Katsune (Guy Singson)
Guy Singson is a masochist. There — I said it. He is a masochist because every time he shows up in costume, I get the feeling that he had scoured the internet for the most complicated and least comfortable costume that you could possibly make, and goes for it full throttle. The guy is also a genius with sourcing materials for his cosplay: it seems like he can walk into any store — a toy store, an automotive parts shop, a gardening supplier, and manage to find just the thing to complete his detail-perfect costume. Hands down, Guy is one of the finest cosplayers on the local scene, past and present.
Team Tux (Jin Joson, Miguel Mercado, Kat Carpio, et. al.)
It’s not always about the competitions — Team Tux has shown us that. As an artiste collective, they have taken the cosplay photoshoot to the next level — bringing in elements such as art direction, scenic locations, post-processing, and many others. But beyond the ad agency trappings, cosplay still lies at the heart of what Team Tux does. They still have a hand at making the costumes, designing the set pieces, and doing their own hair and make-up. They are doing all this for the art, and not the prizes — which may be the purest form of cosplay there is.
The Grimz (Belldandy Chii Grimarez and Family)
For the longest time, kids cosplay was the territory of the cute and cuddly. As parents vied on who can convince their kids to dress up as the cutest POKEMON character, Chii and her uber-supportive parents took a different route: they talked game with the grown-ups. Sporting complicated mechanical costumes, Chii and her family has put together a fairly large collection of silverware from various events, many of them from contests where Chii has beaten out competition thrice her age. Chii has set the bar for kids cosplay, not just here but all over the world.
Yuzukichii (Monette Salas)
If we singled out Lyron for being the most improved cosplayer on the local scene, then Monette would be his female equivalent. She started out with some fairly simple costumes, such as the gun-toting Yuna from FFX2. Monette has since moved on to more technically proficient costumes, like her fantastic Female Kamael from Lineage II. She has even proved her detractors wrong — Monette has many critics because of her preferences for sexy characters, by donning full toku armor and covering up her prettiness with a full-face helmet. If that’s not dedication to cosplay, then I don’t know what is.
Kero (Pablo Bairan)
Pablo has been one for pushing the limits of cosplay. Unlike many compatriots who were into cosplay to highlight their “looks”, he was perfectly fine with stuffing himself into a fur suit to role-play his favorite character — Manila’s heat and humidity be damned. He has also pushed the limits of a different sort, going beyond the usual cosplay drama and online wankery on the local scene, and joining forces with other veteran cosplayers to put up COSPLAY.PH — now look at how far things has evolved since.
This list was constructed with no numerical ranking for all ten cosplayers — they are all on equal footing, and they are all number one in their own way. The cosplayers were selected for the list based on what we personally considered as the hallmarks of good cosplay: excellent craftsmanship, good work ethic, and an exacting eye for detail. It also helped if members of the community vouched for them — as some of them did via our Plurk and Twitter accounts.
If your favorite cosplayers were not on the list, we’d like to know who they are, and what your reasons are for wanting to include them. There maybe some equally excellent cosplayers out there that we’ve never even heard of and therefore were not considered for our list. The list stays as is, however; we’d just like to see who you think should’ve been up there instead if the decision were up to you. Please remember that everyone’s got an opinion — you respect ours and we respect yours. Cheers!
Photo credits: Monette Salas’ Facebook account, Pablo Bairan’s Facebook account, Belldandy Chii Grimarez’s Facebook account, Jin Joson’s DeviantArt account, Guy Singson’s DeviantArt Account.
Thank you to everyone on magnetic-rose.net’s Plurk, Twitter, and Facebook accounts for your input in the construction of this list.
JPOP Manila 
*insert Plurk worship emoticon here*
Jin and the rest of Tuxedo Team are among my absolute favorites. Every time I run into them I could only look in awe.
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Mama Rotch! I love your list. 😀 Among other reasons, because of something, but all in all, it’s a great list and everyone is very deserving.
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I can’t imagine someone cosplaying the Castle, and somebody did… O_o;
Yeah, team tux looks good in their costumes even off cam. Good list!
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I can’t imagine someone cosplaying the Castle, and somebody did… O_o;
IKR?! it was fantastic too! it spewed out smoke and the tongue moved and EVERYTHING! :DDDDDD
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Ooh, ooh, do look up Dukesa/Wryan Melendez! While mecha/armor cosplays are hard to make, she puts an equal amount of effort and dedication to her – er – “tela” cosplays. She makes her own props, styles her own wigs, etc.
And she chooses feminine characters (I don’t mean girly, but they have sweeter personalities), which something I *think* the list is missing (aaah don’t shoot me! What I mean is… everybody on the list is hardcore, so it’d be refreshing to see a lighter but equally amazing cosplayer).
Hope I didn’t come off as imposing, not demanding she be added, sorry if it comes off that way >___< But do check her out, she's amazing!
http://dukesawolf.deviantart.com/
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I like Catherine de Jesus. http://alittledecadence.tumblr.com/ She’s not as visible as most cosplayers since she’s more into fashion design, but when she does cosplay it’s awesome and she makes her own costumes too.
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+1 to Ricah! I hope to see Dukesa added to the list 😀
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I love this list. I do, I do.
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Your cranium must be protecting some very valuable brain! Good job!
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Lol self post @ joyce
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Lol fir the self post Joyce. No good effort on tattered clothes and pretend class.
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Lol self post @ joyce
Lol fir the self post Joyce. No good effort on tattered clothes and pretend class.
hi double-posting trolls, with your IP addresses both pointing to 112.198.172.182, and your physical address traced to 375 gil puyat avenue, makati city 😀 did you have fun letting your jealous rage get the better of you on some random person’s blog? i hope you did, because i definitely had fun tracking you down 😀 have a nice life!
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Today is my birthday… Thank you ma’am for this wonderful gift!
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uh, I always post as Cat on this website .___. and why the hell would I do a self-post.
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LOL @ the bitterness. Too bad I’m not Cat, and I’m not self-posting too. ;P Magnetic-rose can reveal my IP if she wishes, (though I doubt that would please you trolls) I’m sure I live far away from Cat anyway.
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Today is my birthday… Thank you ma’am for this wonderful gift!
what a lovely coincidence — happy birthday, guy!
and please, call me rochelle 😀 nakakaloka yung “ma’am” hahahaha~:D
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That’s just Manong Guy trying to act young. He’s still trying to convince himself he’s 21… but multiply it by three and you’re closer to the actual figure 😀
Happy birthday, lolo 🙂 We all love you 🙂 ❤ ❤ ❤
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he cosplayed as Howl’s castle? masyadong imba talaga si Guy. I think the simplest costume I’ve seen him do was that soldier (Counterstrike? Call of Duty?) during the Riverbanks Cosplay Challenge last month and even that looked crazy detailed.
as amazing as the Tux Team’s cosplays are, I look forward to their outtakes more. you can find detailed reports of brilliant shoots everywhere but not that many include the silly/ridiculous things that go on behind the scenes. now if only they would stop pestering me to cosplay Yoko…
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Rochelle… can i kill Kero? hehehehe
I do agree sa list mo… Filipino cosplayers are the best talaga!
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I do agree sa list mo… Filipino cosplayers are the best talaga!
yup — the talent pool exists 😀 i just hope the entire community gets together so we can finally send a team to the WCS 😀 go for gold!
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Boohooo…I didn’t see the Howl Castle…where did he cosplay it? Is he going to cosplay it again???>,< Sayang!
I also like that little cosplayer named Belldandy Chii (hehehe, everytime na naririnig kong name niya, talagang sumasagi talaga sa isip ko-'Mga magulang nito, anime fans din.' XD So cute.
I love this 'biased' list of yours Ms. Rochelle!^___^
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i don’t remember when and where guy wore the moving castle costume, i just remember that i was there and saw it in person; the level of detail and craftsmanship on the costume brings a whole new appreciation for what he does 🙂
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yan na yon? weh, di nga? XD
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So what’s your point?
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