Shizen Orchestra 2009 Event Report

Shizen Orchestra is an anime and manga convention devoted to Japanese Pop and Rock Music.  The event was held last Saturday, April 25, 2009 at the SMX Convention Center at the SM Mall of Asia.  The convention was organized by the anime organization, Touhou no Yuujin, of Ateneo De Manila University.  Some of the highlights of the convention were the J-Pop and Rock bands, the Fashion Show and Design contests and the DokiDoki Kissaten maid and butler cafe.

We arrived at around 11:30 PM.  Security at SMX Convention Center is strict and they don't allow prop weapons that contain metal parts, especially bladed type of weapons.  This information should have been cascaded before the event to prevent problems especially cosplayers whose costumes include weapons.  The convention itself was on the top floor in Function Room 4.  As expected there was already a line outside for the tickets.  Tickets were at PhP100.00 but those that reserved got it at PhP80.00.

The first thing you will notice when you enter the function room is that the place is huge.  Anyone who knows me or have read my previous reviews will know that I have always pointed out the problem with space.   The function room is actually bigger than Megatrade Hall 2 (it's larger by 290 square meters if you guys wanted to know).  This gives more breathing room for the con-goers and the exhibitors as well.   There is space to move around the booths and for cosplayers to pose for photographers.    It's also helpful that the hallway/balcony area outside of the function room is spacious enough for other costrippers to pose for photographers and just to hang around.  It's nice to note that there are areas where you can actually sit down on the floor and rest without bothering other people.  At one point my friend actually decided to lie down for a bit. 

The convention had a lot of exhibitors that day.  There was a variety of booths that had costumes, Gothic Lolita outfits, figures and toys, Japanese magazines and anime/music CDs.   I had hoped that they would have more shops or exhibits that would focus on Japanese street fashions but there were more anime related booths at the convention.  I believe only SugarFree & Blue featured clothes inspired by Japanese street fashion.  I have to say though, that it was refreshing to see that the booths and exhibits they had in the convention wasn't filled with commercial entities that are not really related to the convention. 
 

Items sold at the event
 

It was good to see that there was a good selection of food vendors at the convention area.  It's nice to just be able to stay inside and buy food without the need to go out of the hall.  The prices were a bit higher than your normal prices but that's to be expected and totally acceptable in conventions.  I personally liked the idea of putting tables in front of the food concessionaires so that people can talk and have a place to put their food down.  It's a concept I have not seen so far in most of the conventions that I have attended.  The nice thing as well is that they had trash cans available to throw away any unwanted garbage.  This is something seriously lacking in most other conventions.  I also liked the fact that they had comfort rooms available inside the function room so you need not go out if you need to use the facilities.  These are small things, I know, but it makes people's lives a little bit easier so it enhances one's experience at the convention.

I did get confused with the setup of the convention area.  Insider reports indicate that the booth arrangements were changed last minute and that even the exhibitors had some problems.  A map of the convention area was also not available for viewing which made it slightly difficult to navigate the function room.  I appreciate though that there was a bigger space in front of the stage area so one could sit or stand comfortably in front of the stage to watch the program.  The stage setup was designed like a catwalk which I think was intentional for the fashion show. 

 

The host of the program was Hard Gay Philippines.  I must say that he really likes entertaining and he seemed to have did his job well hosting the event and I found him amusing despite my apprehensions and the brain break I got from a lot of his performances.  He also apparently caused a ruckus when he kissed another Hard Gay cosplayer (between you and me I am glad not to have seen that).

One of the guests of the convention was Alodia Gosiengfao and her sister Ashley.  They were the guest judges for the cosplay competition.  Expectedly, a lot of photographers were taking her pictures.  I found it funny that even Hard Gay was flirting with her onstage.  And of course, photographers had a field day with her.  

The main highlight for me was DokiDoki Kissaten maid and butler cafe.  I have been to various maid and butler cafes in the anime/manga/cosplay circuit and I have been attending them to see how it fares.  I was hoping that the maid and butler cafe for Shizen Orchestra would do better than the last maid and butler cafe at Ozine.

Seika-chan is on the left
 

The entrance to the cafe was PhP200.00 per person.  This includes one maid or butler to serve you for your table, a meal and 2 free games to play with the maid.  For an additional PhP20.00 per person, you can get to sit at the special table with couches set up, one more maid or butler and an additional game.  We went there to have a slot reserved for us as we wanted to choose Seika from their available maids.  I am glad that when we went there there were actual mechanics available.  The maitre d's were effectively able to explain the mechanics and we were able to make a decision.  They did have some trouble following their reservations which caused some confusion to the customers.  When we paid for our tickets, the female maitre d' forgot to put down our names and timeslot on our tickets too.  I hope they work that out better next time.

Food at the cafe table
 

Once it was our time to enter, we were ushered into the cafe room.  As soon as we entered, all the maids and butlers greeted us "okaeri-nasai goshujin-sama, ojou-sama" in unison, which was nice.  We were sat down on a table and Seika, our chosen maid, came to us.   She brought us the menu and explained what meals were available.  She also explained what games we could play and explained the mechanics of the game.  Personally I forgot the name of the games but one of the games we played was a word game where you would say a word that begins with the last letter of the last word said.  That was probably the longest word game we had and Seika was more than game to join us in our antics as we were using less than wholesome words.  I learned that we all hate the letter R.   What was nice is that we were able to take pictures inside the cafe area and we even got pics with our maid Seika.  She really made our experience more than enjoyable.  I also appreciated the fact that the head butler, Emile, was checking up on us and seeing if we were enjoying ourselves.  When we finally got out of the cafe, a whole hour had passed.  We were slightly surprised and amused as we felt that only 15-20 minutes have passed.  

As we were still early, we decided to go back the main convention area and browse around some more.  We met with some friends and some fabulous cosplayers.  By this time, most of the cosplayers and costrippers were outside of the convention area, so we really took time to take pictures.  Some of them were quite awesome in my opinion.  Inside the convention hall, the lights were dimmed.  A lot of people complained because some had a hard time going around especially in some costumes which partially impaired their sight.  I personally enjoyed the ambiance and the lighting as it gave a different feel from your traditional anime and manga conventions.  At this time, we had various J-Pop/Rock bands playing tunes from various Japanese artists and anime soundtracks.  

 
Awesome Madame Red and Ciel Cosplay


 

One of the last performances was from Do'Ahou.  They performed a lot of songs from the older animes like Slam Dunk, Yuyu Hakusho and Fushigi Yuugi.  They even played the theme song for Cedie.  It was somewhat nostalgic and reminded me of anime here in the country before it became so big.   A friend even told me that she was reminded of C3 Con because of Shizen and the performance.  I personally found the convention stressless which I really haven't felt in conventions for a long time. 

The convention was indeed a success.  They were able to address issues like space and food which have long been ignored before.  They did encounter some problems which I hope they can fix the next time.  But they did very well for a first time convention and we hope they can continue to do good work.   Next year we hope they can bring in more East Asian Music like they promised and try to learn from the challenges they experienced.  For me, the maid and butler cafe was the best part of the whole convention and I hope they can bring this back next year and improve on it more. 

 
 
 
More Cosplay Pictures