Anime Festival Asia 2008 (AFA’08), the first of its kind in Singapore, spanned from Nov 22 to Nov 23. The event, aimed at celebrating Japanese pop culture, was certainly quite an experience for some.
Taking up 2 halls of the Suntec City Convention Centre, the mega event was packed to the brim with merchandise booths, cosplayers and interactive zones such as the arcade gaming section for the inaugural Arcade Showdown competition.
The event also had 5 special guests to grace the festival event. Performers Ichirou Mizuki, known to most as “Aniki”, rendered passionate performances during the event while Japan’s upcoming pop idol May’n warmed our hearts with her bubbly personality and strong vocals as she gave her first mini-concert outside of Japan right here in Singapore.
Mechanical designer for popular series, Mobile Suit Gundam, Kunio Okawara, Studio 4°C’s Director Koji Morimoto and LaMB’s storyboard artist, Soejima were also present to give talks and to showcase their work.
The AFA’08 is a stepping stone to introduce the Japanese Creative Center that would be scheduled to open in Singapore next year in 2009.
The UrbanWire brings you inside AFA’08 for the 2 delightful days with Japanese pop culture enthusiasts and cosplayers. Click any of the following sections to navigate.
- Figurine displays and impressive model-kit works
- Merchandise at AFA’08
- Cosplayers galore
- Other sights and scenes of Day 1
- More pictures from Day 1
At about 10.05am, AFA’08 officially opens. After queueing to get in (and boy were the queues long), you will be welcomed by a giant Gundam model.
“Welcome!”
To your sides are rows of ‘gashapon’ (ガシャポン), or what we grew up knowing as capsule machines.
Figurine displays and impressive model-kit works
Shounen Jump Booth by Chuang Yi:
Using her alias, ‘milodrums’, an avid anime fan that this UrbanWire writer caught up with commented that, “The Jump booth was not really ‘Jump’ There wasn’t much (SHOUNEN Jump) characters and manga. There was only Bleach, Naruto and One piece. I would have liked to have seen more merchandise.” Back to top
It was easy to spot veteran cosplayer, Seijiro (above), who has been in the local cosplay scene since June 2002. She is versatile in many different genres of cosplay, including Japanese Rock. She attended the event with her team from Katekyo Hitman Reborn! (below).
Other sights and scenes of Day 1
Tucked away outside the convention center, this writer spotted about 10 owners of Ball-Jointed doll with their dolls gathered in a vacant room outside hall 403. They only wanted a place to pose their dolls for photos and not many of them were too interested in the event itself.
Aniki’s passionate performance and the cute Tamagotchi mascots making an appearance (below). There were certainly loud cheers for, “Aniki” as he belted out crowd favourites and familiar tunes. Aniki’s passion for singing definitely moved this writer as she stood among the appreciative audience.
Tamagotchi mascots were there to promote their latest version of Tamagotchis from Bandai.
Day 2 of AFA’08 had a slightly smaller crowd compared to Day 1. However, queue lines were still long.
The program for the day closely followed that of Day 1’s, save for the cosplay mania competition and May’n’s mini concert.
Nevertheless, we bring you more awesome cosplayers.
UrbanWire spoke to Asuka, who has cosplayed since 2005 to ask her of what she thought of AFA’08.
“They should have more booths dedicated to the anime event. For example, there was no Allen Walker (Of D.Gray-man ) figurine. I expected more doujins, figurines, anime calenders etc”, says Asuka.
On ticket prices, Roy, a ball-jointed doll collector and cosplayer, mentioned, “$5 is ok. If it’s more than that, then no (to entering the event).”
A way around paying for a ticket?
This writer discovered a way that was being used. That is, by purchasing 1 ticket to enter the hall and then proceeding to the exit after a while. There, you will be “stamped”, so you may re-enter again. You probably would have figured this by now, that upon exiting, you can then pass your ticket to someone else to have them do the same for another.
AFA’08 was certainly an interesting experience for most people. Some were left wanting more out of it, while others are describing it as “a bit dull, with no difference from other events”. But when asked if they would come for AFA’09, many responded with a “Yes”.
“We hope in any case you had fun at AFA’08!”
