By Ysabel Andrei I. Rodriguez
Cosplay Mania 2019 will take place this September 28 and 29 at Halls 1 to 4 of the SMX Convention Center Manila in Mall of Asia Complex, Pasay City. For its Japanese Anime Music (JAM) concert this year, the Japanese artists who will perform includes MYTH & ROID, Asaka, Yasutaka Nakata with Ichigo Rinahamu, May’n and virtual youtuber Mirai Akari. Stageplay actors such as Allen Kohatsu and Kousuke Asuma will also grace the event as guests. The organizers will also bring seiyuu or voice actors such as Motoko Kumai and Rumi Okubo. Cosplay Mania would not be also complete without cosplayers BoiledCurry and Rea Kami from Singapore and Japan.
MYTH & ROID is a Japanese pop rock band which is composed of composer and producer Tom-H@ck (guitar and bass) and Hotaru on keyboards. The group also has multiple vocalists. The band made its debut in July 2015 with the release of their first ever single “L.L.L” for the anime Overlord. Their music was also featured in various anime such as Boogiepop wa Warawanai, Saga of Tanya the Evil and Re: Zero – Starting Life in Another World. One interesting trivia about them is their name that comes from two words which are “myth” that represents the past and “roid” from the word “android” that represents the future. As of 2019, their new song “shadowgraph” was used as the opening for the anime Boogiepop and Others. While, the coupling track “Remembrance” was a theme for the movie release of The Saga of Tanya the Evil. The band is currently touring internationally, including the Philippines.
Another Anisong artist to grace the event is Asak, a karaoke contest champion from 2014 to 2015. Her debut single “Open your eyes,” an ending theme for the anime Occult;Nine, was released in October 2016. As an Anisong artist, she has released songs for animes such as “A Centaur’s Life”, “Laid-Back Camp”, “ISLAND” and “YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of this World”. Moreover, Asaka also appeared at the substage of the “Animelo Summer Live” in 2017 and at the main stage in 2018.
DJ, record producer and composer Yasutaka Nakata will also jam at the event together with Ichigo Rinahamu. Aside from Yasutaka Nakata’s notable acts and tunes with Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, Perfume and MEG, he has his own unit called CAPSULE together with Toshiko Koshijima. Nakata is the DJ and music producer while Koshijima serves as the vocalist. His music is influenced by top producers such as Madeon, and Porter Robinson to name a few. His latest works are “Digital Native”, “Future Pop” of Perfume and “Japamyu” of Kyary Pamyu Pamyu. Recently, he has collaborated with Kizuna Ai and Daoko.
Ichigo Rinahamu is an idol, DJ and producer. She is a previous member of Akishibu Project and is now a current member of CY8ER. She calls herself as “Hamrig” when she has DJ projects.
Another guest in the line-up is May’n, a solo pop artist in Japan. She was a finalist in the 2003 Hori Pro Talent Scout Caravan “Love Music Audition.” She made her major debut in 2005 with her first ever single “Crazy Crazy Crazy.” In 2007, she was chosen as the singing anime voice for Sheryl Nome for the anime Macross Frontier. From then on, May’n released many songs for anime, dramas and movies and her singles and albums even topped the charts in Japan. In 2008, she collaborated with Megumi Nakajima and Yoko Kanno for the single “Lion” and even appeared on TV in the same year. May’n is an accomplished Anisong and J-Pop artist since she already had five solo performances at Nippon Budokan and Yokohama Arena and a world tour in 2010. Among the countries she visited are Germany, Korea, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore. In 2017, she released the opening song for the anime Restaurant to Another World, titled “One in a Billion” with the idol unit Wake Up, Girls!. Her latest single with Megumi Nakajima is “Good Job!” which was released in September 2018.
Cosplay Mania 2019 will also feature a virtual youtuber Mirai Akari, who debuted on October 27, 2017. Akari calls herself “princess of ego searching” and she was also illustrated by KEI who also designed Hatsune Miku. Mirai also collaborated with Kaguya Luna, Dennou Shoujo Siro, Kashiko Mari and a lot more. Her cover of Crusher-P’s “ECHO” is one of her popular videos on YouTube.
Image credits: Cosplay Mania