UnCon-Eventional Stories are event recaps more on the event itself than the experience.

Wonder what the event is like in the field? Check out A Con-Eventional Story: Cosplay Commuter 2019

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Credits to the The Magic Rain (Source) for the featured image, and the various images and posts seen here.

I DO NOT own the rights to any of these photos (If mentioned), ALL rights belong to The Magic Rain, and other respective parties.

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Introduction

Hmm.

The Cosplay Commuter trains don’t actually cosplay themselves. D;

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The FAQ is this?

Well…to explain it better than us, we’d leave this part in the hands of The Magic Rain’s posts for this section.

Credits to The Magic Rain for the photos.

To abridged what the event’s about,

It’s a Team based event across the Kelana Jaya LRT Line (Basically Selangor), that’s FREE TO attend and sign up for, over at the LINC KL, on 19th October 2019.

Cosplaying is the main shtick of the event, but it is optional as well.

So what does one do on the Cosplay Commuter?

Travel from station to station of course, with some minigames, activities and stuff to do whilst on the jolly Cosplay Commuter trail.

And for the 3rd Iteration of this event that’s been happening since 2017, it’s got some…spooky themes ahead. 👻

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First Contact

“What will happen to Cosplay Commuter now?”, was the question raised by the post on June 16th, with it showing the gravestone of The Magic Rain’s mascot, Kiko.

As it explains Kiko’s been busy messing around with the wrong kind of magic.

…well, least it’s not Blackout Magic from 2013.

Credits to The Magic Rain for the photos.

Shortly after the initial gravestone of needing ‘F’s to pay respects, comes the announcement on June 19th, which confirms the timing of the 2019 iteration of Cosplay Commuter.

It would take until September 6th before the date of October 19th would be confirmed as the date for the event to start taking off.

I personally forgot which event it was that we encountered and inquired more on the Cosplay Commuter, but I can firmly say Aki Fest was the very place we got some insight into the event.

Making that the…I guess sort of First Encounter that I can recall. 🤔

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Registration Open Season

By the way, for those unaware, The Magic Rain is not your average ACG Event Organizer, as they themselves are to some degree, folks who also do event coverage for various events across the Malaysian ACG Scene.

So on October 12th, the calldown for Media Outlets to join up the event was announced, albeit a little bit last minute considering it’s one week before the event itself…oh deer.

It’s not an event unless the organizers are looking for Volunteers for Tribute Summo-…uh I mean working, as seen on September 22nd.

Now one other thing that makes Cosplay Commuter sort of quirky, and neat, is that it’s a team based event where…attendees get to sign up to be part of each Guest Conductor’s team across the event.

Those Guest Conductors being,

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Lineup Starts Here

Credits to The Magic Rain for the photos.

Various teams one can sign up for, just by commenting on the respective post’s comments section.

Starring,

• Team Kaori, to carry Kaori the team to victory!
• Team Jasmeme, because Jas MEME IT!
• Team Ai Nurul, to bring out the awesomeness of Hijab Cosplay!
• Team Aliciasama, of The Pink Egg Project!

Granted, on the spot teams to register for are available too, so it’s not entirely a Guest Conductor driven event for Team Leaders.

Also joining the Commuting party comes the Kiss Marry Kill crew, with their plans to a Thriller dance mob for the event. 👀

I can’t even make this stuff up, they literally picked Thriller for this Halloween themed event.

Speaking of Halloween, also comes a handful of spooky attractions to haunt attendees, over at the LINC KL, where the event’s HQ is housed at.

Credits to The Magic Rain for the photos.

Including,

• The Haunted House HAUNTU, that…it’s too spoiler scary to talk about, so skip.
• The Meeples Board Game Cafe, to appease folks from boredom/boardom before and after the Cosplay Commuter takes off.
• The VMC League for some Children’s Card Game, by a company who’s acronyms literally spell Kaiba Corp. (That’s honestly insulting to the actual KC in YuGiOh fiction.)

But should those activities be too scary to take part in or check out, there’s always the No Straight Roads demo for trying out.

This is a Malaysian made project of good stuff, so for Fs sake, play it.

That said, when on the train.

Credits to The Magic Rain for the photos.

Checklist your essential items, and follow thy rules.

*Reduces attack to 1*

…god, we miss playing Paladin.dek in Hearthstone.

Credits to The Magic Rain for the photos.

Scheduled to kick off at 10am Malaysian Time, suit up for the 7 stations of Halloween themed activities, that includes,

• Ampang Park’s “Horror Trivia Party”, that’s still more action than every season of The Walking Dead after Season 1.
• KLCC’s “WHAT’S IN THE BOX?” WHAT’S IN THE F-ING BOX?!
• Masjid Jamek’s “Act It Out”, with physics. 🤔
• Pasar Seni’s “Dance Off”, because someone forgot an On switch.
• Abdullah Hukum’s “Videogame Showdown”, for Smashing purposes.
• Taman Jaya’s “Escape The Zombie,” because vampires aren’t available before night time.
• Taman Bahagia’s “Face Your Fear,”, that’s too scary to talk more about. D;

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The Good Goods

The Good Goods brings you ALL the best bits an event has to offer!

Please keep in mind this is only for the current iteration of this event, which may or may not repeat for future events.

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• Disciplined Cosplay

Now, of the few rules emphasized by Cosplay Commuter was to dress in a decent cosplay, considering the public context of Cosplay Commuter.

It’s something you don’t see everyday, as it’s indirectly a thing that’s meant to protect both attendees and reputations of groups involved in the event.

I’m not suggesting events to start forbidding people from cosplaying whatever they want, but I do want to bring this up as a good thing, since the organizers themselves are aware of the various threats that plague the ACG scene in general.

And for an event that has a much bigger public reach than most standstill venue based events, keeping the safety of attendees by addressing the stuff they can cosplay is a good thing.

Safety comes first, no questions asked.

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• Not your Average Event

Holy F, where the hell do we start?

For an event who’s focus is on the one public transport that stretches across the state of Selangor, it does bring about some of the most unique interactions you’d ever see for an ACG event.

How many folks have seen that famous RapidKL post about regular people encountering those Horror movie characters on the train service?

These kind of interactions are really great, given the severely rare context of how it’s very unusual to see a band of cosplayers travelling together when it’s not December.

On Public Transport too of all things.

This is before we bring up the interactions for quick photos by people passing by, or the Flash Mob session where I can bet at least 1 person was asking, “Who the F is this Jojo, and why does it sound fabulous?”

But yeah, overall, very great public interactions that folks get to do, which brings us to,

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• The 2019 Context

Being able to highlight the ACG scene in a positive light is much needed now more than ever, considering the sewage of recent shite.

Cosplay Commuter’s public presence helps that situation immensely, by showcasing various things about the ACG scene that public people may not know about.

Like how for one, it’s not exactly a thing that’s meant for young people only, since anyone can participate, such as parents who are photographers, whilst babysitting their own kid in the field.

Second, pretty sure no one cosplaying is causing trouble in the field, since pretty much everyone’s willing to stick together, abide by the rules of the train transport, because duh, and honestly speaking, keep an eye out for each other.

Especially the few members that early exited the wrong station, as their other teammates quickly drag them back in before the doors close.

Thirdly, also permits.

I may have gotten a glance at the various bits of paperwork the various organizing folks were carrying around before the event, very brief snippets by the way, nothing I can recall now.

Which shows the organizer’s responsibility of going out of their way to handle the proper paperwork for the Cosplay Commuter, even though they have a thing that we’ll be discussing shortly.

I can go on, but again, the gist of it is that, pretty confident to say that the attendees and organizers knows what kind of weight they’re carrying into the field for Cosplay Commuter, and as such, know how to act appropriately.

Very good stuff.

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• Partnership Rarity

This is RapidKL, the brand name that organizes and handles the various transport services across Kuala Lumpur.

It’s not a mystery, that The Magic Rain people have a working partnership with these folks to host the Cosplay Commuter event.

The origin story for this is, a bit of a mystery, but the fact they’ve been doing this since 2017 does highlight it as something both parties like enough to continue.

Especially when you consider the benefits both sides get out of this.

Rapid KL gets a surge of passengers, dank reputation between the ACG scene and normie demographic, whilst The Magic Rain gets to run what’s arguably a very damn good event idea that’s…clearly still one of the most unique things to occur ever.

How many events in any ACG scene across the world involve a willing public transport service that’s willing to tag along for the event?

Let alone be featured as part of the event’s main shtick?

Probably a few, but even then, this is something that’s F-ing worth the checking out. 😮

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• Candy, not Cannotdy

This being a Halloween themed event does come with its perks of sharing candy for almost…I believe pretty much everyone got some.

You can thank the sponsors Hamac for this, and it’s a pretty nice treat, even though candy’s like way cheaper than fancy foods, but it is a nice gesture for an already free event. 🤔

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The Bad Blehs

The Bad Blehs brings up some…bad stuff, about events, which need to be talked about since no event is without issues that can’t be fixed for the future.

Future Organizers and/or spies from other event organizers, you can learn a thing or two of what not to do at your event here. (As a guide, so that you’re not too busy repeating history.)

Please keep in mind these are only for the current iteration of this event, which may or may not repeat for future events.

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• Team Delayed Reaction

This is…not an actual team, but rather an issue we noticed happening a lot over the course of the event.

Basically, there were certain activities such as the “Escape the Zombie”, “Videogame Showdown” and “Dance Off” activities that required 2 teams to play with one another.

Only problem is…every team was travelling solo, on their own without another team.

This created awkward situations where teams would be stuck at stations for longer than they should, all because they have to wait for other teams to arrive, which could take…god knows how long before they arrive.

One solution here is that, if there are activities that need 2 teams to conduct, why not just have 2 teams or more travel together?

That way you at least can get those activities going, instead of serving as a glorified parking lot for attendees of the event, with normies passing by asking in their heads, “Is this some kind of sitting event?”

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• Station Skip

…one thing that I learnt at the event was that…there are stations that were Optional, and not Compulsory, despite the event having material that says,

Basically, teams have a stamp collection card to attend all stations but…not every station is compulsory so…what?

Why not just, cut this compulsory station crap, and just have each team visit every station on the list anyways?

What’s the point of event setting up booths at a station when in theory, teams can skip it by default?

It’s just a bit weird, and kind of negates the idea of a Cosplay Commuter when attendees can skip dropping at stations with activities. 🤔

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• Material Unknown

One strange encounter I ran into before departing from Ampang Park, the station where LINC KL, the HQ of the event is located at, was meeting this pair of senior looking folks who apparently, run the various booths opened at that station that very day.

They mentioned something about having discounts for attendees of the event, which was kind of weird when some of the volunteers of the Cosplay Commuter acknowledged that, they weren’t informed about this.

Or that, they didn’t even know about it. o.O

Basically this post.

Credits to The Magic Rain for the post. Source.

That was posted on…wait wtf, it’s posted at 10pm, on the eve of the event day?!

Also, why is this information from an Instagram post rather than information shared by the page itself?

That’s…also kind of last minute, by being posted 2 days before the event day, and…at 10pm ish too…oh god.

Also what the heck, there’s other posts that are posted late in the night too? D:

Okay, so some takeaways here.

Promotional material for an event should always mostly be settled before hand, especially if they involve stuff like sponsorship backed discounts, that definitely needs promoting, otherwise how else would participants know about benefits they’re getting just for attending.

Also, posting stuff way past 10pm or deep into the night, is like… a literal dead timeline for putting up material for an event, such that there’s a strong chance that many folks on social media might not even see this stuff.

That said, I’m willing to assess that there may have been communication issues between both parties, that if that is true, it’s something that also needs tweaking I guess.

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• Lowcation LINC

The LINC KL is a surprisingly okay venue, but compared to the HQ used for the past 2 Cosplay Commuters, which was Gateway Mall KL, it does come across as a bit…isolated.

The activities available weren’t even worth hanging around for, and even with that haunted house attraction place, what’s more to do there?

In contrast to Gateway, it does come across a bit of a downgrade.

LINC KL is not a shite venue, just to be clear, but it is a bit underwhelming, as it does sort of rely on outside content brought into the place to make it actually entertaining.

Its positioning on the Kelana Jaya Line is also a pickle,

Where Gateway KL is sort of located in the middle-ish part of the Kelana Jaya Line, the station where LINC KL stands at, aka Ampang Park, makes it kind of out of the way for folks who don’t hail from the Gombak area.

It lacks a balance of convenience, for folks who want to attend the event, is what I’m getting at.

In short, I kind of wanna see Gateway KL back as Cosplay Commuter’s HQ, but LINC KL could work too, but they will need a stronger presence of stuff in terms of HQ activities, and maybe a revamp for how the Cosplay Commuter’s activities across various stations should play out.

Like, do a mini tour of KL or something, if you’re going to start from Ampang Park, and eventually round up everyone back to LINC KL, once all activities are cleared up.

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• The Thing Everyone Knows

Many will attribute Cosplay Commuter as being shite because Cosmart was on the same weekend.

But I do want to say, even without Cosmart on the same weekend, the event still comes with all these pickles that, compared to their previous show in 2018, does feel severely underwhelming in comparison.

Such that, we would still bring up these issues because…well, how else would people know what part of their event has pickles?

I’d understand if many of the activities they did for 2018 couldn’t be repeated, ie the Cosplay Parade at Bukit Bintang and stuff, because of the 2019 context with permits and stuff, but it is a bit…how do I put this.

They could’ve taken care a lot of the previous issues and still had the event be on par with Cosmart, but instead, it was an event marred by many pickles that, indirectly influenced attendees of wanting to bail early.

…which pisses me off because Cosplay Commuter is still an F-ing good event I want to recommend, and I actually looked forward to this, believe this or not.

But I would say that, there’s still room to do better for sure.

Because no organizer so far, has managed to land a working partnership with an entity that’s close to the government, ie the folks who run the RapidKL LRT train service.

So it would be a massive pickle, to see the end of Cosplay Commuter. ._.

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The Sequel?

At the moment, plans for 2020’s Cosplay Commuter may or may not be in the works, but unless The Magic Rain makes an  announcement, then a sequel is honestly 50/50 at this point.

But given the organizer’s successful partnership with the RapidKL folks, I would say the event’s existence highly depends on whether this partnership still continues.

And honestly speaking, I really want to see it continue, because it’s an event worth continuing, given the amount of benefits it provides to the scene.

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The Verdict

Brutally honest here, Cosplay Commuter is the one event I kind of looked forward to upon hearing about its existence earlier this year.

And it’s a bit if a bummer that event clashes and pickle flavored issues plagued this year’s iteration.

Yet, it’s still an event we want to insist is worth attending, because of just how unique it presents the ACG scene in public.

Most events are just stationary gatherings at single venues, this one is a literal discount tour of Selangor but it reaches ALL THE PLACES.

And that’s not exactly a bad thing, it’s a very great idea that should continue onwards.

In the hands of some Magical Rain, I trust, things will be in good hands. 🤔

*END*

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Author’s Note:

Thank you so much for reading!

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Brief note before we wrap up.

I do acknowledge that the coverage we did for Cosplay Commuter, was honestly, one of our shittiest pieces, and that has more to do with our inability to coverage better than anything else, and has nothing to do with the event being underwhelming.

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That said, I also want to mention this, in case of bullshit accusations that may surface.

I don’t see The Magic Rain folks as bad organizers, I see them as a very respectable and admirable group of folks, who do ACG Event Coverage like what we do here, albeit with a much bigger audience and more experience in doing it.

Which is something to look up to than anything else.

So any MF-ing little shits looking to accuse us of writing this piece out of spite, can honestly go yeet themselves off the planet please.

Since I don’t see having spite between people or groups as a thing that should even exist.

Any organizer can F something up at their event, and we will bring it up regardless of who the F they are.

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But anyways.

If possible, I’d love to hear your feedback on what can we do better.

Be it the bad writing, horrible pictures, or just the fact I need more water, I’d love to hear about it.

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Also,

Check out more stories over at S.I.R House, of Content 2019.

That said, siteinrelief has a Facebook page now!

Page us anytime, anywhere, Amway offers will be shot on sight, no questions asked.

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