So I was at the Best of Anime 2017 last Saturday at SMX Manila. This is the first time BoA separated from its mother event, the Manila International Book Fair. In lieu of BoA’s absence in the date of the Book Fair, a Fandom Fest is launched, catered to a different niche.
If I have a single reason for why I was there, it’s STARMARIE (Non-chan oshi here), AniZone, and the icing in the cake which is @_satsunyan of the local dance cover group Seishun Kakumei.
The earliest recordings of Seishun Kakumei that I have on my custody is dated April 2015, doing covers of LoveLive! songs.
I actually forgot which came first — the time when I met SK or the time when I learned about Satsu’s activities as part of Seiyuuri (I think the latter part was first).
Time goes by, things change, but when Seishun Kakumei is on stage and I am there, I support them somehow in the way wotas do.
This year’s BoA had an Anime Idol Dance Battle, and SK is third to perform. The schedule said that it will happen at 2pm and I just got off from my brother’s place by 1pm, so I was in a hurry knowing the horrible Manila traffic and all that.
Thankfully, I was able to get to the place just in the right time — enough for me to try THE IDOLM@STER Viewing Revolution at AniZone’s booth.
…and the VR thingy was just a warm-up.
I got the best spot possible for SK to see me (which is in front of the stage AND just around 20 feet or less away from the back of the judges, which happen to be STARMARIE themselves).
The first two groups, Dream Catchers and dance cover group Raindrop, performed LoveLive! SK is to debut their i☆Ris medley performance there. In a world of LoveLivers, we got a group who took the road less taken — and that is Seishun Kakumei.
So I shout my calls.
To be blunt, if you do ask me about i☆Ris, what I can tell you (aside from “technically nothing”) is that Yuu Serizawa and Himika Akaneya (IZETTAAAAAA) are part of it.
While waiting for the results, I joined Wiljanz’s group Do It For The Aidols as they do a recording, which I shall show here:
Fast forward to the moment that I have been waiting for. I spent my day at this event, meeting friends, not caring if I’m exhausted walking around taking pictures with my phone or what not.
If Seishun Kakumei does not win this, I told myself, all of the power I let out will go to naught, and I’m going to regret staying. The announcement: They won. THEY. WON. My soul was crying tears of joy. I was screaming happily. “OTSUKAKUMEI!,” I say.
As soon as they got to the side of the stage, I quickly went and congratulated them for winning. They were having fun doing i☆Ris, I was having fun being a wota; I think both me and SK doesn’t care about anything but that moment where they are on stage and I (along with fellow SK fans) support them. That is wonderful.
Now that I’ve moved on to the most important part of this post, let’s get to the other things that I did:
- I spent Php100 for an ichiban kuji (lottery) to win a beautifully-printed board and that is OK since I can place it at my treasure box.
- Spyair’s Meet-and-Greet is jampacked (based on how long the queue is prior to it).
- I saw Aoi once again — she’s doing the voice of Megumin in Hero TV’s broadcast of KonoSuba and just got off from guesting with Sir Pocholo Gonzales and the other cast members on Hero Tambayan a day before.
- I enjoyed the STARMARIE concert very well — all of us have been scolded by SMX Security for being too hyped to the point that I felt the floor shaking, but that’s not a grave concern for me (because there’s no earthquake).
Here are some other photos that I got:
Finally, here are the photos of cosplayers I took a picture of:
To cap off the post, you can see my experience (and more) on video — check out my Vlog.
My next event will be the first day of Cosplay Mania by the end of the month. Join me as I go wota again in the Konomi Suzuki concert. (Also, SK will be there on the same day. How ‘bout that?)
Thank you very much for reaching through the end of this post. Don’t forget the clap button at the lower left (you can click it as long as you can). As always, do go share this to your friends.