AFA 09 Day One: Danny Choo on stage

[youtube 5W-E0jexZDc]

Danny Choo, blogger extraordinaire and Tokyo stormtrooper, came down to Singapore for Anime Festival Asia together with Good Smile Company, who exhibited its series of anime figurines and nendoroids at the Tokyo Figure Show held in conjunction with AFA09.

Danny Choo is well known for his blog dannychoo.com, where he blogs about life in Tokyo and the Otaku (generally refers to people with a heavy interest in anime, manga and games) subculture. He’s also famous for going around Japan in his stormtrooper (from the Star Wars franchise) costume. Dannychoo.com has also been featured in various news media including CNN and the BBC.

Right before his on-stage appearance, we were shown his “Tokyo Dance Trooper in Singapore” video. The video showed Danny Choo in his stormtrooper costume, dancing in various iconic locations in Singapore, like the Merlion, Lau Pa Sat and Orchard Road (with the AFA09 maid café maids no less). Halfway through the video, the real Danny Choo appears on stage, in full imperial stormtrooper costume and all, performing his stormtrooper dance. This really got the crowd going.

After his dance, one of the AFA09 emcees (To the Yui cosplay emcee: I can’t seem to remember your name…sorry about that) introduces the “stormtrooper” and adds that it is the first time that the “stormtrooper” is in Singapore. They discuss the public reaction to Danny’s (No disrespect and all but it feels weird if I call him “Mr. Choo”) stormtrooper performance to which he answers that it is similar to Japan, where everyone likes to take pictures of him but no one really joins in.

The emcee asks about the weight of the costume and Danny jokingly answers that it gets “heavier” as the day goes by, when he first puts it on it weighs 25g and by night time it feels like 30kg, eliciting a few laughs from the audience.
Danny soon takes over the stage proper and introduces himself. He talks a little about his childhood (Born in the UK but went to Japan about 10 years ago) and his early dreams (“Since I was a small child, I always wanted to live and work in Japan.”).

Danny also talks about his job experience. He formerly worked as a website manager for Amazon Japan and a Product Manager for Microsoft’s Live.com. He currently runs his own internet solutions company Mirai Inc (“mirai” means “future” in Japanese), where he provides technical and marketing solutions to clients, helping them reach out to online users. He has also developed an e-commerce platform called Mirai Gaia. Some of his clients which use Mirai Gaia include Good Smile Company, Kotobukiya, Cospa and his own blog dannychoo.com.

Dannychoo.com initially started out as a testbed for internet technologies but has since evolved to a photo album (his PG Strike Gundam featured heavily early on, will discuss more on model kits in future), an online retailer for Mirai-chan (the blog’s mascot) products (like Mirai-chan oppai (breasts) mouse pads, which Danny calls “health” mousepads and T-shirts) and of course, a blog. He mainly blogs about the Otaku subculture, like anime, figurines, “itasha” (essentially cars with anime designs on the exterior), gadgets as well as travel in Japan.

During the session, Danny encourages people to blog and interact online, saying that it features and opportunity to connect with people as well as opening up opportunities, both in work and social life.

He writes his blog posts in both Japanese and English and encourages Japanese learners to do the same for their own blog and twitter accounts as a way to improve their knowledge of the Japanese language (Hmm…maybe I should start learning too…). His blog is also heavy in user generated content like the fanart and photos on his blog’s microsite, Figure.fm.

Some of the photos on his site has since been turned into a book. Pictures of otaku rooms which were featured on his site has been collected into a book called “Otacool”, a collection of pictures of otaku rooms around the world.

His “stormtrooper” habits started in 2005, where he simply walked around in Tokyo with his stormtrooper suit. He gives a funny anecdote of his experience as a stormtrooper, telling the audience how one of the suit’s straps had snapped in public, leaving the strap dangling near his crotch area, causing him great embarrassment. His habits were soon picked up by the local media and it soon became internationally known. He has also appeared on the official Star Wars website and blog as well. Interestingly, he also tried to do Darth Vader (the villain in the original Star Wars trilogy) before.

Overall, it was a great experience having Danny Choo in Singapore! Hope to see you again soon Danny!

Next up will be my coverage on the Anisong concerts @ AFA09! I am still trying to get the official photos, so we’ll see how it goes…

Credits: Thanks to jonnyfyy for the video.
For the full original Tokyo Dance Trooper in Singapore video, here’s part 1 and part 2