We managed to finagle a set of media passes for the Anime Festival Asia 2009 press preview. While I admit that it may be a little late in the day (or night) for this to be a true preview, it would be remiss of us not to at least make good use of the materials gathered.
No pictures will accompany this post until Chief Engineer/Editor Matafleur explains why IMG tags do not seem to work.
The press preview was a relatively short presentation of the major guests at AFA09 standing on the stage for us to ogle at prior to the festival itself. Presumably this would allow us to Spread The Word and drum up further hype for the event.
As I said, this post is probably a little late for that.
The guests were all already there for the Asia Animation Conference 2009, which required A Lot Of Money to join, or at least media accreditation more robust than ours. They did take the time out for this press preview, for which we thank them.
Somehow.
Danny Choo, whose blog is the most popular English-language Japanese pop culture blog in the world. If you were lucky, or if you followed his Twitter, you might have seen him dancing in his Stormtrooper armour at the Central Business District, as well as ION at Orchard Road.
Mr. Choo will be at the Kotobukiya booth for the international launch of Otacool: World Wide Otaku Rooms, a book with pictures of “otaku rooms”.
(Yes, I know. I’ll explain the whole “otaku” thing in a later post; now is not the time.)
Other than that, he’ll be with Mirai-chan (aka Mirai Suenaga), the intriguingly cute mascot for his site. Oh, and the booth for that as well.
Mamoru Hosoda, director at Madhouse Studios, and most well-known (at least recently) for the critically-acclaimed 2006 anime movie The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo). This AFA he’ll be promoting Summer Wars, which has had its plot explained to me by my co-pilot Kindaichi17. I’ll let them fill in the details; I can say that it genuinely sounds interesting, and I’m wondering why I’ve not been more active in seeking out information for the movie. Apparently DKellis fails at journalism.
Summer Wars will be released in Singapore next January.
Ichirou Mizuki, on his second visit to Singapore, having arrived and performed at last year’s AFA. Known by fans as “Aniki” (“big brother”, informally), or more likely “Aniki-sama” (“big brother”, informally but with a highly-respectful and almost idolizing view), he’ll be performing again in the I Love Anisong concerts.
When asked for comments about his feelings about being here, he replied that he likes Singapore, the “beautiful country with beautiful people”. Mr. Mizuki is clearly having a blast, hamming it up for the cameras and the press.
May’n, also on her second visit to Singapore, and also having performed at last year’s AFA. She’s known for her role as the singing voice of Sheryl Nome in the anime Macross Frontier (the speaking voice is Aya Endo), and she may or may not be here to promote her upcoming second album. Really: when the MC asked her about that, May’n coyly replied, “Look forward to it.” It’s a surprise, it seems.
She also addressed us in English when asked about her feelings about Singapore: “I’m very happy to be back here. Singapore is like a second home to me.”
Kaname, although I suppose his actual name should be “Kaname (star)”, but we’ll make do without the sign for now in case of bad browser renderings. A well-known cosplayer, having made his debut as Cloud Strife (Final Fantasy 7, particularly the version from the movie Advent Children) in 2007. He looked a little surprised to be in Singapore, as he explained (through the MC’s translation): “I’m just a normal person in Japan.” He had not expected so many fans in Singapore, and he added that “everyone here is very cute”. (If you’re wondering, yes, the word was “kawaii“.)
Other highlights for this year’s Anime Festival Asia include the main vocal cast for the anime K-On!, idol/voice actress/illustrator Shoko Nakagawa (aka Shoko-tan), and Yamaha’s virtual idol Hatsune Miku. Unfortunately, they could not make it to Singapore in time for the press preview, which raises the interesting question of how a “virtual idol” travels.
The finale for the press preview was a signing of the AFA mascot by the five guests on the stage.
Mamoru Hosoda took the opportunity to draw a picture for his autograph.
And Ichirou Mizuki signed for Shoko-tan.
We did not attend the rest of the Asia Animation Conference, mostly because we are broke and there is no way we can pay the fees required. We did take a look at the controlled panic that is every festival the day before opening, with AFA being no exception, but that is a story for another time.
Pictures IN THE FUTURE taken by Kindaichi17 and Matafleur.
- my god, it’s full of stars