UP AME — the University of the Philippines Anime and Manga Enthusiasts, held its ninth annual fair last 28th November 2009. Entitled AME no Jidai, the nation’s largest collegiate anime convention was held at the A. Venue Events Hall, Makati Avenue, Makati City. Festivities started at 1:00 PM and lasted well into the evening.

The decision to move the con from UP’s Ang Bahay ng Alumni to Makati City appeared to be a sound one as space and air conditioning — two of the largest complaints in previous cons, was thankfully resolved. The con also welcomed more attendees south-side, who were always regretfully left out of the event’s previous location, far north in UP Diliman campus.

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This year’s con had a feudal Japan theme, and to enhance the atmosphere UP AME featured goldfish catching, Japanese fortune-telling, and a traditional tea room. There was also a fairly large number of cosplayers in traditional Japanese garb, lending extra flair to the festivities.

I got roped into helping out by judging for the cosplay competition for the second local con in a row. It was not a huge sacrifice though as many of the costumes were excellent, and — coming from a post-AFA09 standpoint — some even deserve to be pitted against foreign cosplay entries in international competition.

If I have one small gripe about the cosplay competition, it’s that the onstage ramp was pushed back several times to accommodate additional entries as well as wrestle with several technical issues. I hope that next time the flow of events will be managed more reasonably in order to minimize delays 🙂

Overall, the event went as smoothly as the organizers could manage, and is — if online reactions are to be judged, the more successful of the two cons held in the same venue in the span of one weekend. Congratulations and thanks to all the guys at UP AME! I’d also like to thank everyone who dropped by the booth to say hi, and I hope you liked your AFA 09 freebies 🙂 See you at the next con!

Special thanks to Hazel of Atelier H_Matsumoto for providing additional photos for this event report.