The Anime Festival Asia as it happened this recent weekend, November 21 and 22 held at Suntec Convention Center, Singapore. I don’t have much time, and doing a full-on report when I couldn’t get around everywhere in the event wouldn’t do much justice. So here’s a quick rundown of what happened at the event.

Highlights

Crowd

The crowd is definitely bigger this year. The line to the ticket booth didn’t let up until around 2 or 3 in the afternoon.

Lots more merchandise stalls this time around.

Selling areas have also been arranged better now, but still due to the volume of the crowd, most places are still hard to get through. Most especially the shop that sold custom prop swords from Bleach.

Maid Cafe

I could only take a picture of the shop sign, and take a peek of what’s happening inside, and saw that food served are actual food. There was a long line every time I pass by. And unconfirmed second-hand information says food is expensive.

Bandai area

We wanted to meet and greet Masked Rider Kabuto, but only saw the Gekirangers Rangers of Power Rangers Jungle Fury. We got nice Kamen Rider gashas off the machines though. The BAKUC (Bandai Action Kit Universal Cup) had a relatively not so impressive turn-out, but good nonetheless.

Stage Events

As the stage has been curtained away from immediate view, getting to it was a lot harder this time so we couldn’t see or get to the stage to see what was going on. We did catch the seiyuus of K-ON doing a sample dubbing on stage. We were too far back though to see anything clearly.

I Love Anisong Concert

As the stage has been closed off from public viewing, it was more advantageous for people who paid to get their money’s worth– nearer the stage and had seats. The crowd who opted not to pay additional for this was in the free standing area, relatively farther away from the stage than the seating crowd.

Shokotan performed familiar songs (mainly from Neon Genesis Evangelion and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann).

Ichirou ‘Aniki’ Mizuki performed his classics with his usual ‘GAR’ presence.

Yoshiki Fukuyama belted out Macross 7 songs rockstar mode.

MAY’N’s stage performance was the best closing, with awesome back up dancers and choreography. She sang mostly new songs.

All performances were concert-worthy, making the crowd beat their light sticks in the air. May’n and Fukuyama’s duet was also awesome, singing acoustic version of Diamond Crevasse and rocking Dynamite.

The only let down was Miku Hatsune’s performance, as she only sang 3 songs that were all from the Project Diva game. And if you played the game… the game was better.

All in all, there is still more room for improvement, but this was definitely better with the organizers learning from last year’s event. Also, we got better merchandise deals too.

Been focusing on international geek entertainment bits for the past posts so here’s something to break the street – local and non-geeky.

While we here at Sugoi Stuff aren’t necessarily all down with the whole fitness craze, we’ve acknowledged that slaving over our 8-5s has made us soft and pudgy – far from the physical specimen that we were back in our college days. And that’s just plain tragic.

Remember the fat people with laptops strapped to their chairs in Wall-E? My days are basically just that. In front of a laptop, on a chair, slaving away for a whole day. My girth’s not that far either. So I decided to do something about it. I don’t want to wake up one day with my dick obscured by layers of fat in my midsection.

Gym membership aside, as I find gyms both gay (countless friends have been approached by gay people in saunas and shower rooms with “proposals” in tow, not that I’m homophobic, I just don’t appreciate some random people with wingwangs asking me if they can be familiar with mine) and pretentious, I decided to pick up running instead.

As with most activities, it pays to have some quality gear. Else, it’s like playing Crysis on a machine that can only manage 4 fps. Trust me, put a gun to my head and ask me to choose between that and a root canal session, I’d choose root canal.

When it comes to activities such as running, there’s nothing more important than to have the right shoe. Take my case for example. I’ve got flat feet which cause me to overpronate and a bum knee.

For the longest time, I’ve been settling for the cheapest running shoes (mostly Fila) I can buy. The thing is, those shoes don’t offer the protection that my feet and knees need. I find myself with hurting feet just 15 minutes into a slow job session. For all I know, my knees are now worse for the wear. So I went out to get some (gear, not root canal).

It’s a good thing that I live only a couple of blocks away from a specialty running store. If you happen to pass by Maginhawa St. in Teacher’s Village (or if you’re near UP Diliman), then you might happen to pass by Second Wind Running Store.

It’s a small store and upon entering, you’d notice that the showroom’s a bit cramped even doubling up as the stockroom. But that shouldn’t stop you from seeing what the store has to offer. The sight of the motorized treadmill in the middle alone should tell you that this store means business – running and otherwise.

So what’s the difference between them and larger sporting goods stores like Toby’s and Olympic Village? Second Wind, for one, is a store by runners for runners. While salespeople from Toby’s focus on moving inventory, the guys from Second Wind focus on finding you the right shoe.

The store’s run by partners Hector and Neville but it’s Hector who’s at the shop most of the time. The day I bought my gear, it was Hector who was manning the shop.

I explained to Hector what I know about my flat feet and knee issues. Hector went beyond those, showing me models that would fit my physical profile and options based on budget from the cheapest ones to the most expensive ones.

He then whipped out a pair of each of my options to try on for size and let me try it out on the treadmill to see which model I’m most comfortable with. Unlike those pesky salesmen in sports stores, Hector gave me some alone time with the shoes to make my decision.

Ended up getting the New Balance 769 and a couple of dry-fit shirts. As an added bonus, Hector threw in a Second Wind shirt. And what difference having the right pair of shoes meant. My feet didn’t hurt even if I jogged for more than 30 minutes. My feet usually started to hurt 10 minutes into a jog. Been really happy about my purchase and I’ve been using the shoes every day since.

Check out Second Wind Running Store.

The Nintendo DSi has been released a few months back, but I haven’t had the urge to buy one since I already have a DS Lite, and there are no new games in the market that utilize the new features.

Until now.

Ghostwire is an augmented-reality game that let’s you hunt ghosts using your Nintendo DSi.

According to developer A Different Game,

Your portable device is used as a portal to the astral plane, and helps you find and collect ghosts that exist all around you. In your quest you use real tools, such as the built-in camera and microphone, as well as abstract ones like an “EMF tuner” for tracking down the ghosts.

Once you find the spirits, you document them and find out why they haunt our world. They also give you riddles to solve. Ultimately, you will help them find peace.

As far as I can see, this is just motion-tracking with a layer of ghost images for you to ‘interact’ with. But since it promises full-game immersion, it’s a good reason to buy the DSi soon. It reminds me of the game Fatal Frame, with the main difference of holding the ‘camera’ and hunt the ghosts yourself to zero in on that ‘fatal frame’ shot.

No announcements for the release date yet, but you can check out the official game trailer below:

Official Website: GhostwireGame.com

Anime Festival Asia 2009 launched their full and new website today, showcasing guests and new experience zones for this year.

Their main attraction this year is the I LOVE ANISONG concert which boasts of Shoko Nakagawa and Yoshiki Fukuyama, with returning talents Ichirou Mizuki and May’n.

They will also host a Maid Cafe, Moe Moe Kyun. And also the Regional Cosplay Championship.

They may as well have booths that will be selling figures same as last year’s. If last year’s event was any indication and they follow through improvements they can do, this event could really be better.

Some other information are still not available, but hopefully they will be updated soon. I just hope my budget permits me to go back. I enjoyed last year’s event very much.

Last year’s event attracted visitors from different parts of South East Asia.

Remember Gigantor (Tetsujin 28-go in Japan)? Well most of us might not remember its first black and white run but this was big in the late 60s and 70s. If there’s a granddaddy of giant robots, Gigantor’s one of them.

It was one of the heralds of Japanese animation that broke ground in the US. Younger generations might better remember the colorized version shown in the 90s.

Anyway, the Japanese sure know how to pay tribute to their icons. A group is now putting up a 60-foot Gigantor monument in Kobe. The group is expecting a September completion.

During the Comic Con, Marvel Entertainment in partnership with Madhouse released teasers for anime series for the Japanese market. One of which is for Iron Man and it looks like it came out of the comic panels. There will also be one for Wolverine. The Anime Iron Man DVD will be released on 2010.
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Most people don’t get it why some would fuss about the Comic-Con. A packed place crawling with nerds and geeks? Who would want to go in there? Uhm, Megan Fox is a pretty damn good reason to go, right?

That aside, the Comic-Con isn’t only flocked by nerds. Aspiring artists, independent film makers, and budding entrepreneurs also go to such gatherings. The geek audience is a solid market segment, if not a niche.

Here’s a video clip showing interviews with random people and their reasons for going.

Doraemon might have ended its TV run after 25 good years but Doraemon goodies will be here to stay. Just check out this snazzy Doraemon doll that Bandai is releasing on September 3.

Dubbed “My Doraemon,” this thing makes Robosapien look like a dolt and AIBO look lame. It’s got motion, light, heat, and sound sensors that allows it to “sense” changes in its environments and react using Doraemon catch phrases accordingly.

Too bad it doesn’t have that fantastic pocket that have all the rest of the goodies you’ve always wanted.

Via: Impress Watch