Himawari Blue Art: Anime Festival Asia Singapore 2013

AFA Day 2

After a good 8 hours sleep when to toastbox to have my breakkie before going the MRT station to meet up with my other friend. We reached the hall around 10.30am. I planned to go to the main stage to watch SAO anime showcase but there was already a messy queue of people waiting infront of the door and the organizer did not expect this much people. The entry was almost like a riot. The audiences really have no control of themselves cutting queue and running in the main stage hall like kids (please grow up a bit people). (ｰｰ;)

The SAO showcase was pretty decent nothing much just the director and producer talking about the anime while being interviewed by Reiko and Hisanori Yoshida. I wished there were a QnA session with fans, liked last year where Danny used twitter as a source of communication for fans with the director or producer. After that the Horipro artist showcase started with Valerie, Ayaka Ohashi, Azusa Tadokoro and May'n. each lady got their time to introduce themselves and sang a songs for the fans. I watched until Azusa sang and then left for lunch with my group.

When lunch break was over we parted our ways since each of us had different objective for going to AFA. For me was taking cosplayer pictures, watching anime screening and listening to anime producer and director speaking. I was joined with a friend in the photo taking walkabout. I walked around the hall taking pictures for almost 4 hours and before realizing I missed Pyscho- Pass and Love Live! Anime showcase （；￣ェ￣). I didn't hear my phone alarm *sigh*. I have to admit the level of cosplay kept improving in Singapore.

Cosplayers photos link:

AFA Day 2 Pictures

AFA Day 3 Pictures

We took a break at the 3rd floor and found some guys showing off their dollfies so decided to take pictures of their wife or daughters. After that we continued to take pictures until my battery was out of battery. Later we meet up with another friend and three of us decided to go for an early dinner and rest before going into the booths hall to buy some goodies ( less crowded during 7+). Here is my share of goodies:

Freebies & Goodies

Cosplayers & Dollfie Pics from Day 2 (more @ FB)

AFA 2013 Day 1

Welcome to Day 1 of Anime Festival Asia in Singapore which held in Suntec City Convention Hall near city area. The Convention Hall has just been renovated and everything looks new. The number of booths increase but it looked smaller compared to last year in Expo. The crowd was mediocre since it was Friday so for those real anime otaku merchandises grabbing buyers it was the best day to visit since the stock of goodies and freebies were available.

I reached the Hall around 9.30am and there were already a long line. The door was supposed to be open at 10.30am but due to the long queue, the organizer opened the door half an hour earlier *\(^o^)/* I managed to get in around 15 minutes later and decided to browsed around the "Creator's Hub" aka doujinshi booth and found out some of the artists were from the neighboring countries too. Most of the items that were selling were badges, pins, postcard, posters and some doujinshi books (these items cost range from SGD3 to SGD50). The effort and love that put into the making these quality items can be seen from the excited and tired looking faces. Great Work guys ヾ(＠⌒ー⌒＠)ノAlong the way, I met an old face at the booth selling his artwork from a forum that i used to hangout, we chit-chatted a bit and later parted my way to meet my friend.

There was not a lot of cosplayers on standby during Day 1 so I mostly spent my time in the main stage with my friend, watching anime screening (Gintama Movie, Little Witch Academia and Pyscho-Pass). The seats were pretty empty with an estimation of 50 people on their seats to watch the anime screening. But it was fun watching anime screening with fellow anime otaku. We could laughed loudly together without having people staring and thinking we were watching kiddy stuff.

After the anime screening was over my friend and I parted ways as he was working night shift. I went for another round in the hall this time taking pictures of figurines from Good Smile, Bandai and Tamashii. The displayed figurines were mostly showcase from last year, Saint Seiya, Gundam series,One Piece and etc. The newer ones were Valvrare, Shingeki no Kyojin and Kuroko no Basket figures.

Along the way, Magical Witch Madoka, Sword Art Online, Love Live and Shingeki no Kyojin had their respective booth selling official items like T-shirts, posters and etc. There was a group of hardcore idol fans that made into the facebook news page when they were bowing and praying homage to Love Live characters behind the booth area. I did not managed to get a picture of them doing it but will post the fb pic. There were other booths like Danny Choo's CJ, Toyota promoting their Na*Su*Bi mascots, anime and backing by idol group called "A応P" aka Anime Ouen Project, "Million Arthur" having pre-registration event and IE-Tan booth where I got by T-shirt.

Around 6 pm I left the hall looking half dead but with a big big smile on my face. Tell you guys the truth, I could not sleep the night before feeling so so excited like a kid going for his first trip to the theme park, in the end only had 4 hours of sleep in total. Haha very pathetic indeed ^o^

Anime Festival Asia Day 1 Pictures

https://www.facebook.com/aoi.je.9/media_set?set=a.226489847516148.1073741833.100004654028054&type=3

Day 1 Queue