From my AFA08 experience, it seems that Singaporean attendees didn’t just like to take pictures of cosplayers but with them too. I certainly don’t recall that being prevalent when I attended ComiKet 72. I also dug out an old photo album of my visit to Otakon 2000 to see if attendees of that Baltimore, MA convention also had a ‘with’ predilection; ended up scanning a few to share with my readers. In the ancient year of 2000, SNK/CAPCOM game charas were all the rage. The biggest anime were Ranma 1/2, Sailor Moon…

… Final Fantasy VII. There were soooooo many Riona cosplayers. Throughout my visit between 4-6 August 2000, I saw only one Tifa cosplayer. Bless her and long live the profession of bar wenches!!

Record of Lodoss War with very cute Shiris cosplayer. No Pirotess though. And, in the fine tradition of Sailor Bubba – don’t take cosplay too seriously, k? – the Subversive Sailor Scouts ran around creating general mayhem and fun. I imagine most of them are respectable family/salarymen. It’s not just Facebook that brings back the unwanted memories but animu blogs too!

Revolutionary Girl Utena was also really popular with the female demographic of the anime fan population. And, oh, it does seem that there was always a healthy proportion of female fans. At least in the US.

I wonder what these cosplayers would have thought of Slayers Revolution?

At C72, cosplay that revealed a lot of skin did exist but was a relatively low proportion. But girls, often young teenagers, at Otakon were prepared to flaunt their figures includng a creative take on Pikachu and the standard outfit for Urusei Yatsura’s Lum.

So what are men to cosplay if we’re not the bishounen typu? There’s also monsters, cabbits and Ikari Gendou.

Speaking of Mr White Gloves, the Evangelion wave had well and truly hit US shores by 2000. The very spirited Asuka cosplayer spent a good afternoon terrorising any Shinji cosplayer she managed to find. LOL And Rei clones were almost a match for the Riona army.

Ruri Hoshino was also a popular choice but it’s interesting to see how the appeal of Evangelion has been kept alive and even continues to grow while most people nowadays have never even heard of Martian Successor Nadesico…

More Old Skool for the road. Saber Marionette, El Hazard: The Wanderers, Vision of Escaflowne, Serial Experiments Lain. Actually I haven’t even seen Saber Marionette meself… (-_-);;

I was also surprised to discover that US anime fans were upset with censorship of their animu… I can’t remember which specific anime it was about. Kite? Some guy representing ‘U.S. Censor’ was ceremonially beaten, sliced up, shot etc etc. Until a staff member came up to the little demonstration and said: ‘As a member of Otakon Security, I have to… join in and do my duty!’ *rains mock kicks on the ‘U.S. Censor’* LOL

No one was arrested. Even though there was a Natsumi Tsujimoto cosplayer present at the con.

©2012 hontou ni sou omou?. All Rights Reserved.

Day Two purchase, again from Collateral Damage Studios, were a set of prints depicting Lutecia, Subaru, Teana, Erio and Caro, Vivio in child and adult forms which had run out by the time I got to their booth yesterday. Pity they didn’t do a set for the Yagami family though.

It’s hard to suppress the Eva fanboy in me despite the perpetual feeling of being milked and exploited. But Evangelion@School looks like it’s going to be hilarous. Plus we get three times the Rei goodness.

Haruhi seems to be a popular character but she’s difficult to carry off well since an ‘in-character’ cosplayer needs to be able to convey her arrogance and confidence too.

When I asked this girl for permission to take her photo, she asked if I knew she wasn’t cosplaying. I was going to launch into an explanation about how she did zettai ryouki very well but decided against it. Good that I refrained too. Because the moment I got my shot, others started to take pictures too. That kind of freaked her out and she made her escape.

In contrast, this pair of Ouran cosplayers were very hospitable indeed.

And these girls seemed to be having a blast.

Girls can look especially good when cosplaying guys. But, of course, they can look very good in female goth dress too. This outfit was spectacularly backless too…

This Yzak cosplayer was visibly taken aback by my very pink Lunamaria t-shirt. Come on, GSD isn’t *that* old a series, is it? There was a Lunamaria cosplayer yesterday too but I didn’t manage to get a shot of her. T_T [Double, of Furu Anime Panikku, did. Huzzah!]

The Kagamine Len cosplayer was my favourite of the day.

Girls just wanna have fun. Really liked how this quartet was equally keen on getting photos of other cosplayers too.

Perfect prop for this Ranka cosplayer over at the Collateral Damage booth and posing with the artist too! Wonder how much it was eventually auctioned off for?

Autographed by May’N herself and, thus, Not For Sale. Missed the concert as I had to leave at about 330pm. Saw only about half of the Cosplay Mania skits too.

I didn’t think that the range, quantity and quality of stalls, merchandise, events, cosplay etc etc. was all that great. But, nonetheless, the event had a very positive feel about it. I think most event goers had fun and the event was actually novel enough and small enough to have a cosy sort of feel about it, something that’s impossible for the big Japanese and North American cons. Hope that AFA will go from strength to strength and looking forward to next year’s event.

©2012 hontou ni sou omou?. All Rights Reserved.

I was there. My only purchases – a set of Collateral Damage Studios works: three beautiful Nanoha prints (art by Xeph and Mycstea) and a hilarous Burning Arisa doujin (art by WaHa) for SGD 45.

Too tired to do a proper write-up. Just brief notes.

Venue wasn’t all that big. Lots of empty space fenced off too. But good deal of human traffic through the afternoon.

Anime

Ami-chan is Super Super Super Cute!!!

From the Xedo booth.

Cosplay

Despite having had my Lumix camera for years, I only learnt that I should adjust the white balance for taking photos under indoor fluoroscent lighting this afternoon. orz

Extremely genki Lime Mint cosplayer. Top marks for her positive attitude and sunny disposition.

Quite a lot of the most interesting cosplay activity seemed to be taking place outside the event hall/rooms.

Figures

Is it me or does Saber look better from behind?

At 1/6, Ryoko was way too big for my collection and I’m not partial to reclining poses either. Pretty damned gorgeous nonetheless.

Art

LOLOLOL at Aika, Alice and Aria-shachou in the background. From my POV, the one offering the rose must, of course, be female. Ahaha~♥

Didn’t who the artist was. Might it be Impz??

©2012 hontou ni sou omou?. All Rights Reserved.