Anime Festival Asia

Last weekend there was an Anime Convention here in Singapore. Did I go?... Of course I went!
Some of you who have frequented my blog posts for a longer period of time, might be aware that I really enjoy anime. I usually try to attend Megacon, the convention that comes to Orlando every spring, so I was really excited to be able and go to one while in Asia.

Right off the bat, the most exciting thing about the convention, was that it was cheap! I don't remember right off the top of my head how much Megacon was last year, but it was probably at least around $30. Anime Festival Asia, AFA for short... $8!!! That's right, I said 8 bucks! No this got you entrance to the event for one day and included the exhibition room. That was also where the signings took place and the gaming.

Now the convention had another main attraction... Anisong. They had concert tickets available for all the groups playing, but I didn't have time to stay for all of that part... so sorry, no comment on all of that section. I expect that the concert was actually the biggest part for a lot of people, though. There have been commercials playing on TV for their arrival for a while now.

So anyway, I head off to the convention, and to be honest, my expectations were all over the place. To start out with, I expected it to be hugely popular and crowded.. I mean, this is Aisia we're talking about. you expect Anime to be popular. I also expected there to be a lot of Cospley (dressing up as the characters), and I expected them to be pretty good quality, or maybe more extreme. Thirdly, I expected there to be stuff to buy everywhere. I wasn't really planning on getting a lot of Merchandise, but I still was expecting to find it.
On the other hand, I had tried to set lower expectations for the Convention. In the US, when people attend bug Cons, like Megacon, I don't only see anime. People dress up however they like... Star Wars, Star Trek, Anime, Popular Movie Characters, Pop artists, Disney... you name it, you could see it.

To be frank, I felt like AFA lacked a lot. Their exhibition room was a pretty good size, and it was certainly very crowded (Asian as far as the eye could see!), but in all other areas of my expectations, they fell dismally flat.
One of the biggest disappointments was definitely the lack of stuff to buy. Don't get me wrong, there was stuff to buy there...but where was the huge tower of Tshirts? Where were the countless stacks of posters? It just wasn't the same. There were cosplayers, but most of them were pretty simple. All in all, a bit disappointing, I would say.

So even though it is a little sad that the Asian Anime Convention I had so anticipated was a little, well... boring, I am still glad I got to go and see it! Can't wait for Megacon in Orlando, though!