25 Years of Cosplay Series: Remembering the Trends That Shaped the Community
Note, this is not a comprehensive history of all the trends that entered this community. This is a recollection of the things I saw from my own memories as a congoer, as well as some historical pieces.
This might also be the entry in this series with the least amount of pictures, since we're talking about 25 years of events here. So not everything has been archived, thus no photographic proof.
The peak of the late 1990s anime boom coincided with the birth of the cosplay scene. Thus, the early years of Philippine cosplay felt like the wild, wild west. There was no single anime or video game that occupied the cosplay community.
By 2003, the seeds of what would become Alodiamania were sown when she and her sister, Ashley, gained popularity, thanks to the now-famous issue of Culture Crash Comics.
While the community itself is still in its infancy, the "cosplay celebrity" was born. From this small starting point, the "G sisters" gave birth to people like Myrtle Gail Sarrosa, Jin Joson, Chie Filomeno, and others.
Out of all the trends, I'd say that this is the one with the longest-lasting effect. Even now, we still have cosplay celebrities like Megara, Prince De Guzman, and others.
Once the 2010s came, the cosplay community started to become more uniform in thinking. As such, the habit of cosplaying characters from trendy seasonal anime became commonplace. In 2012, it was Sword Art Online, and in 2015, Tokyo Ghoul.
At this time, cosplay event organizers started to attract famous people outside the cosplay community and into the larger anime community as guests. In 2015, Cosplay Mania would host Eriko Hori, more commonly known as "Pile", as one of their JAM Concert performers. Pile's celebrity status was in part due to the popularity of the LoveLive franchise. Thus, Cosplay.ph saw the opportunity to have her perform in the Philippines.
After Pile, several other major organizers followed suit. An infamous example of this trend would be Ozine's Otaku Expo 2017 event. This was the convention where the Inabas (via TokuSpirits) would bring anison legends Mitsuko Horie and Takayuki Miyauchi into the Philippines. You can read more about the incident here:
In the tail end of the 2010s, the community would see two things that would shape the way things go moving forward: kabedons and Genshin Impact.
Let's talk about the kabedon one first. By 2019, cosplayers started selling some services. This stopped during the two-and-a-half-year pandemic. Then, when in-person events came back, so did these fan services.
While some congoers (who are mostly gooners) really enjoyed these kinds of services, others did not, as most events in the Philippines cater to the general public. There were even some calls to attention from this sector of the community, urging organizers to help put a stop to this.
This trend sort of died a natural death by 2024, as the birth of SPICE EroCon somehow led to fanservice not being a thing at other events. Granted, some people still do this, but unlike in 2022, the number of cosplayers offering these services is minuscule compared to three years ago.
On the other hand, after it launched in 2019, Genshin Impact took the local cosplay community by storm. A lot of cosplayers jumped onto the Genshin bandwagon, and this whole fad lasted not just for one year, but three-and-a-half years! So much so that this meme was born:
The post-pandemic boom also gave rise to the "indie idol" scene in the community. Out of the ashes of MNL48's pre-reboot influence, groups such as Mju:z Kiss, DNE, Niko Lab, and others became popular amongst the congoing crowd. They have integrated themselves as performers for cosplay events.
It's not just local idol groups and solo performers like Rai and Chaeri Ichigo who are enjoying this idol boom. Japanese chika idol groups like Starmarie and Fairytales visit the Philippines to enjoy the festivities and perform here as well.
Once the post-pandemic cosplay boom ended, things sort of went back to what it was...at least. Nowadays, the most popular fad seems to revolve around either DanDaDan or Uma Musume. What new trend or fad would surpass both Okarun, Momo, and Gold Ship? Only time can tell.
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