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.

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.

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.

In totally un-Comic-Con related news… here’s some Star Wars bit. This is the disturbance in the force.

Do you remember that kid who played Anakin Skywalker in the air before that crud Hayden Christensen took over to mack Natalie Portman? Well we’re sure you won’t recognize him today. Here’s Jake Lloyd and he’s 20 now and boy, has he grown. The picture’s taken from last month’s Supanova Pop Culture Expo, Sydney, Australia.

Kinda looks like a young and pudgy Brock Lesnar.

With official confirmation from the recently opened AFA09.com website, Anime Festival Asia 2009 is on schedule. This will all happen again at Suntec City Convention and Exhibition Center in Singapore on November 21 and 22.

Bringing you Merchandise, Live Acts and Performances, Anime / Manga showcases straight from Japan, Japanese popular culture will once again take centre stage at Anime Festival Asia.

Last year’s event featured Ichirou Mizuki, MAY’N, Kunio Okawara as guests, with lots of good buys and showcases. I’m already saving up to go there.

AFA 2008 Pictures part two! When you go to conventions, there are shops. And the shops for this kind of convention will mean anime merchandise. And most of the time, anime merchandise includes toys and figures!

This time, we give you a peek of a lot of toy displays seen throughout the whole show.

Warning: Image heavy.

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Back from Singapore! And before I go on with a comprehensive con report, I’ll start off with a series of picture posts. First, some cosplay pictures! We arrived late on both days so we weren’t able to take a lot of them. I believe we also missed a lot of other Macross Frontier cosplyers.

Anyway, pictures after the jump!
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For the first time ever in South East Asia, Singapore will celebrate the diversity of Japanese Pop Culture.

Taking place on the 22nd and 23rd of November 2008 (Saturday and Sunday) at the Suntec International Convention and Exhibition Center, Anime Festival Asia 2008 (AFA08) will showcase a wide array of Japanese Pop Culture related content, spanning over 5,000 sqm of space with 6 experience zones: Akiba Town, Anime Live, Anime Blockbusters, Industry, Mangaka and Planet Mech, where visitors will gain access to exclusive content, merchandise and live acts straight from Japan.

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