SINGAPORE, Jan 11 — Passengers on board Mariner of the Seas’ three-night cruise that started last Friday evening headed for Port Klang would probably have been surprised at the colourful characters on the ship with them. Some 120 cosplayers were there as part of CosFest Sea: The Rising Tide, a cosplay event held on a cruise for the first time, to celebrate Singapore Cosplay Club’s 15th anniversary.
“For our 15th anniversary, we wanted to do something special so we decided to work with Royal Caribbean for this event,” said Tan Yueh Han, vice president of the Singapore Cosplay Club. “Aside from cosplayers signing up, we got a very good response from the public. We have about 170 travellers and fans who signed up with our package (that included private events such as a karaoke session with cosplayers).”
Ordinary cruise passengers were able to participate in public events with the cosplayers such as photo opportunities with the characters, costume exhibitions and dress-up sessions for kids. They could also watch the Asia Cosplay Meet Championships in which 24 contestants from eight countries — Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Philippines, China and Indonesia — were competing for top honours.
Cosplayers Frank Koh, Sebastian Choo and Evie Tan from Singapore, who were among the contestants for the Championships, were especially excited to be part of this cruise. “This is a fun and unusual way for cosplayers to gather. As cosplay is seen as a subculture, we’re happy to let more people, such as the travellers on this ship, know about it,” said Koh. The Singapore contingent was also optimistic about their chances at the championships, saying they hoped to have a homeground advantage. The group took a total of nine sets of costumes on board and Choo would even be dressed up as 2.3-metre-tall robot. “I think it’s easier for us to bring bigger props and more elaborate costumes than our fellow contestants from overseas,” quipped Tan. However, the trio drew the line at appearing in their costumes outside of events. “It takes a lot of work to get ready, I don’t think we want to go to the breakfast buffet wearing our costumes,” laughed Koh.
The CosFest Sea event also managed to invite celebrity cosplayers, Neneko and Shimo from Taiwan as well as Xiao Xiao Bai and Xiaorong from China. So popular is Xiao Xiao Bai that he had to be invited a year in advance. “I agreed to come because I think this is quite an innovative and original idea,” said Bai, who took three different costumes to debut for every day of the cruise. “Cosplay events are always at convention centres so being on a ship is unique. We have more space and time to spend together.”
The Singapore Cosplay Club is naturally thrilled they managed to pull this off. “We’re really pleased that the event has been so well received,” said Stephanie Loh, president of Singapore Cosplay Club. “We even had four fans from the United States who came all the way for this. What’s great too is that this time around, family members and friends of cosplayers can come on board as they decided to go on this vacation together. In fact, we got some interested young parents asking how can they get their kids into cosplay and when the next Cosplay cruise is!” — TODAY
