An Actual Update? …Along with Thoughts on AFA

Er… Hi. As many of you would have probably noticed, recently, there hasn’t been much going on here aside from updates pertaining to new Actar’s Review episodes and Loot posts… Even my reviews have been becoming more and more irregular.

Do I have a good excuse? Not really, aside from the fact that my real life has been pretty busy now… Cliche, I know, but it’s the truth. My mid-terms just ended about a weeks ago and I have finals (Next month… ARGH!!!) and project deadlines fast approaching. Considering the fact that it’s my first semester of University, I’m still trying to get used to the system.

I know that many of you enjoyed the numerous articles that I’ve written in the past, dealing with relatively controversial issues in Anime fandom. Don’t worry, it’s not like I have no material left or have lost interest in writing, it’s just that it does take a considerable amount of time (gathering info, structuring my arguments, writing legibly, etc…) to complete one and I don’t have the luxury. Any free time that I do have is devoted to earning money for figures, creating figure reviews, catching up on a crazy backlog of Anime and sleeping. Though, rest assured that I do have about 5 to 10 articles that I’m currently working on, bit by bit, and should be putting them up one by one.

Aside from that, I do have some things that I want to talk about.

AFAX. aka Anime Festival Asia X. Now, I love this convention. I mean, it IS our only ‘big scale’ Anime convention. (^.^) But I have some issues with the way that they are running things.

Firstly, concert tickets. I mean the first year, people who didn’t buy the horrendously expensive VIP passes got a chance to enjoy the musical acts (albeit standing behind the VIP pass holders) for free. In 2009, the ‘free viewing’ area was pushed to the back. This year? You need to PAY to even stand at the back.

While in the first two years, people could freely enjoy stage activities (Karaoke/Cosplay Competition, Movie Screenings, etc…) you need to PAY to even access these events this time round. Seriously? It’s getting worse and worse every year. For the money strapped Singataku like me, it’s very, very hard to even consider biting…

Next, autographs. In my opinion, the way they handle these things are pretty bizarre. From what I’ve heard form people who attended numerous Anime conventions held in the US, people are usually able to get Autographs from celebrates, guests and industry people for free. It was a first come first serve thing and all one had to do was to wait in line. Not to mention, most of the time, they are able to get anything (toys, books and other merchandise) signed.

From what I understand, Anime Festival Asia isn’t so generous when it comes to autographs. I don’t know whether it is by the Convention management or the artistes themselves, but the only methods to get autographs are:

– Buying an expensive ‘Diamond’ pass. If I’m not mistaken, this was also only limited to a selected few. (May’n gave out pre-signed boards)
– Buying Shoko-tan’s CD (she could only sign the CD).
– Lucky Draw (Cast of K-On! randomly picked people from the audience)

Notice that all the above methods required one to either spend money and/or be extremely lucky. I apologize to misrepresenting AFA if I have gotten any of the above wrong, but I doubt I did.

Thankfully, while walking around for the past two years, I happened to bump into a number of industry people like the President of Production IG and managed to get his signature. (Yes, yes, I know I forgot to blog about AFA09, but I was in the middle of my A-Levels!)

Of course, it might not be the fault of AFA at all. It could possibly the managers of the stars did not allow autograph sessions, budgeting concerns, etc… But if America can do it, so can Singapore.

But, all in all, AFA isn’t too bad. In fact, it’s pretty good actually. What with all the figures, events, dealers, guests, cosplayers, etc… it’s really fun. Not to mention, it’s a great way to meet with people that you only hear from in the form of text or pictures.

Speaking of meet ups, if anyone will be going to AFA and manage to identify me, stop and say hello!

I’ll be looking forward to AFAX to see if they have managed to improve the way in which things are run and am really looking forward to the screening of the Haruhi movie. In all honesty, I would really love to blog about AFAX, however, I doubt that would be a possibility as I have my finals straight after. (^.^;) (Gah, why must they always hold AFA in November and not December?)

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So, that’s pretty much all I have to say this time round. Will have a Vlog, or more accurately, an ASR, up soon regarding AFA as per the last two years.