Aniporium Café's "Anime Fest" Is All Fun And Games

Last Saturday, Philippine anime merchandising giant Aniporium held its "Anime Fest" event on the 22nd day of March 2025, coinciding with Day 1 of this year's Cosplay Carnival.

The stage of "Anime Fest"

The festivities began with a simple game of Bring Me. Then, the attendees were tested on various anime questions. Then came the cosplay catwalk segment of the event.

The six contestants at the cosplay catwalk awarding ceremony.

Six cosplayers competed head-to-head to win the top prize for the cosplay catwalk. While the festivities were going on, there was the Omikuji corner, where for 10 Php., attendees could increase their chances of winning prizes or gaining gacha toys.

Cosplayers and attendees trying their luck on the Omikuji corner

After a few more rounds of games and karaoke performances, the judges awarded Chelsy Kheyla Caballes as the best cosplayer of the night. She won the judges' hearts by cosplaying as Lady from the Devil May Cry franchise complete with her signature weapon: the Kalina-Ann.

Mary Louisse Española and ZJ Maeve landed in second and third place respectively. Mary Louisse donned herself with Vocaloid mascot Hatsune Miku's colors while ZJ cosplayed as Anya Forger, the mind reader kid from Tatsuya Endo's SPY X FAMILY.

Once the event ended, I chatted with Sue Aya-ay, the master of ceremonies and one of the employees of Aniporium Café. She mentioned that this isn't the first time Aniporium organized events such at this. She also told me that not only do they hold events at the café, they also provide services to people who wanted to organize anime-themed events with them.

It is also revealed during the interview that Aniporium has plans to conduct monthly themed mini-events at the café. As of now, there are no plans as to what the next event will be about but they hope that these mini-events would increase customer engagement.