in the anime community further as I formally join Anime Corner to assist them in their growth.
Lastly, I got invited to be part of Otaku Connection STORY MODE’s 12 Great Stories feature, coming this December 31. I’ve opened up one more time to my history – and how keepsakes. was built – so look forward to it.
What’s the plan in 2021?
I realized that I may be spreading myself too thin, and since I kind of accomplished the goal of scheduling content for a year, I decide not to pursue it any more. I’m contented in releasing content the way I want to, in the time I want to release it.
Gone are the days of scheduling content – sometimes, you get tired of it, and content gets stale fast most of the time. This is best reflected when I had too many retakes of a single podcast episode simply because a lot of things have happened throughout the course of just a few weeks.
In summary, I’ll still be producing segments for the Animazing Show and help Anime Corner grow while I keep myself busy at work and my sanity intact. For now, I greet you an advanced Happy New Year.
Last September 27, I have presented my first international panel – at KuroCon Online volume 2. Although this is pre-recorded, this panel opened Day 2 of the online event which gathered hundreds of participants on Discord and Twitch.
I took chance of proposing a topic in light of the recent KissAnime shutdown, and I’m happy that this has been approved.
That said, allow me to detail the process which I have done from topic application, approval, recording to the actual event itself.
Application and Approval
Only a few people know about panel topic applications in the Philippines – in most parts of the world, you apply for the topic you want to share. This is most reflected in cons in the U.S. / Canada area.
Aside from the artist alley, cosplay competitions, concerts and parlor games, panel discussions are one of the most important parts of a convention.
Depending on the rules set by the organizer, you can choose to apply for a topic which you have already discussed before or create one from scratch. I chose the latter.
My advice on applying for a panel is to look up on all the panels that have been presented before. As many as you can. Or, cater to a specific niche or audience.
I’ve noticed that only a few talked about how anime is distributed in other parts of the world, so I’d love to have our region represented. That’s the goal of “Case Studies on YouTube-based Anime Distribution Model in Southeast Asia.”
I’ve sent my application a month before, and I almost forgot that I did, given my work load for the last quarter of the year (it’s event season, what else to say?).
The morning of September 10 (my time), I got an email from the organizer saying that my submission has been accepted, along with the tentative time slot.
Quick-starting your panel deck
Given that I only have 16 days to process everything, I’ve already had a confident hypothesis in mind to which I can prove with a survey. At these time frames, you need all the audience interaction you can have.
I quickly made a survey form through Google Forms, stating all the things I need from each respondent. Given that names don’t matter in this survey, I skipped on asking that. As long a you’re an anime fan, you’re in my target audience.
That, as well as the General Data Privacy Regulations with lots of flavors being implemented worldwide (we have our own Data Privacy Act too).
I can ask everyone their age, but if I did it in a detailed way, I’ll have a hard time tabulating it. I need to guide them to which choices they have to choose, thus I arranged the choices per age range. This depends on your perception of age groups: Boomers, Zoomers, and the like.
As with anything, keep your forms short and simple. I hate to produce forms which take pages to complete. Except if you’re giving away a gift card, don’t make it complicated. It should take them at best 10 minutes to answer your survey, else they can forget about finishing it.
Following the survey, I already produced the template to which the data will be placed. Again, Google Drive to the rescue. I whipped up one of the templates and then decided on how the content will be displayed. For further reading, I recommend you to read Dan Roam’s “Show and Tell.”
Another way to get advice is through your mentors – it could be your boss at work who loves to produce present at various events, too.
Producing templates ahead of time will make it easier to add – and revise – content as you approach the deadline.
Story time: I am running out of time to gather responses from outside the Philippines, so I whipped up a Facebook ad to target users in select neighboring countries where I’m not that confident to get responses should I have not proceed with this method.
Within a few days, I was able to get responses from the said countries, therefore adjusting the ratio of respondents by country. Again, this depends on your target audience.
I’ve evaluated which contents can be recorded in parts so I can lay it all out on the video editor – I went on and divided the panel into three parts – (a) Introduction, Background and the Challenge to solve, (b) the Survey and its results, and (c) validating the hypothesis and capping off the presentation.
I’ve recorded parts A and C while waiting for the survey period to end – that should tell the story of the time machine gag I had.
If you have low editing skills, why not try Zoom’s recording feature – start a Zoom call, record it and prepare your slides to be displayed. After the call, a dialog box should tell you that your video is being converted.
Troubleshooting before the panel gets recorded
Before you record the panel on your phone, review your slides so you can do less takes. While it’s easier to just go live, wait until you hear your own voice after the panel has been screened to know if you’re satisfied or not. Get a mic that records decent sound. Don’t shout at your phone as if you’re shouting at your attendees. A long lapel mic should be good for your smartphone.
Given also that the Asian American Gateway cable will have an emergency fix in the weekend when the panel will be shown, I felt much more confident that I made the right choice to pre-record a panel. Plus, I can interact with people in the chat without feeling like a multi-tasker.
People’s attention spans are getting shorter and shorter over time, and it’s no joke to let people keep watching your panel if it’s dull or filled with dead air. Again, the key here is to keep it short, simple and sweet.
Coordinating with the organizer
Be sure to follow the event’s rules – being a panelist does not give you a higher ground. You’re still attending the con, only that you have one job to make – and it’s to entertain/inform your fellows in the platform which has been lent to you.
If the organizer has tech runs, please attend it. Tech runs gives the tech staff leeway to know which things needed to be sorted out. Don’t request for something important on the day of the panel itself. Be kind.
Once we have agreed to the arrangements, I sent the tech team the copy of my panel so they can prepare it over time.
You can also coordinate with your organizer if you won’t be active on the tentative time they have set up. I’m GMT+8 and they’re EDT, which means that 11pm of September 27 here is 11am of the same date.
The organizer can give you tools or tips to help you spread the word that you’re going to have a panel too, so ask them for it.
Have fun interacting
Best of all, have fun interacting with the audience. Be active – this is their time to ask you questions. Get their reactions.
Post-event
I have a commitment to my respondents that I’ll share the results of the survey to all of them, the reason why I asked for their email addresses. As soon as I got time, I’ve returned to the responses and whipped up a white paper detailing the challenge, solution and reception to the said solution.
As soon as I’m done with the white paper, I’ll need to send it en masse to 191 respondents. There’s lots of email campaign apps around there, but choose the service where you can pay as you go, as you won’t do this for a longer time anyway.
The power of connections, plus your knowledge in making things work will prove to be helpful in making your panel, so continue learning in your field, keep abreast with the trends, and learn how to show yourself online. This way, you can make things a bit easier.
That’s how I produced my panel from scratch to white paper.
I thank KuroCon for giving me this birthday present. Just in time, I say.
I hope this helps you create your own panel. Happy making!
