Anime Festival Asia '08, held in Singapore 22 - 23 November.

[C.A.]

The event was really great, much better than anything that was ever held in Singapore at least.

Aniki was godly, his stage presence was astounding. You can feel the hotbloodedness when he sang, the expressions on his face just expresses his soul.

May'n had the most amazing moves I've ever seen lol, I officially call that the May'n Kick, the latest kick that I'm adding to my list of EPIC Kicks. She's such a great performer, she brings about the crowd so easily, she moves to naturally and communicates with the crowd knowing that she catches everyone's attention.

Both singers are just too much for so little words to describe lol

There were tons of cosplay and many were really good, I'm really inspired to cosplay the very next event, anyone care to give me a date and what is the next event with cosplaying?

I uploaded my really bad amateur photos to a new album:

http://forums.animesuki.com/album.php?albumid=1189

forgottendiary took a pic of me when I went on stage to have a handshake and her autograph:



I'll be slowly adding more, probably should be going to sleep now.

[Ja-Y-Ce]

C.A., thanks for the pics... i took some..but not much to share - simply because, i forgot to bring my digi cam and therefore, was using the pathetic handphone...but well....

I think I saw you on stage! hahaha the moment, i see your pic here.!

[C.A.]

I told May'n:

"Anata no uta wa saikou desu!" (Your music/song is the best!)

She was really happy going "Arigatou gozaimasu~!" lol.

EDIT: I'll upload the rest of the pics tomorrow, still have a hundred or so to filter through, all because of my poor skills lol

Red eyes, blur, bad angle, bad timing of capture etc.

[valentin]

Here's my share of photos, http://s5.photobucket.com/albums/y194/AniReview/AFA08/

[TinyRedLeaf]

Originally Posted by C.A.

The event was really great, much better than anything that was ever held in Singapore at least.

Speaking as someone who attended the inaugural Singapore Toy & Comic Convention back in 27-29 June, I have to say that the STCC was clearly the better-organised event. And the numbers are telling. The STCC drew a staggering 140,000 people over three days — enough to rival the San Diego Comic Con in size, if not in exhibition quality.

By contrast, at press time, AFA is estimated to have drawn only around 80,000 people — within the organisers' (I*Promo and Dentsu Singapore) target, but far short of rival STCC.

Wandering around Halls 403 and 404, the difference is immediately obvious — vast open spaces where there should have been stalls and booths. The buzz was not as electric as the STCC (which was organised by home-grown toy company Play Imaginative) had been, and most crucially, AFA drew mainly teenagers and young adults in their 20s. In comparison, STCC drew a broader demographic, most crucially including older adults who had more cash to spend.

My colleague has done her story, which will appear tomorrow morning. Very tellingly, the retailers said that their sales at AFA were much poorer than in STCC. Already, there is talk of maybe merging STCC and AFA next year. After all, both events target roughly the same kind of audience, with STCC attracting the more Western-inclined crowd, and AFA drawing the Japan-inclined fans.

Some possible reasons for the relatively poorer attendance: Firstly, my colleague thinks that the smaller crowds could have been due to the entrance fee, but I think S$5 a day is really neglible, and therefore not a strong deterrent.

Secondly, the retailers blame the economic downturn for hurting sales. Possible, but somehow, I don't really think that's the case. For one thing, the video games retailers reported booming sales at AFA, so clearly, some of them benefitted while others didn't.

Thirdly, and I think this is a bigger reason, lack of marketing. Compared to STCC, which had banners advertising it along Orchard Road a few months in advance, AFA had barely any advertising at all. I wonder if it's because of smaller budget, or if it's because the organisers think the expenditure wasn't worth it.

Lastly, let's face it. It's the genre's demographic. Kids and young adults in their 20s simply have less cash to spare. Compare to STCC, where some people spent as much as S$2,000 on a single item. Market potential-wise, STCC reaches a larger, more mainstream demographic than AFA, hence its relatively bigger earnings.

Anime is big in Singapore, but clearly, it remains niche here.

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

The organiser did quite a few dumb things IMO.

4. Assigning small spaces to booths and stores selling figurines. Figurines come in BOXES idiots, and boxes take up space (shape of the box doesn't make much difference, see Kepler's Conjecture). And they have to put the stores selling figurines together in the SAME AREA of the exhibition hall, resulting in a congestion in that area.

5. Lack of variety. The only stores I bought something from is KKnM and doujin from CDS. And I would like to nitpick about the severe lack of God's products.

Floor space costs money, and they don't come cheap, hence the small spaces for the merchandise retailers. Of course, that depends on how I*Promo and Dentsu Singapore sold the booths. I suspect, not very well. For one thing, Bandai was the only major anime merchandising company here. Where are the other big players like Takara and so on?

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

Things they did right,

2. Held in Suntec rather than Expo, though I would prefer Expo due to its larger space. Suntec, which is near City Hall, is in the middle of train line in Singapore, allowing people from around the country to reach that place more easily.

If you ask me, Singapore Expo is a failure of a location for major conventions and exhibitions. Almost anyone working in the conventions and exhibitions industry will tell you the same. Suntec, located in the heart of downtown Singapore, is by far the preferred venue, and once the Marina Bay Sands integrated resort opens, the area is going to get even hotter.

The only reason why Expo draws any business at all is because of highly competitive rental prices.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Enough of my ranting. Here are some of my better photos from AFA. Unfortunately, I missed both concerts because of work commitments, but actually, it's not a big deal since I'm not really a fan of either singer. Besides, it feels slightly creepy for an oyaji like me to turn up for an 18-year-old's concert, even if she is the Galactic Fairy.

================

Studio 4˚C's Genius Party and Genius Party Beyond.




Some information on the project. It's actually two different anthologies. Genius Party is a joint-project by seven animators, while five directors worked on Genius Party Beyond. Of particular interest to me are Masaaki Yuasa (Kaiba, Kemonozume) and Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bepop, Animatrix).




Watanabe's segment, Baby Blue, attracted me the most. It stars Rinko Kikuchi (Babel, The Sky Crawlers).




Retailers and merchandise at the festival. The Kareshi Kanojyo no Mise drew by far the longest queues.



Dolls and Domo-kun (the only toy I bought).




Square-Enix figurines. The Valkyrie Profile display is particularly stunning.




This one's for fans of FFVII:




The Arena, which hosted a duelling contest on Street Fighter IV.




I liked the Mangaka corner very much, which featured budding manga artists.




It also featured the home-grown talent of Imaginary Friends Studios.





Finally, a few pics of cosplayers, and a pic of the main stage.

[Peanutbutter]

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

My colleague has done her story, which will appear tomorrow morning.

You're a reporter?

Here's one you can quote: "I didn't went cause I'm tightening my wallet."

[valentin]

And here's some "snap-cam",

Concert Video Partial 01
Concert Video Partial 02
Concert Video Partial 03
Concert Video Partial 04
Concert Video Partial 05
Concert Video Partial 06
Concert Video Partial 07

Please note that all are slightly fuzzy.

[kk2extreme]

i cant go, cuz im still at school in USA

[SaintessHeart]

Here are the photos. I will upload the rest later.

Spoiler for Cosplay Day 1:

Spoiler for Cosplay Day 2:

Spoiler for Cosplay Competition:

Spoiler for Mizuki And Other Events:

[OrderNorChaos]

I was there for both days...

well firstly those graffiti drawings are from graphite not mangaka... and some of them are pretty good.

both mini concerts were equally amazing in my opinion.

As the lack of people... perhaps it is still the examination period... my friends were mugging while at the event... I personally had an exam on the first day... so maybe that could one of the reasons ?

overall I think its great...

[SaintessHeart]

More :

Spoiler for Exhibits And Merchandise:

And here are the May'N photos you are waiting for you perverts. I had problems taking shots, but thanks to those short little lolis in front of me I was able to snatch a few. I took the first picture 5 times to test the camera on different settings of night mode, and I am too lazy to omit them from the bulk uploader.

Spoiler for May'N:

That is all I have.

[C.A.]

Yea a whole bunch of my friends are tied up with their exams, assignments and projects. This plus the economic situation made the event less crowded as it should be. But it was still very good, at least for someone like me didn't have to buy any merchandise. I already have everything I need and everything else I need on preorder lol

The only thing I got for myself was the Vignetteum Cute Haruhi series Haruhi + Yuki + Ryko + Emiri for 48 SGD at Latendo. Glad to know the boss recognised me at his shop, by my armband lol

Most of my figures come from KKNM though and was glad to hear from them they are doing pretty well. Sharon said her guys are expert at crowd control lol, seeing how they managed the queues was proof.

Anyway, anytime I post in this thread, I would have updated my AFA album with more pics:

http://forums.animesuki.com/album.php?albumid=1189

[wao]

Super late post but I ended up going for only a little bit - lined up for ages (I came at 9am and lined up for exactly 1 whole hour, I guess pre-reg didn't make a diff)... but anyway I was in an awful mood before even getting there, so I didn't enjoy the thing as much as I expected to. I mean, I left in 30 minutes. I'm such a curmudgeon, right.

TRL is right, too many open spaces where I would've expected booths. And I only found out the screening time/date of Genius Party Beyond when I got the brochure... I find it rather bad that it wasn't on the main site at all before the event started. I wouldn't have bothered queuing up so early, then.

But in the end I just felt so under the weather the next day that I missed Genius Party Beyond, too Don't know when I'll next get to see it. I somehow get the feeling most of the event just didn't interest me much - the booths for various shows had hardly anything on them (the only thing I found interesting were teh storyboards at the Studio 4C booth) and I have neither interest in nor money to spend on figurines or doujins. Most of the goods were otherwise available locally anyway, as I expected.

Nevertheless, it wasn't a bad event - it's probably one of the best things Singapore's ever had! I can only expect that things get better from here onwards. It's still unbelievable that we got May'n to come over. I'm dead sure I would've enjoyed it a lot more if I bothered to cheer up and arrange to meet some people beforehand!

edit: Nice to see lots of photographers around documenting the event, too. I'm pretty sure I must be in the crowd in some picture put on the web...

[kyon.haruhi.suzumiya]

Originally Posted by C.A.

Yea a whole bunch of my friends are tied up with their exams, assignments and projects. This plus the economic situation made the event less crowded as it should be.

Fail for making it during O/A levels. No, really.

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

]
If you ask me, Singapore Expo is a failure of a location for major conventions and exhibitions. Almost anyone working in the conventions and exhibitions industry will tell you the same. Suntec, located in the heart of downtown Singapore, is by far the preferred venue, and once the Marina Bay Sands integrated resort opens, the area is going to get even hotter.

The only reason why Expo draws any business at all is because of highly competitive rental prices.

No, it attracts department stores like Metro and John Little who want to clear stock fast. Suntec is far too small. The reason why Expo was at Changi is to attract international visitors, not Singaporeans actually.

[Ottocycle]

This year's site is up, along with convention dates.

It's still within university exam period. Ugh. Here's hoping for guests that match the star power of last year's.

[C.A.]

If they answered the May'n crowd, we may actually get JAM Project lol

Not sure if its possible to get them down here.

[Ottocycle]

Getting JAM Project down here would probably involve loads of money. My hat'll go off to them if they ever manage that feat.

May'n was because of fan demand? I didn't know.

[C.A.]

Originally Posted by Ottocycle

Getting JAM Project down here would probably involve loads of money. My hat'll go off to them if they ever manage that feat.

May'n was because of fan demand? I didn't know.

No lol, what I meant was that the hosts asked the May'n audience who to invite this year. The crowd yelled Jam Project and the hosts heard that.

If they can bring Aniki here, I'm sure they can bring Jam Project or one of those anisong gods lol, Fukuyama Yoshiki for example, I definitely would get front row for that.

[Ottocycle]

Originally Posted by C.A.

No lol, what I meant was that the hosts asked the May'n audience who to invite this year. The crowd yelled Jam Project and the hosts heard that.

If they can bring Aniki here, I'm sure they can bring Jam Project or one of those anisong gods lol, Fukuyama Yoshiki for example, I definitely would get front row for that.

Ohh, in that case that makes double clamouring for JamPro, since I heard that in Aniki's performance too.

But still, given their seniority, and being big names, bringing them all here sure is gonna take a hefty sum...

Which will probably figure in the exclusive front row ticket prices that will be snapped up like hotcakes nevertheless.