The Best of Anime 2013 — a co-located event of The 34th Manila International Book Fair, is off to a roaring start on its first day, the 14th of September at the SM Mall of Asia SMX Convention Center. Featuring an entire weekend of anime, manga, cosplay, and J-pop — the event is fast becoming one of the best stops on the local convention circuit!

Aside from hosting the NCR leg of World Cosplay Summit Philippines 2014, BOA 2013 boasts a stellar line-up of international guests — including J-pop stars Joe Inoue and STARMARIE, and Thai cosplayers Karael, JiakiDarkness, and YukiGodBless! Besides judging the band and cosplay competitions, the guests also had spectacular onstage performances and well-attended fan meets.

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Also fast becoming a tradition at BOA is our blogging workshop, where we discussed fandom blogging via Livejournal and Tumblr. We put a lot of emphasis on the fact that blogging can be fun and stressful in turns. We also discussed the fine line between being a fan and sharing the love, and being a pirate and spreading illegal material on the internet. Lastly, we thanked everyone who listened to the talk by giving away swag from Vocaloid, Tokidoki, and One Piece!

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The dealers hall at BOA is always well-structured and interesting — featuring a good mix of commercially available goods and fan-made merchandise. There are also plenty of free activities to take part in — like the Japan Foundation Manila’s Manga Library and the Embassy of Japan in Manila’s Japan Information and Culture Center Yukata Photo Booth. Onstage, guests Karael and the Gosiengfiao siblings enthralled the crowd with their performances, as well as gamely posed for photographs for their fan-meets.

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Rounding out the event was the All-Star Cosplay Competition, where we sat alongside all the other cosplay guests plus Hero TV darling Myrtle Sarrosa and put over fifty cosplay hopefuls to the test. Some of the standouts of the afternoon were Ashley Misaki in her bad-ass little Gundam Exia, and quick-change artist Alexia Sheridan with here costume-within-a-costume-within-a-costume (Sorceress Yuna to Songstress Yuna to Gunner Yuna — you gotta see it to believe!).

Continued in BOA 2013 Day 2 Event Report.