Asia Cosplay Meet 2014

What is the connection between dragonboats and cosplay? Up till now, at this point when I’m typing this up over breakfast, I still have no idea. Nevertheless, we at PopCulture Online received an invitation from the nice PR people at SPRG for the recent DBS Marina Regatta 2014, and that was enough to drag us out of our very comfortable beds that rainy weekend and over to Promontory where dragonboats and cosplay meet.

In conjunction with DBS Marina Regatta 2014, Asia Cosplay Meet took place over 17 and 18 May 2014. More than a cosplay event, this is a competition between the 9 Asian countries for the title of Asia’s Finest Cosplayer. This competition is the largest of its kind in Asia, and this year, the competition took place in three separate rounds, where the teams have to compete in solo, pairs and groups.

Despite the heavy rain and muddy ground, the enthusiasm of the local cosplay scene did not dampen any. This is likely due to the big names that were tagged to this competition. Other than the presence of celebrated cosplay idol Kaname from Japan, the competitor list includes Rie from Japan (World Cosplay Summit Grand Champion 2009), Shamo from China (who has fans from both in and outside of China who stalk him from event to event), and of course, Maria and Christy from our very own lovely island who represented Singapore in World Cosplay Summit in 2005 and 2010 respectively.

All countries pulled out all the stops for their performances. I was especially impressed by the set Team Malaysia had built for their Alice: Madness Returns performance, and the integrity of Team Indonesia’s costumes, as demonstrated by their heart-stopping fight choreography. One can only imagine the amount of effort each team put into this competition!

If there were similarities between dragonboating and cosplaying, it may be the perseverance that both participants showed – to keep rowing against the currents and never give in.