Cosfest XIII Day 1 & 2 (Singapore)

The last time Cosfest will be held in Downtown East, hope they would held there again when the renovation is done. It left a lot of fond memories for my friends and me since 2004 (most of them already left the otaku world haha) and that really got me into cosplay photography too. Well, took me 6 years to save up my money to buy a DSLR camera.

Old story aside.... Both day were hot, humid and a slight rain to stop the open field picture taking on Day 2. The back building were taken up the pro with their cool equipment already setup (I dream of having those myself *saving $$*). The place were crowded with photographers, cosplayers and fellow otakus. Everyone was having fun and so do I. Been out with a dislocated right shoulder and sprained back from a fall so I was happy to be back taking pics of cosplayers ^____^v

My assessment for Cosfest, the booths look more organized than last year but still can be improve. The main stream booth sold anime merchandise and etc while smaller booth were selling badges, pins, postcard and a few of doujin. I wish the doujinshi culture in Singapore would boom like in Thailand or Taiwan, want to see SG artist showing off their stuff too. I find putting cosplay props display and cardboard walls in the middle of the tent made it less spacious which was hard to move around especially during raining period. Lastly, inside the tent on Day 2 was really warm >_< don't know if they really switch on the air-con or fan...However, it was fun and nice outside other than the rain =,="" More space for cosplayers and photographers to move around. If you ask nicely the cosplayers would be happy to pose for you! Oh remember to say "THANK YOU" to them too.

Anyway here are link to my Album:
Cosfest 2014 Day 1   Cosfest 2014 Day 2

Here are some shots I took on Day 1 & 2:

                

                          

Otaku Day 3 & 4 - Anime Festival Asia Day 2 & 3 (Singapore)

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)                                                                             

Otaku Day 2 - Anime Festival Asia Day 1 (Singapore)

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

Love Live! Followers (Source)

         One of Na*Su*Bi Mascot                                                                   Colossal Titan's Head

Maid & Butler Cafe

         Valerie & Danny Choo on Stage                                                                     IE-Tan

                -Valvrare-                                                                         Love Live! Booth

LiSA signing on her Booth!

International Cosplay Day Singapore 2013 (ICDS 2013)

Today is the day!! My first ICDS in Singapore!! It is at Orchard Road, SCAPE warehouse where some J-Artists had performed their concert before, Perfume, Scandal, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu just to name a few. There are special guests like Alodia (Cosplayer) and Jay Tablante (Photographer) from Philippines, Clive Lee (Cosplayer) and Yuanie (Cosplayer) from Singapore.

             

Of course not to forget the artist/doujin booths, cosplay contest, dances and interesting activities that you can participate in (Played WoW Bejeweled & Card game called "Crusade", I totally sucked at it even the person teaching me was kinda frustrated XD *sorry dude*). In addition, there is a post-event party and lucky draw and cosplay chess game (interesting concept!).

 

 For a medium scale event it was great. It encourage the visitor to be active by particicipating the game if they want to join the voting for the cosplay chess game(CCG) which if voted the winning team can entitle them to join the lucky draw.

 The performance of the CCG was very memorable for me, decent action scene and acting skill but there was some hick-up here and there on the sound/voice, hope they can improve it next year since this is event has been in the 3rd year but kudos to the cosplayers and staffs for the hard work (You guys deserved two thumbs up from me).

Overall, fun and enjoyable event! Manage to talk to Jay on Lin Minmei photograph (haha sorry a big Minmei fan =X), bought some goodies and participate on the activity and learn something new too (card game XD). For those that want to see the rest of the picture i took do visit my facebook album link below =)

ICDS 2013  - Photo Album

Cure Festival 2013 (Singapore)

A very very late report on Cure Festival from me. I have been busy after uploading the pictures on my facebook album.

It was an outdoor event near the Marina Bay Sand hotels. The weather was cloudy and humid but there was always a slight brisk of wind blowing so it wasn't that bad. Except the back of my neck got burnt (>_<"). Well anyway because of the weather I should have used more flash on my picture taking or maybe edit it with photoshop.

The event was crowded as usual and a with wide range of anime character being cosplayed. Especially, being in Singapore you would expect quite a number of foreign cosplayers/visitor/photographer(?) attending the event. The main attraction would be JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Posing contest and Pitcha, Japanese Cosplayer that was one of the judge of the contest. Sorry that I didn't take much of the stage event. There were a few Kagura Cosplayers, Mirai Nikki's Yandere girl and I was surprise to see Dark from DN Angel (very rare to see DN Angel cosplayers since 10 years ago I guess).

I left early since I got other stuff to do but all in all a good and fun event. I manage to meet a cosplayer that added me on facebook last year. Hope to meet him again at other events. There was also an unoffical 2nd day for Cure Festival but I didn't attend. Seen some of the pictures and they were having so much fun.

More on Cure Festival:
https://www.facebook.com/COSFESTASIA

More Pictures I took:
Cure Festival 2013

Japan Mania Festival Extra

I forgotten to add the video that I recorded... Silly me! Anyway Enjoy the short clips.

Random Dance by Random Cosplayers ^^v I really love this one:

A short clip on the Idol Group dancing on the main stage:

Japan Mania Festival - Thailand

Japan Mania Festival, the first anime related event in Bangkok after the Song Kran Festival was finish.  The event is held annually at ekkamai gateway shopping mall which is located beside the BTS station for easy access for tourist like me :) The mall has a Japanese oriented theme to it. There are anime like characters and traditional drawing on each floor of the restroom area. Some of the rest area are decorated with Japanese famous dolls as their benches. 

I went the event around 12.30pm and had lunch on the food court (food was decent no complaint) and then straight to the 2nd floor where there were a few booths selling doujinshi, accessories, figurines and etc. in addition, there was a booth selling food and beverages with cosplayers serving them. Oh let's not to forget a small stage :)

The turned out of cosplayers were good for a pretty small event. There were 3 or 4 of Rika from Chuubyou (maybe I lost track) and lots of maids and school girls (I guess from K-ON?) on the events. Most of them were pretty and cute too ((⌒-⌒; )) The most interesting cosplayers I came across was a guy with a panty on his head (what anime or game he is from?) and two cute Disney characters (Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse).

I managed to have my small adventure too. I did not know that on the 3rd floor, there were more cosplayers. However, most of them were preparing their costume and wigs so I decided not to disturb them and walked to a small anime shop called "BakaToon". They sold manga and illustration books in Thai language so did not stay long and go for my cosplayers hunting. Along the way, I took pictures of K-ON characters cardboard but "Where the hell is Mio?!" I was practically saying out loud in Bahasa Indonesia. Thank god nobody knows what I was saying at that time. OK let's forget about and move on! 

I decided to walk the escalator area and found a group of cosplayers trying to do something (dunno what they were talking) and when their hands were on dance like position. My god-like instinct changed the setting to video and managed to record most of their dance. I do not know what they were singing but the person beside was laughing. My guess maybe a gag song?

By then I had given up on finding my Mio and when to Toast Box for a rest and get myself a cup of Hot Milo.I have not done any photo taking for some time and legs were cramping up too. YES, life of an otaku ＞_＜ Gonna start training again :p

Getting a short rest, I went up again and watched a stage performance by a AKB48 like performance. They were pretty good to be able to dance on a small stage with 8 or more members. And yes everywhere you go you will always find fanboys dancing along with the performance *Salute* I got a lot of respect for you guys. 

After the performance, as i was heading to escalator direction, i found Mio!!! She was next to a booth all along (Baka me). After taking Mio picture, I decided to have an early dinner at the food court and head back home. Along the way, I had a bad stomachache after eating the beef noodle. HAha guess I should be careful on my food intake na....

Overall, a great event to kick start the anime scene after a crazy Song Kran Festival week :D. I would love to see more unused space on 3rd floor to hold a small doujinshi event but that would be highly unlikely since I bet the space is prepare for new shops that the mall management is planning. I love how the cosplayers tried to use the limited space, moving around a lot. Hope to see you again! Khob Khun Krab!

Pictures: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.161544560677344.1073741825.100004654028054&type=3

PS: For those that love Maid, there is a maid cafe nearby! (⌒-⌒; )