The highly anticipated Anime Festival Asia 2009 came and went. Here is a summary of what I saw and experienced over the two full days in which I attended:
I thought was early when we arrived at Suntec City on Saturday morning at 9:20 am. Little did I know that there was already a huge line of people waiting to buy and collect their tickets. You can just feel the passion and eagerness in the air.
After the doors opened, the first booth we visited was Danny Choo’s Tokyo Figure Show booth. And of course, Danny was at the booth himself – fully decked out in his Stormtroopers gear – to meet with the early morning attendees.
(I photographed every single last figurine on display in Danny’s Tokyo Figure Show. Check them out here.)
One of the new attractions at AFA this year is of course, the Moe Moe Kyun maid cafe. For most of the two days, the place was consistently packed with people, with queues for entry sometimes getting about 20 or 30 people long. IMO, the food was only mediocre and incredibly overpriced, but then again, that’s the premium one has to pay to be served by our eight adorable resident maids.
As expected, photography inside the cafe was strictly prohibited. However, I was able to sneak in a shot from the outside of the cafe (imagine, an indoors coffee shop has actual windows). Here we have Miyake discussing something with maid leader Yoshimi.
Of course, the other main draw of AFA this year are all the special guests that were flown in from Japan to take part in the 2-day I Love Anisong concert. Here is Shoko-tan during her autograph session on the first day (she also covered AFA extensively in her blog). On a side note, the event organizers picked the absolute worst place to hold an autograph session; the walkway between the stage area and the event main tent was completely blocked for like 30 minutes.
Aniki was spotted roaming around the event floor early on the second day. Here is a photo of him with a cosplayer who I think is playing Diend from Kamen Rider Decade. Well, at least that’s what I think Diend would look like if he was 30 kg heavier and a whole lot sloppier. 
I can safely say that AFA this year kicked the behind of AFA last year in almost every way conceivable, except perhaps in the number of retail outlets selling figurines. And combined with very good social media coverage building up to the event, naturally there were a ton of people everywhere. That’s not a bad thing for both the event organizers and the attendees, but perhaps that means that if there is going to be an AFA 2010, perhaps a bigger venue is in order?
This was a pretty typical view of the event venue, no matter which of the two days it was or where you turned. People were everywhere.
While I greatly enjoyed almost all of the exhibits and attractions at AFA this year, my favorite exhibit is actually the Extravaganza Art Showcase, which is an art exhibit featuring artwork from independent artists and professional studios in Singapore and around the region.
(I documented every single piece of colored artwork in the Extravaganza Art Showcase. Check them out here.)
The quality of the artwork is surprisingly (to me) top notch; I would even say that some of the artwork is comparable to what our peers in Japan produce. This gives me great optimism and hope that there indeed is talent here in Singapore, and it is possible to nurture this talent into a cottage industry of anime artists and content producers, provided that folks with the means (government, schools, private sector) are willing to make some investments and take some risks. The inaugural Anime Asia Conference is a step in the right direction, and it still disturbs me to this day that I wasn’t able to go and attend AAC.
Lastly, which anime convention would be complete without its share of Cosplayers? And boy, did AFA have cosplayers! You can’t turn any corner at AFA without seeing a cosplayer. There were so many cosplayers at AFA this year, the entire second floor of Suntec City was taken over by the cosplayers and their legions of fans and photographers to become some kind of ad hoc photo studio!
(I took over 480 photos of cosplayers during the two days AFA. Check them out here.)
Unfortunately, besides having a jolly good time throughout the two days, I did not get much material goods from AFA this year. No stickers, SWAG, goodies, autographs, retail merchandise. Nothing – even though I paid for the expensive two-day concert pass. The only thing I brought home was Danny’s OTACOOL book, and even then it’s not one of the autographed copies. Compared to last year’s AFA where I managed to bag May’n’s autograph, this was the only letdown for me this year.
However, all up – I believe AFA was a resounding success this year. Certainly by every objective measure I can see (except again, perhaps the number of retail outlets selling figurines), this year’s AFA was better than last year’s. I really hope the event organizers and sponsors achieved every single KPI or ROI they set out to achieve from AFA and AAC, because I don’t even want to imagine a 2010 without AFA in Singapore.
‘Til AFA 2010!
For additional coverage on AFA, check out the awesome reports compiled by The Banzai! Effect, DarkMirage, Magnetic Rose, Akibatan (Thai), Hontou Ni, Alafista (on AAC) and the gorgeous Alodia.
All my AFA photos are posted on my public Picasa Web Albums: Cosplayers, Gundam 30th Anniversary, Tokyo Figure Show, Extravaganza Art Showcase and other photos. Check them out!
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