Last Tuesday, October 15, 2019, media partners converged in Movie Stars Cafe in Centris to attend the Media Launch of Coslandia 2019. A three-day fun event celebrating Japanese pop-culture, Coslandia will take place from November 1 to 3, 2019 at the SMX Aura, Taguig City. The show will showcase J-Pop idol concerts, free movie screenings, meet and greet sessions with guest artists, exclusive merchandise, exciting booths and games, e-sports tournaments and of course, cosplay.

Hosted by Hallohallo Entertainment Inc. in partnership with the Embassy of Japan in the Philippines, World Cosplay Summit Philippines, and Pop Culture Hiroshima Philippines, this year’s event aims to earn a place in the yearly calendar of cosplay and Japanese pop-culture events, bringing in various components of the culture to hopefully coalesce into one fun and exciting time for event goers.

Hallohallo Entertainment (HHE) is the operator of the idol group MNL48, the sister group of the legendary Japanese idol group AKB48, so idols will make up a huge part of the three-day extravaganza. Performance by Japanese idols 1-Girls, Fairytale, Amatsusora, Gracorex, Hirotoshi “TJ” Maeda, Hazuki Tsubasa, Tomoka, and Samero will all hit the stage for live performances. Local idol group, Davao’s very own Pastel Mix, will showcase their talents on all three days.

And of course, there is MNL48, whose fifth single “High Tension” will be the theme song of Coslandia 2019. Not only will they hold a mini-concert on the second day, but they will also have a lot of activities in store for their fans. They will be launching their new card game app “Janken Senbatsu“, and also promote merchandise and the Seikimatsu Blue movie which features members Abby, Coleen, Brei, and Kay.

Speaking of Seikimatsu Blue, it’s creator, manga artist Shintaro Hirota, will grace the event along with the film director Tetsuya Hashi and other cast members.

The “Cos” in Coslandia stands for “Cosplay” and this event will have various cosplay activities on offer. World Cosplay Summit Philippines (WCS) will be bringing guest cosplayers WCS Team Philippines and will stage solo cosplay competitions with themes “Armor and Cloth” and “Hero and Heroine”. Pop Culture Hiroshima Philippines (PCH) will bring PCH Team Philippines as guest cosplayers and will take its first NCR Qualifiers to the festival where the winners will have the opportunity to compete in the finals and represent the Philippines in japan for the April 2020 annual Pop Culture Hiroshima.

In addition, Japanese culture icons Hello Kitty and Dear Daniel, Rilakkuma, and Pikachu will make special appearances and will be available for photo and meet and greet sessions. There will also be a Trick or Treat costume contest for kids in celebration of Halloween as well as a Coslandia Girls Collection fashion show. The media had a preview of this fashion show featuring MNL48 members and Kenkyuusei (trainee) called “MNL48 Models” in the media launch.

The event will also have film screenings: Pioneer Films will provide attendees film screenings of hit movies Your Name, A Silent Voice, and Your Lie in April There will also be a free screening of Mazinger Z: Infinity and a life-size figure display of Voltes V brought to us by Telesuccess Productions Inc. Brother Philippines will be providing event shirts, bags, and other cool items, while Creative Nation Academy will have live animation and imaging demonstrations using Adobe Creative Cloud and a RapidShots360 video booth.

There are a lot of activities in this event, but I am personally looking forward to the cosplay competitions and of course, MNL48. A select group of Under Girls performed “Gingham Check” during the media lounge where they also unveiled the song’s MV which was publicly released later the same day. MNL48 was the undisputed star of last year’s Coslandia, and it would be exciting to see how far they’ve grown since.

More announcements and updates are expected to be unveiled in the coming weeks before the much-awaited event so make sure to get your tickets now in all SM Ticket outlets or through www.smtickets.com for PhP 600 (one day ticket), PhP 900 (two-day ticket), and PhP 1,200 (three day ticket).