Zaku at AFA09

It's late, I'm tired. Like Alafista, my legs hurt like hell from standing the whole day. Just a few quick interim notes for now.

There seems to be fewer exhibitors/stands than last year, can anyone confirm? Crowd felt thinner than last year's in the morning but it rose up, like a great noontide, to huge proportions from 12 noon to late afternoon. Guess Singaporeans, even anime fans, like to sleep in on weekends regardless of anime event or not.

Having a media pass to wander around for an hour before the doors opened to the public was very very helpful for photographing the exhibits and stands without a huge crush of people milling around and jostling with many other photographers scrambling for the best angles. Thanks so much to the organizers and the PR people, especially Shaun, for facilitating.

Like last year, I didn't actually buy many goods. Collateral Damage Studios Bakemonogatari art cards only had Nadeko and Shinobu - while nice, I would have loved to have Hitagi and Suruga. Gave in to my inner Evangelion slut and bought the UCC canned coffee set though. orz

Overall the events felt levelled up from last year. I haven't patronized the meido cafe - there were long queues for it. Bringing in Danny Choo was an inspired idea as he is a fan's fan, very approachable, complete with British accent and wit. I am also particularly excited about the prospect of getting an autograph from Hibiki Reine-sensei tomorrow; she's the illustrator of the MariMite light novels and her art brings across Yumi's spirit in a way that is as sublime as Kana Ueda's marvelous voice acting in that role.

I gave the Anisong concert a miss last year but curiosity over the Hatsune Miku SEAsia premiere compelled me to cough up and I went away a very happy viewer (though I was exhausted by standing from 545pm to 710pm even though the program said we should have gotten seating btw 6-630pm and a tad peeved off that there was no announcement, explanation or apology!) - I can't say many great things about her singing but her chara design, her dance routines, the confetti from the ceiling and the sparklers have made me a fan - previously the only performance I ever watched of hers was the leek spin song. I can see why Miku mania has sweep the otaku attendees - Vocaloid was clearly the majority choice of cosplay.

I also managed to talk with more people this year especially those who made trips (from Vietnam, Sarawak, KL) to Singapore just to attend this event.

More posts (hopefully one each on Danny Choo and cosplay) to come. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

Related posts:

1. AFA09 Day Two Reflections: K-ON! Live Dub/Q&A
2. AFA09 Highlight: Moe Moe Kyun Maid Cafe
3. AFA09 After Action Review: Seven Lessons from Photographing Danny Choo

About Zyl

hontou ni sou omou?