Hong Kong's Cosplay, Ani-Com & Games 2023 (My First Cosplay Experience)

August 15, 2023

_{Photos mine, edited in Canva}

Seriously, this wasn't in my plan last 30th of July, Sunday. My initial plan was to watch the Harbour Chill Carnival events at Wanchai Promenade. However, on my way to finding the right way to the promenade, I stumbled upon a long queue at Convention Center which I thought was the entrance to the carnival show.

Let me share with you my unexpected experience of finding the Carnival event that ended up in a Cosplay event.

_{I thought this was the venue of the carnival event since there were tents outside because it was raining}

While lining up, I was seeing people wearing cosplay costumes so I thought it was just a part of the Harbour Chill Carnival event since it was the only event I knew on that day. That even made me more excited to enter the place since I never watch a cosplay event in my entire life.

Queueing wasn't easy as I thought. It started from the overpass to inside a building down to the roadside, then inside the convention center. I queued for two freaking hours!

I thought they held the carnival event inside the convention center since the weather wasn't good and it rained that afternoon. I never thought of asking anyone about the carnival event since I thought I was in the right queue. Besides, there were no Filipinos, except me, and the rest were Chinese with a few foreigners. The banners were written in Chinese and I didn't mind. Moreover, the lady staff I asked led me to this queue which I later realized that she didn't understand my question, lol.

_{Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center}

I never thought the queue was only for the cosplay event until I reached the inside part of the convention center and realized that, the queue wasn't going to the carnival event at the promenade but to a cosplay event.

A plethora of questions ran in my mind with the worries about the fees and whatsoever. I wasn't ready for this because my plan was only to watch the carnival event that afternoon.

"Wait, is there an entrance fee?"

"How much is the ticket?"

I panicked thinking about the naiveness I've done. I know Cosplay Events have fees and they aren't usually cheap, lol. But since I queued for two long hours, I opted to stay, otherwise, it'll be a waste of effort and time. And by that time, I knew by myself that I'll be missing the real carnival event which I thought was held somewhere outside the convention center.

I thought the queue would end as I entered the center. Little did I know that I still need to queue to get the ticket and it was freaking long too!

And while queueing for the ticket, I took the chance to take photos of the cosplayers around the area. Some were queueing too, while others were resting, preparing and retouching make-ups, and fixing costumes on the sides.

Isn't this Monkey D. Luffy? The first cosplayer I recognized.

Finally, I got my ticket! I heave a sigh of relief when I saw the price which was only HK$42 (US$5.38) and it wasn't a pain in the ass. Seriously, if it was more than a hundred dollars, I would just waste my time and leave the area, lol. As I told you above, the banners about the event I was queueing for were written in Chinese, and so was the ticket. The prices below the ticket pass are probably discount coupons for different booths.

Let's stop chasing around the bush as this is getting long now
Let's enter to the Cos Paradise.

Based on the ticket, the event starts at 9 in the morning, and since it was already six in the afternoon, others were already leaving the venue. And to give you a hint about this Cosplay event, here are what I found from HK Hub site

This is Hong Kong's Annual Ani-Com & Games with Cosplay Competition and Japanese Idol Contest which started last the 28th day of July and ended on the first day of August. The main event are the cosplay competition and the selection for Japanese girl group hopefuls which I didn't see in the venue. No wonder why there were a lot of cute ladies in Japanese anime costumes.

Anime and game lovers would love this event!

Cos Paradise was located in a certain hall. I just followed the crowd since I didn't know where the hall was. On my way, I took some photos of the cosplayers gathering along the hallway.

I honestly don't know their characters' names. It is evident that I am not into anime and games, lol.

Spidermen were there with their friends.

This LGBT couple was cute. They were having a photoshoot along the hallway.

I followed the crowd and entered this big hall which I guess was the Cos Paradise. It was full of cosplayers and visitors. I can barely move an inch because of the crowd and I have to squeeze my tiny frame in between.

It was already past six in the afternoon, so I knew there was no program to watch other than cosplayers in their costumes. I roamed around and checked every cosplayer that I could take photos of for souvenirs. And since I am not into anime and games, I didn't who were they portraying, lol.

Here are some cosplayers I captured with my camera inside this hall.

And one thing I noticed was, there were a lot of sexy cosplayers. No wonder. The anime characters are really cute and sexy. Another thing I noticed was if there's a crowd of men, there's a sexy lady, lol. Ladies in their sexy costumes were surrounded by men taking photos and some were drooling over the revealing sexy parts of their bodies. Some were just so revealing that I felt embarrassed for them, especially when I saw boys looking intently at their bare skin.

Is there anyone familiar with those characters above? I have no single clue. Each cosplayer has a QR code with them. It was how the voting was done. They all looked so young, yet have the confidence to pose in sexy costumes.

If there are sexy ladies, there are more decent ones, but are still cute.

Among all the ladies, I found her a sexy and cool lad. She reminded me of a character from an anime I watched before, but have forgotten the title.

And this one, for me, was the cutest. I liked her cute costume, and most of all, her makeup. She truly looked like an AI girl.

Since most of the characters are from Chinese and Japanese anime and games, I was only familiar with a few.

I bet they are nine-tailed foxes from a Chinese legend which popularly portrayed in many Chinese traditional TV series.

And these, without any doubt, are not from any anime series, because they are Adam and Eve. I bet they are a real couple.

The Chinese police team was there too. They aren't real officers, but just wearing police costumes.

Some portrayed game characters wearing robot costumes.

Typical Chinese characters from traditional Chinese series.

The beast and the angel, haha. Nope, the beast is from the Demon Slayer anime named Inosuke Hashibira. At least, that's what I know.

I spotted more characters from the Demon Slayer. I am certain that anime lovers knew them more. If I am wrong, correct me then. I'm not a pro in anime series and games, haha.

This character looked so familiar but I couldn't figure out in what anime I saw it before. Do you know?

Meanwhile, this masculine man (with no abs 😅) covered his head with a cute ducky mascot head. He seemed confident to show off his body, but not his face, lol. Could this be another character from a cartoon series or movie?

Spiderman was everywhere. Not just one, but all types of Spiderman were reunited in one place. I thought it was just in the Spiderman movie No Way Home? 😅 Was it? Correct me if I'm wrong. Black Spiderman was even there. I saw them heading out when I was leaving the venue.

This man is so tall that stood out from the crowd. He is obviously not Chinese. And based on his facial features and expressions, he's gay. I was hesitant to approach him to take a selfie, so I did it from the corner. Do you know his character? It's not familiar to me.

Some came in groups. People seemed to know their characters well, but I had no idea at all.

Many were approaching this group and taking selfies with them. I took a photo to ask you, do you know them? 😅

Aside from anime and game characters, there were cute mascots too. Among these, I was only familiar with the blue mascot from Sesame Street which was one of my favorite kid's TV shows when I was young.

I saw this mascot from Kakao Friends standing at the corner when I was leaving the venue, so I approached him and took a selfie with the help of a Chinese lady. He actually looked tired when I spotted him and he seemed to want to remove his heavy head. But people kept approaching him to take selfies, lol.

I found a video of the Cosplay Catwalk which happened on the 1st day of this month. If you want to see more anime and game characters in the Cosplay, you can check the Cosplay videos of this Youtuber.

Or watch the short reel here

It was indeed a memorable and fun experience visiting a Cosplay event for the first time even though for a short period. I reached the venue after queueing for two hours at six in the afternoon. So I only had a little time, about one hour, roaming around the Cos Paradise. At seven, I decided to leave and looked for the right way to the promenade which I gladly located through a Google Map. You can check my previous post about Harbor Chill Carnival to see what I have done after visiting the Cosplay.

Was the fee worth it? Definitely not, because I stayed for only an hour in the venue and I wasn't able to watch other programs. But knowing that it happens annually, I would definitely watch the next year's Cosplay event

Have you been to a Cosplay? What was your first time experience? You can share it below.

Today is also #LPUD! Don't forget to power up your LEO. I did mine ☺️.

Thanks for stopping by.

(All photos are mine)

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