Start of Year 2010

For those who didn’t know, Start of Year 2010 (Dubbed SOY’B) was held at Ngee Ann Polytechnic last Saturday. This being my first Start of Year, however not my first cosplay event (End of Year 2009 was my first), so I expected lots of awesome performances and general content.

Scorch n Roses was kind enough to lead the way as I’m very unfamiliar of that certain area in Singapore. As we entered McDonalds, I noticed a pair of Vocaloid twins (namely Rin and Len) cosplayers as well as an Akatsuki member touching up on their makeup inside. As they left the building, a lot of people gave them a weird look which I found very amusing. A little kid dropped his toy as they left, some stopped what they were doing in utter shock, it was like the world was on pause for a couple of seconds.

With our engines charged, we head to the  next stop which was Ngee Ann Polytechnic where we joined the rest of the We Love Nendoroids and Figmas gang. I was able to meet with the awesome Noobotaku who is also a crazed Saber and Fate/Stay Night fan like me, however he couldn’t stick around for long as his cosplaying master’s call awaits.

I also managed to meet up with a BMT mate who was kind enough to tag along to snap a few shots for his photography collection. Majority of the photos seen below are shot by him, you’ll know which one are mine due to the crappy quality. Thanks for the awesome photos Jerminos!

With our tickets purchased, maps in hand and everyone here, we set sail for main building. It wasn’t long before I got lost and separated from everyone else. The narrow halls and beastly crowd just made things more hectic and chaotic for me, and the fact that my phone’s reception was jammed the second you entered the building did not help the situation. To top it off, my phone’s battery was running low…sigh, not a great start to the day. It didn’t really help that I was starting to feel sick around that time. I think I may have contracted the flu from someone.

I noticed that there wasn’t any media crews there (unless they were hiding from me) since I’m sure many of us would have expected them to flock towards the event due to the recent molesting incident. Thank god nothing major occurred to draw attention anyway.

I found the usual booths inside, the types of booth didn’t change much from the End of year 2009, so that was a given since I expected that much. Nothing really drew my attention except that I saw a fair amount of counterfeit nendoroids and scaled figures. Tisk tisk tisk.

Around noon, the mall hall stage doors opened and were about to begin. I felt like avoiding the crowds as it was getting packed by the minute so I secured my seat in the third row. For a lecture hall, the chairs were epically comfy, so comfy that was even able to doze off for a good 20 minutes. The stage events they had installed we pretty much expected, however the performances and skits each team had prepared were still a surprise to me. As usual they were as entertaining as ever as they ranged from solo and duet singing performances, solo cosplay interviews and questionnaires, group cosplay skits, cosplay posing sessions, many vocaloids, Caramelldansen song and various K-pop songs. It seems to be a mandatory tradition that cosplay events such as this include the Caramell dansen song and at least one K-pop song, not that I have anything against them. Actually I’d prefer they included it as it adds to the fun and atmosphere to the event itself since they are songs the otaku community are very familiar with.

Solo Cosplay Competition

You seem to have a liking for the girl scout with cookies Jerminos, care to explain? I think out of all the photos, you had the most pics of her hehe. I shall confront you about this topic on another occasion.

I didn’t really feel like taking too many photos since Jerminos was covering the cosplay, however as for the videos I didn’t really go all out as the battery drains really quickly. I ended up with a half full battery capacity so practically I underestimated how many videos I would take. Sigh~

For more pictures, you can find them in the gallery below.

Group Cosplay Competition

Team: Red Moon
Series: Naruto

Team: Kimchi
Series: Vocaloid
Song: Abracadabra

Team: Red Moon vs Kimchi
Song: Caramelldansen (Pseedy Cake Remix)

Karoke Performances

Singer: Skye
Song: Kimi Ga Iru Kara (by Sayuri Suguwara)

Dance Performances

Series: Vocaloid
Song: Song from the Vocaloid Series

At the end of the day I manged to pick up a cool little lanyard (those media tags that go around the neck) as I have always wanted one plus it makes a good keepsake.

For epic coverage of the epic (as mine was mainly walls and walls and walls of text) you can find them here at The Banzai Effect, Hexlord, Alafista, Zoneotaku, Zh3us and Kodomut‘s websites. I didn’t miss anyone did I? Poke me if I did.

Like I promised, here is the entire gallery:

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