I never get tired of going to these events. Honestly, there's not much else to do. The shows are good, but aside from a big themed shopping area, I don't see much point in these commercial displays. The only truly fun thing to do is cosplay. You can dress up and act as your favorite character, and people come up to congratulate you and take pictures with you for no reason at all, haha. It's like being a movie star without any credit other than having a good costume. Obviously, it takes time and preparation. A lot of work goes into creating the costumes, wigs, armor, props, makeup, extra skills for the character, learning their history, and so on, but there's nothing boring about it.
First of all, entry for cosplayers was free before the doors officially opened, as if we had VIP tickets. It's a great idea for everyone, since it's nice that the recognition for actively participating as an extra attraction, which doesn't cost the organizers a penny, is symbolically valued. If you arrive in cosplay early, they give you free entry. And they make sure that when the more introverted audience arrives, they have a diverse selection of human statues to photograph.
And when the competition started, we changed into our ninja outfits so we wouldn't be seen on stage. This allowed us to use special effects to liven up the show. Luckily, we won the award for best performance out of 15 participating teams, with a cash prize of course! The selection process was quite difficult because the level of competition was very high both days.
Finally, after the awards ceremony, we spent our time taking photos, recording interviews for content creators, making videos for reels, and meeting up with friends from other teams. I couldn't take any pictures this time because I didn't have my phone with me; I wanted to be more present. I highly recommend pretending to be oblivious and going back to playing.
