It is my first time to AFA ID and I have mix feeling on about the event. Therefore, kind of difficult for me to write a proper report. Anyway, I will list between pro and con of the event.
Firstly, let me list out the cons from the beginning that i came to JCC around 11am:
1) There were so few ticket booths on that day, 6 to 7 booths that cater to thousand of people coming.
2) The queues to buy the ticket were so confusing, there were like 2 different starting queues which later bottleneck into 1 queue. (Estimated wait 2hrs+, so decided to buy it from the black market guy at Rp220,000 (USD$20) after negotiation for Ex + Stage ticket)
3) Entry queues was kind of weird that they restricted the entry for Ex ticket holder. I saw some of them waiting in line for more than an hour just to gain entry into the Exhibition.
4) For a famous event like this, the Exhibition Hall was just too compact and small. The movement of the crowd is trying to gain entry into Comiket haha...
5) Layout for B1 was very very small!!! Behind the food street area there is unused Hall which I believe can be use for resting area. While the Creator Hub and Cosplay Photozone deserved more spaces so that more people could easily access to buy doujinshi stuff or take pictures of the cosplayers.
6) Not sure about this but I wonder if there was any room for cosplayers to prepare themselves?? I saw a lot of cosplayers hogging the toilet mirror or changing to their costume.
Now the pros:
1) The Plenary Hall where the movie screening, guest appearance and concert was great. There are two floors so people could easily find seats. (Do take note of the stairs, a lot of people almost fell down due to unknown reason including me =,=)
2) The line up of guest appearance was fantastic with Aya Hirano, the main attention grabber. However, May'N, BABYMETAL and the other artists did not lose either with fans cheering and shouting.
3) The price of anime goodies seem to be cheaper compare to Singapore or Malaysia. I cannot confirm it.
Overall:
A decent event the stage crowd was fantastic and the line-up of artists were great. Still! The lack of manpower and disorganization by the organizer can be seem clearly. Especially, the organizer should have a least expected a huge crowd to visit the event while only having a decent size convention hall is kind of weird to me. When the visitors were tired no specific place to rest, most of them sat on staircase on toward the 2nd floor or a small space on B1 near the Food Street. I hope these problem could be address by the organizer on the next AFA ID if there is any.
~Danny Choo's Booth area~
~NOoo BABYMETAL don't run from my cam~
~Inside the Plenary Hall~
~Goodies I got from AFA ID 2013~
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