long post again... readers beware.
AFA'08pictures are copyright of their photographers. view AFA pics
here and
here.
AFA = Anime Festival Asia. it was held this year in Singapore,on the 22nd-23rd November'08. tickets for both days cost $8. (while for 1day it will cost $5)
i went with Eileen on the first day.
we saw this girl with a real good J-Rock hair! we wanted to know if she was going for the AFA and it turned out she was. (we also wanted to
stalk follow her to get a photograph of her but we didnt)
the queue was
LONG. and
long barely covers the extend of it. luckily,the cashiers worked real fast and we were able to get tickets quickly. Eileen was already gone taking photos of cosplayers. she got back in line on time to get her ticket though :D
there were many stalls/booths at the AFA. the 1st one we went to was booth that specifically puts up dolls for everyone to look and and photograph. there was another one called Manga Kissa, after its original stoe name. Manga Kissa is a manga cafe in Singapore. they went there to AFA to promote their services.
i loved this one which sells those mini items which look damn real. there were mini ice-cream stalls, mini kitchen, and mini food! it was so amazing i was gushing over it the whle time. but i only went to see most of the stalls with Esther on the 2nd day.
on the first day i was just walking about with Eileen,taking photos of cosplayers and all.. we found hikari (LiangYi) and miharu (HuiYing) and their friend QianYing at the Graffitti Wall. they (well at least hikari and qianying) were sort-of spamming the wall with their drawings.. qianying had her FMA gender bended Edward (Edwina) and Winry (Winter) in the drawings! there was 2 Gundam drawings on the wall and it looked very real! there was also a real spammer who drew longcat on all the pieces of paper at the graffitti wall.
there were also many drawings of artists above the graffitti walls for all to enjoy. (they are splendid pictures!!!)
there were glass shelves close to the graffitti walls,and on those were hundreds of figurines from anime and cartoons. there was Batman, Mickey, and Nanoha (and of course lots more!) [there was a girl figurine with a good (?) upskirt shot we could take pictures of.]
ChuangYi Publications also set up a booth to sell off manga (and now,i still have a lot to buy... Tsubasa 22-24, xxxHOLiC 12 & 13, Special A 11, Marchen Prince 4 & 5, Kuroshitsuji 3-5 so that is 11 books in all.)
there were a few people cosplaying as C.C. from Code Geass! and there was this guy who cosplayed as a character called Shiki from this yaoi game.. (or so Eileen says,and i believe her.)
on the stage were some performances by the cosplay groups.. the Code Geass one was of Lelouch trying to hide C.C.'s existance,with C.C. in an almost encounter with Suzaku. it was a hilarious skit. but skits were only performed on the first day as a small part of the events. the rest of the time was spent on screening several anime for the crowd to enjoy.
there was a domo-kun stall near the stage,selling various domo-kun items such as t-shirts. there were also some televisions near the stage,showing off and introducing various anime. there was: Casshern Sins, Skip Beat!, Code Geass, Toradora, Shakugan no Shana and D.Gray-man screened on the televisions.
Animax was also running about with cameras to take videos of cosplayers and parts of the event.
i think the most amazing thing at the event would be my witnessing of this wonderous item known as a tablet. one can draw and color on the tablet and it will show on the computer. oh,no,wait. the most amazing thing at the event is witnessing artists at work on the tablet. the draw and color so well!!! *envious*
and speaking of tablets, i believe i should buy one. just so i can practice drawing while waiting for anime to load and whatnot. and i think it will be a useful tool since i'm going to be studying animation soon. hopefully i will have mastered photoshop by then. (as of now, i can only crop some stuff, put in some effects and color a little on photoshop... i suck. i need to go look for tutorials.)
i cannot believe they actually put arcade stuff in the event,but they did. in the middle of the whole place were some arcade racing machines and people crowded around watching others race.
there were 2 evening performances,one on each day. the first night was by a man named Ichirou Mizuki, nicknamed Aniki by fans. apparently,he sang more than 1200 in his (roughly) 40 years of singing career!
i only recognized some of the songs he sang because they were from the Ultraman drama.. hahaha. Mizuki-san had this famous hand sign that was made up of his 2 thumbs and forefingers held above his head in a "v" sign. fans were singing along with him,and i joined in the fun. its almost too bad i had to leave early.
on the 2nd night was a performance by May'N. her costume was more flashy than Mizuki-san,who wore black suit-like clothes with a red coat.
EOY'08pictures are copyright of their photographers. view EOY pics
here and
here.
EOY was fun ^^ we took a break from work just to go there.
the theme for EOY'08 was Retro Anime Fever,but not all cosplayers cosplayed in old anime. actually,Eileen and i were hoping (?!?!?!?) for someone to cosplay Astro Boy. we imagined an old-ish uncle dressed up in a red underwear there. (lol whut?!)
there was Super Mario though! so cute!
Don Kanonji was there too,and his infamous Bwuohaha pose. i admire the cosplayer for holding that pose for more than 5 minutes straight! (okay,so photographers kept rushing forward to take photos.
there was also a super cute pair of children who cosplayed as Kon and Neilel! <3 them so much~
i actually prefer the cosplay the EOY to AFA,because the AFA was less for cosplay.
plus,the box-head people are back again! (i just loove them~ xD)
performances on stage were cool! i liked the one the Kuroshitsuji cosplayers did ^^ it was a skit,and dance was involved. who knew Sebastian and Ciel could dance in hip-hop style lols!
looking at the pictures...... i realised i actually had missed many cosplayers! Dx
but there were many cool weapons at EOY.
i salute you,cosplayers and weapon-makers!
and also those people who had spent like $1500 on this doll outfit with the weapon. (we asked them the price. they had the costume imported from overseas!)
again with the overwhelming number of Code Geass cosplayers,but they look great! someone cosplayed as Suzaku's Lancelot,which i thought was real cool! but that person couldnt see very well,and thus had the Anya cosplayer help him/her around.
another cosplayer sewed her own Yuuko's costume using some expensive-looking patterened cloth. my respects to her as well!
there was a group of people who cosplayed Vampire Knight, and i liked this girl who cosplayed Kurenai Maria. she's s really beautiful person! (i meant the cosplayer)
ack... so many cosplayers i want to commend~ i think you can decide for yourself who looks best xD