Recently, Netflix got the rights to release 21 Studio Ghibli films in most territories. Speaking of Ghibli, what’s the next event to have that kind of theme? Cebu’s Otakufest.

I am returning to Cebu for the fourth time to witness this year’s Otakufest, happening at the Maze Garden of SM Seaside City Cebu on the weekend of February 23-24, 2020.

Previously, the venue is stated to be held at UP Cebu in Lahug, but due to the recent outbreak and scare of COVID-2019, the Otakufest team made big leaps to proceed with holding the event.

https://www.facebook.com/ofest/videos/955281604870899/

Amenities

Otakufest are among the events that show what pop culture is in the VisMin region, and that includes merch and art fairs from various brands and personalities:

Merchants

Artist Alley

Otakufest’s artist alley is divided into three sets, which are included in the following links below:

Activities

As with last year, Otakufest is filled with a lot of activities to the brim. Here’s what’s in store for everyone:

Cosplay

As you guys know, I’m more excited with how Cebu amps up its cosplay game, especially that last year’s World Cosplay Summit Philippine team hailed from the Queen City of the South.

Since we are talking about this year’s Otakufest theme, they added in a Studio Ghibli Cosplay Competition. I’m already expecting Howl’s Moving Castle to move.

Sing/Dance

Sing and Dance competitions are a staple of every event like Otakufest, so please cheer for your bets, okay?

Others

Last year’s winner of the Spicy Noodle challenge told everyone after he got the title: “Was it spicy?” The question is: Will he join again and prove that the noodles are still not spicy until now, or will someone beat him this time?

All that I thought of regarding these activities is the Spicy Noodle Challenge. Seriously.

Guests

This year’s set of local and international guests will grace Cebu’s rising otaku community.

Cosplay Guests

This made me felt that the golden time of Cebu cosplay is already up, and I just don’t realize it – look, guest cosplayers!

Performers

Cebu’s anime community remembers the Summoning Eru video that popped up last year, and this year, the band behind it will sing that song at the Otakufest stage!

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I’m more than happy to see Cebu’s otaku community once again. See you at Otakufest 2020!

For more information, head on over to this FAQ thread on their Facebook page.

keepsakes. is a media partner for Otakufest 2020.

As of writing, the anime adaptation of Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece has 876 episodes since its initial broadcast on October 20, 1999.

That’s 19 seasons altogether. This series does not stop airing weekly for almost 20 years, and it still continues to bring joy to its fans.

With that in mind, the second day of Otakufest 2019 at SM Seaside City Cebu (February 24, 2019) has been declared as “One Piece Day,” gathering cosplayers from around Cebu and nearby areas to participate.

During the day, they are positioned at the Mountain Wing side of the Seaside Tower, which is the sweet spot for fellow One Piece cosplayers to converge. There, they are welcomed by the One Piece Pirates of Cebu.

Aside from the chit-chat and the photo-taking, the pirates are actually selecting worthy fellows based on what they know about One Piece as well as how they show they portray themselves.

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It’s nighttime. Everyone’s gathered on stage.

Welcoming the audience is One Piece fan, cosplayer, and game streamer Miles (Mais) Semblante. Showing herself as Monkey D. Luffy, she shares how she grew up being a fan of the series on stage.

Everyone’s lined up. The mic’s ready. It’s time to test how they know the series they love. They only have five seconds.

Cosplayers are asked questions related to the character they chose to portray. Some got the answers correctly, some failed, and some missed the time to answer.

In the end, nine was asked to step forward. These are the ones that the pirates have picked. Each of them gets a prize.

Of course, Gold Roger is still in his ever-iconic kneeling position — even here. In three or so contexts, One Piece the series begins with him. The Golden Age of Pirates. Monkey D. Luffy’s search for himself. The opening sequence before we hear Hiroshi Kitadani belt out the iconic theme song “We Are!”.

In the end, it was a day to be remembered for fans of the series in Cebu.

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Speaking of One Piece Day, I’m not sure if this was set in line with the series’ 20th anniversary since it first aired in Japan or it’s part of the activities for the World Cosplay Summit (WCS) in the Philippines.

Last year, One Piece has teamed up with the Summit to hold the One Piece Cosplay King Grand Prix this year.

This is great news for competing and non-competing cosplayers, as it gives them a chance to be the One Piece character they like the most, and (most importantly) opens the door for Shueisha-published titles to be used as concepts for this year’s World Cosplay Championship. I may not have worded this right but this is as far as I understood.

Moving back to the Grand Prix, the rules for the online contest are posted on their website, and you have to be registered on WCS’ Cosplayers.global service to join. Twenty cosplayers will be sent to Nagoya for the finals.

#CEBUkeepsakes2019 features my first visit to Cebu’s Otakufest plus a visit to the recently-opened Moe Moe Kyun Restaurant

To cap off my journey in Cebu from February 23 to 25, 2019, I’m making this post to share to you the content I produced:

Podcasts

We’ll start with the podcasts as these are the first ones that I processed (also probably the fastest):

This may not count as Otakufest content but this marked my second trip to Cebu City. I’m with Serena of The Lily Cat in the airport when we recorded this episode.

Gary Montejo joins us in this two-part post-event series to describe the whole event — and in line with my tradition to make this podcast the most immersive casual podcast around, we started recording from the taxi queue all the way to Jollibee at Super Metro Besak.

Videos

After Otakufest, me, Serena and cosplayer/FX makeup artist Chey Adamson met at Moe Moe Kyun Restaurant for lunch. It’s as if we are the Buena manoguests for that day, just a few days short of their grand opening.

I produced two videos from this restaurant: A feature on the restaurant itself and a feature on Chey.

As for the features inside Otakufest, I got to talk to Joemar Ansiso of Atomik Jelly, Cebu’s latest independent comic anthology.

Now, what I’ve just shown to you this time is a product of a prepared concept and the skills I learned editing videos. This one was done just through one phone camera — the Redmi 6A. Having applied the skills I learned in the past, I’m much more confident to conceptualize videos like this.

Of course, there’s a supercut where I show what I did in the past two days — and look, I also sought to ask.

Stories

By far I’ve written four stories (mostly about Otakufest but I’m looking forward to writing about the newly-opened Moe Moe Kyun Restaurant too):

• Team Class S, Team Zero to represent Cebu for World Cosplay Summit Philippines 2019 Nationals
• Davao’s Team Weapon and Mask Destruction to represent the Philippines at Pop Culture Hiroshima 2019
• “One Piece” Day 2019 for fans in Cebu

Cebu’s kick-starting major event held for two days at SM Seaside City’s Maze Garden

This year’s Otakufest has done firsts in its decade-long history: Being held for two days, and being among the first activities to be held at the recently-opened Maze Garden area.

It’s been two weeks since and the thought of going to Cebu again just right after going to Singapore. This all started when I am convinced by my counterpart, Cebu’s Cosplay Event Buzzer Gary Montejo to be there. My initial plan was to visit ARCHcon, but as soon as I realized that I may not be able to travel by plane again on my own this year, I took the jump.

Last year, I heard the news that they got the vocal ensemble bless4 to perform there, and it sure made a mark on me — that this is a major event in Cebu and I should be there soon.

This year, I believe they are focusing more on international cosplay competitions such as World Cosplay Summit Philippines and the recent-entry Pop Culture Hiroshima, as well as One Piece Day.

This, while showing me what the Cebuano cosplay community is all about.

The Maze Garden is an elevated part of the mall which also serves as the gateway to the mall’s Seaside Tower.

There are two wings in the mall that connects to this area: Cube Wing and the Mountain Wing.

The entrance is in the Mountain Wing as the Cube Wing has been set as the stage area.

I’ve observed that in the two days that I am inside Otakufest, I’m sure that there’s a lot of visitors and cosplayers alike who are there — heck, even at one point, the crowds are huge that mall security did crowd control.

Toys and figures are on display, cosplayers are around, there’s the artist booths and the like, a Mobile Legends tournament is happening in a corner. Beside that is a Sabersturm tournament area (imagine Jedi warrior fights). As you go around, you can see guest cosplayer Reika from Japan meeting her fans in a tent at one side of the area.

To be honest, I haven’t done a lot of things from the first day alone as I experienced how horrible Cebu traffic is on a Saturday (hint: it’s as horrible as Saturday C5 Pasig traffic).

We will then proceed to the fun part which is Day 2.

If I were to think of the event’s second day, it’s where most activities are held. This is good for me as I’ve just got back from checking in at my hotel. Sunday’s always family day — as well as being the day where most cosplayers gather during events.

Apart from what I’ve written so far, what I can say about Cebu’s cosplay community is that we don’t lack talent. The artists are doing great art, the bands are amazing that I thought we were looking at a battle of the bands, and cosplayers and photographers alike make good use of the venue’s nook and cranny for photos and videos.

Just as Manila has the likes of Asterysk or Moonspeak or Project:Materia, Cebu has Strawberry Racecar, a cool band which belted out LiSA’s ADAMAS very well… a band worthy of my attention.

In addition, Bacolod has Yuya, a band which is doing well in their field that they even have their own produced single. I want these bands in the podcast. In the case of Yuya, they also do cosplay skits on cam and on stage.

Aside from performing LiSA’s iconic Crossing Field (Sword Art Online) and Hiroshi Kitadani’s “We Are!” (One Piece), they did a cosplay skit by nighttime where they mixed SAO with Dragonball.

Of course, I shouldn’t miss Pastel Mix. Those who have attended Manila Idol Matsuri last year went ecstatic with their performances. Looking back, they really improved a lot — I first saw them in Davao in April 2018, and after their Manila performance, they went on to even perform during the opening of the Japanese consulate in Davao City.

Since I’m the only PasMi fanatic by far who got to Cebu, what I can share to my peers are photos of them (and with them). Wala na, finish na.

Overall, Otakufest was just a start for me. What went beyond it are the friends that I met in person and the experiences post-event that made me want to say “I want to get back here soon.” As a Tagala — meaning a Manileño — I want to go beyond Manila. So I did.

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For this year’s Otakufest, keepsakes. joins Cagayan de Oro-based The Lily Cat, Cebu Cosplay Buzz (Gary Montejo) and QueenCityCebu.com as its media partners. Daghang Salamat po for allowing us to share the story of Otakufest to our readers. I look forward to being there again in the not-so-distant future.

Two more pairs for WCSPH 2019 finals selected in Cebu’s Otakufest – 2018 National Finalist Team Class S to return for 2019 Nationals

It was a busy Sunday for everyone who is at the Maze Garden of SM Seaside City Cebu as Otakufest 2019 holds three major events on its second day.

One of the activities is the World Cosplay Summit Philippines (WCSPH) 2019 Cebu Preliminaries, of which guest Japanese cosplayer Reika, 2016 Philippine representative Yukari Ni-na Guerzon (Team Starseeker) and 2018 WCSPH Philippine representative Team Sekai (Sergio Sta. Ana and Kai Raito) served as judges.

The two pairs who qualify for the National Preliminaries are Team Zero and the returning Team Class S.

1st Runner-up Team Zero performed as Dracula / Gabriel Belmont & Alucard from the game Castlevania: Lords of Shadow — Mirror of Fate.

Team Class S from Cebu, declared as the champion for this year’s Cebu preliminaries, performed as Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi from the Sengoku Night Blood franchise.

The performance of both teams have made their mark in the judges’ eyes as well as the audience present in the area. This is evident especially on the part of Class S, to which the judges got surprised with their scene execution.

Prior to this, Class S has been winning competitions such as Cosplay Mania’s Ultimate Cosplay Championship (UCC) in which they bagged the Grand Champion title for two years in a row. In 2017, they qualified for the UCC leg in Bacolod City.

https://www.facebook.com/wcsph/posts/2156679934412028

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Curious about the World Cosplay Summit in the Philippines?

The World Cosplay Summit in the Philippines is handled by a committee formed by two organizations: Anime Alliance Philippines (based in Manila) and Ambox Events (based in Davao). Official updates are posted on Facebook.

keepsakes. post stories and opinion on the developments of the World Cosplay Summit in the country, and is advocating the Summit as a gateway for the country’s cosplay community to be recognized further in Japan.