Toycon's Summer Prelude: are you ready?

The hottest pop culture event is coming this weekend, part of the road to the country's grandest celebration of pop culture.

Courtesy: TOYCON PH: The Philippine Toys, Hobbies and Collectibles Convention/FB (all photos in this post)

Summer is about to heat up, but the pop culture celebrations are about to be even cooler.

The country’s largest and Southeast Asia’s longest running pop culture convention, ToyCon, kicks off its 2026 slate of events this weekend with its Summer Prelude at the Okada Manila, the country’s most prestigious casino resort. Last year the Summer Prelude drew plenty of hobbyists, card game players and collectors as well as cosplayers and other fans of popular culture as it was a free event. This year, the only free event in the Toycon slate is about to get even more exciting with more features than ever before.

For the first time ever, the ToyCon people will team up with the folks at Project CC to bring the first ever Cosplay Fiesta to the event, which will supplement the main ToyCon. This means that the event is now spread across two venues in the beautiful Okada Manila: Toys and Collectibles at the Crystal Pavilion, and the Cosplay Fiesta at The Garden.

The Crystal Pavillion will transform into a mecca for toy collectors of all kinds as major vendors of collectible items including action figures, diecast cars, LEGO, Funko Pop, retro games, and many many more will be present at the event. There will also be a massive warehouse sale for collectible items across all the vendors with some items at a special discount of up to 70% off on amazing collectibles.

Idol performances will also be a highlight of the event as various local idol groups will take the stage at the event with electrifying performances and more excitement than you can shake a lightstick at. Some of the best local idol talent including Pastel Mix, AiDreamin, and Hoshizora will perform alongside Japanese talents like Super Macaroni Salad and Kamen Joshi. 

However the main and most exciting highlight of this event is the Cosplay Fiesta. Together with Projex CC, ToyCon Summer Prelude brings something exciting to the cosplay community in Manila: A night market where every moment will become memorable and the night turns into the ultimate isekai adventure. The Cosplay Fiesta boasts of some of the nation’s best cosplayers having booths, an artist alley where you can browse through fanmade anime merch, and have some fun with cosplay contests and photoshoot areas, and because its a night event, it becomes more magical. 

The Summer Prelude will serve as the overture to ToyCon’s 2026 event calendar, as this marks the start of the road to ToyCon X this coming June at SMX Mall Of Asia, where some of the biggest collectible reveals and deals, plus some exciting features like panels and star appearances. The Summer Prelude event, with all of the exciting details mentioned above, will be the perfect prelude to the ultimate and the most highly anticipated pop cons in the Philippines and Southeast Asia’s longest running pop culture celebration!

See you at Okada this weekend for the biggest and brightest pop culture event this side of summer!

Otaku Pop Fes brings best or Japanese pop culture to Manila

With J-pop idol performances, anime showcases, cosplay contests, and more, OPF promises to be one of the best anime cons in the Philippines.

With J-pop idol performances, anime showcases, cosplay contests, and more, OPF promises to be one of the best anime cons in the Philippines. Image: CBZN Perspective

Last January 29, 2026, CBZN Perspective, organizer of game changing pop culture conventions and events, gave influencers, creators, and the media a first look at their first event for 2026, the first-ever Otaku Pop Fes, which is touted to be the grandest celebration of Japanese pop culture of its kind in the Philippines. This event is scheduled to take place April 25 and 26 at premier luxury casino resort Okada Manila, particularly in Cove Manila and at the Grand Ballroom. The event aims to bring fans of anime, j-pop, j-idols, manga, and vtubers together under one roof, with showcases of fan favorite shows, performances from Japanese idol groups, and cosplay competitions. This event will be spread out across two venues in Okada: The Cove for cosplay competitions, games, and the live concerts, and the Grand Ballroom for immersive anime experiences including photo ops, fanmeets, and anime screenings. In addition to members of the media, they also invited some of the movers and shakers of the Philippines’ growing cosplay community including Charress, Een Mercado, Prince and Awie, and Myrtle Sarrosa.

Cosplay influencers grace the press conference of the Otaku Pop Fes. L-R: Myrtle Sarrosa, Roxhane Kho, Zackt, Prince De Guzman, Awie, Charess, and Een

The Otaku Pop Fes promises to be different from other anime cons in the country, as organizers CBZN has joined forces with Japanese company Cyber E, part of CyberAgent, a company responsible for anime licensing and production, game development, and digital marketing in Japan. Thanks to that partnership, there will be appearances and fan experiences bringing to life some of the most popular anime on the air today.

Interactive experiences based on Dan Da Dan, Naruto, Tougen Anki, Tokyo Revengers, and Witch Watch will delight visitors to Otaku Pop Fes

Among the animes that will be receiving their own immersive fan experiences at Otaku Pop Fes are Dan Da Dan, a supernatural action-comedy series with paranormal themes, Tokyo Revengers, a sci-fi series dealing with time travel, Witch Watch, a fantasy romance series, Tougen Anki, a series deeply rooted in Japanese mythology, and the fan favorite and legendary series Naruto. At the time of this writing, these five series are confirmed to have experiences at the event and more licensed Japanese anime getting showcases at the event will be announced in the weeks to come.

Fans of Shadowverse and Umamusume are in for a treat at OPF.

Japanese games will also be represented at the event, as shown by two games which will be showcased there. These are namely Shadowverse: Worlds Beyond, a popular digital trading card game and Umamusume: Pretty Derby, a virtual horse training game which is gaining tremendous popularity in the Philippines.

The event will also have some good representation of Japanese popular music. The Cove at Okada will be brimming with exciting J-pop energy throughout the event. Headlining the music festival component of the event will be idol group UNIS, whose members are made up of Japanese, Korean and Filipinos with hits such as “Superwoman”, “Curious”, and “Butterfly’s Dream”. Other key Japanese music artists set to perform at the event include Hiroshi Kitadani, known for his themes to One Piece and Eir Roi, best known for “Ignite”, the theme for Sword Art Online season 2.

Ticket sales commence today, January 30, 2026. The ticket tiers are as follows: Event Only with one day pass for P600 and two day pass for P1000 and as the name suggests grants access to the event but does not include the live concert. The Event + Music Live pass costs P3,500 for one day and P5,900 for two day includes event admission and standing room admission at the concert. Event + Music Live S passes are P5,500 for one day and P9,300 for two day allow for event admission and assured seating at the concert.

Osaki Akinori, representative of Cyber E/CyberAgent stated that “It’s very rare for official Japanese companies to hold an event like this in Manila” and expressed his excitement for bringing some of the finest anime and Japanese talents. “Many anime fans in the Philippines have been waiting for this kind of event”. He also noted that this event coincides with the 70th anniversary of Japan-Philippines relations, and the event, by uniting Filipino fans of otaku culture holds much significance during this anniversary commemoration. After his speech, he gave some interviews in which some of the media and influencers asked about possible appearances from vtubers, voice actors/seiyuu, and manga writers at the event. To that, he said that they are in talks with some Filipino vtubers on possibly appearing there, and also if some cannot show up at this event, they can also be brought in to other events as well.

Some of the cosplay influencers also expressed anticipation and excitement about the coming event. Een Mercado hopes for some One Piece representation. Charress is very excited to see UNIS live in concert along with fellow influencer Rebyczko, who is also a huge fan of UNIS. Zackt is excited for the live concert, and Myrtle Sarrosa is hyped to see the Pinoy anime community gathering together and the experience of big time Japanese anime IPs being represented. 

If this media event alone is a gauge for how big this event will be, I’m willing to bet that the Otaku Pop Fes will turn out to be the grandest celebration of anime in the country. Based on CBZN’s track record in doing events with the Philippine GameDev Expo (PGDX) which I have attended and had fun at as it brings indie game developers as well as the Philippine Game Show which is a showcase of the fandom and players, I would say that the OPF will certainly be a big one in my books.

Bam Aquino and the Ninoy Legacy

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Ninoy's legacy shall live in him. In a country starved of education, brought to ruin by corrupt systems and leaders with failed promises, a nation recovering from a cruel period where human rights were disregarded.

His vision is progressive, one where he believes in uplifting the sector of education, a sector which has been abandoned with classrooms in rural areas of the Philippines which are not served. Our rankings in international assessments have been flunking.

He wants to push for legislation that aim to change all this. More classrooms, modernizing our education sector, championing policies that promote accountability and fairness.

As with his grandfather, he stands for every Filipino. Despite another Marcos in power, he stands strong and in fact could be an ally of this administration with its focus on education.

In a world whose politics have shifted towards cruel tactics, Ban Aquino can be a Filipino the world can certainly and undoubtedly look up to, carrying Ninoy's legacy of fighting for every Filipino.