Ozine Fest 2010

This weekend saw the largest annual gathering of Japanese pop culture in the Philippines. Or at least what we can scrap off from the Neon lit streets of Akihabara.  Ozine fest plays host to retailers, cosplayers and anime fans here in the Philippines.  While it’s not exactly up to par to much more renowned events around the otaku scene such as Wonfes or AFA, we make do with what mainstream media had to offer.  It had the makings of a full weekend for me.

The Month that was..10-2009

Aaah.. October is coming to a close. My, how time flies. A good number of figure and gunpla announcements and orders this month. A couple of loot arrivals and some arriving soon. Finished off a couple of model kits on my build queue. And a few funerals on the side.

Otacool ’09

As I’ve mentioned in my previous posts, Dannychoo.com had a giveaway a couple of months back wherein his members were to upload photos of their room. Recently, well known figure manufacturer Kotobukiya has taken notice and thought of doing a book about it.

And so the contenders, and just about anyone else who wanted to share their rooms, have been uploading like crazy on to the Otacool website by Danny Choo. Members who wished to share were asked to answer a few questions as well, thought I’d share them with you.

* Name (or nick name) - Mark Anthony; also known to respond to Wich, Wichi, Chico
* Age – (as of this entry) late 20′s
* How many years you have been an “otaku” -  I’ve been into building Gunpla for more than a decade now Though I was introduced to Anime early on through Macross, and Voltes V. It wasn’t only until recently that I started collecting figures.  Though I still don’t see myself as being one.
* Nationality – Filipino (Philippines)
* Outline of your collection – Initially comprised of Gundam kits and plastic model kits of Militaria and automobiles until a fire razed my home and collection. Recently, I have a good number of poseable figures and Gashapons. A build queue of Gundam kits and some Plastic models of cars and planes. Also have a dozen or so of PVC figures
* How much your collection cost - A safe estimate would put it in 10′s of thousands of USD
* Your fave item – Difficult to say that I have 1 particular favorite item in my collection. If I had to choose, It would have to be my Dollfie Rin Tohsaka and my MG EX-S Gundam since it was what got me into building Gunpla again.
* Your website address – http://coffeebugg.wordpress.com, http://coffeebugg.deviantart.com
* Anything else you want to say – I’m quite thankful that my family and friends for being quite open to my hobbies. Although my family has been at my neck for my spending habits i.e. being that it is excessive, I guess it’s safe to say that they’re thankful I put my money on that rather than taking to vices. And for the enduring question of why I got in to my hobbies; there are those who get into these hobbies as a way to escape the real world for a short time. While I do tend to share the same moments, they are so to speak, my anchor to reality. That despite how old we grow and how mature we tend to think of ourselves to have become, we always look to our inner child to see that sometimes life doesn’t have to be complicated in order for us to be happy, nor does happiness have to be complicated.

And in other news.

I’ve been featured on Deviantart member Painting with light’s journal about the Holy Land, Israel.

Well then that’s that..

And now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

My little sanctuary..

Every now and then Danny Choo holds giveaways for his loyal readers. From ever so coveted early release figures to the rather mundanely yet intriguingly erotic. Contest mechanics are usually trivial questions such as ‘Name this character’ or ‘How much was this item’ to the very simple “show me your (insert otaku item of pride)”, one being such the “My desk giveaway” last May. There you would have seen a plethora of work areas from Otakus and/or “Japan pop culture enthusiasts”. Of course, not to be out done, I had to show off my humble workstation. Humble compared to several individuals within the Dannychoo community.

Alas, as I would have expected, other more discerning and very eligible desk entries were chosen. And though I may have my reservations, the winner could not have been anymore deserving. That would be Ms Alodia Gosienfiao’s desk, if you could call it that. Though personally, I would believe that a “shrine” would have been a more politically correct term for it, I’ll leave it at that.

Moving on.

A little before the ‘My desk giveaway’, another similar contest was held. At that time, participants were asked to submit photos of their well adorned Otaku rooms. And much like my previous statement, these rooms would have been better off referred to as museums as opposed to having shrines for their desks. I, however, did not have the opportunity to participate. As I was more or less in the midst of rearranging my room and that uploading a room that was in as much disarray as a viewer having just watched Bay-formers 2, suffice to say, I considered the effort to be pointless like a German gulag along side majestically adorned throne rooms. Or so I thought. As it was, the choice of winner was no doubt a best representation of an otaku room. If you’re familiar with slice of life animes and J-Dramas then you’ll know what I mean.

For those of you who don’t, here’ s an excerpt from Danny:

While I feel terrible about not being able to choose everybody, I am delighted to announcet hat the winner of the xxxxx yen goes to member lightningsabre – see more pics at his burogu. Not much more to add – he lives in an otakustore! Stacks of manga, unopened figures,dakimakura, anime wall scrolls and more.

Apparently, fellow community members’ efforts have caught the attention of one of Dannychoo.com’s partners. And as it seems, they even want to publish a book showcasing rooms of Otakus from the world over. And it seems yet again, dear Mr. Choo has called upon his loyal readers, myself included, to open the doors to their rooms/shrines/museums/libraries/hangar bays to the community and perhaps the chance to be one of the lucky ones to have their room published in the book, “Otacool!”

Just as the next collector/hobbyist who takes pride in their humble abodes, I mustered my troops to do a quick cleanup and this time made sure that my doors were open to the discerning readers. While it’s not exactly a suite in the Death Star apartments, I wouldn’t trade my little corner of my mortal and capitalist heaven for anything, save maybe for a bigger corner much similar to my own. I’ve uploaded several pictures to the recently relaunched Figure.FM.

Unfortunately, I’ve reached my upload limit on my flickr account so stay tuned until I upload more complete set of pics.