Continued from Day 1.

Day 2 dawns bright and early for the Animax x HKTB crew, and I managed to do a spot of shopping at Sogo Causeway Bay (more on this later) before the noon calltime. At exactly 1215 in the afternoon, we were bused off to Harbour City from our accommodations at the Kowloon Hotel (fantastic location, newly renovated rooms, and good breakfast selection) to get ready for the event. At the venue we were escorted to the ninth floor where all the cosplayers and some of the performers were getting ready.

      

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At around two in the afternoon, we were briefed about the event proceedings, and made our way back to the party venue. The location was quite small — compared to the massive convention centers usually employed in Manila and Singapore, but for the event it was just the right size. There was a display wall with large format portraits of the winning cosplayers, several widescreen TVs showing Animax Asia titles, plus a registration table for participants to sign up and win anime figures, a Sony PSP, and a Sony Vaio laptop.

      

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The party soon kicked off after that, with performances by two up-and-coming Cantonese pop stars plus the formal presentation of all the competition winners. While things were going on onstage, photographers gathered around cosplayers who gamely posed for them. The cosplayers enjoyed mingling with each other since there were no guard rails and cosplay marshals separating them from the other attendees.

      

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Several cosplay groups performed dance numbers for the audience was well. Judging by the list of performances, AKB48 appears to be extremely popular in Hong Kong, with a good number of the groups choosing to dress and dance as members of the 48-strong idol troupe. My personal favorite however was the Vocaloid 2 group performance headed by Hong Kong cosplayer Chaumet. They danced to a medley of Vocaloid hits including Miku and Luka’s Magnet.

      

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Although Culture:Japan host Danny Choo couldn’t make it due to unexpected scheduling conflicts, Animax Animate Alodia was present — to the delight of her fans and fellow cosplayers. We were both pleased to find out that we may be seeing each other more or less at AFA X again this year — and of course, rooting for the new Team Philippines.

Continued in Day 3.

Thank you very much to Animax and the Hong Kong Tourism Board for asking magnetic-rose.net to participate in the Hong Kong Halloween Treats Weekend.