Monday, 24 November 2008

• AFA08 was amazing. Here's to next year!

  The first anime festival to be held in South East Asia has just ended yesterday, and it was a roaring success. AFA08 was a real blast. Also got to put a face to many of the bloggers whom I only know by name - Gordon, Panther, Shin, and more.
  

  

  At 9:30 on the first day, the crowd was already crazy.
  

  

  The brand that everyone loves to hate, or hate to love. Got my copy of the Code Geass Season 1 DVD, simply because it’s Geass.  Troll Odex if you like, but given the work they have done in the last few months, they have earned my grudging respect. They’ve achieved what’s arguably the world’s first in airing anime on the same week telecast in Japan (through the encoding and picture quality can be better…-_-)

  
  

   

  Some of the art that were put on display here were also shown during Kaldioscope 08. Since my worthless compact died on me during that time without my even getting one shot, I took the chance to grab some photos of CDS and IFS works.

  
  

   

  Looks like they wanted to bring out all the members of the SOS-dan but Mikuru got lost somewhere, so Nagato pulled some strings and got Kimidori to help fill the gap.  

                         

  

  Good Smile’s figure of Chu Chu Astram is looking awesome. Danny Choo has a review of her here, so you can take a look at it.
  

  

  Alter's Chua Churam. Awesome figure, and so moe I could die. Read Setsuna's review of her here.
  

  

  Miku and her younger siblings. I've been hunting for Miku Nendroid for a while now. Maybe I should break the glass...
  

  

  The Rozen Maidens...
  

  

  ...and my favorite doll of them all. The Mercury Lamp, Suigintou. No, she is not junk.
  

  

  Lenneth, the Battle Maiden Valkyrie.
  

  

  The Sky Crawlers. A must watch movie. So GAR I could cry.
  

  

  OMG Maid Saber! My Typemoon blood is burning.

   

  Tohsaka...I'm turning into a melty puddle of moe now...Please forgive my horrible phototaking skills.

  
  I went down late on the second day, so I missed the cosplay competition. Those photos I did take however, for one reason or the other, turned out horrible, so I'll instead post links to other blogs with far better pictures than my humble self. Ahaha.

  Still, the big highlight of the show is no doubt the appearance of Ichirou Mizuki aka Aniki and May'n. In before: No photos of them, as I was too busy cheering to take shots. Also, won't want to get into trouble with the AFA committee, ahaha.

  First off, Aniki is GAR. Even through it's my first time hearing his songs, his overwhelming stage presence still dominated the crowd - many of whom I'm sure are just like me, their first time encountering Ichirou's songs. It shows - this man is an experienced entertainer. His talents at crowd control got even the coldest of us up and jumping. His every move captivated his audience, and as he pour his soul into his songs, so did we cheer our hearts out for him. His coming down from the stage to get up close and personal with his fans was a nice touch. I finally understand why they say that a concert with Aniki isn’t a performance – it is an experience. And this is one experience I would forever treasure.

  The second day saw the appearance of the singing voice for the Galactic Fairy Sheryl Nome, May'n (or Nakabayashi May). Unlike Aniki, May’n is a singer of our generation, her voice engraved in our hearts by the hit anime series Macross Frontier. And as expected, the size of the crowd during the concert was CRAZY, stretching all the way back to the end of the hall. There were even people crowding at the second story balcony, just to catch a glimpse of their idol.

   
  

  Kagami's really happy to get a backstage pass to Sheryl's concert.

  If there's one thing I can say about May'n, it is that the rumors proved true. She really can sing live. Her powerful vocals nearly brought the house down with her rendition of the fan favorite Northern Cross, and the slow ballad Diamond Crevasse totally touched me. By far my second favorite song, it contained far more soul in it than can be felt through a mp3 or whatnot. In a way, it might be a good thing May’n didn’t sing “Shinkuu no Diamond Crevasse” (my absolute favorite), as the sheer heart rendering emotion present in that song would probably move the crowd to tears.

  Still, it’s a pity that she only sang seven songs. They were all her singles from Macross Frontier, and she didn’t sing any from her earlier two singles “CrazyCrazyCrazy” and “Falling In Or Not”, which is to be expected, I guess. Also, as Nakajima Megumi isn’t there, there’s no Lion. Ahaha.

  Following May'n concert was the handshake and autograph session, which saw one humorous event taking place. In double's own words,

  Quote

  "Darkmirage was on stage, about to get his handshake, when he was introduced to May’n and her manager as the person who translated the interview. Darkmirage appeared a little confused as the manager began bowing to thank him. At that precise moment, LianYL shouted out “DM I LOVE YOU!”. Hilarity ensures."

  Unquote.

  
  Seriously, I LOL'ed. But all wasn't bright and sunny for the fans. There was a certain amount of rage floating in the air as fans felt they had their expectations betrayed. Instead of May'n autographing items for them, all they got was her signature on a plain white cardboard. Now, I've heard that that cardboard is actually quite valuable in Japan, and it is how they usually do their autograph sessions, so in hindsight, it is to be expected. Still, that doesn't help the fact that many people's hopes were ditched, like this one guy who brought a VF-25 and built it overnight for May'n to sign. Anyway, e-jump has written a post regarding his feelings over here, so you  might want to go over and read about the whole incident from the eyes of one who paid the $120 for the Diamond VIP ticket.

  
  Anyway, talking about the May'n concert brings something else to mind. The organizers and May'n manger did request that there be no photography or recording devices allowed. But of course, Singapore being Singapore, people in the crowd whipped our their DSLRs, video recorders, handphone cameras and whatnot and taped down the whole thing. This is Singapore - we'd take photos even if you tell us not to. Heck, we'd do it just because you tell us not to.

  
  Frankly, I don't really care about recording or photo taking, just so long as it is kept for private useage and not distributed around for all and sundry. Doing so would only get yourself into trouble, and might ruin the chance for them to bring in even more artists. JAM Project and Nana Mizuki...One can only dream of them coming.

  
  Anyway, I really enjoyed myself for the past 2 days. It certainly was tiring, but it was a happy kind of tired. I had fun. Here's to AFA09!

  

  Best picture of the day. Bangdoll for you, sir?

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