We’re about one month away from what is probably the biggest anime convention in Singapore (if not the Southeast Asian region), Anime Festival Asia 2011. Now into its fourth edition, lets take a look at what AFA’s organisers have in store for us this coming November. 
First up, we have the RCC 2011, a.k.a the Regional Cosplay Championships 2011. A team of two players from each country in the region (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand) will be selected from local auditions in each country to participate in RCC 2011, where prize money, a trip for two to Japan and the title of Regional Cosplay Champion are at stake.
This year’s AFA Anime Theatre features some of this year’s hit anime movies, like Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos, Sora no Otoshimono: A Clockword Angeloid and Naruto Shippuden – Blood Prison. AFA will also have the “same-day as Japan” premier of Gundam Unicorn: Episode 4 and the Singapore premier of Mardock Scramble: The Second Combustion. More details on the movie screenings will be announced later.
I ♥ Anisong: Rock Your Soul Super Anisong Concert will have some of this season’s hottest anisong singers, with the concert spread out over three days. Hatsune Miku takes centre stage on November 11th.
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- FLOW
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- © Ichirou Mizuki / yellow bird
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- LiSA / © Aniplex, Sony Music Artistes. Inc.
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- Sea☆A
J-Rock band FLOW, anisong legend Ichiro Mizuki, up-and-coming singer LiSA and the home-grown girl group SEA☆A will be performing on November 12th.
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- Kalafina
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- Kanako Itou
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- © May’n
Finally on November 13th, J-Pop band angela, the Yuki Kajiura-produced Japanese band Kalafina, J-Pop singer Kanako Itou, anisong diva May’n and seiyuu unit Milky Holmes will take the stage.
Anime fans can also expect to leave AFA with significantly thinner wallets after passing through the AFA Akiba Town, where a wide selection of anime/manga/game-related merchandise will be available for sale. While the actual retailers who will be there at AFA are not confirmed as yet, Akiba Town is expected to be larger in size compared to last year.
LiSA with some of the AFA maids and butlers
For those looking to chil-lax, head down to the Moe Moe Kyun Maid Cafe and/or the Atelier Royale butler cafe, where a selection of food and drinks will be served by you favourite maid or butler. While I am not able to confirm the maid/butler lineup (as I was not at the press con), expect to see some new faces since four of MMK’s original maids have since become SEA☆A.
AFA 2011 has also included a stellar lineup of special guests. We have Japanese pop culture blogger Danny Choo, celebrity cosplayers Kaname and Usagi, anime producer Nakanishi Gou and seiyuu Chiwa Saitou. Danny Choo will be the official host of the AFA11 stage activities while Kaname and Usagi will be two of the judges for RCC 2011. Anime fans can look forward to Nakanishi Gou presenting the latest Mardock Scramble movie and Homuhomu Chiwa Saitou’s live dubbing session.
Thoughts: While there’s still no sign of my fave anisong artistes like Maaya Sakamoto, Yui or L’Arc~en~Ciel (arguably, the latter two are more mainstream than anisong…), FLOW, LiSA, Kanako Itou and Kalafina will be coming down for their maiden AFA appearance (though FLOW performed in Singapore earlier this year at JPLEX Vol. 1) which in any case, makes this year’s AFA more awesome as last year (at least in terms of invited artistes). The anime movie selection for this year is pretty decent as well, though I’ve already watched the Fullmetal Alchemist movie already (and I still haven’t gotten around to writing the review yet…). At any rate, there is plenty to look forward to for anime/manga Japanese pop culture fans at AFA, so do make it a point to at least drop by AFA to check out the action (or the cat hat that I’ll be wearing at AFA).
Tags: Anime, Anime Festival Asia, anisong, Concert, FLOW, Ichirou Mizuki, Kalafina, LiSA, May'n, poor wallet we hardly knew ye, Sea-A
