Anime Festival Asia (AFA) 08 Photo Report and Loot

It was hard deciding on the title pic. Cute girls won over figures. (^o^);

Alrighty, instead of commenting and uploading tons of pictures, for the Great Singapore Anime Festival known as AFA08, I’ll be uploading all the pictures on Photobucket (cause you need to pay for Flickr), and commenting on stuff I find interesting.

Once again, all these people make events possible.

Overall, AFA08 was a complete blast. There’s just no other way to put it. My first Convention was the Singapore Toy and Comic Convention which was held on a weekend of June. But this convention was ten thousand times better. Most likely because they had their main focus on Anime. That would most likely change though, with news that AFA08 and STCC will merge come next year.

Without further ado, let’s dive straight in to this first ever photo report on Actar’s Reviews of AFA08!

Click the titles to see most (uploading all would take an eon) of the pics I took of the various aspects of Anime Festival Asia.

Masugu GO!

– FIGURES AND GUNDAMS

There were a couple of figure exclusives sold there. I only got the Gundam Crystal Exia. More on that in my AFA Loot post. There was also a figure display by ToysnToys that consisted of figures from various companies. However, no ‘to be released’ figures. Only stuff that are already out in the market.

Gundam wise, I have absolutely no idea. Currently, I’m not yet a Gundam fan, so I can’t really comment on them. Models that were made by pros were displayed, along with the winners of Gundam Making Contests. Great stuff. My skill level is 1000 times lower…

– STORES AND BOOTHS

Stuff > My Money

Akiba Town was mostly made up of stores and booths put up by local Anime stores like KKnM, Latendo and Rapid Culture. These stores were selling mainly their old stock of figures and other merchandise for low, low prices.

At the end of the event, Latendo even had a little auction that attracted an enormous crowd.

– COSPLAY

What’s an event of cosplayers? Besides the Cosplaying teams that participated in the Cosplay Mania Competition, there were numerous Cosplayers dotting the convention hall. You’ll see the competition and the general cosplayers in the album.

I was so glad that 2 teams that won prizes were from Code GEES (Not a spelling error. No one knows how to pronounce Geass).

One of the most impressive costumes was a cardboard Vincent. He deserved the Ichiro Mizuki autograph for his outstanding work.

Other cosplayers that impressed me were the ones from Macross Frontier (Title Pic), Code Geass and the Vocaloid team.

All of the cosplayers were kawaii, but the girl that was cosplaying as Nodoka in the pic above is extra kawaii. (Need more Negima! Cosplayers)

– CONCERTS

Z!

Both Aniki’s and May’n’s performance were outstanding. They put in so much passion and effort into their performances that I was truly moved. Though I haven’t watched any of the classic series like Mazinger Z or Combattler V, I now really want to after Aniki’s concert.

Macross Frontier is an awesome Anime and so are their songs. I managed to finish watching the series before May’n’s concert, so I could fully appreciate the songs. Sadly, she did not sing Triangle, my favourite song from the series.

– ARTWORKS

Kira~

The above picture is from our local Doujin Artist group: Collateral Damage Studios. I bought their Nanoha A’s set along with a mini Strike Witches poster.

They had other stuff for sale, like buttons and bookmarks. A doujin came along with the poster set. The doujin is my first real-life doujin. Story was great as they combined both Nanoha A’s and Haruhi. Two of my all-time favourite Animes. There were so many other references hidden in the comic! Full Metal Panic! Chidori’s Harisan, Macross Frontier Ranka’s Kira and even Konata’s impression of Kagami in the page above. I suppose that there are more references that I have yet to discover. Needs more Yuri – Hentai scenes!!! (I know that that’s impossible. This is Singapore…(TT.TT))

Lots more art there. From fan works to official art and sketches from movies by Studio 4C.

END

Well, that’s that for AFA08. Once again, I had a ball of a time there. Being together with people that share your interests is indeed something. Managed to meet various bloggers, whose sites will by now be on my blogroll. Thanks for saying hi guys!

Something for my fans on YouTube:

Omedeto Gozaimas!

dgreymanime, the winner of my Anniversary Contest, met up with me at AFA08. There, I passed him his prize of the In Action!! Offshoot Lancelot. He seems like a great guy. Hope you enjoy that figure!

WATASHII NO AFA08 LOOT!!!

Here’s what I got:

Figma Kyon
Figma Tsuruya
Figma Miyuki
Atelier-Sai Mikuru
Atelier-Sai Yuki
Konami MMS Echijo Eika
Konami MMS Sakurano Otoha
Exclusive Clear Gundam Exia
Gundam 00
Prop Plus Lelouch
Prop Plus Suzaku
Bandai’s Aqua Drop
Fuko Clannad Clock
Nagisa Clannad Clock
3 X Negima!? Figumate
Nanoha Artwork Set
Kallen Poster

Not a bad haul at all. I was sad that Koizumi was sold out, he’s the last Figma I’m missing for my Haruhi group. Also, that Mikuru figure is very special as it made a cameo somewhere. Can someone guess where? Cookies if you guess correctly.

Another thing that saddened me was that they did not have the MMS Karen. Fans of Sky Girls know that she completes the trio of girls. Need to track her down online…

Now for some site updates. As you can see, I’ve decided on my watermark design. Please do tell me if you like it or not. I’m also thinking of recreating my banner.

All that’s left is to wait for next year’s con. I really hope to see you there and stay tuned for my AFA08 loot post!