AFA 2009 - Singapore

[SaintessHeart]

http://www.afa09.com/index.html

Well it happened last year, and it is happening again!

However, this year is a total rip off as compared to the previous because it costs $25 to get a ticket, compared to last year's $6. However, people like May'N, Ichiro Mizuki and YOSHIKI FUKUYAMA (JAM Project) will be making appearances, as well as the VAs from K-ON!.

For those who want to hear Yui's retarded-sounding voice in person, or see Yoshiki show off his mad guitar skills, visit the site for more details.

P.S Any locals going?

[EternalNite]

$25 is for 2 days...
And Students its only $20. Yes i m going.

[bhl88]

It's a pity I can't go: Ticket is $1000 for economic class XD

[TinyRedLeaf]

A quick heads up: I will be heading to the media preview for AFA09 tomorrow (Nov 20), and will also be attending the Animation Asia Conference. Time and resources permitting, I hope also to attend the press conference by Storm Lion (who are they? that's what I'd like to know too) and Production I.G (Ghost in the Shell, Seirei no Moribito) taking place between 3.45pm and 4pm.

Guests attending the media preview comprise famed cosplayer Kaname, singer-voice actress May'n, singer Ichirou Mizuki, anime blogger Danny Choo and director Mamoru Hosoda (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time). At this point, I don't know if any time has been allocated for questions-and-answers. All the same, if any of you have burning questions to ask, feel free to PM or VM them to me by tonight (10.30pm, Nov 19, Singapore time GMT+8) so I can prepare in advance.

Personally, I will be pursuing story angles in the business of animation, hence the reason why I am attending the studio and industry conferences. So, if you have any questions for the executives, feel free to send them to me by tonight.

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

As for anime fans, in case you haven't heard, the voice actresses of K-On! will be appearing at AFA09 on Sunday (1.15pm to 2.15pm, Nov 22). They will perform "live dubbing" of a scene from the anime series, in addition to taking questions on the Main Stage. *Unfortunately, I won't be able to make it to this session *sob**

[bhl88]

I won't be able to get their autographs OTL Shoko-tan, DC and the K-ON! girls...

[JokerD]

I'm going there, should be an interesting ride.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Hi guys, it's been an exhausting but fruitful day spent at the inaugural Animation Asia Conference (AAC) in Suntec Singapore. I was there from 9am today till around 5pm, listening to the various industry speakers, as well as catching the media preview of the celebrities — singers Ichirou Mizuki and May'n, cosplayer Kaname and director Mamoru Hosoda — who will grace Anime Festival Asia (AFA) 2009.

I've got a ton of raw notes that I'd eventually cobble together into coherent copy (unfortunately, chances of it getting published are exceedingly low, but I'm doing it for passion, so I don't really mind). The AAC's theme was the "globalisation" of anime, and the speakers spoke along three distinct "tracks": Create, Manage and Engage.

===========

Under the Create track, we had Mr Mamoru Hosoda describing how he came up with the concepts for The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and for his latest release, Summer Wars. We also had Singapore-based Edmund Shern, chief executive of Stormlion (and founder of graphics house Imaginary Friends Studios), discussing how his fledgling studio was picked by Production I.G to collaborate on their planned Titan Rain project.

My fanboy moment was in seeing Mr Mitsuhisa Ishikawa of Production I.G in person. He looks quite stern, in pictures as in real life, but seems approachable enough — if you speak Japanese From hearing him speak, and from his demeanour, you do get the sense that he's a no-nonsense producer. But, at the same time, he appears to be the kind of guy who'd go all out to work with you, if he believes in you.

===========

The Manage track was, in my opinion, one of the more enlightening segments of the conference. Particularly because of the business insights offered by Mr Phoon Chiong Kit, deputy chairman of Imagi International Holdings, the firm that took over the reins of Astro Boy after the original producers ran out of cash. Mr Phoon is your real-life "suit", the "villain" that all anime fans and creators love to hate. But through his presentation, and through speaking briefly with him during a break, it's clear that he's a very canny businessman (not surprising, given his background as an investment banker, and as a former managing director of mega entertainment group Golden Harvest) who well understands the difficulties of managing creative talent.

Forget your stereotypes about high-ranking movie industry executives — such people are very much more complex in real life than you'd at first think. And also very funny and witty. A product, I sense, of a lifetime of experience in nurturing highly risky projects that don't always succeed despite how hard you try — you eventually learn to laugh off the failures, learn from them, then move on to the next project.

The next speaker was Mr Shiro Sasaki, chief executive of Flying Dog Inc, the firm that produced the legendary soundtracks of several hit anime series, including Macross Frontier. His presentation was very good, very enjoyable and very informative. He explained the thought processes that went into making anime music a "character" of its own, and how his firm carefully nurtured then-unknown voice talents into the now big stars behind characters Sheryl Nome and Ranka Lee.

===========

There was then an industry "showcase", where a few regional anime studios pitched their projects to the Japanese studio executives in attendance. To be sure, I thought this segment was very poorly managed, and I sometimes felt sorry for some of the studio representatives, who were completely overshadowed by the big-budget glitzy presentations of Madhouse and Production I.G.

Heads up: If you're going to the AFA, look out for the booths of Border (Malaysia) and Tuldok Animation Studios (Philippines). I personally think they've both got some interesting talent worth looking into (watch out for Border's concept of combining batik art with anime design). Hopefully, they'd manage to attract the attention I think they deserve.

===========

Finally, there was the Engage track, where blogger Danny Choo described how he built his website on all things Japanese into a social-media portal, with big potential for turning user-generated content (he calls them Consumer Generated Media, or CGM) into revenue streams.

To be sure, Danny didn't cover anything particularly "new" (especially if you're already familiar with his portal, Dannychoo.com, which is quite good, just not to my particular tastes). The social-networking phenomenon is already very well understood here, in AnimeSuki, for example. His presentation was, in effect, a sales pitch for his portal's social-media functions and tools. Danny was joined later by Mr Vince Shortino, president of Crunchyroll Kabuki Kaisha (that is, Crunchyroll's full-time headquarters in Tokyo), during a panel discussion. Prior to that, Vince, too, had a presentation, which he also used to pitch Crunchyroll as a viable, legal platform for distributing anime outside of Japan.

Their pitches should be fairly familiar to most of you, so no need for me to rehash them in detail. I think their platforms represent the future of anime distribution and marketing, but this isn't really "news" to most of us any more.

Now, the really fun — and, in my opinion, the best — presentation of the whole conference was delivered by Mr Kotaro Sugiyama, head of solution (strategy) / creative department at Dentsu Inc, one of the three organisers of AFA 2009.

Mr Sugiyama went to great lengths to demonstrate what he called "Toyko Innovation", that is, the process of "releasing anime characters from the frame and into real life".

Basically, this translates into highly innovative advertising campaigns that cleverly leverage on anime brands to create "stories" that "engage" fans and consumers, allowing them to interact with their favourite anime characters. Mr Sugiyama then made the bigger point of how this is the future of advertising: It has become a form of "storytelling" in itself. Advances in technology and social-media make this more possible than ever before.

He presented some of these examples of highly successful ad campaigns built around anime brands:

Life-sized Gundam at Odaiba

Ultraman Honda

There were another two case studies — one of a Slam Dunk fans-appreciation campaign by mangaka Takehiko Inoue, and another campaign involving manga posters in the form of QR codes — but, unfortunately, I can't find those clips on YouTube.

Moving on, Mr Sugiyama presented the award-winning Big Shadow (2006) ad campaign for Xbox360's http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/b/bluedragonxbox360/ video-game.

Big Shadow campaign

Finally, after presenting a clip of the Uniqlock desktop service, Mr Sugiyama presented this extremely lovable ad that is totally unrelated to anime, but which uses the concept of "Tokyo Innovation" to exemplary effect.

Love Distance

In summary, Mr Sugiyama effectively demonstrated how Japan is serving, once again, as the world's "early adopter" of post-industrial concepts (a trend apparently first noted by sci-fi writer William Gibson) — to create not the manufactured products of old, but the storytelling services of the future.

To extrapolate from Mr Sugiyama's vision, I would say that all this presents completely new possibilities for anime and manga brands. Entirely new classes of ancillary products — which involve high levels of user interaction — could be created in the future, either to be sold directly, or to serve as "storytelling" devices that would encourage fans and consumers to spend in novel ways.

And that, could become very relevant to rights owners in the future, at a time when their traditional sources of income, DVD sales, are steadily declining because of Internet competition.

As Mr Phoon said, it's high time for both the movie and anime industries to think of ways to further segment their markets. In his opinion, it would be far more productive for producers, marketers and distributors to think of ways to monetise streaming or pay-per-view channels, for example, than to continue fighting the losing battle of defending their DVD markets.

[C.A.]

I'm leaving for the event now.

Say hi to me if you see a guy with spiky hair, SOS Danchou armband, white shirt and some jeans.

I'll be there whole day and attending the concerts for both days.

My camera isn't very good, but I'll see what I can do.

[Peanutbutter]

Help me say hi to the K-On! girls.

[JokerD]

Did someone say K-On girls?


Double Moe Moe Kyun Attack!


OH NOES, THEY BE CLONING THEM!!


The winner of the regional cosplay... IT'S A GUNDAM (gets blasted to pieces)


And one of the more *ahem* interesting cosplay contestants...

[C.A.]

I was hanging around the karaoke for most of the day, it was really fun. I sang Seventh Moon, tomorrow I'll be singing alot more.

I also yelled Super Inazuma Kick thrice, 2nd being Giga Drill Breaker and 3rd being Goldion Crusher, Hikari ni Nare. I got lots of applause for those lol, I think my years of yelling after SRW paid off.

Then I yelled the entire concert, Aniki is just as amazing as always. I yelled tons of attacks and sang along with the crowd.

ZEEEEEEEETTOO!!!!!!

[TinyRedLeaf]

Originally Posted by C.A.

I was hanging around the karaoke for most of the day, it was really fun. I sang Seventh Moon, tomorrow I'll be singing alot more.

At the Xing booth?





I arrived very late today, at 7pm (*Sigh* SAF had to mobilise me on this day of all days). I was half expecting the fair to be closed for the I <3 Anisong concert, and was pleasantly relieved to find it still opened. What's even more surprising was the size of the crowds at that hour — the event was still going strong, with several cosplayers still wandering around. The overall vibe was fantastic — helped greatly by the music and cheering from the Anisong concert in the neighbouring hall. The festival felt generally much better organised this year than last year's and, in fact, I think it will quite possibly outperform the Toy & Comic Con held earlier this year.




I was heartened by the return of the concept art wall, set up to let budding artists to put up their own designs and sketches — there's clearly no lack of talent in Singapore. And, as usual, the ones by home-grown Imaginary Friends Studio are simply gorgeous.




Take note that Stormlion is a spin-off company set up by Imaginary Friends Studio founder Edmund Shern. As I've mentioned in my earlier post, Stormlion will be collaborating with Japan's Production I.G (Ghost in the Shell) to produce Titan Rain.

The project is still very much in its conceptual stage, so there aren't many firm details about it yet, other than its key staff members. It will be directed by Atsushi Takeushi (Ghost in the Shell: Innocence, Appleseed: Ex Machina, Clone Wars, Avalon). The screenplay will be written by Tow Ubukata (Le Chevalier de Eon, Fafner). Concept art will be provided by Takashi Okazaki (Afro Samurai) and the score will be done by Bear McCreary (Battlestar Galactica, Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles).

As you can see, it's an impressive line-up of staff with a broad range of international experience. Titan Rain is being planned, right from the get-go, as a product not just for Japan, but also for the wider world market. Everyone in the project seemed especially excited to have Okazaki and McCreary on board, presumably because of their exposure to Hollywood-style productions.




Of course, it wouldn't be an anime fair if it didn't have toys, cosplay accessories and doujinshi art for sale.




Yes, the "swords" stall was damn cool.

And so was the Moe Moe Kyun Maid Cafe. Well, not so much for me personally, since I find it a bit creepy to be served by teenage girls in maid costumes, but the idea is still lots of fun all the same. I hope the organisers will bring it back next year. (And, yes, that's one of the owners of local video-games store Gamescore in the cafe.)




I'm a huge fan of Production I.G projects, so you can imagine how pleased I was to visit the studio's booth.




As you can see, Production I.G has started overseas promotion its first-ever 3-D project, Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror. I've seen the trailers, and let's just say I'm looking forward immensely to watching this film on cinema screens here. Oh, incidentally, I would have loved to buy the certified limited edition art pieces from The Sky Crawlers, but they were going for S$300 (US$215) each...

But Oblivion Island aside, the movie to really watch out for is Mamoru Hosoda's Summer Wars. Since it already has its own thread here in AnimeSuki, I don't need to say much more about it. Suffice to say, if you've enjoyed The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, you're likely to enjoy this movie too.

"This is a story about one big family that is abruptly challenged by a global crisis on the Internet of the future. Family bonds are the strongest of networks, no matter how advanced the high-tech networks of the Internet are..."
- Director Mamoru Hosoda




Finally, what's an anime fair without dolls and figurines to drool over? Feast your eyes on a few of them, courtesy of Danny Choo's booth.




I have to say, pride of place ought to go to these three figurines:

[JokerD]

To my eternal regret, I missed the live K-On dubbing session, anyone has any pictures or videos of it?

[DragonBladeX]

Closest thing I can ever get to the K-On! seiyuus were their autographs.



Some of my spoils from AFA2009:


Was lucky to meet Danny Choo in person on the 2nd day


Autograph from Danny Choo and the lovely Mirai-chan cosplayer (I'll probably laminate it )


This is my first AFA event so I pretty much enjoyed myself throughout these 2 days, Shoko-tan was a blast, Hatsune Miku's appearance felt kinda meh(but I liked the introduction where she greeted the audience), Aniki was a blast to the past with Super Robot stuff. Fukuyama's performance was hot-blooded and for me, May'n performance didn't pick me up until a couple of songs in from her upcoming album and of course, the Macross Frontier songs. Ended with on a high note with 2 encore duets with Fukuyama and May'n. Here's to hoping that the concerts get even better for the subsequent years

[C.A.]

Originally Posted by JokerD

To my eternal regret, I missed the live K-On dubbing session, anyone has any pictures or videos of it?

No photos allowed and Mio didn't come, but Yui's 'untan' made up for it.

Anyway its the best 2 days of my life, I don't even know how to start describing.

I hanged around the karaoke booth and the dialogue dubbing booth for 2 days. My performance was so hot blooded, I started a following of super robot wars fans, they gave me their emails and I'm supposed to help set up a SG super robot club or something lol

Using the Super Inazuma Kick scene, I yelled:

Giga Drill Breaker, Goldion Crusher, Kaiser Tornado, Wa Ga Zankantou, God Finger, Big Bang Punch, Chodenji Spin, Shinha Mougeki Reppa etc.

Our Sieg Zion scene was so loud, the press came over to take a look, the entire area was jammed with a giant crowd.

Also some of them called me Danchou because of the armband I wore.

If you saw this guy with specs wearing a white shirt with armband singing continuously at the karaoke, its me. I sang basically every song that was selected, my 'Koi no Minoru Densetsu' and 'Tobe Gundam!' got the most applause.

Here's a summary of the insanely hotblooded concerts, which I'm now suffering a hangover for yelling two days straight.

Day 1:

Shokotan popped out into stage and the crowd roared, the Japanese girls behind me screamed kawaii, she's really super cute lol.

She then sang an unexpected Zankoku na Tenshi no Thesis. The crowd was completely caught off guard and exploded, we continued to explode when she sang Sorairo Days next.

She then sang some really cute song followed by more TTGL songs which affected the crowd with Spiral Energy. She sang some more great songs and left the stage. We thoroughly enjoyed her wonderful stage presence, her dances are super cute lol, great sweet lolita style as well.

Then Miku came in with a speech for us Singaporeans. She sang Miku Miku ni Shite Ageru, Koi Suru Vocaloid and then The World is Mine, that's all, leaving us with some disappointment but we're ok because ANIKI is coming up next!

The smoke began to flood in and lights went psychedelic, Aniki bursts into the stage with a PILDER OOONN!!!! His silver coat was so bright it was shimmering with KOUSHIRYOKU ENERGY, his black and red costume is obviously CHOUGOKIN Z.

The crowd started yelling like never before, ZEEEEETTOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! The ground was vibrating from everyone's synchronised movements, it carried on through the entire concert.

He got us to yell ZEEEEEETTOOO!!! in dozens of ways. He tried cracking lots of jokes, he was really at home on stage, he controlled the crowd like no other.

We yelled all the hissatsu attacks from Mazinger Z, Great Mazinger, Getter Robo, Combattler V, Dangaioh, Koutetsu Jeeg and more. We henshin along with his Kamen Rider Medley, V3, Stronger, Super-1, Kamen Rider, X etc. He then ended with his favourite song, in the name of Captain Harlock.

There's no way we would let him go without an encore, which he returns with a different coat, a red one, he went through a Scrander Cross.

Being the Aniki he is, he invited Shokotan back on stage and together, they announce their first ever collaboration. Together they sang Gekiranger and Goranger OPs, the crowd by then is already burning from Hotbloodedness.

A pic of Aniki during the autograph session when photography is allowed. But he's too far for my camera and resulted with weak resolution. I also had to crop away all the other heads and hands with cameras lol



Shokotan during the really packed autograph session:


Day 2:

Before the concert started, we cheered for this cosplayer. I shouted Basara and he turned over to pose for me. He's awesome, he even stood on the chair at times to reflect the hotblooded passion during various parts of the concert.



Fukuyama Yoshiki overheated the crowd right from the start with King Gainer, the crowd completely went ballistic, its the most insane opening ever, its over-epicness. Then he sang Kamen no Maid Guy OP lol

Next was Remember 16 and Try Again acoustic, we went insane, you could hear the entire crowd sing Try Again.

The crowd burned with bright red passion as Makka no Chikai took place.

Then we yelled Totsugeki Love Heart and he immediately went for it, we exploded again. He ended his run with an epic Angel Voice, I'm sure the crowd was louder than the Space Whales.

We yelled for an encore, but the MC said the night is still young.

May'n came in with her dancers, she started with her Pink Monsoon songs, then proceeded with a whole lot of new songs from her upcoming new album, so new, I don't even know the names, but those songs were awesome, she just kept escalating and I can't even see whether she's stressing her voice with those.

After Shangri-La OP, she went straight to Northern Cross and then Lion, the crowd was ecstatic, everyone sang along. She then ended with Sagittarius, which she wants us to shout MOTTEKE!!!!!! It was the single loudest sound in the entire event, everytime we shouted MOTTEKE, punching our fists into the air thrice.

She then leaves and our encore is responded by the duet of Basara and Sheryl.

And the first song? DIAMOND CREVASSE DUET. WHAT!?

AND THEN WE GET DYNAMITE EXPLOSION DUET. MOTTEKE was the loudest, until we had DYNAMITE DYNAMITE DYNAMITE EVERY DAY EVERY NIGHT EVERY WHEEEEEEEEEEERREEE!!!!!!!!!!

The ground was vibrating under the bass and the synchronised arm punching and bodies hopping to the beat.

Yoshiki is awesome.



Anyway the cosplays:

The super sexy Witchblade cosplayer with Danny Choo:


The men died from this cleavage.


Awesome Sogeking.


Really nice BRS:


Another BRS:


I don't know who are they cosplaying, but they're amazing enough to pose for 1 and a half hours straight for photographs.


Kaname as Simon:


Before he hugged the 2 sexy Witchblade cosplayers:


The Gundam Cosplayer won the competition this year again, stealing both the Special and Grand Prizes. We were certain the Witchblade girls would get one, but it seems we're wrong.


We had quite a few good Macross Frontier Cosplays this year.


K-On.


As well as Vocaloids.


Haruhi giving out pamplets in bunny suit as usual, looking good as always.


A Bushido.


YATTA!x2 one of my favourite cosplays on day 2.


A really cute malay girl as Luffy, would have been my favourite if not for the Witchblade pair.


Ichigo:


Kaijin Diend, I think he did Decade in that previosu cosplay event.


Everyone's favourite Kirin set.


Good cosplays of characters I don't know:

[SaintessHeart]

I only went on Sunday due to unforeseen circumstances (Guys should know this).

I made a mistake of taking out my camera WITHOUT CHARGING IT. It almost busted when I tried to take my first picture, so I was rationing my battery for the whole day without taking any pictures.

Talking about the K-ON! Q&A, the most hilarious question was :

What is your favourite line in the anime?

Aki Toyosaki - Yui :
UN-TAN! UN-TAN! UN-TAN! This is cute but.....I lost quite a number of braincells listening to that.

Satomi Sato - Ritsu :
(To Mio, Ep 1)Do you remember? Our promise......

Minako Kotobuki - Mugi
Looowwweeer! (I believe she is talking about Mio's cleavage)

Ayane Takaketsu - Azunyan :
Nya...Nyaaaan!~ MOE OVERLOAD!!! I just went.....awwwwwwww.

Yoko Hikasa isn't there. What a pity. I would like to see the other seiyuus trolling her as a joke. Nice bowls....hmmmm.....

I will upload the pictures and my loot tomorrow. I had the urge to buy the Azunyan "NYAN!~" T-shirt, but it is too expensive. Right now, I need my beauty sleep.

[JokerD]

I though Aniki was a bit subdued in this year's performance compared to last year's. I wonder why, I thought he had a cold or something.

I'll upload my pics later tonight, work now

[C.A.]

Yea Aniki said he is having a sore throat and the smoke makes his throat even drier, that's why he keeps drinking.

Also, Fukuyama promises to bring his band and JAM Project back sometime.

Remember to check Shokotan's blog for the Gurren-dan pose with the entire crowd.

[Ottocycle]

@ C.A. I think I saw you on Sunday having at it with DYNAMITE. I should've joined you. XD

I wasn't able to attend the concerts though. I see what I missed out on and deeply regret it. Oh well, there's next year.

Anyone else caught the Summer Wars airing announcement on the subbed trailer? Feb 25, it said, exclusively at Cathay again! I salute Innoform Media and Cathay for their absolute awesome. At this rate we might get the Haruhi movie to be brought down. =3

K-On dubbed at the Animax booth was >_>.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Ottocycle

K-On dubbed at the Animax booth was >_>.

Since when has any dubbing been any better than the original? I don't think anyone can replace Ayane Takaketsu's epic moe "NYAN!~".